Leadership is the most important single factor determining success in business. At Hogan, we believe good leaders are those who are able to build and maintain high performing teams. At Blue Coach, Srdjan Vukcevic, the company’s founder and CEO, has been able to do that and so much more.

In addition to assembling a team that has positioned Blue Coach as Montenegro’s premier firm in delivering executive coaching, management consulting, and assessment-based solutions, Srdjan and his team have the opportunity to help others do that same at their organizations. As the Chinese proverb says: “Give a man a fish and you feed him for a day. Teach a man to fish and you feed him for a lifetime.” 

In the first edition of the Distributor Spotlight Series for 2018, Srdjan provides a breakdown of the services Blue Coach offers, and how combining his team’s expertise with Hogan’s assessments has made a significant impact across a variety of industries and organizations.

Blue Coach’s vision is to be the best we can be, to continue to learn and grow for the sake of our company, clients, and community, and eventually become a widely recognized brand in the HR and leadership development industry. We appreciate our clients and partners and the confidence they have placed and continue to place in us. We strive to excel in our industry by being as scientific and professional as we can be. Our focus on customer service and customer experience is something we are very proud of.

Blue Coach is known as the pioneer of the executive coaching industry in Montenegro and the Adriatic – SEE region. For the past 10 years, we have been working with executives, business owners, and their teams in order to measurably/significantly improve their leadership and organizational effectiveness. Our client list includes multi-national corporations covering a wide range of industries and over 100 privately owned companies. Since 2014, we have been an official distributor of Hogan Assessments and, even though we started our company in 2008, we feel the real growth of our business started in 2014 when we partnered with Hogan.

We love Hogan. Period. It influences our business decisions, our life decisions, and we feel completely fulfilled with the work we are all doing together. Its powerful insights into human nature and how that translates into the real world of business, leadership, and performance is outstanding. All of our coaches and consultants rely heavily on Hogan to assess, decide about leadership areas for improvement, and for conducting our executive coaching sessions and programs. We know how to coach and with Hogan we know better what to coach and how to coach it for the sake of the company and for the leader being coached.

As in sports, coaching is never about bringing out positive aspects. Athletes are used to constant day-to-day feedback about their performance. Also, everything is immediately visible in sports and feedback is necessary for skilled performance. Only the best can survive the feedback and play.

Why is this different in organizations? There are at least two reasons: time and visibility – results are not immediate and publicly visible like they are in sports. This gives space for troubadours to move up the ladder, to hide, and play politics instead of achieving results. All the Hogan science talks clearly about this and that is why we at Blue Coach can connect to this and find it in our business practice. Better yet – with Hogan we can see how likely it is for this to happen.

Successful people know what they are good at. They need a real life sparring partner to fine-tune their leadership behavior and bring to the surface the negative, the shortcomings, the derailers, and the overused strengths. Coaching is also about acting as a behavioral conscience for the leader. That means that you know what they are doing wrong and that you are consistent in getting them back on performance track – either by addressing the delusions or by clearing up for the natural way of constant feedback to flow from the team and to the team.

Blue Coach also works with sports coaches and athletes to develop effective inter/intrapersonal strategies and to achieve better results. Similar to common leadership development initiatives, Blue Coach helps coaches and athletes become strategically self-aware of how others perceive them. With this information, they can see a clear path to develop both personally and professionally.

The Hogan research team and Blue Coach together explored personality in sports context. Namely, with the collaborative support of the Montenegrin Olympic Committee, our research on sports performance and observations of team success (or lack of it) shows clear evidence of the influential role of personality in individual performance and social team interactions. Great athletes look alike and great coaches look alike as well.

We believe that great athletes and successful coaches, as well as great leaders, never accept that they have achieved the ultimate success, and therefore are always working to get better. As Dragan Adzic, a two-time consecutive World Handball Coach of the Year says, “…respect what you have already achieved, and do your best to achieve even more.”

Let’s talk and work!

info@bluecoach.me

When Chloë Touati and Stéphanie Le Ferrand co-founded Authentic Talent in Paris, it was obvious they each had three things in common: passion, energy, and a bold vision to make Hogan’s assessments the preferred assessment tools in the French market. And, if there’s one thing we at Hogan have learned in working with both of them, there are few who can match their drive and desire to improve the French workforce.

