From a personality standpoint, entrepreneurs and organized criminals are not that different. Does that surprise you?

On The Science of Personality, cohosts Ryne Sherman, chief science officer, and Blake Loepp, PR manager, discuss what separates entrepreneur Jeff Bezos from notorious mob boss Al Capone.

Not only have hundreds of entrepreneurs taken the Hogan personality assessments, but about 60 members of organized crime groups have too. Unlike most criminals whose personalities have been studied, the people in the sample group were not incarcerated when they took the assessment, which was administered by one of Hogan’s partners, A&D Resources in Denmark.

Let’s dive into Ryne’s evaluation of how the personality assessment results compare.

Decoding the Assessments

Hogan offers three core personality assessments, the Hogan Personality Inventory (HPI), the Hogan Development Survey (HDS), and the Motives, Values, Preferences Inventory (MVPI) to measure people’s everyday characteristics, characteristics under stress, and drivers and motivators, respectively. We’ll discuss each in turn, then share some analysis and anecdotes about the overlap between entrepreneurs and organized crime members.

MVPI

When we examine the core drivers that motivate both entrepreneurs and organized crime members, both groups are driven to get ahead and maximize profit. “That’s the key when we look at entrepreneurship and when we look at criminal behavior,” Ryne observed. “Neither is trying to be innovative. Their goal is to be successful, and in many cases that success is identified by how profitable they are.”

The MVPI sample sets strongly resemble each other. Driven to get ahead, entrepreneurs and organized crime members have high Recognition, high Power, high Hedonism, and low Security, which accords with their desire to compete to succeed and willingness to take risks to accomplish goals.

Where entrepreneurs and organized crime members differ on the MVPI is in Aesthetics and Science. While entrepreneurs tend to value the artistic nature of their work, the use of technology, and decision-making based on data, organized crime members score lower on these two scales. “They’re really, really motivated to succeed and win and to do whatever it takes to get there,” Ryne said.

HPI

The overall shape of the HPI profile, which shows higher scores on Ambition, Inquisitive, and Sociability and lower scores on Prudence, remains about the same for entrepreneurs and organized crime members. This is concurrent with the MVPI results, which show a strong drive to succeed.

Where they differ, however, is that the overall scores are somewhat lower for the organized crime members than for the entrepreneurs. Even Sociability and Inquisitive, which are highest among the organized crime members, are still lower than those of the entrepreneurial sample. “The typical mode of behavior is a little more deflated in terms of the HPI dimensions for the organized crime group versus the entrepreneurs,” Ryne explained.

HDS

Entrepreneurs and organized crime members also look fundamentally the same in HDS terms. “The striking thing is how remarkably similar the profiles are for these two groups,” said Ryne. “They’re very high elevations across the board except Diligent and Dutiful, which tend to be around the average range.”

Both show high levels in all these scores: Excitable, Skeptical, Cautious, Reserved, and Leisurely. They also score high in Mischievous, Colorful, Imaginative, and Bold. Like a criminal, the typical entrepreneur is willing to take risks and chances to succeed.

Organized crime members score somewhat lower than entrepreneurs in Colorful, which means they may avoid attention-seeking behavior while engaged in criminal activity. Yet the rule-breaking element is a strong similarity between the two groups, suggesting that both could be comfortable operating in a legally gray area.

The Dark Side of Entrepreneurship

The dark side to being an entrepreneur can be expressed in terms of getting ahead by eliminating competition. Ryne referenced a situation in California in which a community that profited from the recreational marijuana trade worked to secure a vote against a bill to legalize recreational marijuana use because legalization would damage profits.

Many entrepreneurs both past and present would be (or have been) successful in a criminal organization because the criteria for success look very similar: rule-shirking, risk-taking, innovation, and motivation to profit. Likewise, many mafia bosses would make excellent modern entrepreneurs.

Here are a few fictional and nonfictional personas that match this personality profile:

• Al Capone
• Bill Gates
• Elizabeth Holmes
• Elon Musk
• Jeff Bezos
• John Gotti
• Steve Jobs
• Tony Stark (Iron Man)

Society as a body is made up of about 10% of people who are creative, innovative, and motivated by profit. Whether some of them break the rules to succeed comes down to how willing they are to bypass legal roadblocks.

Advice for Entrepreneurs

The entrepreneurial mindset is to run with a great idea and pay it off later. It isn’t helpful to tell an entrepreneur to “just be more careful” because that doesn’t align with their personality and values.

Instead, entrepreneurs need to select an advisor with a profile different from and complementary to theirs whose role is to keep them out of trouble—not to say no all the time but to point out any gray areas that may arise.

“Modern day organized criminals are not that dissimilar from modern day entrepreneurs,” Ryne said. “The similarity there goes unrecognized and underappreciated.”

Listen to this conversation in full on Episode 53 of The Science of Personality Podcast. Never miss an episode by following us anywhere you get podcasts. Cheers, everybody!

Leadership development is big business. The programs and practices used to grow top-level talent are prolific and diverse, and 95% of organizations plan to maintain or increase their current leadership development investment.¹ Paradoxically, only 10% of CEOs say their leadership development programs have clear business impact, and more than 50% of CEOs say that developing next-generation leaders is the biggest challenge they face today.^2,3 Employees paint a similarly bleak picture. Employee engagement is at just 32%, down from 36% in 2020, while active disengagement is on the rise, up one percentage point from 2021.⁴ Their relationships with leaders are a contributing factor.^4,5 A startling 84% of US workers attribute their stress to their managers, and half say their performance would improve if their managers were to receive development opportunities.⁵

The evidence is clear: Organizations are investing a lot to develop leaders but realizing little return on investment. That leads us to two critical questions: (1) Why is leadership development broken, and (2) what can we do to fix it?

Those of us who have spent years working with Hogan clients’ leadership development programs can help to answer the first question. We have seen a lot, and some problems are quite common! The second question is tougher to answer, but we have some ideas and would love to hear from others in the field as well. To that end, we have described seven common problems in this article, and we look forward to discussing seven possible solutions during our next webinar.

Challenge 1: Incorrect Definition of Leadership

In most organizations, when you ask someone to tell you who the leaders are, they will identify people in certain types of roles—from first-line managers to C-suite executives. In doing so, they are (perhaps inadvertently) linking leadership with position, pay, or title, and not with impact, effectiveness, or results.

