PERSONAL ACCOUNTABILITY: A measure of the capacity to be answerable for personal actions. Someone who takes ownership of the situation, admits when they’re wrong and lives in solutions!
Statistically, 50 percent of our population is above average in personal accountability and 50 percent is below average in personal accountability. All businesses should seek to hire employees who are personally accountable.
We find that personal accountability is a requirement in nearly EVERY job/position. This illustrates the importance for all hiring managers to totally evaluate each position as it relates to being personally accountable plus making sure that everyone they interview brings personal accountability skills to the job.
People who are personally accountable will do the things necessary to achieve above average or even superior performance. For example, people who are personally accountable and employed in a career that requires them to achieve a “quota” will keep driving for their number until the bell rings. They won’t make excuses. Instead, they’ll find creative ways to succeed. (Sales people who lack personal accountability will fail unless they have a protected area with repeat customers.)
Here are some great interview questions to help you dig deeper into the amount of personal accountability a candidate will bring to a position:
- Tell me about a time when it was necessary to admit to others that you had made a mistake. How did you handle it?
- Give an example of a situation where others had made an error or mistake and you had to take the blame for their actions. How did you feel about doing that?
- What is the worst business decision you ever made? What made it the worst? Would knowing what you do now have helped you to avoid making that decision?
- Give me an example of a lesson you have learned from making a mistake. What did you do differently going forward?
- Give me an example of someone you know whose personal actions led to disastrous results. How answerable is that person for what happened? What advice would you give to that person?
- What person from history do you most admire for taking the blame for a failure? What did taking the blame do for that person?
Note: Candidates that hem and haw, cannot give you examples of the above, can’t relate a previous experience or always seem to blame their mistakes on someone/something else most likely have a low level of personal accountability.
If you ONLY HIRED people who were personally accountable and your competitors hired people who were not personally accountable, you would own the marketplace!
Ready to begin measuring PERSONAL ACCOUNTABILITY in all of your candidates?
Contact us today and indicate you are interested in learning more about ASSESSMENTS!
According to a recent Harvard Business Article, retail salespeople who subtly mimic customers’ speech and behavior are more successful at selling (based on an experiment by Céline Jacob of the Université de Bretagne-Sud in France). Among customers who solicited salespeople for information about an MP3 player, 78.8% bought such a product from mimickers, compared with 61.8% from non-mimickers. Additionally, customers who had been mimicked were more positive about the salespeople and the store.
That’s why it is critical to learn DISC (which measures an individual’s observable behavior or “HOW” someone does what they do) and how to identify a person’s behavior style. This is a significant “A” Player ability.
Here are the four behavior styles with links to more detail about improving communications with each of the behavior styles:
- (D) Dominanceis a measure of “How” you respond to problems and challenges.
- A High D: New problems solved quickly, assertively, actively. Gets to the bottom-line quickly.
- A Low D: New problems solved in a controlled, organized way. Thinks before acting.
- (I) Influenceis a measure of “How” you influence others to your point of view.
- A High I: Meets new people in an outgoing, talkative manner. Gregarious and emotional.
- A Low I: Meets new people in a quiet, controlled, reserved manner. Emotionally controlled.
- (S) Steadinessis a measure of “How” you respond to the pace of the environment.
- A High S: Prefers a controlled, deliberate work environment. Values security of situation.
- A Low S: Prefers a flexible, dynamic, changeable environment. Values freedom of expression.
- (C) Conscientiousnessis a measure of “How” you respond to rules and procedures set by others.
- A High C: Likes things done ‘the right way,’ and says, “Rules are made to be followed.”
- A Low C: Works independently of the procedures and says, “Rules are made to be bent or broken.”
Invest the time to learn your behavior style and how to communicate effectively with the other behavior styles. I absolutely agree with the article and believe this investment of time will increase your results by at least 20% and probably much more!
Interested in taking a professional DISC profile and having a debrief with an executive coach? Contact us today and indicate you are interested in learning more about DISC!
According to Bill Bonnstetter of TTI, top sales performance can be predicted. “Hiring the right sales people can be as simple as following a recipe,”says Bonnstetter.
Unfortunately, many companies still base hiring decisions solely on a resume, previous experience and references. The success of these hiring efforts are 50/50. While companies that utilize assessments in their hiring process see their hiring results increase to 80/20. Further, recent research suggests that ATTITUDES(which aren’t easily observed, but very identifiable through assessments) far outweigh BEHAVIORS when it comes to distinguishing top salespeople.
According to Bonnstetter’s groundbreaking study, behaviors among top sale performers tend to be spread across the four DISC behavior styles. But with ATTITUDES, the Utilitarian attitude or drive for a return on investment of all time, energy and money, was the top ATTITUDE more than 70% of the time.
TTI Sales Study
If you want your company to thrive instead of just survive, start improving your hiring and sales success through the use of assessments. Call or email us today to learn more!
Ron McNutt, Senior Partner at RMi, is now a Certified Professional Values Analyst certified in administering and debriefing the Personal Interests, Attitudes and Values assessment.
- Certified Professional Values Analyst
Our ATTITUDES determine what we value positively or judge negatively in life. Born of our experiences and beliefs, our VALUES are sometimes called the hidden motivators because they are not always readily observed. Therefore, knowledge of an individual’s VALUES, ATTITUDES or MOTIVATORS can be invaluable in creating performance incentives or professional development programs.
At RMi, we utilize an assessment from TTI that ranks a person’s passion with regards to the following six values:
- Theoretical = A person with a high Theoretical value will have a thirst for knowledge and discovering the truth.
- Utilitarian = A person with a high Utilitarian value will be committed to achieving a significant “return on investment” of time, energy or money.
- Aesthetic = A person with a high Aesthetic value will thrive on beauty, harmony and self-actualization.
- Social = A person with a high Social value will be committed to helping others.
- Individualistic = A person with a high Individualistic value will be driven to achieve a power and position.
- Traditional = A person with a high Traditional value will be committed to a system for living and the higher meanings in life.
Just as we discussed about DISC…by asking questions, proactively listening, and then communicating to a person with regards to their attitudes, values and passions, you will move them to action and more readily avoid negative reactions.
Want to know what motivates your team? Call or email us today to learn more about values assessments.
At RMi, we use a patented job benchmarking process to eliminate the bias-based, myth-based hiring decisions that are typical in most organizations. It’s true today and from this Harvard Business Review report from 1980 it was true back then too…you will increase sales performance results and reduce turnover when you select new team members based on criteria that make a better match between the person and the job. According to the report (in high turnover industries), 39% of job matched hires were in the 1st or 2nd performance quartile after 6 months versus only 12% of those not job matched. Further, turnover was nearly double for the not job matched people. In lower turnover industries, results are even better! Hiring on a job matched basis far outweighs age, sex, race, experience or education.
While error-free hiring is probably a Utopian idea, hiring managers will significantly increase their hiring success by not just posting a general/bland job description, but developing a job description that includes key accountabilities for the position based on a thorough understanding of the functional requirements of the job, the behavioral requirements of the job and the values that will motivate success in the job.
Ready to increase your sales results and hiring success? Call or email us today to learn more about our job benchmarking and assessment processes.