In the final edition of the Distributor Spotlight in 2017, Chloë and Stéphanie tell the story of how and why they founded Authentic Talent, and the unique adventures and challenges they’ve experienced along the way. Cheers to a great year, and happy holidays from your friends at Hogan!

Today, we want to tell you a little bit about us, two Paris-based HR consultants at Authentic Talent. Previously, Chloë Touati, who has a master’s degree in HR, was working for a small consulting firm as the manager of Talent Development. Stéphanie Le Ferrand, an occupational psychologist, was working as a senior consultant at Cubiks. In our respective roles, we both have significant experience working within consulting firms and many well-known tests publishers, such as OPP (European distributor for MBTI) and SHL. We understand and are accustomed to dealing with a complex and immature market. Although France is a large country with a lot of test providers, personality questionnaires are not that widely used. 

We are convinced that the assessment market in France is undergoing a paradigm shift and that opportunities are plentiful. Therefore, we joined forces to launch Authentic Talent, a company dedicated to helping individuals, teams, and organizations with all human resource-related issues. We wanted to reconnect with our personal values and offer companies and people a different experience that is more aligned with authenticity and a concern for quality.

We wanted to stay true to our values but are also wondering how to offer premium service within the existing market in France. We are driven by our desire to build amicable but uncompromising relationships with our clients by offering tailored and not just off-the-shelf solutions. We wanted to promote transparency to ensure long-term partnerships with our clients by selling solutions only if we are strongly convinced of the added-value for the company and its employees.

It is difficult to offer a high quality strategy to clients who are used to listening to consultants selling tools like they are crystal balls. The assessment and development market is still driven by HR people who are decidedly not psychologists and mostly subjective in their approach. In France, gut feelings and aesthetics are often still considered to be important criteria. Competitors are selling solutions that are shiny and pretty on the surface, but are unreliable and of poor quality. Therefore, we are required to do a lot of heavy lifting from morning to night, getting up early in the morning, teaching clients until late in the evening.

A partnership with Hogan Assessments is the ideal solution! This company is known internationally for its high level of quality, the precision and nuance in their measurement of personality, and their unique approach of assessing the dark side. This partnership allows us to use and prescribe a “new” measurement of personality. We appreciate our close relationship with the head office in Tulsa and their US-based team. Thanks to that relationship, we are able to effectively support our clients with training or technical support. When we are in the question phase, there are always distributors ready to share experiences and advice to help us to promote quality in our market. This allows us to be flexible in our proposals to clients, to offer a different and constructive experience.

After the first main steps in this Authentic adventure, we have built strong relationships with clients in several sectors, positioning Hogan tools as the premium brand on the market targeted at the leadership population. We have been able to promote the assessment and development of talent with a high-quality approach driven by authenticity. This period has not been easy; we are still a very young firm. But every day we meet with challenging clients who share our convictions. In the short time since our creation, we have received excellent feedback from existing and potential clients.

We have already started the Hoganization with some fantastic groups with whom we are conducting enthusiastic projects, including Hogan for selection and development purposes. We are building a strong community with the certified users and offer them the opportunity to further develop their Hogan expertise. We are highly motivated to continue adding more business in the future!

We would be more than happy to welcome you all to Paris to meet us and spend some time together, sharing a glass of wine and a Hedonestic meal!

In Hogan’s endeavors to become a global brand, we have searched for partners worldwide who believe in our assessments as much as we do. Our distributors are the backbone of what makes our company so effective around the globe, and that is why Hogan would like to spotlight, Compass, a Hogan distributor based in Buenos Aires, Argentina. They joined the Hogan network in 2009, and have steadily grown ever since.

With a vibrant, growing economy, Argentina is an excellent place to establish relationships because of its growth potential. Using the Hogan Assessment suite, we hope not only to make a difference for individual companies, but change how people around the globe perceive using personality testing for hiring decisions, so that individuals are hired more effectively on an international level.

Here’s a personal account from Adrian Büchner, the CEO and Experience Director of Compass, on why Hogan work so well for the Argentinian workforce:

Before working at Compass, I had worked with other personality tools that were very inconsistent when predicting leadership profiles or talent potential, and none that examined culture fit. They were basically like reading horoscopes in the Sunday paper. At my previous job I managed an account for Bridgestone, and they told me that I should get certified through Hogan because it was the current trend in the HR world. However, after my first experience working with the Hogan Assessments, I realized it was not just a trend; it was an incredibly reliable and consistent tool that analyzes identity as a whole.

