“You are the Grinch of assessments,” teased a fellow corporate psychologist after I shared the new scales we were norming. I smiled and asked her if she was investing six figures a year in someone, would she rather know the derailers or the positives? When we make talent decisions, can we ignore the negative? I … Read More
What a terrible idea it was to start calling behavioral skills “soft”
They are among the hardest skills to develop while being the most crucial for sustainable success. We are in Sean’s office while he laments about his team. In addition to expressions of uncertainty, frustration and disappointment he comments, “My team keeps missing deadlines. Despite my telling them what they need to do, the end product … Read More
When Profiling Candidates to Generic Roles Does More Harm than Good
Not all effective accountants, operations managers, financial analysts, etc. are wired the same. “It says I should be a forest ranger.” My introverted friend and I just received the reports from our guidance counselor’s career assessment test, and he was disappointed. His dream was to drive in the Indianapolis 500, and the race car driver … Read More
The Pitfalls of Job Interviews — and What Else You Should Do
Articles related to talent and competitive advantage have kept the pages of the Harvard Business Review and other publications full for decades. Despite the importance of talent, companies still rely on interviews as the primary selection tool. But why is this “time-tested” tool so poor at informing our most expensive and risky investment? The simple … Read More
Getting Insights into a Job Candidate is Crucial, But How Far Should You Go?
Let’s Start with Two Well-Established Facts In a knowledge-based economy, it is perpetually essential to have effective talent strategies. Sound strategies are underpinned by selection and promotion processes; and, for investors, human capital due diligence on executive teams before investing. Second, it’s possible to measure almost any characteristic through various assessments, including online behavioral and cognitive … Read More
A Thank You to HBO Max “Persona: The Dark Truth Behind Personality Tests”
Thank you, HBO Max, CNN Films, and the creators of ‘Persona’ for addressing why poorly developed tests such as the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI) should not be used in high-stakes settings. For years, many organizational psychologists have warned against measures such as the MBTI. To quote an international expert in personality research and testing, “its … Read More
Are High Scores of Self- Deception on Pre-Hire Assessments More Common Among Young People?
Are your Twenty-Something Employees Full of $%^& I received a call from a client asking if there was something wrong with PsybilⓇ, our assessment system. He had just assessed a set of candidates and 7 of the 8 had self-deception scores higher than the 80th percentile. After making sure our system was working, I called … Read More
Leadership Assessment: 8 Traits of Executives Who Will Abandon Your Organization
Recently we learned of an executive who had abandoned his role in a financial service firm just months after being promoted to lead one of the divisions. The timing was horrible; upturning the talent development and succession plans and placing the entire organization at risk. At Psynet Group, after conducting over a thousand assessments, we’ve … Read More
The Pitfalls of Hiring Smart People
Hiring smart people is a smart move. Research shows that such individuals possess a more robust professional experience compared to their peers, as well as far more than the requisite periphery knowledge necessary in dealing with a wide array of workplace circumstances. Hiring such individuals, therefore, is the clear and straightforward business play. Based on … Read More