Dave Cain: Welcome to unsuitable on Rea Radio, the award winning financial services and business advisory podcast that challenges your old school business practices and the traditional business suit culture. Our guests are industry professionals and experts who will challenge you to think beyond the suit and tie, while offering you meaningful, modern solutions to help enhance your company’s growth. I’m your host, Dave Cain.
Take a moment to think about what you are really, really good at. Now think about the qualities that make you really good at doing what you do. Would you consider those qualities to be your strength? If those are your strengths, then what are your weaknesses? On today’s episode, we are going to talk about the value of getting up close and personal with our strengths and weaknesses. That will help us build a better team.
This is part two of a miniseries that will help you identify and nurture the qualities that really make your team shine. If you haven’t listened to part one with Renee West, go back and give it a listen. Today on part two of the miniseries, we are going to talk to Becky Boyd, a member of the firm’s practice growth team. Becky has spent a lot of time diving into this project and has found valuable tools. She’s going to give us a glimpse into how this personality assessment works and how you can use it to strengthen your team. Welcome to unsuitable, Becky.
Becky Boyd: Thank you.
Dave: It’s good to have you. This is your first time on?
Becky: It is, yes.
Dave: I understand that you are, and for our listeners, the editor of many of Rea’s publications, one being The Rea Report.
Becky: Yes.
Dave: I would also commend you and your fellow team, the number of awards that you have received over the past year for many of your publications and obviously this podcast as well.
Becky: It’s been very exciting, yes.
Dave: I also understand that in your part time, one of your hobbies is cooking and baking. You like to make pies from scratch.
Becky: We do. Once I met my husband, he was a big believer that you never buy store bought pie crusts. That’s what we do. We make them a couple times a year, then definitely at Thanksgiving. It’s been fun.
Dave: What’s your specialty?
Becky: I would say apple pies. Those are probably our specialty.
Dave: Apple pies. Do you make cream pies?
Becky: No, sorry.
Dave: That’s my favorite, by the way. I’ll expect one next time. For me fee for interviewing you.
Becky: Next time. Very good.
Dave: First of all, let’s start off, you are a member of our practice growth team also known as the marketing team. We’re going to be talking about a HR assessment or personality tool. Connect the dots for me on that. How did you get involved with that?
Becky: It started several years ago, probably about five or so years ago. I was part of, in each of the counties here in Ohio there is a leadership program for where I live in Stark County, Leadership Stark County. As part of this young professionals program I was doing, we all took this strengths assessment. The goal was for us to understand what our strengths are and what we’re good at, and how we can harness those strengths. That was my first exposure to, it’s called Strength Finders. That was my first exposure to it. What was fascinating is I historically had not really thought a lot about what my strengths are, just to go about doing your day-to-day job.
Really never sat down and analyzed what I do well at and then try to strengthen that. When I figured out what my strengths were based on this test, it was an a-ha moment like, “Wow, this is really interesting. This is why I do what I do. This is what makes me tick.” That was a really eye-opening experience. Then a few years later, I was in another program through Leadership Stark County. They had us take it again. I remember them telling us the first time, the first time you take it and then if you were to take it any time after that, you shouldn’t really see very much change.
Actually one strength changed. That was it. The other four, there was four that remained the same. They did say that where you’re at in life, based on when you take the test, that could affect the outcome maybe of one strength or two strengths. I was pretty amazed that four strengths that I took a few years previously was the same when I took it again. As I said, it was very eye-opening. It really helped me understand myself and how I fit in with groups that I’m a part of.
Dave: It helped you in your present day job, I would imagine, just understanding your strengths and putting that to work.
Becky: For sure. I think one of the things, it’s interesting because when you think of a marketer, I think a lot of times what comes to mind is somebody who is creative, somebody who is outgoing, extroverted, somebody who gets along with people. Maybe a little, I don’t know if flighty is the word but that’s part of their creativity. There’s a lot going on in their mind. I am definitely not the average marketer. I’m definitely a lot more reserved. I hold back a little bit more, I analyze a little bit more. I remember when I told my parents that I was going into marketing and PR and stuff, they looked at me like, “Why not accounting or engineering? That seems more your style.”
I said, “Well, I enjoy this. I enjoy this side.” I think one of the things that we found with our team is that there is definitely a spot for me. There’s four of us on our team and I would say the three of my other colleagues, I would say they are very creative. They can spit off ideas and it takes me a lot longer, but on the flip side I’m somebody who looks at some of these ideas and says, “Does this make sense? Is it realistic? Do we have the resources?” Stuff like that. There is definitely value for multiple personalities and multiple strengths on a team.