Something that I love about working with Hogan is that Compass is not only providing quality assessment, selection, and development tools to the companies we do business with, but we are able to have a substantial effect on the growth and prosperity of our city and region by improving the multinational corporations, as well as local and regional conglomerates here in Buenos Aires.

Here at Compass we like to say “que ayudamos a nuestros clientes no a levantar una pared sino a construir un edificio”. This loosely translates to “we help our customers not to raise walls, but to construct buildings”. We believe that it is imperative to help businesses in the still-developing regions of the world, in which we are located, to build solid foundations of leadership that will help them pursue a more prosperous future for our country as a whole.

The value of Hogan is seen on both a macro, business-wide level and a micro, employee level. We have been asked to incorporate Hogan’s services to team building, internal and external talent acquisition, in addition to coaching. Some of our clients have even recommended Hogan’s tools to their suppliers and clients!

Ninety-five percent of our clients have repeated the Hogan experience. They understand the benefit of Hogan’s expansive toolbelt, and have utilized them to solve complex problems in many different types of situations and projects. Some have commented that Hogan is a “lighthouse illuminating issues, so that they can be better solved with savvy products and a keen knowledge of management.”

We are convinced that keeping a focus on the people side of a business, as Hogan does, is the best way to lead modern companies into a brighter future, and we hope to continue this journey with Hogan today and always.

We’re excited to announce that we have released our 2018 US Hogan Certification Workshop schedule.

The 2-day Level 1 workshop provides an in-depth understanding of how to use and interpret the Hogan Assessment Suite, offering a comprehensive tutorial on three Hogan inventories – Hogan Personality Inventory (HPI); Hogan Development Survey (HDS); and the Motives, Values, Preferences Inventory (MVPI). Participants attending both days and successfully completing the Level 1 curriculum will be certified to use and interpret the Hogan inventories.

The 1-day Level 2 workshop prepares the learner to apply more advanced feedback models, properly set the frame for a Hogan feedback session, create developmental action plans and understand best practices for presenting Hogan data.

Insights acquired during Level 1 and Level 2 workshops will challenge and change the way you think about human nature, leadership and performance. Outlined below is a detailed schedule of all Hogan Certification Workshops across the US in 2018:

Level 1 Workshops

New York – January 23-24

Dallas – February 20-21

Portland, Ore. – March 6-7

Atlanta – March 7-8

Washington – April 10-11

Atlanta – April 24-25

Minneapolis – May 8-9

Los Angeles – May 15-16

Portland, Ore. – June 12-13

New York – June 26-27

Atlanta – July 17-18

Minneapolis – September 18-19

Portland, Ore. – September 18-19

New York – September 25-26

Atlanta – October 2-3

Tulsa, Okla. – November 6-7

Portland, Ore. – December 4-5

Atlanta – December 11-12 

Level 2 Workshops

Portland, Ore. – March 8

Atlanta – March 9

Atlanta – April 26

Minneapolis – May 10

Portland, Ore. – June 14

Atlanta – July 19

Minneapolis – September 20

Portland, Ore. – September 20

Atlanta – October 4

Tulsa, Okla. – November 8

Portland, Ore. – December 6

Atlanta – December 13

Click here for more information.

VIDEO: Dr. Hogan Discusses the Importance of Values 

Values are the DNA of culture, and culture is incredibly stable over generations. That explains why parent-child voting preferences and religious preferences have correlated so strongly throughout human history. Values are what drive prejudice, and the clash of values is what has caused so much unrest and conflict across the globe.

Values are also directly related to organizational success and failure, and the culture of an organization is defined by the values of the people at the top. You can have the world’s most effective business strategy but, if your organizational values are not aligned, you’re doomed.

High-performing groups will have similar values and you have to determine exactly what they are. In this video, Dr. Hogan discusses the importance of values, and how organizations need to put less of an emphasis on descriptive values and focus more on prescriptive values.

Hogan Assessments’ International Distributor Network wasn’t built overnight. It took several years to grow to its current size and scope. However, the excitement generated by adding new distributors has always been at optimum levels whether it occurs in 2001 or 2017.

