Running a business involves different challenges every day. Knowing what your business needs to keep things ticking along is an essential element of being a business owner.
To help with knowing what your business needs, it is important to understand the work style of you and your employees. Your business can then benefit from a more effective and efficient team.
Knowing your own style as a business owner
Knowing your own style as a business owner can help you really set your business apart from your competitors. By learning more about yourself, and focusing on what you’re strengths are, you can ensure that you surround yourself with others who both complement your style and fill any gaps.
Uncovering your strengths gives you the opportunity to focus on what you do best. It also provides you with the option to fill other roles within your business with any areas of weakness.
Aside from internal reflection, a great way to learn more about your style is to take the Kolbe A™ Index assessment.
What is the Kolbe A™ Index?
The Kolbe A™ Index assessment is designed to measure the conative part of the mind, including the actions you take that result from your natural instincts.
The Kolbe A™ Index is not a personality test. It is designed to help you focus on your strengths and understand the behaviours that you would use in everyday situations when working towards a decision or action or problem.
The Kolbe A™ Index looks at the following four areas:
- Factfinder instinct
- Follow through
- Quickstart
- Implementor
You can find out more about the Kolbe A Index and what each of the four areas involves here.
Recognising and managing different work styles
Taking the time to learn more about the work style of your staff can play a big part in the success of your business. We all possess our own unique talents, thoughts and strengths. Whether it is for decision-making, productivity and action-taking, or innovation and forward-thinking, we each have our own style.
By understanding these strengths of your staff, you can ensure you are effectively utilising and challenging them in their job roles. Do their strengths and styles match the requirements of their job? Can they showcase their unique talents and draw energy from their everyday tasks? Understanding the styles of your employees and matching their job requirements may assist to increase the overall productivity within your team.
It may also shed some light on why some people in your team aren’t performing to your expectations. Perhaps you have good people in your team that align with your purpose and values, but they are actually sitting in the wrong seat. Doing work that doesn’t light them up can make a big impact on productivity.
Understanding the styles of your current employees could also identify particular areas that may be lacking in your team. This can help you to identify if you require additional employees with other work styles who will complement and add value to your team, and your business.
Why you should consider work style during the recruitment process
When recruiting new employees, it is common for many business owners to end up hiring similar people to themselves. This happens because you connect with that person, often due to similar styles. However, this can be a negative move, as you need employees that complement you with different strengths and behaviours.
Using a tool like the Kolbe A™ Indexassessment as part of your recruitment process can be beneficial, as it removes some of the emotion involved. It replaces some of the emotional bias with evidence-based decision-making.
How to understand your style
To find out more about your own individual style, and that of your employees, we highly recommend taking The Kolbe™ Index assessment. It will provide you with great insight into your behaviours, natural strengths and why you do what you do.
Ultimately, knowing your style and the style of your employees places your business at a competitive advantage.
