A&D Resources, Hogan’s Scandinavia and Benelux distributor, now operates under the name Summit.
After A&D Resources merged with Summit Consulting, the two companies continued to operate under their respective names. However, they always had a vision of becoming one unified brand. From January 2023 onward, clients, partners, and prospects will see and experience the new brand, identity, and offices. Summit hopes its clients will appreciate it all as much as they do.
Merging two companies and brands comes with change. But for Summit, it only means a better experience and service for clients. The organization continues to work with the same professionalism and offerings clients are accustomed to—plus more.
“We have been waiting for this exciting opportunity for a long time, and now we can finally present our new company, our new HQ location, and our new name, Summit,” said Karsten Søderberg, CEO of Summit.
“It is a unique combination of business psychologists and expert consultants that we have brought together in one company, under one name,” continued Søderberg. “Our highly experienced consultants complement each other in delivering the best leadership, organizational, and talent development services.”
The new Summit operates in both the private and public sectors across Scandinavia and Benelux. As a Hogan distributor, the company offers the Hogan assessments, leadership development, coaching, 360-degree assessments, team development, competency mapping, Hogan certification, organizational learning, talent acquisition, succession planning, and many tailor-made solutions.
The new headquarters location is Sundkrogsgade 7, 2100 Copenhagen, Denmark. The HQ phone number is +45 45 85 15 15, and the new general email is support@summitlead.com. Visit summitlead.com to see the new website and branding.
Tracey DeSilva, vice president of learning and development at Bayer, has accumulated years of experience that have helped her become the trailblazing leader she is today. She credits being intentional in her earlier professional years as one of the main factors in her leadership success.
Focus on Job Skills, Not Job Title
DeSilva says she was intentional about lining up her personal and professional life, while focusing on learning new job skills rather than the job title. While the title may look very appealing to people who aspire to leadership positions, the skills, knowledge, and connections necessary to carry out the responsibilities are more important. Failing to master the necessary skills early in one’s career could potentially delay promotions or lead to failures later as a leader.
Be Visionary—Don’t Micromanage
As her roles became more challenging, DeSilva admits that she found the effort to be visionary to be a worthy one. As a leader, she was responsible for
creating the vision for her team,
managing other people’s careers,
understanding team members’ goals, and
creating an environment that supports their development.
She describes her leadership style as one that lacks micromanagement. Having a leader that allows team independence is critical for fostering individual professional growth. A leader that inspires the team and provides them with the opportunity to make mistakes and learn from them ultimately allows team members the range to develop their own working styles and advance within their careers.
Seek Executive Coaching and Mentorship
Although DeSilva embraces the challenges that come with leadership positions, like many other leaders, she too experiences the inevitable pressure and burnout that comes over time. Investing in mental well-being is critical to coping with burnout, pressures from having to meet wider company goals, and market instability.
DeSilva stresses the importance of mentorship and formal executive coaching. Although leaders can become overwhelmed, they must ensure that they are not placing that burden on their teams. Finding a mentor or coach who is completely objective is key to managing stress and helping leaders effectively deal with workplace pressures.
Thankfully, Bayer agrees with this sentiment and, through its leadership development programs, provided six months of formal coaching and specialized programs to create an environment that encourages health and wellness. Leaders not only encourage their team members to use these programs, but also serve as mentors to colleagues.
Lead Authentic Meetings to Increase Engagement
Leaders such as DeSilva watched themselves and their colleagues undergo changes during the COVID-19 pandemic. In times like this, a leader’s ability to adapt and respond to changes while remaining empathetic is critical.
While companies have ensured that employees have the necessities to work from home, it is up to the leadersto cultivate an authentic feeling of connectedness virtually while increasing engagement.
DeSilva explained that she established new ground rules to create a more authentic feeling for her teammates working virtually. She understands that working from home has meant a shift in priorities for her team members, especially primary caregivers. Although Zoom happy hours started out fun, they often felt too manufactured. Instead, she has made it a priority to regularly reach out for a more personal discussion with each team member. These emotional check-ins not only allow leaders to build relationships, but also understand how their team members are managing ever-changing professional and personal demands.
