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2: The Science of Behavioral Assessment

Reiterated: this book focuses on two basic elements: behavior and skills. They are distinct but overlapping (what we know influences what we do, the results of what we do become part of what we know). Before getting into how these two elements apply specifically to selling, the authors mean to explain some of the basic concepts and the science behind them.

Behavioral Assessment

Management, in general, is a profession that is related closely to human behavior: to hire and promote people, to develop employees, to engage them individually, to bring them together as a team, and to encourage positive performance are all tasks that require a manager to assess or influence the behavior of others. The methods of management, and sales management in particular, is described as an ad-hoc "combination of gut feeling and trial-and error" whose results have been "haphazard at best."

Behavioral psychology is a relatively new field of research, perhaps about a century old, but has already provided a tremendous amount of insight into understanding the reason people act in certain ways, and encouraging them to adopt behaviors that will have better results.

Much of it is readily adaptable to the workplace, and firms are already using evaluative techniques to match individuals to job roles for which they are best suited, and to influence employees to adopt behaviors that have better results for the organization.

Some of the general observations about which the author suggests most scientists in the field are in agreement are:

• Behavior is influenced by instincts and experience
• Experience may be haphazard or structured, the latter is "conditioning"
• Behavior is habitual: people tend to behave the same way from one day to the next unless there is a cause for them to change
• Individuals are motivated to take action by their own needs (specifically, not the need s of others), which may be felt or perceived

Another bulleted list is provided of the factors that influence behavior:

• The desire to achieve a specific outcome
• The desire to avoid pain or gain pleasure
• The desire to have control
• The desire to eliminate uncertainty
• The desire to be intellectually stimulated
• The desire to have social esteem

It's also suggested that the degree to which these drives influence a given person varies widely according to their priorities. It's also suggested that the factors that motivate a person to act make them more or less suitable to serve in certain roles - people are happiest and most successful when their professional activities satisfy their personal desires.

Behavioral Surveys

Behavioral surveys are critical, albeit flawed and blunt, instruments in the assessment of behavior. When we consider a psychological profile, we are evaluating the behavioral tendencies of an individual, often attempting to describe the in terms of personality traits.

In that sense, a given instrument of method of analysis can be used to match traits to behaviors: we can examine a group of people whose behaviors are presumed to be similar (successful entrepreneurs) to identify common elements in their personality traits (self-confidence, independence, competitiveness, etc.) We then presume the traits to have contributed to an outcome - the entrepreneur is successful because he is self-confident.

(EN: This itself is a bit flawed in at least two regards. First, causality may be reversed - they may be self-confident because of their success rather than vice-versa. And second, it is often misapplied to suggest that a person who wishes to become successful should adopt the attitudes of those who already are - when it might be more productive to compare themselves to the traits of a successful person at a time when they were beginning their career, not after they had already accomplished much.)

A bit of a left turn: ''It's not a manager's job to make herself successful. It's to make her staff successful.'' That is to say the qualities that make a person an effective entrepreneur are different to those that make a person an effective manager. And in the sales profession, the qualities that make a person a successful salesman do not necessary make him a successful sales manager: he may have the personality to be good at his work, but not to coach others.

Swinging back to the earlier conclusion: companies use behavioral surveys to better understand the traits of their employees, and find that the traditional career path is not effective: they must offer additional paths that better suit the skills of their people, to enable them to continue to apply their strengths rather than move them to a position in which their strengths are no longer applicable.

Business Applications of Behavioral Science

A list of some of the ways in which "forward-looking companies" are leveraging behavioral assessment:

• Hiring Decisions. One of the most basic uses of behavioral assessments is to match candidates against personality traits that are presumed to be critical to success in a given job.
• Succession Planning. This is discussed separately, but is akin to hiring decisions in that it is selecting an internal candidate, with the added benefit that there is likely time to develop them into the position.
• Employee Motivation. A behavioral assessment can identify the needs and values of a given employee, to enable his manager to provide motivation that is attractive to him as an individual.
• Employee Retention. This is discussed separately, but seems to b merely a side-effect of motivation - though in this case the goal is not to encourage employees to adopt behaviors, but assessing whether the behaviors they adopt provide them with ongoing satisfaction.
• Employee Communication. Similarly, an assessment can identify the most effective ways of communicating to an employee, using the mode and method most appropriate to his individual needs.
• Managing Conflict. Where people are working at odds with one another, it is generally because they are attempting to achieve incompatible goals. Understanding their motivations is necessary to identify common ground and have a meaningful conversation about areas of difference.
• Team Building. By using the same methodology, conflict can be avoided by considering individual motivation at the onset - rather than handling a conflict that has already occurred, this can prevent it from occurring.
• Performance Management. Rather than speaking in vague terms about the need to achieve outcomes, regardless of behavior, performance management can leverage assessment data to determine what actions a given individual may undertake to succeed that are in line with his strengths.
• Coaching. A manager can more effectively coach an employee if he adopts a method that is tailored to the personal traits of the employee. Managers can also consider their own personal traits, and the degree to which it makes them more effective in their own role.
• Structural Changes. Often, large organizations undergo significant changes in their structure, shifting employees into roles in which they are ill-suited. The placement of employees in new roles should be done with the same scrutiny, and attention to personality, as a new hire.