Dave: You’re saying you have multiple personalities?
Becky: Sure, multiple personalities but no, I don’t have multiple personalities.
Dave: When you first took this strengths test, give me an idea, was it an online test or paper? How did you take the test?
Becky: There is a book that was put out by the Gallup Organization called Strength Finders 2.0. You purchase the book. What you do is, the first couple of chapters explain, I believe there is either 25 or 26 strengths that they identify in this book. What you do is, you read through them, understand what the strengths are. At the end there is this little code that you go to. You go to the website, you enter your code so you essentially buy the test when you buy the book. You take the test and what it does is, it calculates your scores based on a variety of questions. You get your top five strengths.
Dave: As you’re building a team, and you mentioned your marketing team, or practice growth team as we call it at Rea & Associates, did everyone on your team take the same test?
Becky: Yeah. The second time that I took this test in the outside program that I was involved in, I remember it was really impactful for me, especially taking the test the second time and seeing that my four strengths were the same. We had a new member on our team. There is two of us that were on our team that had been there for maybe about a year and a half. We had a new leader on our team and I think the one thing that, I remember saying that to my boss, “Hey, this is really valuable. I learned a lot about myself. I think we could really learn a lot about each other.”
It was really neat. Last year my boss Becca, she said, “Yeah, let’s do this as a team. Let’s everybody take the test.” We took the test and then we got together for about an hour and a half, two hours, and really walked through. We each presented our strengths to each other and it was extremely eye-opening. I remember, it was funny because one of the examples of my strengths is I don’t give out praise freely. I don’t always say, “Great job. Good job. This is wonderful.”
If I tell you that you’ve done a great job, I mean you did a great job. I don’t just give it out all the time, and that’s a characteristic of one of my strengths. I let my team know that. I said, “It’s not that I’m being mean, it’s not that I’m being rude.” That’s just, when I want to be constructive in the praise that I give out and I want to make sure that it means something rather than just constantly saying, “Great job, you did a great job.” I wouldn’t say that they did a bad job, I just wouldn’t say anything.
There was definitely an a-ha moment I think, for our team. They were like, “Oh, that’s why you acted the way you did,” or “That’s why you don’t do this.” The same for me too. Understanding where my teammates are coming from, sometimes I have no idea where in the world they are, where is there head. Then you’re like, “Oh, okay. That makes sense based on x, y and z and understanding that these are your strengths, I now understand more where you’re coming from.”
Dave: One of the key things that you were involved in, not only did you take the test and there was a self-analyzing process, but you also shared it with others on your team so they could see what your strengths were and maybe play to those strengths during the course of a day or a project. Again, in part one of the miniseries we talked about recruiting. I would think the Strength Finder is a huge recruitment tool.
Becky: I think it’s definitely something. I know that there are various tools that HR professionals can use. I’m sure Strength Finders is one of many. When you think through interviews that you’ve been in, you might have been asked, “What are your strengths? What are your weaknesses?” I think the one big premise of Strength Finders is that our weaknesses are our weaknesses. A lot of times they’re not going to change.
You can try to work on it but it’s going to be counterproductive in the sense that, why not spend time strengthening and developing what you’re good at rather than spending time running in circles, trying to fix your weaknesses? That’s the premise of Strength Finders is really understanding your strengths and then further developing those to be the best that you can be, whatever they are.
Dave: When we started the podcast, obviously you are in the marketing department. We’ve talked a lot about marketing, but is this a tool that can be used for any industry, any business?
Becky: Absolutely. When we were talking about different topics, this is a topic I’m passionate about and something that can be applied at any kind of company, any size of company, whether you have three employees, whether you have 10,000. I think it’s so important because I think it’s so easy to get caught up in, “Why are they doing this? Why are they doing that?” You’ve got maybe some internal discord based on certain projects where if you have an understanding of each other’s strengths and your personalities, you hopefully will lessen some of that discord. You’ll increase some understanding and hopefully maybe some camaraderie.
I know now we laugh about some of it like, “Oh, there she goes again.” For me an example, “Oh, there goes Becky again.” I feel like sometimes I’m the wet blanket of the team. I try not to be, but I do try to take a step back and look at things maybe a little differently. I’ll tell my boss, “I feel like I’m constantly a wet blanket,” but I’m able to bring a different perspective and that’s really what it is. It’s just bringing a different perspective and I think this is definitely a great tool. As I said, there’s other tools out there but I think this is definitely a good tool for any kind of company, any size of company to definitely implement.