According to Princeton HR Insight’s 2022 HR Marketing Report, “Senior-level initiatives have an increased focus on leading during times of rapid change and empowering vs. directing to increase the engagement of their teams.”
Final Message to Future Leaders
Be intentional. Focus less on job titles and more on the skills that you will learn in each role. Speak routinely to the people who can influence your career trajectory while actively growing your network. Lean into discomfort and growth, and do not wait to feel fully confident to show up for a new challenge.
Editor’s note: A version of this post was first published by Princeton HR Insight, whose principal consultant Rebecca Feder is a member of the Hogan Coaching Network. Hogan extends special thanks to Shea Clarke of Princeton HR Insight, who authored the original spotlight, and Tracey DeSilva of Bayer for her exemplary leadership.
Exhausted? Feeling cynical or negative? Checking out? It’s not just you—especially if you’re an HR professional. As much as burnout today is a global experience, even recognized by the World Health Organization, it has taken an especially serious toll on the very people who are deeply concerned with occupational well-being: human resources professionals.1 So, what’s led to the widespread HR burnout?
The COVID-19 pandemic caused unprecedented changes to the way we work. The toll of remote and hybrid work, the Great Resignation, quiet quitting, layoffs, talent shortage, increased concern for employee wellness, and the global recession have seemed to fall squarely on the shoulders of the HR department. Unsurprisingly, 86% of HR leaders experienced increased stress in 2021, 53% are burned out, and 48% are looking for a new job.2 Too much change too quickly with too few resources and security may lie at the root of why 44% of HR leaders say their stress has increased “dramatically” in the past year.
HR burnout impacts companywide well-being. The job duties of HR leaders encompass everything to do with people, including hiring, onboarding, safety, learning and development, firing, and the execution of other operational procedures.3 When HR professionals spend their time trying to boost companywide well-being, they sometimes pay with their own. Reduced professional efficacy in this sphere has a trickle-down effect to other employees, similar to how caregiver burnout affects dependents.
Read on to learn why the personality characteristics that make HR professionals excellent at their work also dispose them to burnout—and how organizations can help protect them.
Characteristics of HR Leaders
Using the Hogan Personality Inventory (HPI), Hogan Development Survey (HDS), and Motives, Values, Preferences Inventory (MVPI), we have analyzed the personality characteristics of HR employees and HR leaders, including HR managers and HR executives. Our data tell a fascinating story.
HR Employees
HR employees are responsible for benefits plans, compensation packages, training and development, and other personnel-related duties. They must anticipate problems and manage conflict effectively. Because they also ensure compliance with legal guidelines, they must readily adhere to standards and possess excellent communication skills. Since the role of HR can directly impact employee productivity and well-being, it is essential that HR duties are executed well.
HPI – HR employees tend to be good at listening to others and supporting teams, but they may also struggle with resilience and handling day-to-day stress. These characteristics are reflected in their tendency to score lower on the Adjustment and Ambition scales on average.
HDS – HR employees tend to manage their insecurities through intimidation or avoidance when under stress, though normally they are likely passionate, insightful, and kind. Derailing behavior can emerge when an everyday strength becomes overused during times of burnout. Someone who is typically careful and thorough might become risk-averse and fearful of failure, for example.
MVPI – HR employees tend to be uninterested in competition (lower Power scores), prefer to work alone (lower Affiliation), and prefer stable, predictable, low-risk work environments (lower Security). Their preferences for making decisions democratically, focusing on tasks, and maintaining structure probably have been challenged every workday during the unpredictable recent past.
HR Leaders
HR leaders differ from HR employees in both personality characteristics and job tasks, which have a greater focus on corporate strategy, policy, and compliance. Based on our analysis of more than 1,000 HR leaders, we have identified the characteristics that tend to differentiate HR leaders from other global professionals.4
HPI – HR leaders tend to take the lead and push for results, get along with others and avoid conflict, and focus on procedure and implementation. Their HPI personality data suggest they typically show strengths in operational leadership as opposed to strategic leadership.