Challenge 2: Irrelevant Outcomes

Leadership development programs are often judged by affective measures (e.g., how much participants reported enjoying the program) and career outcomes (e.g., promotion). We don’t judge! It is quite difficult to measure program effectiveness. Leaders are human beings operating in complex contexts, after all—they’re not microchips built on an assembly line. But a leader liking a program is not indicative of the leader improving via the program. Not to mention, if the leadership development program had never happened, would the same promotions still have occurred? In many cases, the answer is yes.

Challenge 3: Leadership Competency Models

The competency modelsⁱ we have seen in leadership development programs are nearly always (1) created based on expert or executive judgment rather than research and validation, (2) aspirational rather than achievable, and (3) ineffective in guiding leaders to meaningful, long-term change.  

Challenge 4: The Peanut Butter Approach

Leadership development programs are often designed as though any given cohort of leaders is a monolith. We tend to forget that not all leaders begin development programs at the same starting line. Some individuals might be ahead based on tenure, expertise, or experience, while others might be behind due to lack of visible, emergent behaviors, or—worse, but perhaps as common—due to bias and lack of previous opportunity.

Challenge 5: Ignoring Context

In the world of leadership, context is king, and that king has many characteristics. Leaders need to be keenly aware of and adaptive to their teams, bosses, and responsibilities, as well as the culture, strategy, mission, and values of their organizations. Too frequently, the contextual elements that ultimately impact a leader’s effectiveness are ignored in development programs.

Challenge 6: Overlooking Psychology

Behavioral change is hard. This is well established, yet we seem to forget in leadership development programs. When designing these programs, many organizations fail to consider key factors, like leaders’ lack of resources (time and energy), their potential ambivalence to development, the difficulty of self-awareness, and the importance of the good old SMART goal.

Challenge 7: Disconnected Processes

Although individual assessment is frequently a component of leadership development programs, the results of those assessments (e.g., personality, 360-degree feedback) are rarely used to guide specific coaching and curriculum-based experiences. Instead, assessment is treated as a one-and-done event after which every leader goes through the same program steps often focused on the same organizationally specific competencies.

But enough of the bad news! Check out this webinar to delve further into the challenges of leadership development and, more importantly, find out what can be done to address them. 

This blog post was authored by Jackie VanBroekhoven Sahm, MA, director of global learning, and Jocelyn Hays, MS, learning solutions manager.

Note

1. They are not always called “competency models,” but as the saying goes, “If it looks like a duck . . .”

References

1. Westfall, C. (2019, June 20). Leadership Development Is A $366 Billion Industry: Here’s Why Most Programs Don’t Work. Forbes. https://www.forbes.com/sites/chriswestfall/2019/06/20/leadership-development-why-most-programs-dont-work/?sh=207dc7a661de
2. Segal, E. (2021, May 19). Latest Corporate Crisis: Only 11% Of Surveyed Companies Have A Strong Leadership Bench. Forbes. https://www.forbes.com/sites/edwardsegal/2021/05/19/only-11-of-companies-have-a-strong-leadership-bench-according-to-new-study/?sh=65cc8eda2b62
3. Feser C., Nielsen, N., & Rennie, M. (2017, August 1). What’s Missing in Leadership Development? McKinsey Quarterly. https://www.mckinsey.com/featured-insights/leadership/whats-missing-in-leadership-development
4. Harter, J. (2022, April 25). US Employee Engagement Slump Continues. Gallup. https://www.gallup.com/workplace/391922/employee-engagement-slump-continues.aspx
5. SHRM. (2020, August 12). Survey: 84 Percent of U.S. Workers Blame Bad Managers for Creating Unnecessary Stress [Press release]. https://www.shrm.org/about-shrm/press-room/press-releases/pages/survey-84-percent-of-us-workers-blame-bad-managers-for-creating-unnecessary-stress-.aspx

Hogan and Experd Consulting, an Indonesian authorized distributor of Hogan personality assessments, sponsored and participated in the International Coaching Federation’s Jakarta chapter’s International Coaching Week. Focusing on the theme “Reimagine the Future,” the event was held from May 16 through May 22, 2022. Eileen Rachman, CEO and founder of Experd Consulting, and Krista Pederson, managing director of Asia Pacific for Hogan Assessments, presented a 90-minute virtual session, “Personality Assessment–Based Coaching: Coaching the Dark Side.”

During the session, Rachman described how the Hogan Development Survey (HDS) examines the dark side of personality. She explained why coaching strategic self-awareness is important and why understanding the dark side is essential for performance improvement and success. Rachman pointed out that anchoring coaching with good data creates a solid foundation for the coaching session, and this can be achieved with a well-validated personality assessment.

Pederson followed up by sharing several coaching case studies involving the HDS. She described a process for increasing strategic self-awareness, targeting specific behaviors, and supporting incremental changes in coaching leaders. The coaching sessions eventually led to measurable improvement in performance for each leader, showing the power of a good tool in the hands of a competent coach and willing coachee.  

Rachman and Pederson’s session was well attended and highly interactive, with nearly 180 participants and many questions throughout the presentation. The presenters also held a Q&A session at the end and shared how coaches in Indonesia could attend Experd’s Hogan certification workshop to begin using the HDS in their coaching practices.

The International Coaching Week is an event held by ICF’s Jakarta chapter to enable global organizations, participants, and coaches to share their perspectives and best practices in coaching, and to encourage communication, collaboration, and shared learning.

If you are interested in more information about using personality assessments to coach the dark side, contact Hogan Assessments or your local Hogan distributor.

The manufacturing industry is no stranger to talent challenges. But even the most seasoned manufacturing leaders agree that the last few years have been especially tough.

First, consider the manufacturing talent shortage and skills gap — the reality that there are more open job positions in manufacturing than there are workers ready to fill them.¹ According to the Deloitte and The Manufacturing Institute’s skills gap and future of work study, 89% of manufacturing executives agree there is a talent shortage in the U.S. manufacturing sector, up from 84% in 2015.²

Then, the COVID-19 pandemic hit, and no other industry saw a more significant increase in quits or job openings relative to pre-pandemic levels than manufacturing.³ But it doesn’t stop there. Global supply chain disruptions were either caused or made worse by labor shortages (depending on whom you ask).⁴

Finally, manufacturers feel the pressure to stay competitive. This means upgrading facilities to include more technology, automation, and robotics. Yet even with smart technology, manufacturing organizations still need the talent to plan, implement, and leverage that technology. The technology itself can’t replace most of the skilled labor manufacturers need to compete in an Industry 4.0 world.⁵

Proven Strategies for Talent Acquisition and Talent Development

Experts predict that the manufacturing talent shortage is likely to continue. If you are in an HR, talent acquisition, or talent development role within manufacturing, you probably have more significant talent challenges than ever before. The skills gap, pandemic, supply chain, and next-generation facilities are a lot to plan around, and much is still uncertain. But there are some positive signs.  

