Setting the Scene – How personality becomes relevant in a professional context with Hogan
At RELEVANT, we stand for solid, action- and benefits-oriented personality assessments. We are aware of our conscious bias, but nevertheless: Hogan assessments are – we are deeply convinced based on our experience – the first choice when it comes to the work-related assessment of personality.
Our clients’ HR initiatives in recruiting, individual and team development, culture development, and many other areas tremendously benefit from the breadth (strengths, risks, values, and motivations) of the Hogan assessment results and the depth of information they provide in reports, personal debriefings, and coaching sessions.
Hogan assessments capture personality from the inside-out perspective. How can this perspective be supplemented? And when is it valuable to do so?
1 + 1 + 1 = 111
Imagine Joana (or John, as you like). Joana has been a manager at a medium-sized med-tech company for a few months, where she leads a product innovation team of fourteen people. Joana has been well prepared for her new role, but she feels she has not yet found her balance of leading the people on her team and managing her new responsibilities. As part of the company’s HR and leadership development efforts, a coaching program has been offered to all managers for several years, beginning with a personality assessment. The program has been well received by managers from the start, and employees also seem to benefit from the positive effects on their managers.
The company has been focusing even more strongly on data analysis in all business areas and so has the HR team, bringing the topic of people analytics into many of their existing initiatives. To record the sustainable impact of the coaching program more closely, objectively and from different perspectives, and to identify potential areas for improvement, 360° assessments were included in the program.
360° assessments are questionnaire-based feedbacks with quantitative and qualitative components that include a self-assessment as well as external assessments from several different perspectives (managers, colleagues, and employees of the feedback receiver). Since several people are usually surveyed per rater group, the results can be aggregated, anonymized and thus presented in a confidential manner.
For Joana, the process flow looks as follows:
What managers do – and why they do it
360° assessments capture behavior from an outside-in perspective, thus making them an excellent addition to personality assessments in leadership development, as they jointly provide explanations for how people behave and why they do it.
At the beginning of a development journey, they complement the abstract construct of personality with directly observable behavior, make reputation, values, and risks from the Hogan scales tangible, and provide approaches for immediate behavior management and leadership impact. The alignment of reputation and self-perception helps to identify blind spots or unconscious biases and to work on them.
Conducted in addition to a coaching process, the full potential of the combination of the Hogan assessment and the 360° feedback unfolds, as conclusions can be drawn about individual development successes and behavioral changes. This provides the opportunity to set concrete, long-term, sustainable and, above all, behavior-oriented goals. From a people analytics perspective, the effectiveness of the entire program can be evaluated, and correlations with employee and team variables such as satisfaction or commitment can be uncovered.
Joana has benefited greatly from the combination as a leader and as an individual – Have we sparked your interest, too?
The Leadership Versatility Index (LVI is an outstanding 360° assessment that uses the patented and psychometrically validated Too little (-3) – Too much (+3) rating scale to measure the specific behavior of the manager in the areas of leadership (forceful & enabling) and management (strategic & operational). The results – if they deviate from the optimum range – indicate both overemphasized strengths and behavioral patterns that are too weak. This makes them very comprehensive, in-depth and complex, while at the same time providing concrete clues and optimal conditions for reflecting on one’s own behavior, changing it and making one’s leadership style more versatile.
Some time ago, we presented a case study, in which the Hogan 360 was used. Another excellent 360° assessment that was developed and validated in close cooperation with Hogan.
Of course, both 360° assessments can also be used as stand along tools for individual positioning purposes or as part of an ongoing development program. The LVI is also available in an individual contributor version. This 360° assessment is similar to the version for managers, but the wording of the questions and the descriptions in the report are designed for people without management responsibility. This means that subject matter expert can also benefit from a 360° assessment.
Certification needed
For applying the Leadership Versatility Index, a certification is required. This takes half a day and usually takes place in the form of an online training. Please feel free to contact us if you are interested.
At RELEVANT, we use Hogan assessments every day in the selection and development of people and organizations. Hogan is the world’s leading provider of research-based assessment solutions. We would be happy to advise you on how to transfer the results of the LVI 360° assessment into your company-specific competencies or your own leadership model. RELEVANT helps companies use the personality assessment to reduce turnover and increase productivity by hiring the right people, developing key talent, and identifying leadership potential. We relate data and personality so that companies make fair, robust decisions, leaders effectively create safe and humane environments, and everyone’s potential is unleashed.
As always, we’re just a phone call or email away.
HOGAN makes personality RELEVANT. We make assessments work.