HDS – HR leaders differ by rank in how they tend to overuse their strengths. When under stress, HR executives may seem arrogant, impulsive, eccentric, or untrustworthy. They might use intimidation or charm to manage their problems. HR managers, on the other hand, may seem perfectionistic, micromanaging, deferential, or ingratiating when under stress. They might tend to avoid directly confronting their problems.4
MVPI – HR leaders tend to desire helping others (higher Altruistic) and enjoying both work and life (higher Hedonism). They typically prefer to make decisions based on experience and instinct rather than objective data (lower Science).
HR Professionals and Burnout
The personality characteristics that make HR professionals successful at their jobs make them likely to burn out—regardless of whether they find their work rewarding or meaningful. According to Deloitte research, “87% of professionals surveyed say they have passion for their current job, but 64% say they are frequently stressed, dispelling the myth that passionate employees are immune to stress or burnout.”5 That HR professionals may still feel passionate about their role does not shield them from unmanaged chronic workplace stress.
HPI – Of the seven HPI scales, all seven of them are associated with burnout. While high scores and low scores both have positives and negatives, lower HPI scores tend to indicate higher likelihood of burnout. Two scales have particularly strong associations with burnout: lower scores on Adjustment and on Ambition, which data indicate are characteristic of HR professionals. Based on their HPI scores, HR employees may be particularly susceptible to burnout.
HDS – HR employees, managers, and leaders alike can be disposed to burning out depending on their HDS scores. High scores on this inventory show overused strengths and derailing tendencies. Of the 11 scales, eight are closely associated with burnout. Depending on the specific scale, a lower score or a higher score is correlated to burnout. HR employees seem especially likely to experience burnout based on their HDS data.
MVPI – Lower average scores on the Power, Altruistic, and Affiliation scales are associated with burnout for HR professionals. Because HR professionals tend to be uninterested in competition, value tasks and productivity, and prefer to work independently, their preferred professional environment also disposes them to burnout.
The tasks of HR professionals have not only changed dramatically in the last couple of years in response to remote work, but they have also come to the forefront of many companies’ strategy and forecasting. The lack of stability, staff, and supplies all serve to increase the stress of HR professionals, who may worry about productivity or accomplishing tasks. Adding to that the burden of setting new standards, raising morale, complying with changing policies, and addressing culture needs, it is no surprise that the professionals who care for others also need support.
Protecting HR Professionals from Burnout
Individual HR professionals can mitigate burnout by understanding how their personality characteristics might contribute to derailment. Personality assessment is the first step in gaining knowledge and beginning development.
Organizations can protect HR professionals from burnout by providing then with adequate technology, tools, budget, personnel, and executive support. According to Forbes, “HR departments report being underresourced with 73% saying they don’t have the tools and resources they need to do their job well.”7 When nearly three-quarters of HR professionals need more resources to perform their essential job functions, it’s unsurprising that they are experiencing ongoing stress at and about work. To a group of people who strongly prefer a stable work environment and dislike ambiguity (according to their higher scores on the MVPI Security scale), the disposition to plan, make careful decisions, minimize risk, and emphasize procedure may feel especially frustrating when they are also ill-equipped and understaffed.
Individuals can also protect themselves from burnout by leveraging strategic self-awareness to cope with stress in ways that will assuage underlying fears, stressors, or insecurities. In general, adequate sleep, moderate daily exercise, outdoor recreation, family activities or hobbies, and setting boundaries for work hours have helped other HR professionals manage stress, who report that their roles have changed significantly since 2020.6 Strategic self-awareness comes into play when someone who scores high on Reserved, for example, schedules solitary lunchtime walks to regain emotional balance after mornings full of video calls.
HR burnout is prevalent and serious, but it isn’t an insurmountable challenge. Overcoming burnout among HR professionals starts with understanding the organizational effects of personality.
It was quite a year, wasn’t it? From supply chain issues to quiet quitting, from Will Smith to Elon Musk, it seems as though 2022 was characterized by big events, big personalities, and big derailers.