In its 2022 manufacturing industry outlook, Deloitte found that the manufacturing industry is building back fast, undeterred by significant labor and supply chain challenges.⁶ Plus, manufacturing still ranks sixth in number of employees among U.S. industries.⁷ As of March 2022, the industry employed more than 12.6 million manufacturing workers.⁷

While you may not be able to predict all of the most in-demand technical skills you’ll need over the next decade, there are some signals about the other qualities, or so-called “soft skills” you’ll need. These include a strong sense of urgency, comfort with technology, confidence taking initiative, and openness to learning, among others.

To develop a workforce who will be able to leverage Industry 4.0 technology to drive your business forward, look to soft skills. In particular, well-validated personality tests can help you identify the most important personality characteristics for any given role. With personality data, you can make more informed talent management decisions.

For example, you can identify which leadership candidates have a strong drive to compete, high risk tolerance, or a strategic approach to problem-solving. Or perhaps you’d like to detect leaders who can pivot quickly to stay ahead of industry changes.

As an international authority in the science of personality and a provider of evidence-based solutions for talent acquisition and development, Hogan has helped numerous manufacturers adopt better talent management practices. The following case study provides one example.

Case Study: Automotive Manufacturer Improves Selection Accuracy by 44%

A global automotive component manufacturer partnered with Hogan via Persol to improve its leadership development process for senior managers. The automotive component manufacturer started with this population because senior manager candidates are responsible for leading and mentoring teams to achieve the company’s mission and goals.

Hogan’s data science team worked with the manufacturer to develop a scientifically valid development tool to improve the quality of the company’s senior manager candidates. To build the most accurate personality profile, Hogan’s data science team determined that the following behaviors and values had the most significant impact on job success:

• Strengths – Composure, drive, social proactivity, and communication
• Risks – Volatility, naiveté, and conformity
• Values – Practicality, collaboration, and accomplishment

By comparing candidates with the Hogan profile, the manufacturer was able to identify the most critical characteristics for success. Hogan’s extensive research on the relationship between personality and job performance indicates the manufacturer will see a 44% improvement in overall accuracy by using the recommended Hogan profile — selecting 22% more good hires and avoiding 22% more bad hires.

In addition, our research demonstrated that senior manager candidates fitting the profile are 4.2 times more likely to perform well on the job than those not matching the profile.

Want to See More Success Stories?

At Hogan, we’ve partnered with manufacturing organizations on their talent management strategies for decades, so we have plenty of success stories that demonstrate how we’ve helped manufacturers achieve their talent goals.

We believe that investing in scientifically validated selection and development tools can help you thrive in this challenging talent market. Our personality assessments can help you address today’s most pressing talent management challenges, including leadership selection and development, employee retention and engagement, reskillable talent identification, and more.

Get your copy of our Manufacturing Industry Spotlight to learn more.

References

1.     Propel PLM. (2021, August 25). The Manufacturing Skills Gap: What Is It? Manufacturing.net. https://www.manufacturing.net/labor/article/21627393/the-manufacturing-skills-gap-what-is-it
2.     Dollar, B. (2018, November 14). The Jobs Are Here, But Where Are the People? Deloitte. https://www2.deloitte.com/us/en/insights/industry/manufacturing/manufacturing-skills-gap-study.html
3.     Zickuhr, K., & Sanchez Cumming, C. (2022, February 4). January Jobs Report: U.S. Employment Growth Surpasses Expectations, but it is Essential to Boost Job Quality in Manufacturing. Washington Center for Equitable Growth. https://equitablegrowth.org/january-jobs-report-u-s-employment-growth-surpasses-expectations-but-it-is-essential-to-boost-job-quality-in-manufacturing/
4.     Fowler, K. (2021, October 19). Five Reasons Labor Shortages Are Impacting Supply Chains. Forbes. https://www.forbes.com/sites/forbeshumanresourcescouncil/2021/10/19/five-reasons-labor-shortages-are-impacting-supply-chains/?sh=224f5b465b94
5.     How Industry 4.0 Technologies Are Changing Manufacturing. (2022, May). IBM. https://www.ibm.com/topics/industry-4-0
6.     Wellener, P., & Hardin, K. (2022, May). 2022 Manufacturing Industry Outlook. Deloitte. https://www2.deloitte.com/us/en/pages/energy-and-resources/articles/manufacturing-industry-outlook.html
7.     Statista. (2022, May). Number of Employees in the United States in April 2022, by Industry. Statista. https://www.statista.com/statistics/978479/number-employees-united-states-industry/

Against the backdrop of the pandemic, the shift to remote work, the Great Resignation, increased demands for sustainability, digitization, and more, organizations across industries are facing historic pressure to achieve their strategic objectives. To remain competitive, many are putting greater emphasis on the development of existing and emerging leaders. If your organization doesn’t yet have a strategy in place for developing leaders, keep reading to learn what an integrated leadership development program entails and what the benefits of leadership development might be for your business.

What is Leadership Development?

Leadership development is not simply about training programs. Well-managed companies take an integrated, customized approach to develop current and emerging leaders so they can meet current and future goals and challenges. Effective leadership development strategies typically involve several of the following components.

Formal Training Programs

Training programs can be designed in partnership with external organizations such as universities, business schools, and other learning organizations. These programs often include in-house classes and quarterly leadership off-site meetings.

Leadership training programs often include sessions by senior leaders on the challenges facing the organization and its long-term direction. There are many areas of potential focus, and topics might include financial management, innovation, creativity, managing a global and diverse workforce, leading teams, change management, driving results through influence, public speaking, negotiating, and problem-solving.

Personality Assessments and 360-Degree Assessment Feedback

Most leadership development programs begin with formal assessments which are used to create individual development plans for leaders. Hogan’s Leadership Forecast Series is one personality assessment solution often used for this purpose. Designed to help leaders develop strategic self-awareness, the Leadership Forecast Series provides an in-depth look at a leader’s performance capabilities, challenges, and core drivers.

Additionally, 360-degree feedback tools provide comprehensive feedback from a leader’s manager, peers, and direct reports. A 360 report, coupled with insights from other assessment tools, can provide insight into good and counterproductive habits and behaviors to help identify specific areas for development for a leader.

Some organizations also use assessment centers to provide objective ways to identify or validate their leaders. These centers provide a broad review of a leader’s capabilities using exercises and simulations of leadership scenarios. Leaders might participate in roleplay, behavioral interviews, and leaderless group discussions.

