Game Changing Insight!

This is about as real time as it gets. This week I participated in a certification process for an absolute game changing assessment.

Habit Story

Habit Story is the name of this assessment. At first, I was not sure about the name. What does "habit story" mean? What exactly is being measured? How will I explain this cutting edge assessment to people? Then I began the learning...which quickly became a deep dive into decades of scientific research. To be honest, I am still trying to figure out how to best describe this assessment and the value it brings. Will you give me the opportunity to "think out loud" about this with you?

Here are the current assessments I use on a regular basis and why I use them in both hiring and development (personal, professional, team, organizational - life and work):

• DISC - a personality assessment best used to identify preferred communication, collaboration and work styles. Most organizations that do pre-hire assessments use some form of personality assessment. Unfortunately, personality is not a primary predictor of success.
• EQ - measures of emotional intelligence competencies that are key for leading yourself, leading others, and functioning well at life and work. This has been the most predictive assessment I have found related to success...until now. I will still use these assessments because they measure a unique skill set that is critical to success and is the foundation of most soft skills.
• EQFIT® - I have created an EQ based assessment that measures how a person is "showing up" to influence other people. This has proven very valuable for leaders, salespeople, coaches, consultants, teachers, ministers, and so many other roles in life and work. Knowing how you are trying to influence others, and what they need from you to be influenced, is a huge advantage.
• Brain Profiles - how someone processes information and their primary brain talents.
• Cognitive measures - these are not IQ tests but a measure of a person's capacity for higher thinking skills. Abstract reasoning, logical reasoning, numerical reasoning, spatial relationships, pattern recognition, and others. These are about the speed and accuracy someone has in a specific cognitive function.
• Mindsets - this is a recent addition to our assessment tool box. It provides a much deeper look into what motivates a person in three (3) critical categories; Objective, Subjective, and Beliefs. The combination of six different measures provides excellent insight into how an individual approaches tasks, people, and communication.
• Trust - I actually have two (2) different trust assessments I use. One is about a person's trust style (Trust Style Inventory by Organizational Soul), and the other is an extensive and proprietary assessment of trust factors created by Dr. Chuck Coker at LifeThrive. These are unique assessments to measure someone's trust style and the deeper elements that make up trust.
• Coachability Index - again from LifeThrive and Dr. Chuck Coker, the Coachability Index is a measure of nine (9) different elements that determine how open and willing a person is to being coached. There is also a measure an overall measure of coachability, or a person's attitude toward being coached.
• Response to Conflict - Another proprietary assessment from LifeThrive and Dr. Chuck Coker is the Response to Conflict assessment. This is a unique assessment identifying a person's responses to conflict in priority order from their strongest (most utilized) response to their least utilized response.
• Soft Skills assessment - Soft Skills are critical to succeeding in our world today. With the increase in technology, the remote workplace, and accelerating pace of change, soft skills are the key to success in most roles...and in life.
• Leadership 360's - to provide leaders with feedback so they can identify their strengths to leverage and their gaps to develop.
• Team assessments - their are actually several of these for different purposes from communicating and collaborating better, to team climate and effectiveness, to developing highly functional teams.
• Organizational Climate Surveys - measuring the key factors in organizational health and vitality to help organizations grow in healthy and productive ways that fosters engagement, productivity, and wellbeing.

There are other assessments I use for specific purposes, but these are the assessments I use most often.

I know...WOW! Right?! No, I do not use all of these on every person. Think of it as mixing the right sciences to get the right insights.

Why all of these assessments? No one assessment is the magic bullet. If we are going to assess people, then it is incumbent on us to take it seriously since assessments are used to make important decisions about people (either ourselves or others). What do I mean by take it seriously? Do it right. Treat people with respect and provide the best possible experience.

Right Assessments > Good Validated Data > Better Insights > Best Decisions > Right Path Forward

That is the pathway for the best outcomes.

Back to Habit Story

So why would I add one more assessment to my already robust assessment toolbox? For several reasons:

1. It is an assessment that is truly predictive of success.
2. The report is the nexus of a combination of sciences and measures that provides insight beyond any other assessment I have ever seen. This is my opinion, but I have been doing this for a very long time and have researched most available assessments.
3. Every measure and part of the report has been carefully crafted to provide deep insight but with easily understood language and graphics. Yes, a certified Habit Story assessment professional is required to get this assessment, but that adds even more value.
4. To get something close to the same level of insight, I would need to use a minimum of four different assessments (and my 35+ years of assessment experience), correlate the data, the try to explain the results to people unfamiliar with psychometrics. I love doing this but the Habit Story makes the process so much more practical and valuable.
5. One of the key measures is exactly what the name of the assessment suggests... it measures habits. But it does not stop there, it also measures the driving forces behind those habits...and then breaks those down into their component parts. The driving forces...emotions and what we do with them.
6. It measures things we simply cannot measure through any other assessment. Those things are foundational to hiring right, providing more effective personal and professional development, and getting to the heart of challenges more rapidly for more efficient and timely solutions.

By now you have probably figured out that I am really excited about this... and it is not just me "geeking out" on this amazing science. I think I have only used the term "game changing" with one other assessment I have used...EQ/emotional intelligence. Habit Story is even more predictive and valuable. Why, because I can already see how much it will help people improve their lives, work, teams, and organizations. That is my calling and now I have a tool that is worthy of moving my work to a whole new level. But in reality, it is not about me. This is a tool that is going to change lives for the better. I hope you will explore this new opportunity with me.

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 Copyright © 2023 EQFIT® - Author: Steven Goodner. All rights reserved. No portion of this material may be reproduced in any form without permission from the publisher, except as permitted by U.S. copyright law. For permissions contact: [email protected].