Recently on The Science of Personality, cohosts Ryne Sherman, PhD, chief science officer, and Blake Loepp, PR manager, continued their annual tradition of breaking down the top derailers of the year.
As we did for 2020 in episode 16 and 2021 in episode 41, we highlight major events or significant people from this year that represent each of the 11 derailers from the Hogan Development Survey (HDS). The HDS measures ways that people can derail by overusing their personality strengths when under stress.
Let’s get right into the 2022 derailers of the year.
Excitable: Will Smith
Remember when Will Smith slapped Chris Rock at the Academy Awards? As such an unexpected and dramatic incident, this moment represents the Excitable scale. Excitability is about a volatile outburst while under stress or pressure or when not self-monitoring. That’s exactly happened to Will Smith. In a moment of anger, he allowed an emotional outburst to occur on full public display.
Skeptical: Magnus Carlsen
When one of the greatest players of all time walks away from a game, that creates conspiracy theories galore. The current world chess champion Magnus Carlsen has refused to play grandmaster Hans Niemann, alleging that Niemann cheats. This attitude represents the Skeptical scale, which can be characterized as distrustful, cynical, and critical. It shows skepticism to say, “Nope, I think you’re cheating, so I’m not going to play you.”
Cautious: China’s Zero-COVID Policy
China set a goal to reach zero cases of COVID—quite a challenge for a nation with such a huge population. The Cautious scale can describe fear of mistakes and a reluctance to take risks. Excessive caution in response to perceived threats can cost opportunities. The policy likely caused social consequences in China, as well as billions in GDP growth.
Reserved: Quiet Quitting
Quiet quitters may only do the minimum amount of work and actively avoid interaction and engagement. The Reserved scale regards keeping distance when under stress. By a popular definition of quiet quitting, these workers take a reserved approach to their jobs, doing just enough not to get fired and distancing themselves from the rest of the group.
Leisurely: Supply Chain Challenges and Inflation
The Leisurely scale refers to passive-aggressive behavior: publicly avoiding trouble but privately causing trouble. The supply chain may not always be in public view, but it’s always in the background causing problems. Supply chain challenges contributed to this year’s surge in inflation, a perfect depiction of stubborn, contrary, leisurely behavior.
Bold: Vladimir Putin
Vladimir Putin was our selection to represent the Bold scale because of his overconfidence and arrogance. Putin’s invasion of Ukraine likely has cost more than 100,000 lives. His assertions about the superiority of the Russian military have been belied by the success of the Ukrainian opposition. That overestimation about military competence and sense of entitlement perfectly capture the most extreme characteristics of boldness.
Mischievous: Sam Bankman-Fried
Billionaire entrepreneur Sam Bankman-Fried, founder of FTX, is currently facing charges of fraud surrounding his cryptocurrency business. The Mischievous scale concerns manipulating, bending, or breaking the rules—or believing that the rules don’t apply to you. It also has to do with charm and charisma. Bankman-Fried had to be charming and persuasive to get billions of dollars of investments, and he would have had to play fast and loose with the law to treat money in the way he has been charged. Mischief, indeed.
Colorful: Amber Heard v. Johnny Depp Trial
The spectacle of the Amber Heard and Johnny Depp trial represents the Colorful scale in that it relates to attention-seeking characteristics. The many emotions on display in the public divorce at times seemed self-promoting and intentionally dramatic. Whether followers were pro-Amber or pro-Johnny, the event garnered a lot of attention, emotion, and opinion.
Imaginative: CNN+
The Imaginative scale has to do with being overly creative in ways that are impractical or nonsensical. Despite the decline in viewership of 24-hour news networks, CNN invested hundreds of millions in the CNN+ subscription-only platform for exclusive news content. It took imagination to think subscribers would pay for content instead of consuming it for free on social media and other online news platforms. CNN+ dissolved after just one month.