Strategic Action Projects and Action Learning Teams

Another effective element of leadership development programs focuses on solving strategic problems. Individuals or teams of people work on projects that address major issues facing the company. A key benefit of these projects is that they provide developmental experiences for emerging leaders that require looking beyond functional silos to solve major strategic problems.

Coaching

Individual and group coaching is used to add value throughout leadership development programs. Coaches can support leaders as they move to new roles, help leaders work on strengths and areas for development that have been identified in the assessment process, and work with teams and individuals in action learning teams and group projects.

Mentoring

Some organizations provide leaders with mentors, who are usually experienced leaders who are well versed in navigating business, social, and political dynamics. Mentors typically work in different functions and locations from their mentees. They can provide independent advice and act as sounding boards and trusted advisors.

Strategic Job Placements and On-the-Job Development

There is no better learning experience than on-the-job development. Many organizations create programs that involve job experiences in different parts of the company. Programs are often intentionally designed to help the leader build new skills. For instance, leaders can move to new regions or take on new roles. Alternatively, leaders might be given opportunities to turn around troubled business units. These opportunities enable emerging leaders to broaden their thinking and development, making them better prepared for enterprise-wide roles.

Benefits of Leadership Development

Integrated leadership development programs have a significant and positive impact on organizations. The benefits of leadership development programs include competitive succession planning, talent attraction, talent retention, opportunities for networking, impact on financial values, and preparation for initial public offerings, or IPOs. 

Competitive Succession Planning

The emphasis of many leadership development programs is creating a robust pipeline of talent at all levels of leadership. Having a bench of talent available to step into many roles and locations or focus on new business initiatives provides organizations with a competitive advantage.

A recent study by McKinsey showed that companies need to reallocate capital and talent to high-value initiatives if they are to remain competitive.¹ According to the study’s authors, “Managing for the long term requires executives to monitor their standing in the market and to enter or exit businesses as the competitive landscape shifts — even if it involves shrinking a company.”

The study used Amazon and Microsoft as examples. Both made significant moves of capital and talent over the last 15 years, preparing internal leaders to move their cloud computing businesses. Compared to competitors that made less investment in cloud computing, Amazon and Microsoft generated substantial revenue in 2020 — around $45 billion and $59 billion, respectively.¹

The McKinsey research found that companies willing to move resources and talent rapidly are 2.2 times more likely to outperform competitors, compared to those that reallocate resources and talent more slowly.

Talent Attraction

High-performing and high-potential leaders are in great demand for roles in other organizations. Recruiters or former colleagues frequently approach them to invite them to change organizations. High-performing leaders need to learn and grow constantly, and companies with robust leadership development programs attract stronger talent. In turn, great leaders are also able to attract, hire, and inspire other talented employees. They are often referred to as talent magnets!

Talent Retention

Many leaders have felt undervalued during recent years and particularly during the pandemic, thinking their work and talents have not been recognized. If they decide to join other companies, they often take team members with them, which can cause even greater problems for the organization that doesn’t manage to retain them. A supportive leadership development program can help leaders feel valued by signaling that they have a strong part to play in the current and future growth of the organization. A study by the Center for Creative Leadership showed that companies with a strong focus on leadership development see talent retention that is 20 times better.²

Networking

An often-overlooked outcome and value of leadership development programs is that leaders form strong connections with fellow participants who come from other parts of the organization. These connections can lead to greater cross-boundary collaboration. Leaders across departments can share tips and experiences and discuss challenges they face. Also, it is easier to onboard a leader who has moved to a new function or location when they already have a connection with other leaders in that area.

Impact on Financial Valuations

A research study by Deloitte showed the importance of leadership effectiveness and its impact on financial markets and shareholders.³ Using interviews with and surveys of leading market analysts in many parts of the world, the researchers examined the impact that leadership can have on share price.

The analysts in the study cited senior leadership effectiveness as a significant a contributor to financial results and earnings forecasts when judging the future success of the company. Of the analysts who participated, 60% said that they use current financial results to evaluate organizational success, and 45% identified senior leadership team effectiveness as a key criterion. More than half (52%) said that they consider the strength of senior leadership in company valuations.

Since many companies use stock grants and options as part of their compensation package for leaders and high-performing talent, positive stock valuations with potential for additional growth in value can have the added benefit of helping to attract and retain key talent.

Preparation for Initial Public Offerings (IPOs)

Many companies held by private investors seek to raise additional capital by means of IPOs. An initial public offering or stock launch occurs when shares of a company are sold to institutional investors and retail investors.

Having a clear leadership development strategy has become a key component of the IPO process to assure potential investors of the depth of leadership and its likely impact on a robust return on investment. This became a higher priority for senior executives and boards in August 2020, when the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission introduced new disclosure requirements around “human capital.” The requirements are intended to give stakeholders a clear idea of how many leaders and people the company employs, as well as highlight what the business does to attract, develop, engage, and retain its leaders and high-performing talent.

Conclusion

The design and implementation of leadership development programs takes a great deal of time, effort, and resources on the part of senior leadership and human resources. However, the benefits of leadership development are extensive, and taking an integrated and customized approach is critical to both achieving current goals and to the success of the organization over the long term.

This blog post was authored by Margaret Butteriss, a member of the Hogan Coaching Network.

References

1. Babcock, A., Williamson S. K., & Koller, T. (2021, July 22). How Executives Can Sustain Value Creation for the Long Term. McKinsey & Co. https://www.mckinsey.com/business-functions/strategy-and-corporate-finance/our-insights/how-executives-can-help-sustain-value-creation-for-the-long-term
2. Leading Effectively staff members. (2020, May 10). Driving Performance: How Leadership Development Powers Success [white paper]. Center for Creative Leadership. https://www.ccl.org/articles/white-papers/driving-performance-development-success/
3. Canwell, A., & Isles, E. (2012). The Leadership Premium: How Companies Win the Confidence of Investors. Deloitte. https://www2.deloitte.com/ly/en/pages/human-capital/articles/leadership-premium.html

A few months ago, we closed out a year-long senior leadership development program with a multibillion-dollar organization. This organization is going through one of the largest transformations in recent US history. As a result, its leaders faced the potential challenge of their job roles changing underneath them. Our leadership development program included a facilitation, the Hogan personality assessments, 360-degree assessments (specifically, the Hogan 360), coaching, a capstone project, and more. For the closing session, the organization’s CEO was on the call with 15 of organization’s top leaders. One by one, the leaders gave feedback that the assessment was the program’s most important element to their development.

