Assessment Tests

In general, there are three main types of assessment tests:

1. Personality & Motivation
2. Interests
3. Abilities

Let us focus on the first part - Personality & Motivation Tests.

There are various types of instruments that measure our personality and motivation. They are designed with specific objectives and these tools can be very useful in identifying our individual inner feeling and thinking.

Some of my favorites are:

• Myers Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI) by CPP. More than 2 million annually have benefited from this instrument. It is an useful instrument to learn your preferences for a lifelong growth and development. Key word - understand self & others. Four dichotomies: Extraversion-Introversion; Sensing-iNtuition; Thinking-Feeling; Judging-Perceiving.

• Fundamental Interpersonal Relations Orientation-Behavior (FIRO-B) by CPP. Identify the key motivators that drive behaviors and help transform a group of individuals into a cohesive team. A powerful instrument to discover our need for participation, influence, and closeness. Must-have instrument for mentoring & coaching.

• Occupational Personality Questionnaires (OPQ32) by SHL. SHL provides over 250 assessment tools of various instruments. One of the instruments i.e. OPQ32 provides valuable information on individuals preferred behaviour on 32 personality characteristics. The dimensions are grouped into three areas: relationship with people, thinking styles, and feelings & emotions. You will love it once you mapped the 32 dimensions into your own competency framework.

• Personal Profile Analysis (PPA) by Thomas International aka DiSC: Dominance -Influence - Steadiness - Compliance. High on each D-i-S-C meant that the person likes to be around people, loves to complete one task at a time, cautious in decision making, and lives a challenge & taking charge.
  

I will explain later on the individual instrument - the advantages & disadvantages & how to cheat on it.

Confirmation Process

What would you consider a fair percentage of salary increment for this new hire:

"... is highly dedicated staff who adapted to work culture well. He learned and understood the detailed procedures of the division within a very short period.... He started contributing to the assigned tasks in almost immediately. ... his contributions are highly noted and appreciated. Therefore, I strongly recommend him for a confirmation with an outstanding rating..."

Duh... it is a lousy assessment. Does not even deserve a B-

Sometime good enough is not enough.

No... good enough is never enough.

Seeds in an Apple vs Apples in a Seed

How Do You Measure Your Potential?

Before that, there are few ground rules:

1. Acceptability of the result. Suck up and take it like a BIG boy. Accept that the fact that the truth sometime hurts (I-always-think-that-I-am-a-big-fish-in-a-big-pond attitude). Often times the truth tastes bitter (sesekali ajer it tastes that sweet).


2. Potential is always innate. Exceptional leaders are born - they are not made (kecuali plastic leaders). It is in their genes. So, if you are not born with great leader potential, it is okay. There is only one Muhammad Ali in this world. NO matter how much money & time you spent & develop, you won't be able to replicate another Muhammad Ali true potential. PERIOD.


3. For less-than-mortal people, you must learn to be a person who is able to influence other people efficiently (efficacy?) & effectively. These are the attributes that you must seek. Know your limitations and work around it. Know your strengths and capitalize in it.

These are the fundamentals in measuring the estimation of individual potential.

The framework is based eight main dimension as per the following diagram. More definitions and teh instruments are coming.

Customer Delights

My Best Emergency Fire Drill Exercise...

I was on the 18th floor when it happened. A gentleman with a red arm band and a loudhailer interrupted my meeting and requested me to leave immediately through specific escape routes. Well the overall situation was not that chaotic anyway. So, I took my time as I had to walk through the staircase all the way down - together with my notebook. I can't left my precious information "burnt" just like that ok.

One the ground floor, leading to the assembly areas, surprisingly that there were two big long tables on both sides. One was with bottles of ice-cool mineral water and another was with air kotak perisa orange.

Hmm... I am truly delighted.

Job Design - Mintzberg's Model

The post "9-11" event has created lots of new words and jargons.

It has also created of job opportunities in the US as well as around the world. It explains the phenomena why more muslims choose to migrate to America. Afterall, FBI needs ordinary muslims to translate the religion. CIA needs to differentiate specific culture influence in the global terror network. This is the alternative to intelligence gathering; apart from SME and academia usual suspects. Well, it is a bit of outside-the-box strategy.

On the other side, TERRORIST is a new job family. Lots of vacant generic positions are available - for example Jihadists. Please don't ask on their compensation package as the definition on Jihad is still out there there there there. To the end, I reckon, it would be difficult for a HR practitioner to write a good job description for a Jihadist.

But, if you have a sample, please share.

For more information on designing job based on Mintberg's model, go here, here, and here.

Attention to Detail

ATD is one of the top three dimensions required for all HR professionals. You will need this competency in all roles of HR - consultative & expert advisor, catalyst of change, value-adding partner, balanced arbitrator. Any reliable & valid personality instrument will show your tendency towards ATD. But that is not conclusive as it only measure your overall preference as far as ATD. Take a specific aptitude test or assessment center which specifically measured the ATD dimension. Then, work around your strengths & weaknesses.

Why you must be meticulous? What does attention-to-detail mean? Will elaborate later but in essence:

• small things make up to a big picture. So when the small things are well taken care of, the big thing will fall through in an orderly fashioned


• But remember to apply this dimension with the 80-20 principle...