Diligent: Elon Musk
The Diligent scale relates to micromanaging and obsessing about details. Elon Musk brought that management style from Tesla to Twitter, where it seemed to be less effective in a different corporate culture. His background in technology and past business success shows that his perfectionistic tendencies have worked well for him in the past. Musk’s diligence at Twitter, however, appears to be a classic expression of an overused strength.
Dutiful: The Royal Family
The British royal family represents the Dutiful scale by following the rules and deferring to authority. They demonstrate commitment to tradition that may not align with modern trends, and in doing so, they risk seeming rigid or stagnant. Even while experiencing grief or other strong emotions, the members of the royal family adhere to a prescribed set of rules and uphold the honor of their lineage. Their refusal to deviate from the way things have always been done shows how an excessive sense of duty can lead to derailment.
Listen to this conversation in full on episode 66 of The Science of Personality. Never miss an episode by following us anywhere you get podcasts. Thanks to our listeners for an amazing 2022. Cheers, everybody!
Nicole Neubauer, CEO of metaBeratung, an official Hogan distributor in Europe, was recently featured in an article for Spiegel Wissen, one of Germany’s most prominent journals. The article, “Training Charisma: Do I Have the Julia Roberts Smile?” recounts Neubauer’s professional development and her rise to CEO of metaBeratung.
During an interview for the article, Neubauer reflected on her personality and the importance of reputation to her career path. As an introvert, she found that the path to her current position was a long one. She had to train herself to be charismatic and comfortable in a leadership position. She had to learn how to become more relaxed and self-confident when speaking in front of groups, holding keynotes, or otherwise taking the lead.
Today, Neubauer is pleased with the progress she has made in her professional development, and she says that constant learning and self-improvement are integral to career growth. She credits Hogan’s personality assessments with helping her to learn about her reputation and adapt her behavior to maximize her leadership potential.
“Thanks to Hogan Assessment Systems (who we are proud to distribute since 2005), your assessments helped me understand my strengths, weaknesses, and main drivers,” she posted on LinkedIn. “Fine-tuning behavior by coaching, I am what I am today: CEO of a management consultancy who is pushing personality out there for the past almost 15 years with a great team [at] metaBeratung.”
On December 4, Hogan Managing Consultants Amber Burkhart, PhD, and Erin Laxson, PhD, were the featured speakers at the Rotary Club of Tulsa’s weekly meeting. One of the most notable speaking engagements in the Tulsa area, the event was attended by 200 business leaders, one of whom described Burkhart and Laxson as “world-class professionals.”
As featured speakers, Burkhart and Laxson joined the likes of prominent business magnates, such as oil and gas entrepreneur T. Boone Pickens and billionaire philanthropist George Kaiser. Notable elected representatives, such as Sen. Jim Inhofe, Sen. James Lankford, and Gov. Kevin Stitt, have also spoken at the Rotary Club of Tulsa.
Here are just a few of the highlights of Burkhart and Laxson’s presentation.
Using Personality Assessments to Identify Effective Leaders
Using personality assessments is key to targeting your leadership development investment for organizational success. But this doesn’t mean that you’ll end up with a homogenous organization or team. Effective leaders are those who are concerned with building high-performing teams that have the right mix of skills and characteristics. They recruit talented people. They put people in the appropriate positions. And they create employee engagement based on trust.
Effective leaders promote diversity and inclusion. In our research, we’ve discovered that effective leaders are more optimistic and diplomatic and less arrogant and critical. In the workplace, leaders who have these attributes will discourage discrimination and prejudice, show respect for others, value diverse perspectives, relate well to a variety of people, recognize each person’s unique potential, and treat employees fairly regardless of their differences.
Hogan recently collaborated with a global beverage company to improve the company’s practices for identifying and developing future leaders. We examined relationships between assessment results and performance data to create a selection profile with individual characteristics most predictive of future leader performance.
We then placed candidates into five leadership fit classifications based on the number of scales passed in the profile. The more scales a candidate passed, the greater the candidate’s potential as a future leader. Looking at the correlations between the profiles and specific key performance indicators, Hogan’s researchers were able to identify candidates who were three times more likely to have higher performance overall and three times more likely to have higher leadership potential.