Dave: What exactly are the traits of a wet blanket? I don’t know that I could identify that. Is that your boss? Is your boss a wet blanket?
Becky: Oh no, she is definitely not a wet blanket. A wet blanket, somebody who likes to dampen the creative fire on our team.
Dave: Scrooge, in other words.
Becky: Scrooge, exactly. Scrooge. That’s another thing too, I’ve learned to embrace my strengths because I think for a while I always tried to be like, “Oh, I wish I was like that.” There were even times early on in my career where I was like, “Man, I wish I had, I wish I was more outgoing,” or, “I wish I was this.” Once I understood them it’s like, “Own it. Own your strengths and know that there is a place for you.” That’s one of the things I remember telling my dad, “Dad, you know, even though I am not maybe the average or typical marketer, somebody who, “Oh that makes sense that she’s a marketer,” I did say that there is definitely a place for how I am on my team in a marketing setting.
Dave: You mentioned a number of times, three or four already in the podcast, you referred to your boss. Can you share a couple of the strengths of your boss?
Becky: One of my boss’ main strengths is empathy. That’s something that I think is really important, especially in a business culture. Empathy is not going to be everyone’s strength but I think for some stuff that my family has gone through in the last year, I know this is more on the personal versus professional side but there has been a lot of understanding on her part. She’s understood that some of the things that my family has gone through hasn’t been the easiest.
She didn’t take a corporate approach to it which I think sometimes, when I say a corporate it’s more like sometimes corporations can tend to not think about the people of their company as much as their bottom line. I think that there is definitely some humanity. I think that that’s really a neat thing. That was something that did come up when we were reviewing our strengths, was empathy. Another one of my colleagues, empathy is also one of her strengths.
Dave: Since you’ve already had your annual evaluation and your annual raise, what are your boss’ weaknesses? We only have 20 minutes left in the show, so be careful.
Becky: I would say that, and this is a good point to make. Sometimes your strengths, while they can be a good thing, sometimes there’s a negative side to them. I can even say for myself there is a negative side. Sometimes with empathy, there might be difficulty in making some tough calls which, as I said, that’s nothing against my boss but it’s reality. There’s strengths on my end that I have that there is definitely a negative to it. That’s the whole point of Strength Finders is harnessing, learning to harness appropriately and using appropriately your strengths. If that answers your question.
Dave: Sure. You bring up a good point. You talk about strengths and you talk about weaknesses. In your opinion and your experiences, where should we spend the most time talking? Should we talk more about the strengths and build on those or should we talk about the weaknesses and try to fix those, if possible?
Becky: Like I said earlier, the premise of Strength Finders is 100% focusing on your strengths. The idea is that a lot of times we’ll get caught up or hung up on our weaknesses. Even sometimes your bosses or employers might get hung up on your weaknesses. Our weaknesses are our weaknesses. Not saying that you can’t improve upon them, but a lot of times it’s just innate. It’s naturally how you are wired to be. There’s a lot more productivity to be had when you focus on your strengths and learn how to use them appropriately.
Dave: In the notes that we shared prior to today’s podcast, you kept using the word value. The value of understanding strengths and personality. Let’s talk about the value. Where do you place the value? I guess with your position at Rea & Associates and other positions you’ve had throughout your career, let’s talk about the value.
Becky: I think there is a lot of value to be had from a time and efficiency perspective. Doesn’t matter where you work, I think time is important. Time is money, as they say. I just really think a lot of time can be spent on being frustrated. Griping behind the scenes. Why is so-and-so acting this way? Why did she write me this certain email? That’s just wasting time really, if you think about it. If you have the understanding of why she wrote something the way that she did or why they approached a certain project this way, hopefully it would cut down.
You have that understanding so you’re not going to get annoyed as easy or frustrated as easy. I definitely think there is time efficiency to be created but also there’s a lot of internal benefits from a company perspective that translates into money at some point where you think it does make sense just to, why bicker? Why fight? Not even fight, but why be upset with each other? Embrace each other’s differences and then understand where each other’s coming from, and work together as best as you can.
Dave: One of the values I think you’ve alluded to is not only understanding your strengths, but your teammates’ strengths and weaknesses. I would think that may help you have a crucial or critical conversation with that individual. It sets the stage a little bit.
Becky: Absolutely, yeah. I’m sure there have been situations. I can’t think of anything specific, but I know that there has been situations where you’re sitting there thinking, “Oh, I don’t want to talk to this person about x,” but because they know maybe where you’re coming from and because you have a good idea of where they are coming from, it definitely I think would help that crucial conversation that you’re having.