Earlier this year, Hogan proudly added Stairs People Advisors, one of Portugal’s leading HR consulting firms. Led by their Managing Partner João Ribeiro Santos and his talented team of advisors, Stairs offers its clients tailored development programs, adaptive recruitment & selection processes, high-potential identification initiatives, and resources for strategic reorganization.

Because they offer such a unique perspective, we decided to get an update from João and how the future of his organization looks now that he and his team have joined the Hogan International Distributor Network.

Stairs People Advisors, completed six months as Portugal’s Hogan Distributor and would like to share its first months of activity.

The training and development of the Stairs team in Hogan’s methodologies and instruments was the initial priority in order to provide the know-how for the team to promote Hogan products and services to potential clients.First, a Hogan Certification Workshop was organized for the team and some clients. The Managing Director of Europe – Zsolt Feher – led these two days of training in which all were enriched by the learning gained. Fourteen people were certified, all of whom will certainly be promoters and users of this tool.

One of the first and most important project of STAIRS was winning a partnership with an international consultancy company, one of the Big 4. Our goal was to deliver the Hogan 360 powered by PBC to 230 leaders and heads of one of the largest Portuguese multinational companies. The success of this 3-phase project is being determined thanks to an established partnership with Peter Berry Consulting.

Aligned with Hogan’s core assessments, the Hogan 360° uses an easy-to-interpret leadership framework to provide a real-time look at an individual’s attitude, behavior, and performance. The report offers constructive feedback around leadership expectations and sets priorities for improvement.

The Hogan 360 will contribute for the company model based on a continuous feedback culture, being that it’s universally one of the main priorities, and the focus on motivation and development of people, guidance for meritocracy, coherence, integration and objectivity.

During the month of August, we were visited by Hogan’s Dustin Hunter to continue the alignment of Hogan’s product strategies, as well as refreshing the Hogan Certification with the team.

In September and simultaneously with the journey of the PBC of Australia, we look forward to their visit to Portugal. It will undoubtedly be another milestone in strengthening relations and synergies in the consulting business and Hogan products in Portugal.

Hogan is excited to launch the Leader Focus Report, a new solution designed to provide leaders with self-insight into their leadership style and strengths so they are able to plan their career and lead teams effectively.

Most organizations classify career advancement as transitioning into a series of people leadership roles. But, what does that mean for an organization’s high performers whose strengths are not aligned with the abilities to manage themselves and others effectively?

“Not everybody is meant to be a good people leader, but there are other leadership styles that could really determine if a person will be a successful manager or leader,” says Hogan CEO Tomas Chamorro-Premuzic. “It is important for organizations to work out what leadership style employees will display and what roles are a good fit for their personal leadership style.”

The Leader Focus Report aims to simplify and provide insight into six leadership dimensions that influence leadership style and effectiveness:

• Results Leader — Key focus is on winning. They set high goals for themselves and others, and may sacrifice relationships to achieve outcomes.
• People Leader — Key focus is on relationships. They are skilled at building and maintaining relationships with others, but may struggle at handling conflict and holding staff accountable.
• Process Leader — Key focus is on implementation. They focus on creating, following and enforcing policies, but may resist change and innovation.
• Thought Leader — Key focus is on ideas. Skilled in idea generation and strategic problem-solving, but may resist change and innovation.
• Social Leader — Key focus is on people. Skilled at communicating, networking and developing connections, but may not listen effectively.
• Data Leader — Key focus is on information. Strong analytical leadership style, but may rely too heavily on numbers and resist intuitive decision making.

These six dimensions outline how a leader manages self, career, and relationships, priorities on which a leader will focus, and how he or she will define success. Grounded in decades of global research on leader performance, the Leader Focus Report is designed to help an organization’s leaders understand their reputation and unique brand using data rather than intuition.

“I think it’s important that organizations become more data-driven in their talent identification efforts,” says Chamorro-Premuzic. “Particularly when they need to decide which employees can become good managers or leaders. Leader Focus will provide a more rigorous and accurate approach to talent identification.”

Contact a Hogan consultant today to learn more!