The Bottom Line
The quality of your organization’s executive leadership has a major impact on the potential bottom line. Studying the ROI of leaders, economists have found that CEOs, for example, account for 14% to 29% in firm performance. When a company’s CEO changes, business performance does too.
Management quality drives business performance at every organizational level, and well-managed organizations are more profitable for everyone—including the employees. In fact, compared to average performers, high-performing executives can add $42 million to company profits over the course of their tenure. Knowing these facts, wouldn’t you want to know which leaders your organization should invest its time and money in before those investments are made?
Our hominid ancestors constantly had to solve problems related to survival. They had to find food, water, shelter, and protection from predators. They also had to keep peace within the group and defend themselves and their groups against attacks by competing groups. If they did not solve these problems sufficiently, they died—whereas those who successfully managed the entire range of problems prevailed.
But the demands of survival changed constantly. Only groups that adapted and improved their survival techniques in the face of constantly shifting environmental pressures became our more recent ancestors—the ultimate winners in the race for survival.
From an ancestral point of view, critical reasoning means being able to solve a wide range of problems effectively. In a modern business context, critical reasoning, or business reasoning, involves (a) accurately forecasting sequences of events in and outside of one’s organization, (b) recognizing when those forecasts do and do not apply, and (c) making appropriate business decisions based on those forecasts.
According to Peter Drucker, PhD, the fabled management philosopher, businesses struggle because leaders make poor decisions about resource allocation. Ideally, leaders should direct money and energy toward activities that increase profitability. Instead, they often designate organizational resources toward projects that have little significance in the long term.
Directing resources toward activities that increase profitability requires three things. First, it requires a clear-minded view of the problem to be solved. Second, it requires a rational analysis of possible solutions. Finally, it requires a critical evaluation of each solution’s consequences. Leaders with good business reasoning skills (a) identify and understand critical problems, (b) construct rational solutions to these problems, and (c) act based on the anticipated consequences of each solution.
Although most people understand the importance of business reasoning for the success of an organization, new managers and executives are rarely selected based on their ability to make good decisions, according to Justin Menkes, PhD. When hiring candidates for management and executive positions, organizations need a sound, defensible method to evaluate candidates’ business reasoning skills.
That’s why the Hogan Business Reasoning Inventory (HBRI) was created. The HBRI allows organizations to fairly and accurately evaluate candidates’ business reasoning skills. The HBRI is based on three assumptions. First, it assumes that good business decisions require clear thinking, rational analysis, and critical evaluation. Second, it assumes that business reasoning skills can be measured and that the results of this measurement process can be used to evaluate candidates for managerial and executive positions. Third, it assumes that the results of this measurement process predict managerial and executive performance.
Hogan is pleased to announce that the HBRI is evolving, effective December 4, 2019. The updated HBRI provides the same overall business reasoning score as the current version, but the Tactical and Strategic subscales will be replaced with two new subscales. The new subscales measure Qualitative Reasoning, which involves working with data visualization, logic, and verbal information to solve problems, and Quantitative Reasoning, which involves working with mathematical and spatial information to solve problems.
Committed to constantly improving our assessments and products, we are confident that the new HBRI will provide a better user experience for our clients. In the modern business world, organizations that hire leaders with strong business reasoning skills will triumph.
Nicole Neubauer, CEO of 
On December 4, Hogan Managing Consultants Amber Burkhart, PhD, and Erin Laxson, PhD, were the featured speakers at the Rotary Club of Tulsa’s weekly meeting. One of the most notable speaking engagements in the Tulsa area, the event was attended by 200 business leaders, one of whom described Burkhart and Laxson as “world-class professionals.”
Our hominid ancestors constantly had to solve problems related to survival. They had to find food, water, shelter, and protection from predators. They also had to keep peace within the group and defend themselves and their groups against attacks by competing groups. If they did not solve these problems sufficiently, they died—whereas those who successfully managed the entire range of problems prevailed.