Improving Business Performance by Achieving Understanding: A Discussion

New and Developing ways of "Understanding" before you Act or Decide

Do We Understand Ourselves

Most people don't understand themselves particularly well.  This we believe without reservation.  So why do we say this???

 

Peter Drucker made the point emphatically late in his career and life and many others have concurred.  I've had the experience of debriefing a couple hundred CEO's using an assessment tool that profiles one on over 100 traits.   Over and over again, I saw, even experienced successful leaders, who clearly didn't "know themselves".  Indicators of that are the following typical quotes you hear

  1. That explains why I do that, never thought about that before
  2. You know, I've been told that quite often by people, but I never understood what they were really saying
  3. That explains why I don't do well in xxxx situations

 

Another indicator is an emotional and often angry  denial followed by a retraction and apology.   This is typically the result of a natural tendency or attitude where strong defense mechanisms have been developed.  The reaction is often accompanied by considerable emotion.

 

One issue is that we are accustomed to learning about things outside of ourselves and it seems unnatural to focus on ourselves and how we do things. 

 

How do you accomplish this learning. Feedback from others helps. Self-analysis of  the events in your life helps.  But now with today's technology, nothing is as productive in helping accomplish the goal of self-awareness than a scientifically-based assessment.

 

So besides the importance of understanding yourself to be effective, it also valuable to further consider -  If you don't understand yourself, can you effectively  understand others? or perhaps...  if you don' understand yourself,  can you effectively deal with others?

The Ultimate Management Tool, What is it?What if you could design the ultimate management tool - Would it help select / hire the best?What if you could design the Ultimate Management Tool? Would it help Engage and Motivate your People?The Ultimate Management Tool? Would it help you retain them?The Ultimate Management Tool? Would it help you Develop them optimally?What would your Ultimate Management Tool consist of?What would your Ultimate Management Tool consist of?If you accurately understand then you can...Execute Optimally with accurate understanding / Execute poorly with misunderstandingHATS: Perhaps, the Ultimate Management Tool

"The U.S. Department of Labor has estimated the costs to replace an employee to be approximately 1/3 their annual salary; but when you start looking at the impact of hiring the wrong employee and having to replace them, some studies say 2.5 times annual earnings, some 4 times and some even higher." AGILEdge