Match your natural strengths to your job. This will lead to less stress AND greater work productivity. The key is to identify those strengths and learn how to embrace them in your daily role to avoid burnout.
Take the Kolbe A IndexYou’re smart, experienced, and skilled. You can do a lot.
But beware. Just because you CAN do it, doesn’t mean you SHOULD do it.
“I think there is this huge misconception that just because we are capable of doing something,” explains Amy Bruske, President of Kolbe Corp, “we should do more of it. Some of you have developed these amazing careers where you have a lot of skills and experience in certain areas. And yet you are taking on a lot of tasks that aren’t necessarily a great fit for your natural way of getting things done.”
It’s the curse of the capable. When you can do a lot of things well, you’re asked to do those things a lot, whether they’re good for you or not. And then you’re often rewarded and praised for the result, which makes you even more committed to doing them. But there are clear repercussions to performing a role that doesn’t allow you the freedom to be yourself. And there can be even bigger ramifications to running a business where employees are not aligned to the right roles.
“Research shows that if someone is working against what is natural for them,” Bruske continues, “it increases levels of stress. If left unmanaged, this will lead to burnout, and that is when they are going to quit your organization.”
This includes the top performers on your team. These star employees generally don’t complain when stressed; they just work harder. But clearly, this is not sustainable over time.
“You don’t want to wake up one day and all of a sudden, this superstar doesn’t want to be in this role anymore or quits your organization and you have no idea why,” warns Bruske.
“The other side of that,” adds Stephanie Clergé, VP of Training and Consulting at Kolbe Corp, “is the people who become disengaged and then don’t quit.”
These checked-out employees tend to be negative and that negativity can spread, dramatically impacting the culture of an entire organization.
The best way to avoid these worst-case but all-too-common scenarios? Anticipate.
Get the right people in the right seats by considering individual strengths and creating jobs that fully serve the needs of your organization. Kolbe accomplishes this through job-related assessments (like the Kolbe B™ and C™) and the Role Alignment Guide™, which factors in those instinctive strengths and a 360° review of job requirements to develop strategies that will:
“So, yeah,” exclaims Bruske. “Role alignment is really critical.”
The best place to start this alignment process? Understand your own instinctive strengths by taking the Kolbe A Index.
Amy Bruske is Principal, President, and Integrator at Kolbe Corp. An expert in HR consulting and leadership development, she is driven by, and dedicated to, changing people’s lives by helping them harness their instinctive strengths. Amy is one of only three Senior Master Consultants in the Kolbe Concept™— the authoritative theory for human instinct and performance.
Amy is trusted by clients in many industries and is a sought-after speaker for Fortune 500 companies, associations, and entrepreneurial startups. She co-authored the groundbreaking family business guidebook Business is Business with Kathy Kolbe, and she routinely dedicates time to mentorship in her Arizona community while serving as Chairman of the Center for Conative Abilities.