Building a global brand is a challenge under even the most favorable circumstances. At Hogan, we never attempted to introduce our assessments and products directly to the masses. Instead, we aimed to find valuable partners in various regions across the world who would help us build our brand. This is effective for several reasons, but the familiarity these partners have with their region is the primary factor.

It should come as no surprise that any organization looking to expand internationally would place an emphasis on the Greater China Region. With booming economic growth, this area has become a major business hub across all industries, presenting Hogan with a great opportunity to continue its mission of improving the global workforce.

To help with that mission, Hogan added Infelligent Coaching & Consulting in Taiwan as part of the Hogan Distributor Network. In just a few years since joining the Hogan team, Infelligent has far exceeded expectations and has significantly raised awareness about Hogan through the scope and magnitude of their work. Here’s an in-depth breakdown of a project that highlights the quality of what Infelligent offers its clients: 

In 2013, Infelligent Coaching & Consulting, a high-caliber team of human resources solution providers with more than 20 years of experience became an official distributor of Hogan Assessments in Taiwan. Over the past four years, Infelligent worked with Hogan in the localization of Hogan assessments into traditional Chinese, offering targeted and scientific personality assessment, executive coaching, action learning programs and training workshops, performance assessment reports and more to Taiwan’s business community. Infelligent not only successfully assisted numerous multinational and publicly listed domestic companies to implement highly effective organizational and personal development programs, it also helped endless managers in achieving higher performance at work and personal lives for a better work-life balance. At the same time, Infelligent has established Hogan’s leading position in the market as the gold standard in assessment solutions.  

Founder Jim Hwang states that one of the advantages of being an authorized Hogan distributor, apart from the obvious one of better overall business performance, is a more solid and long-term client relationship. Clients have become more like partners who trust and support one another, rather than being just clients. Joining the Hogan Distributor Network is clearly the right direction for Infelligent. The benefits showed immediately, particularly in the case of President Chain Corp that manages 7-Eleven, one of the biggest convenience store retailers in Taiwan.   

In 2013, Infelligent undertook a Hogan assessment consulting project for President Chain Corp. In a span of three years, the talent selection system at President has transformed from traditional, human-based and performance-oriented processes into a science-based and data-supported assessment system that supports personal development for executives and nurtures a highly energetic and effective organization. More importantly, after the first thousand days, the entire senior management team at President Chain Corp. was more cohesive than ever. The new system has effectively prevented the possibility of talent loss. And the steady growth in three consecutive years further proved these changes worked.

Some of the concrete results from implementing Hogan Assessments at President Chain Store Corp. by Infelligent Coaching & Consulting included:  

1. Assisted President Chain Store in conducting assessment development and action planning programs for more than 500 high-level executives. The company’s investment and show of commitment invigorated employees, further building up their loyalty;
2. Facilitated more than 10 employees to become certified Hogan coaches and successfully fused Hogan’s system into the innovative processes and vocabulary inside the organization; and
3. Expanded the learning impact upward to parent company – Uni-President Enterprises Corp., which is biggest the manufactory company in food industry, and duplicated the successful experiences in talent assessment and development for its talent selection processes. 

Infelligent has facilitated many organizations in creating success stories like this, proving the effectiveness and value of Hogan Assessments over and over again with each of them.  

These success stories and endeavors of the Infelligent team has further raised Hogan’s brand exposure. When Dr. Robert Hogan, founder of Hogan Assessments visited Taiwan in 2015 by the invitation of Infelligent, he was interviewed by Business Weekly Magazine, one of the most prominent business publications in Taiwan. During the exclusive interview, he offered insightful views on personality assessments and talent development. Through the exposure on this high-profile magazine, more and more organizations came to learn about Hogan’s solutions. After the visit, Dr. Hogan expressed his appreciation for Infelligent’s expertise in utilizing Hogan Assessments to support talent selection strategies, build up Hogan’s influence in the industry, and establish Hogan’s leading position in the Greater China region. Dr. Hogan is also confident that the relationship between Hogan and Infelligent will continue to strengthen and soar in the future.   

And for Infelligent, it is strongly committed to the partnership with Hogan. Infelligent is confident that Hogan will continue to develop more innovative and relevant assessment tools tailored to not only corporate needs but also for personal development to shed insight on individual strengths and development areas, to ignite inner passion, to drive change from inner reflection, and to bring success for the team, organization, work, personal life, and for society.