It might take a little bit of the edge off of it, because you do already have that kind of understanding. The person hopefully won’t be offended, and if they are, maybe it’s just a little bit offended versus completely, “I don’t want to talk to you ever again.” I definitely think it helps when you have an understanding of who you’re talking to and yourself when you need to have that crucial conversation.
Dave: Just curious, did you have your spouse or other family members read your Strength Finder and the results?
Becky: I did, actually. Yes, my husband read it, and my dad read it, and I think my mom read it. They said it hit the nail on the head.
Dave: They were right on.
Becky: Very much. It was interesting, because when I took it the first time I remember the one strength that I had, it was adaptability. If anybody knew me, I am not a very adaptable person. Change is not a friend of mine. It was really interesting because I remember talking to my dad about it. I was like, “Dad, I don’t get this.” I don’t think I was married at the time when I took it so I was like, “Dad, I’m confused. I don’t get this. This is totally not me.”
He was like, “Yeah.” At the time in my life I was going through a lot of change so I had to be adaptable. The way that I answered some of those questions on the test might have given me that outcome but that was the one strength that changed. That’s no longer a strength of mine. The one strength that came on, I think it was restorative. The restorative strength is being able to look at things critically, take your time, and you’re adept at dealing with problems and stuff like that. That’s definitely me.
Dave: You also mentioned Strength Finders has a tool on Resource. Are there any others that you have used or come across or talked about with other associates or other companies?
Becky: At a previous company that I was at, they offered Myers Briggs which is a personality assessment. They don’t focus really on strengths but more here are the different, I think there’s four buckets. One of them I think is extrovert, introvert. There’s a couple other different terms that they go through. That was really eye-opening. You took the test and then there was this learning and development course that you had to take to understand the test.
The one example that they gave, I’m an ISTJ, one of the examples that they gave was there was another personality. You guys were thinking of going out to eat somewhere. The one person who throws out an idea, maybe a couple ideas, and then the ISTJ person says, “Okay, yeah. That’s where the … Let’s go there. Let’s go there.” While the other person keeps adding, keeps suggesting things. They’re like, “No. We said we were going to go here.”
Then the person, they keep going on and on suggesting places to go to eat. The ISTJ person is ready to punch the other person because it’s like, “No, we said we’re going here.” I cannot tell you how many times that’s happened to me. When I heard that example I was like, “Oh my goodness. That’s why I get so frustrated. It’s just, that’s my personality.” I like to have fewer options rather than a ton of options. When we make a decision, you make a decision. You don’t really change it.
Dave: You go with it.
Becky: Exactly. That’s a really interesting test to take. Then there’s also a DiSC, D-I-S-C assessment. That’s something that I don’t know a whole lot about but I know a few people that have taken it. I think it’s similar to the Myers Briggs, just different terminology and maybe some different things that they measure.
Dave: Thanks for your insight. Today’s guest is Becky Boyd, member of the Rea & Associates practice growth marketing team. It’s very interesting to take your assessment of personality tools from a marketing perspective. Well done. Before we wrap up, we want to ask you a question that is near and true to your heart. Obviously as we go into 2017, New Year’s resolutions are abound. Everybody making them left and right. Can you give me a good, your advice on a good 2017 business resolution?
Becky: Absolutely. From a business perspective, I think it’s really important if you haven’t already, and this ties into what we were saying, spend time evaluating your strengths and your employees’ strengths if you’re a business owner. As I mentioned, I think there might be some people out there that says, “Oh, this is one more thing we have to do. It’s gonna cost some money.” No, there’s definitely value in this. It’s definitely important that you do this. If you haven’t done it as a company, I would say make it a priority in 2017 because you’ll definitely see a lot of benefit to it.
Dave: Thanks again for joining us today on unsuitable, Becky. I’ve always wondered if these personality tests actually worked and worth the time, but after talking to you I can see that there is some benefit. Listeners, if you’d like to learn more about your own strength and weaknesses go to https://www.reacpa.com/podcast where you’ll find some links and other resources on our website.
If you want to drop Becky an email or a phone call to find more about it and her personal experience, feel free to reach out. As always, thank you for tuning in. If this is your first time listening to unsuitable on Rea Radio, please consider subscribing to the podcast on iTunes and SoundCloud. Until next time, I’m Dave Cain encouraging you to loosen up your tie and think outside the box.