I wasn’t surprised.

I believe that a key to our success was combining the Hogan Personality Inventory, the Hogan Development Survey, and the Motives, Values, Preferences Inventory with a 360-degree assessment. Using the Hogan 360 and the Hogan personality assessments, we created custom leader dashboards that integrated the results of both types of assessments. These were designed to show leaders where they should focus their development now and in the future.

After the program concluded, one of the leaders I debriefed hand-wrote a two-page letter to my office that called the experience life-changing. She had been struggling with difficult issues with a few people she was leading, and the 360-degree assessments bore that out. But her Hogan personality assessment results helped her understand the personality characteristics and drivers that were leading to her frustrations, offering a path forward. The leader was also looking toward a promotion into the C-suite, and she said the Hogan 360 gave her a great view of what to work on now. Meanwhile, the Hogan results helped her identify what she would need to focus on in a different role in a different context.

It also did not surprise me that the leader was able to address the challenges with her direct reports and get on track for a C-suite role. A key element of successful leadership development is helping leaders cultivate strategic self-awareness. Building strategic self-awareness through feedback helps leaders get a view of how others perceive them. With this knowledge, they can target behaviors for change, internalize those changes, and seek more feedback. This is why, in picking an assessment tool, sometimes the best answer is to use more than one.

Combining Assessment Tools for Leadership Development

The most common tool used in leadership development to help leaders understand how they are perceived and build self-awareness is the 360-degree assessment. The 360-degree assessment allows leaders to rate themselves and compare their self-assessment to the ratings of their managers, peers, direct reports, and other key stakeholders.

Personality assessments help close the gap between 360-degree assessments, which focus on competencies, and all the dimensions that play a role in building strong leaders. If you imagine an iceberg, experiences and competencies are the observable and measurable behaviors and skills above the water line. But most of the iceberg is below the waterline — that’s where we find personality characteristics and values that are harder to see and develop. Combining the two tools can provide robust “whole-person” feedback to a leader.

Another powerful aspect of combining 360-degree assessments and personality assessments is perspective. Feedback from a 360-degree assessment gives leaders a snapshot view from a particular group of people in their current job context and at a particular point in time. Well-validated personality assessments, on the other hand, are stable and predictive of performance. These provide a motion-picture view by characterizing a person’s reputation in multiple contexts over time.

Six Benefits of Combining 360-Degree Assessments with Personality Assessments

Taking this combined approach ensures organizations and leaders receive a strong return on investment for their time, effort, and money by giving leaders a robust view of the entire “iceberg,” not just what’s visible above the surface. Here are six other specific benefits of the combined approach.

1. Diversity and inclusion–informed feedback – From a diversity and inclusion perspective, 360s present some challenges. Research has shown the potential for bias in rater feedback. For example, some studies have suggested women tend to rate themselves harder than others, raters tend to rate women harder than men, and women tend to receive more vague feedback.ⁱ This is one reason 360s should not be used as selection tools. Scientifically validated personality assessments, such as the Hogan assessments, have no adverse impact based on race, gender, or national origin. These can show how people are likely to be seen without the unconscious bias that shows up in the limited pool of people rating the leader. It is essential, both with 360s and personality assessments, to disclose these facts to clients.
2. Integrated feedback and custom dashboards – As with all assessments, integrating the feedback for participants is critical to identifying what leaders need to focus on in their current job and organizational context, as well as for roles they may seek in the future. This can be done both through the feedback process itself and by writing custom dashboards. Dashboards should provide leaders with an overview of the snapshot to focus on now, the motion picture view for the future, and two to three narrow areas of focus for development.
3. Focused feedback – There are so many scales and so little time — both for the feedback debrief and for leaders who are looking to capitalize on those results. Collecting information about job and organizational context and viewing résumés in advance can help you identify the most important things to focus on for the leader.
4. Evidence-based assessments – Not all assessments are created equally. In both personality assessments and 360s, it’s important to look for tools that have strong normative data backing them. Second, they should have research behind them that demonstrates validity. And third, they should be based on a proven competency framework with data to connect it to leadership success. Many type indicators are marketed as personality assessments, but they often provide leaders only with an “inside view” of themselves. That is, this type of assessment tends to show leaders how they think about themselves, not necessarily how others see them. A strong personality assessment should provide an “outside view” of the leader. This is the leader’s reputation, which is what affects career success.
5. Competency mapping between the assessments – One great way to use the tools together is to map the competencies on the 360-degree assessment to personality characteristics and drivers on the personality assessments. A leader may struggle in one area on the 360 but have some personality characteristics that correlate to strength in that competency. The leader can leverage those characteristics for development.
6. Comparing differences – Personality assessment results describe how others are likely to see a person. Results from a 360 describe how specific people — managers, peers, direct reports, and other stakeholders — see the person. Try comparing personality results to the leader’s self-assessment on the 360-degree assessment and the results from the different rater groups. It can be powerful to talk with a leader about the specific personality characteristics and values that a broader group of people will likely see but that may not be showing up in the 360 feedback. How can these differences in results inform their development?

With the snapshot and the motion picture, leaders gain the power to focus on development strategies for now and the future. While the Hogan assessments and 360-degree assessments can be powerful tools individually, sometimes — like cookies and milk or apples and caramel — two things are better together.

This blog post was authored by Jayson Blair, a member of the Hogan Coaching Network.

Editor’s Note

i. Hogan has done research on rater feedback using the Hogan 360, specifically. Comparing rater feedback for men and rater feedback for women, Hogan’s researchers did not find any significant bias against either gender in Hogan 360 data.

In the past, product and service delivery were expressed in abstract terms like “as soon as we can” or “the best we can.” Gradually, time of product and service delivery became metrics driven. Yet many organizational functions — specifically those guided by people and so-called “soft skills” — were still not considered to be measurable.

Leadership development, for example, was not easy to quantify because no one could be sure if the methods were actually effective, or if they simply “made sense” or were “thought provoking.” Metrics-driven leadership development makes the soft skills that are integral to organizational success measurable by tying them to critical business objectives.

Leadership Development Metrics Link Talent Strategy with Business Strategy

Metrics-driven leadership development is similar to metrics-driven waste reduction, metrics-driven capital investment and metrics-driven supply chain management. These and other business functions have the following in common:

1. The best competitors will be using metrics to optimize them.
2. Customers willing to pay a premium expect continuous improvement in all of them.
3. Leaders and employees want to be assured that tomorrow will be better than today.
4. Investors expect that leader effectiveness will be guided by processes that are just as disciplined as other major functions of the organization.