As a Hogan distributor since 2005, HRTOOLS has evolved into a regional leader in helping companies improve organizational performance. Led by CEO Victoria Zapata, the company continues to flourish as more and more organizations see the the effectiveness of using data and science over intuition when it comes to making informed talent decisions.

As is the case with successful companies in any industry, many organizations can become complacent and satisfied with the status quo. However, HRTOOLS continues to push forward by gathering and analyzing data to improve their already stellar record. In this installment of the Distributor Spotlight Series, Victoria Zapata takes a look at just one example of how HRTOOLS had done exactly that. 

Do people change over time? 

During the last 13 years being a Hogan Distributor, we can tell that the market evolved, HRTOOLS as well, and of course, Hogan. I can remember our first year, trying to offer a whole new concept in “performance prediction”. The term was so wide and profound, that it was hard for our prospects to understand the whole meaning. 

Once we were able to understand that the market needs simple solutions to solve their complex talent challenges, HRTools developed specific packages to support them with the most common needs: selection, high potential, talent mapping, succession planning, team effectiveness, safety, and leadership development, which are the core problems that almost any company face.

It is quite interesting to find out that there is nothing new on the horizon. Most companies are looking to solve the same problems. Different companies, same talent challenges. We have observed that the market is becoming more aware of the need to have data to make accurate decisions. It is very satisfying to see an increasing number of customers who call us to make their most critical talent decisions and to have a very positive outcome in their bottom line some time after their talent decisions. Most of our new customers come from a referral from existing customers. This tells us that we are making a difference and winning the race for talent. 

Although personality is stable over time, we have found interesting Hogan personality profile changes after some years. Particularly, one of our customers mapped its talent (more than 5,000 participants) between 2009 and 2017. This year, they are re-assessing the participants that were assessed in 2010. What interesting changes did we find?   

Let’s talk about three particular cases. What do participants have in common?

• They are young professionals (same generation) who occupied individual contributor roles in different areas of the organization in 2010.
• Their performance has been permanently outstanding since 2010.
• They were assessed with HPI & HDS, and received feedback after their first Hogan assessment in 2010.
• They designed a personal development plan.
• They did not receive professional coaching.
• They all were promoted to managerial roles and their career plan is to continue growing in the company.

What about the differences? The general differences they present are related to age, areas of expertise, marital status, and place of birth. 

What changed over time? In the following chart we can find differences in their Hogan HPI & HDS grades between 2010 and 2017 (differences are marked when their scores graded in a different range):

 It has been interesting for us to see some differences in the re-assessed participants. And, we would like to share these three specific cases. 

When we had individual conversations with the participants to compare their results between 2010 and 2017 and to provide a new feedback, we asked them several standard questions and we found a common pattern in their professional life between 2010 and 2017: 

• They were promoted to leadership roles. They perceived that their new role demanded them to stretch their abilities and challenged them to maintain their outstanding reputations and results.
• Their responsibilities were higher and involving people to lead and develop.
• They all paid attention to their personality profiles in 2010 and they made conscious efforts in their individual development throughout the time. 

Although we know that three cases do not make a case, we observed that:

• The HDS had significantly more changes than the HPI.
• Personal and professional changes affected their experiences and believes.
• It seems that the strengths (HDS) had to operate more in order for them to adapt to the new environment.
• It is important to re-assess people at least five years after the previous assessment.

Too often, HR practitioners and talent management experts rely on intuition when it comes to identifying and developing key talent, even when armed with an overwhelming amount of data and objective tools that contradict their instincts. The problem is that the data they ignore is right in almost every case.

When these “experts” are wrong, it costs organizations all over the world billions of dollars each year in turnover and wasted development expenses. Unfortunately, all of that money could have been salvaged if organizations instead relied on data over intuition in their selection and development practices.

In a recent collaboration with National Business Review Radio and Spotify, Hogan CEO Dr. Tomas Chamorro-Premuzic spoke with Andrew Patterson to discuss his new book The Talent Delusion – Why Data, Not Intuition, Is the Key to Unlocking Human Potential. The book aims to education HR practitioners and leaders on how to measure, predict, and manage talent.

All organizations have problems, and they nearly always concern people. Psychology, the main science for understanding people, should be a pivotal tool for solving those problems.