The Effectiveness of Behavioral Assessment

The author presents some of the results of a survey done in 2011, which asked a group of over 640 organizations about the results they feel they are getting as a result of applying behavioral assessments to their practices:

• 73% of their employees were able to receive a rating of "exceeds expectations" on their most recent performance review
• 69% of positions have at least one willing and able successor identified
• There was a 19% year-to-year increase in the satisfaction of managers with new hires
• In general, companies that use assessment feel they make better talent decisions through the employee life cycle
• In general, they also feel that they have a more productive dialogue with the HR department
• In general, they feel that thy have decreased the risk in their hiring decisions
• In general, they feel that they are better able to identify future leaders within their organizations
• Ion general, they feel that the information they get from behavioral assessments to be reliable and trustworthy

The firm that conducted the survey remarked that firms must make use of assessments in order to benefit from them. It is not enough just to understand their employees personality traits, but to use that data in the decision-making process.

How to Choose a Behavioral Assessment Method

There are numerous systems and survey instruments that can be used to conduct behavioral assessments. Not all of them are appropriate for business use, and not all of them are appropriate to all businesses. The authors suggest considering four basic characteristics:

1. Stability. The results should not be significantly different if the same individual is assessed multiple times, and while a person's results may change if they are tested at different points in time, the variance should not be due to the changes in the survey instrument.
2. Validity. The results of an examination should be based on sound principles, such that the tool accurately measures that which it claims. This can be measured when outcomes are compared to other tools that propose to measure the same factors.
3. Unbiased. It's generally accepted that a tool has a statistical bias when certain segments of the population (people of the same gender, age, race, religion, etc.) achieve significantly different results to the population at large. This can have significant legal consequences for business if the tool used to determine which employees are promoted has an inherent bias.
4. Compliance. There may be regulations or practices that prohibit the use of certain measurements or asking employees or candidates certain questions in the context of a situation where their career can be impacted by the results.

The authors concede that their involvement and financial interest in the Predictive Index would call their evaluation of it into question, and as such they list a handful of tools produced by other firms that also meet these criteria: Caliper, Hogan, Kenexa, DDI, 16PF, and SHL. But because of their familiarity with the PI, they will use it as an example throughout this book.

The Predictive Index

The PI is based on assessing subjects based on certain assumptions, chief among which is that an individual's behavior is a consistent response to external stimuli, and the nature of their response is determined by personality traits.

The PI was initially developed in the 1950's as an associative quiz: it measured the reaction of a person to a given word or phrase, and their response suggested their personality.

The PI specifically means to measure seven basic drives and motivations:

1. The desire to influence other people and events
2. The desire to interact socially
3. The intensity of a person's tension
4. Their desire to comply to formal rules
5. Their approach to decision-making
6. Their stamina and ability
7. Their morale

These factors are believed to be critical in determining how an individual will react to elements in the business environment, and exhibit their leadership style, communication skills, risk tolerance, change tolerance, and decision making.

It is emphasized that the PI is most effective when it is conducted and results analyzed by a trained analyst, who can advice managers on the results. The authors specifically mention the value of taking a course offered by their company to be qualified to conduct a PI analysis, and that taking this training is good practice for anyone in a management position.

Sidebar: Timeline of Behavioral Science

A sidebar from the chapter presents some of the critical dates and developments in behavioral science:

• 1913. Watson's "Behaviorist Manifesto" suggest that human behavior is not mysterious, but can be observed and analyzed
• 1921. Rorschach develops a method for gathering an analyzing information gathered in inkblot tests to assess personality traits.
• 1934: Thurstone's article "The Vectors of the Mind" laid the ground for word-association and its implications for the measurement of personality
• 1943: Maslow's "Hierearchy of Needs" more specifically associated the motivation of people to act to the fulfillment of a defined set of common human needs.
• 1953: Daniels develops the Predictive Index, which is geared specifically toward screening the personalities of employees and job applicants.
• 1959: Herzberg suggests a two-factor theory of behavior, separating "motivation" to achieve from "hygiene" to maintain an ongoing state of happiness. Significantly, he suggests that preventing unhappiness is just as important as achieving happiness.
• 1964: Vroom's "Expectancy Theory" indicates that a person's actions are guided by the results that they predict their actions will have. This suggests that behavior can be motivated by attaching rewards to outcomes.
• 1975: Hackman and Oldman propose a model that match the characteristics of a job (skill variety, task identity, task significance, autonomy, and feedback) that impact three psychological states (the desire for meaningful work, reward for outcome, and knowledge of actual results) to result in job satisfaction.
• 1990: Locke and Latham publish "A Theory of Goal Setting and Task Performance" which suggests the need to set goals in specific, measurable, and time-targeted objectives in order for them to be effective in motivating behavior.
• 2006: Arvey's study of identical twins investigate the genetic influence on work-related behaviors, suggesting that 40% of behaviors are genetic whereas 60% are experiential.