The quality revolution was inspired by defining quality more specifically, namely “what the customer expects and is willing to pay for.” If you deliver packages worldwide, you have a wealth of information about the locations and speed of transport of those packages, and your customers’ expectations are shaped by this knowledge.

Similarly, determining which leadership development metrics to track requires consideration of what makes a successful leader. In the past, leadership was defined as “those in power.” A definition of leadership at the heart of metrics-driven development is “the ability to build and sustain a team that succeeds in the marketplace.” Leadership development needs to be measured by a leader’s ability to enhance the effectiveness of the team at achieving low turnover, recruiting with ease, and improving the organization’s position in the market.

Team Performance: A Key Leadership Development Metric

A specific focus on team performance needs to be woven into every step of the leadership development process. When an organization implements a leadership development program, the decision-makers’ specific market expectations should be a central focus, both for those providing the leadership development and for participants. Too often, leaders see the development process as the next step in their individual journeys, without seeing the implications for their teams. It’s too easy to focus on whether the process was personally fulfilling, rather than on improved outcomes for team performance. But it’s team performance that affects an organization’s ability to achieve its goals in the market — and achieving these goals is the chief benefit of a metrics-driven leadership development process.

So, how can your organization ensure that a leadership development program will be successful? The best leadership development processes incorporate feedback loops. Organizations often say that they make decisions using data, but there is no feedback loop to assess the value of the data. In contrast, metrics-driven decision-makers use the feedback loops to learn about which aspects of the leader development process helped achieve the organization’s goals. Focusing on team performance allows the organization to shift from “This leadership development process looks good,” to “We can detect the impact of this process on our teams’ performance.”

This blog post was authored by James M. Fico, PhD, a member of the Hogan Coaching Network.

The 37th annual Society for Industrial and Organizational Psychology (SIOP) conference, scheduled for April 27 through April 30, 2022, is just around the corner. Held virtually in 2020 and 2021, SIOP is returning to an in-person format at the Washington State Convention Center and Sheraton Grand Seattle in Seattle, Washington. A virtual program will also be available for those who are unable to attend in person.

As always, Hogan is excited to attend the SIOP conference to share some of the latest insights and innovations in the science of personality. But this year’s conference will be a particularly special one for us for two reasons.

First, we’re thrilled to share that Robert Hogan, PhD, our founder and president, is the 2022 recipient of SIOP’s Dunnette Prize. Given in honor of Professor Marvin D. Dunnette, this prize celebrates an individual whose work has made significant contributions to our understanding of the role of individual differences in human behavior and performance. We hope to see you at his invited address during Friday’s conference sessions.

Second, we’ve been working hard on a new holistic leadership development experience, and we’re tailoring our research and development with feedback from you in mind. We’re planning to launch it officially over the summer, but we couldn’t wait to share it with you, so we’re offering sneak previews at SIOP. Stop by the exhibit hall to see us at booth 405!

Here’s a detailed schedule of when and where you can find us during this year’s meeting.

Thursday, April 28

Thought-Leader Showcase

Why Leadership Development is Broken — and How to Fix it

Jackie VanBroekhoven Sahm, MS, and Jocelyn Hays, MS

9:00 a.m. PT, Room 604

Organizations worldwide spend more than $366 billion annually on leadership development. Yet 75% of companies say their leadership programs are not very effective, and only 11% report having a strong “bench” to fill critical leadership roles. To make matters worse, more than two-thirds of workers report that the worst part of their lives is their immediate boss. Why are most leadership development efforts falling short, and what can be done about it? 

This thought-provoking session will focus on 7 common shortfalls with practical advice for practitioners:

1. Defining leadership incorrectly
2. Focusing on the wrong outcomes 
3. Chasing constantly moving targets, fads, and buzzwords
4. Taking the “peanut-butter approach” to development
5. Overlooking the importance of context
6. Neglecting the psychology of behavior change
7. Confusing the roles of assessment, learning, and development

Hogan presenters Jackie VanBroekhoven Sahm, MS, and Jocelyn Hays, MS, will offer actionable advice to help you stretch your thinking about leadership, break down barriers in “traditional” leadership development programs, and create more impactful growth experiences for leaders.

We’re Here, We’re Working, But We’re Tired: Employee Wellbeing in the Workplace

Jessica W. McDuffie, MS, Jessie McClure, MA, and Michael Boudreaux, PhD

9:00 a.m. PT, Room 613-614

COVID-19 has forever changed the workplace and the way we work. Since the global pandemic began, there has been an increased focus on employee wellbeing to keep employees engaged and committed. This symposium will cover the broad topic of employee wellbeing in the workplace by exploring applied research on employee happiness, burnout, and specific organizational initiatives that drive well-being. Authors will explore the impact of managerial burnout on direct reports to demonstrate the ripple effects that burnout and disengagement can cause in organizations.

This symposium will be cochaired by Hogan’s Jessie McClure, MA, and Jessica W. McDuffie, MS, and will feature research they conducted with Michael Boudreaux, PhD, entitled “Keeping the Flame Alive After COVID: A Personality Perspective on Burnout.”

Work Smarter, Not Harder: Machine Learning Applications to Solve Research Problems

Weiwen Nie, PhD

2:30 p.m. PT, Room 618-619

Machine learning techniques are being used increasingly by industrial-organizational psychologists to solve business problems, which requires translating algorithms and formulas into actionable implementations. This symposium presents and integrates four papers that apply machine and deep learning to solve specific problems encountered in organizational research, creating pipelines and user-friendly applications for others to use as well. By adopting these tools, researchers without a computational background can leverage the latest advances in machine learning.

This symposium will feature research presented by Weiwen Nie, PhD, entitled “Efficiently Shortening Personality Scales Using with Deep Learning.”

Friday, April 29

The Context for Innovation: Examining Creativity in Practice

Kimberly Nei, PhD, Nadine Maliakkal, MA, Jessica W. McDuffie, MS, Chase Winterberg, JD, PhD, and Matthew Lemming, MA

8:00 a.m. PT, Ballroom 6C

Most accept that organizations must “innovate or die.” For IO practitioners, this means considering how to embed innovation in talent management. Who do we expect to innovate? How do we select for creativity and measure creative output? What is required to foster a culture of innovation? Do we require creativity from leaders? Do we expect differences in creative leadership across industries, levels, roles, or even gender — or are these differences embedded in biases? This symposium highlights research examining the context for creativity in organizational settings and practical implications.

