The Talent Development team at a national financial services company used the insights from the Kolbe assessment tools to significantly improve their team dynamics, collaboration and to bring new talent onto the team.  The work occurred over a calendar year.

We started with individual sessions to learn about the Kolbe tool and their individual results. Then we worked together as a team, with considerable time learning about each other and focusing on how each team member “needed” to solve problems.  There was much laughter and “aha’s” as members gained a better understanding of each other. This dialogue provided a foundation to create stronger partnerships when they worked in sub-groups.  We also focused on how they could leverage each other’s talents.  We looked at what happens when they get stuck working as a team and created strategies that would be helpful when these challenges occurred.  We found ways they could structure meetings and conference calls, so they could recognize the patterns and get back on track.

Hilary, the team leader, embraced the Kolbe Concept completely.  She met with each team member and me as their Kolbe consultant, to deepen their understanding of how each person’s talent helped him/her or challenged him/her on the job.  They also talked about how to improve their working relationships.  Hilary was open and honest about herself, providing an opening for team members to be candid about themselves and the dynamics in their working relationship as well.  Hilary encouraged her direct reports to seek support from her or others on the team whose talents would provide the support they needed.   It was clear Hilary cared about and understood her staff; plus she invested the time to develop them.

Through the tool and these conversations, Hilary recognized that some of the team members were not in roles that fit their natural talent; so she changed their jobs.  The Kolbe team reports revealed no one on the team had a talent for creating systems and providing project management energy, so she added two new team members who brought that talent to the team.

Hilary used the tool’s language frequently in meetings and encouraged others to remember what they learned from the Kolbe tool.  The transformation within the team was quite astonishing.  When we recapped with Hilary’s team at the end of the year, everyone reported greater degrees of self-awareness, collaboration and an environment of higher energy when working together.  It was a delight to watch a leader use the insights from a leadership tool for real development and changes to their team dynamics.