Chaired by Hogan’s Director of Talent Analytics Kimberly Nei, PhD, the symposium will feature a presentation by Hogan’s Nadine Maliakkal, MA, Jessica W. McDuffie, MS, Chase Winterberg, JD, PhD, and Matthew Lemming, MA, entitled “Taking the Creative with the Suite: Examining Leader Rank, Gender, and Creative Reputations.”

Lessons for Leaders: Creating A Psychologically Safe Work Environment 

Kaye-Marie Zani, MA

10:30 a.m. PT, Zoom 3

In today’s business world, it has become critical for organizations to increase employees’ ability to collaborate and create a shared outcome through psychological safety. Managers can impact employees’ sense of psychological safety through their behavior and communication about the consequences of speaking up. This session, chaired by Hogan’s Kaye-Marie Zani, MA, is designed to equip practitioners with greater knowledge and skills. This hybrid panel will integrate theoretical models of drivers and competencies needed to foster psychological safety with practical, applicable advice and case studies.

Modern Problems Require Modern Solutions: Applications of State-of-the-Art Natural Language Processing

Weiwen Nie, PhD

10:30 a.m. PT, Room 606

This alternative session is a showcase of how modern natural language processing, or NLP, techniques can be integrated into various organizational processes. A collection of papers demonstrates immediate use cases of these techniques. Authors will share diverging examples of how these NLP approaches can be leveraged to solve organizational issues, to partially automate tasks, or to support validation. IO psychologists currently implementing NLP show how it can support job analysis, diversity and inclusion, learning and development, as well as selection and measurement. The session closes with a panel-style discussion.

As part of this session, Weiwen Nie, PhD, will discuss his paper, “Using the BERT Model to Create a Job Families Classifier.”

Dunnette Prize Award Address

Robert Hogan, PhD

12:00 p.m. PT, Room 611

In his invited address, Dr. Hogan will explain how leadership is the most important problem in human affairs, but mainstream academic research has failed because it defines leadership in terms of the people in charge of organizations. Such people are emergent leaders (politicians) but not necessarily effective leaders. Effective leadership concerns building high-performing teams or organizations, not being a successful politician.

Bright Side Differences Across the Sales Hierarchy

Matthew Lemming, MA, Kimberly Nei, PhD, and Chase Borden, MS

1:00 p.m. PT, Exhibit Hall 4B

The authors present three meta-analyses showing where personality differentiates jobs in the sales hierarchy. These studies focus on relationships between bright-side personality scales and overall performance in customer service, sales representative, and sales manager jobs. Results suggest different personality scales are important and predictive at each job level.

Professional Vocations have Distinct Personality and Value Profiles

Chase Winterberg, JD, PhD

1:00 p.m. PT, Exhibit Hall 4B

This study, coauthored by Chase Winterberg, JD, PhD, distinguishes professional legal subfields based on their aggregate personality and value characteristics. Doing so extended Schneider’s (1987) homogeneity hypothesis to US white-collar professionals at the occupational level and provided a foundation for future research geared toward interventions that can support wellbeing and job performance problems in the legal profession. Findings supported the homogeneity hypothesis and distinguished private, profit-facing legal subfields from those that are public, service-oriented subfields.

New Frontiers in Personality Profiles: Extraction, Interpretation, and Validation

Ryne Sherman, PhD

2:30 p.m. PT, Room 618-619

Person types have had a mixed history in both academic and applied psychology, in part because some of the most popular typological frameworks are rooted in psychometrically weak measures and empirically questionable frameworks. In this symposium, four independent investigations using modern, psychometrically sound instruments with rigorous empirical analysis identify highly replicable sets of person types, or more accurately person profiles. The profiles identified in these studies have applications to individuals, teams, and organizations, particularly in coaching and leadership development.

As part of this symposium, Ryne Sherman, PhD, cochair, will present his research, “Replicable Person Profiles.”

Saturday, April 30

A Comparison of Native American and White Manager Values

Alise Dabdoub, PhD, and Brandon Ferrell, PhD

9:30 a.m. PT, Exhibit Hall 4B

Traditional Native American values significantly differ from that of the majority US culture (Garrett, 1999). Because of this, it is important to understand if these value differences show up in the workplace as well. This study examined differences between Native American and white manager values using the Hogan Motives, Values, Preferences Inventory. Results indicated that Native American managers were significantly lower in hedonism and higher in security. Hogan’s Alise Dabdoub, PhD, and Brandon Ferrell, PhD, are among the three presenters for this session.

Woke Capitalism or Genuine Concern? An Analysis of CEO Personality and Activism

Alise Dabdoub, PhD, and Matthew Lemming, MA

9:30 a.m. PT, Exhibit Hall 4B

CEO activism has increased in recent years. Some view CEO activism as being performative and coined the term “woke capitalism” to signal the disingenuous nature of it. This perspective begs the question, is CEO activism genuine or not? This study is an exploratory look at CEO personality and values that may be associated with speaking out about the Black Lives Matter movement or leading a company ranked on a diversity and inclusion index. Results indicate that low recognition and power were associated with speaking out about BLM, and altruism was associated with diversity index rankings. Alise Dabdoub, PhD, and Matthew Lemming, MA, are among the three presenters for this session.

Becoming a manager for the first time is an exciting career milestone. But because of the magnitude of change involved, making the transition to management can also be nerve-racking for many people. If you’re a new manager or preparing to become a manager, here’s what you can expect as you enter this new phase of your career.

1. Leveraging Different Skills
   
   In the words of Marshall Goldsmith, “What got you here won’t get you there.” Recognize that the strengths that have enabled your success and the derailers that have hindered your effectiveness thus far are probably not the ones that will be important for a new manager. Your Hogan personality test reports are an ideal place to start on this analysis. Think through what strengths your new position requires and what derailers might get you into trouble. How will you alter your behaviors to accommodate these? Remember the importance of situational context (role, culture, manager, and team).
   
   
2. Becoming More Visible
   
   What you say and do matters more now. Because your position has changed, you are under greater scrutiny, and your words and actions have a greater impact. You might say the same thing in the same situation, but it carries more weight by virtue of your position.
   
   
3. Managing Former Peers (and Even Friends)
   
   Being promoted to a management position often means managing people who used to be your peers and, in some cases, your friends. Realize that your relationships with them have been inextricably altered. It’s OK to directly acknowledge this change — they are your direct reports. No matter how much you like them, you are now their manager, and the relationship between managers and reports is different from relationships between peers or friends. You can support them, advocate for them, develop them, provide advice and counsel, etc., but these need to be done from a manager perspective, not a peer or friend perspective. This may mean you’ll need to get out of the loop to some degree. Remember that you’ll also need to provide them with constructive feedback, performance reviews and salary treatment, and perhaps even discipline. These are managerial activities, not friend or peer activities.
   
   
4. Taking the Party Line
   
   Unless you’re being asked to do something illegal or immoral, you need to take the party line, even if you don’t agree with it. It’s fine to express disagreement when you’re discussing decisions with fellow managers, but once a decision is reached, the managers need to be a united front. You can’t say, “Well, I didn’t agree with this, but I was outvoted.”
   
   
5. Liaising Between Organizational Levels
   
   As part of management, you need to provide a buffer between your direct reports and senior managers when your direct reports don’t like a decision or question a policy. Typically, the decision-makers have more information, which influenced their decision, than the people questioning the decision. In other words, you need to be part of the solution and avoid fueling discontent or conflict. Don’t justify your desire to disagree by telling yourself that you’re not being authentic if you’re supporting a decision you don’t completely agree with. Reframe it as something you need to support because of your role.
   
   
6. Using Team Input Effectively
   
   You need to gather input and gain buy-in, but don’t let this result in “management by consensus.” With too much compromise, you can end up with a decision that no one supports. At some point, you might need to make the decision yourself, and it might not be popular with everyone, but at least it will be supported by some. As a manager, you are accountable for the success of the team, and as a result, you are also responsible for the decisions being made.
   
   
7. Making Challenging Decisions
   
   Sometimes you have to decide between right and right. It’s easy to decide between right and wrong, but it’s hard to decide between right and right. On occasion, you’ll be faced with several alternatives, all of which are right. You will need to decide among them and communicate the decision. Sometimes it may feel like there is not a right answer, so try thinking about these two things: First, what is the right answer for the business? Second, what is right for the customer? When these areas align, the tough decisions are easier to make.
   
   
8. Adapting Management Style to Employee Needs
   
   All direct reports are not created equal, and fair treatment does not mean identical treatment. An experienced veteran requires a very different management style from you than a new hire fresh out of college. As long as there’s no hint of favoritism, different treatment can be effective. Keep in mind that the way you previously communicated with someone on your team might need to be altered (that is, if you were formerly peers).
   
   
9. Providing Useful and Timely Feedback
   
   The longer you wait to give someone feedback, the more difficult it will be. When feedback is provided close to the time the coachable behavior was exhibited, everyone involved recalls more details, making it easier to provide coaching and change behavior. Also, it is far easier and more comfortable to receive one small piece of feedback than a lot of feedback that has accumulated over weeks or months. Practice daily (and balanced) feedback.
   
   
10. Keeping the Pace of Work
    
    Speed is your friend. Work will always expand to fill the time available, for both you and your team. Set aggressive deadlines, do the tough tasks first, and follow through consistently.
    
    
11. Asking for Help
    
    Don’t forget you have resources available. You don’t have to make this transition on your own. Utilize other managers and HR for support when you meet a challenge, regardless of how small or large the issue may seem. Your success is measured on the success of your team, so ask for help when you need it.

Congratulations on rising to meet these challenges! Leadership is not for the faint of heart, and some days it may feel like you are running in circles, but what you are doing is important work. Every seemingly minute conversation with a team member helps build trust and provides an opportunity for deeper connection, development opportunities, and growth.

This is it, the finale of our New Year, New Hire article series. To recap, we’ve taken you through the entire hiring process, from the job posting to the candidate selection decision — which leads us to the final installment: the employee onboarding process.

Candidate experience is everything. Now, chances are, if they’ve gone through the application process and accepted a job offer, their experience has been positive thus far. But your work as the hiring manager doesn’t end with the employment agreement. The onboarding process is the final step of the talent acquisition process and often the first step of the talent development process. To build excitement, loyalty, and trust, your onboarding experience needs to be positive and constructive, building a solid foundation for your new hire’s place in your organization.

What is the onboarding process for a new employee? We’ve put together some employee onboarding tips to help.

Employee Onboarding Best Practices

Step 1: Organize the First Day

To start things off right, it’s integral to ensure that the first day is well planned. While the new employee’s specific needs will vary by industry, every employee onboarding checklist is made up of a few common items, including making sure that they are able to access your systems, given clearance for tools or programs, issued IDs, etc. By laying the groundwork for a good first day, you’re helping to establish a good impression for your organizational skills as a manager and for the organization as an employer.

Step 2: Book One-on-One Meetings

Building business relationships is at the foundation of a successful team dynamic. To accomplish this, one-on-one meetings have become a staple of the modern workplace. These encounters give a new hire the chance to learn about the experiences of others in the company in a relaxed and humanizing way and can help them slowly settle into the work culture. To paint the best picture of your organization, be sure to book meetings with employees at all levels, from coworkers to managers, and even those they may not work with directly — while making sure not to overwhelm them with too many faces at once.

Step 3: Identify a Buddy

The buddy system doesn’t apply only to school field trips: it’s a valuable tool in the manager’s arsenal for helping an employee navigate the nuances of their new role. Choose someone whose job is closely aligned, if not overlapping, with your new hire’s, and who will make sure the newest member of the team feels welcomed. The buddy system can help informalize the first days and weeks of a new job, establishing trust and a more relaxed dynamic where the new hire can feel more comfortable asking questions.

Step 4: Outline Your Expectations

One of the most important steps in the onboarding process is setting expectations for your new employee. The probationary period should be a time devoted to well-paced learning and assimilation, and setting expectations is a key element of this employee education. Bring them up to speed on what specific tasks and projects they’ll be tackling once settled, identify potential learning opportunities, and make it clear that you and your team are there to support as needed. This is also the stage where you may elect to debrief the new hire on personality test results to begin creating a personalized talent development plan.

Step 5: Set Milestone Goals

Finally, as with all good strategies, it’s important to plan for the future by setting highly attainable goals for your new hire. The new hire’s personality test results should be filtered through the lens of the role and organization to inform these goals. Depending on the role and organization, you may wish to engage the services of a professional coach, such as one of the experts within the Hogan Coaching Network.

What is something they can strive to accomplish during the first day? Week? Month? Three months? Year? To reiterate, the key word is attainable. If you set goals that are too lofty, the hire may not reach them, which will set a negative precedent. By giving them things to work toward that are realistic and grounded, you can help them feel accomplishment as they progress through their employment milestones.

To summarize, if you’re wondering how to onboard an employee, the best first step is to place yourself in their shoes and contemplate what specific strategies will help make the transition smooth. Don’t forget, this is a new experience in a new environment with new people — so be patient, nurture the relationship, and equip them with everything they need to start off their new role confidently.