why smart employees underperform

©2009 Profiles International, Inc. All rights reserved.

Executive Briefing

Why Smart Employees Underperform:7 Hazards to Avoid

TYCOONConsulting.com


Why Smart Employees Underperform: 7 Hazards to Avoid. Copyright 2009 by Profiles International. Printed and bound in the United States of America. All rights reserved. No part of the report may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means including information storage and retrieval systems without written permission from the publisher. PublisherProfiles Research InstituteDario Priolo, Managing Director5205 Lake Shore DriveWaco, Texas 76710-1732Profiles International (800) 960-9612www.profilesinternational.com

AcknowledgementsCEO, Co-founder, Profiles International: Jim SirbaskuPresident, Co-founder, Profiles International: Bud HaneyEditor-in-Chief: Dario PrioloManaging Editor: Carrie D. MartinezCreative Director: Kelley Taylor

Why Smart Employees Underperform: 7 Hazards to Avoid | 2TYCOONConsulting.com


Why Smart Employees Underperform:7 Hazards to Avoid

Why Smart Employees Underperform: 7 Hazards to Avoid | 3

We’ve all been there. After an extensive and thorough search for a line manager, one candidate stands out. This candidate has the right experience, solid qualifications, and a relevant work history, and she gave an impressive performance during the interview process. She said the right things, put forward some great ideas and generally presented very well. You hired her.

Three months later, you begin to question your decision. Your new hire’s team appears disgruntled, morale is low, and output and productivity are well behind the figures from the previous quarter.

After investigating further and speaking with a few key team members, you realize there’s a disconnect—a mismatch. While she looked impressive on paper and presented well during one-on-one interviews, your new hire’s style, approach, and behavior on the job are simply inconsistent with the values and expectations of your organization. Her modus operandi is foreign to her colleagues. Your new hire is not a good cultural fit and one or more of the following hazards may be the cause.

1. Inadequate capability2. Poor job fit3. Fuzzy goals and accountabilities4. Poor relationship with manager5. Poor relationship with co-workers6. Health and wellness issues7. Physical and environmental factors



Don’t judge a book by its cover, and don’t believe what you read on a resume!

1. Inadequate capability

Why Smart Employees Underperform: 7 Hazards to Avoid


Capability refers to the skills, tools and experience that a person needs in order to successfully perform her job. When any of these factors are missing, there is an increased chance that the employee will underperform. It isn’t uncommon for hiring professionals to overlook these basic factors, especially if a candidate has solid academic credentials and comes across as intelligent and confident in a job interview. Furthermore, it’s no secret that most candidates exaggerate their abilities on their resumes and job applications.

Diagnostics that help you identify if an underperforming employee has adequate capability:

Skills—Do you know what skills are needed to perform the job and whether the employee possesses those skills? If she doesn’t possess the necessary skills, how will you help her acquire them, and how long do you expect that process to take? Skills training takes time and money, and results are never guaranteed unless there is adequate commitment from both the manager and the employee. It’s in everyone’s best interest for the manager to set appropriate expectations for the employee from the beginning. This is especially true if the job requires special technical capabilities.

Tools—Even if an individual has the skills and experience to do the job, does he have the tools to deliver peak performance? For example, a highly skilled and experienced web designer can’t build a website without adequate computer hardware and software. The tools don’t have to be the most up-to-date, but a system that crashes can be incredibly frustrating and unproductive, even to the best performer.

Experience—Just because an employee has the skills to do a job doesn’t mean that he has the experience to apply those skills in his specific position. This is especially true for recent graduates, outside hires from different industries and internal hires from different departments. While the required skills may be similar from one job to the next, differing applications and terminology may require that the new hire take time to learn the nuances of his new position.



“Fit” reflects the behaviors and interests needed to succeed in a job

2. Poor job fit



Many people fall into the trap of choosing a profession or job that is a bad fit. We are who we are. Our “mental DNA” is influenced both by our genetics and our early life experiences, and it is almost completely formed by the time we are 20 years old. Rather than trying to understand ourselves so that we can choose a calling that builds on our strengths and aligns with our interests, we choose jobs because of peer pressure and societal influences.

You probably know a medical doctor that trained at a prestigious school and worked for several years at a modern hospital. Despite adequate skills, tools and experience, he is aloof, insensitive and has a terrible bedside manner, and you only see him if no one else is available. He might have been better suited as a lawyer so that he could cross-examine a witness on trial. In short, he really doesn’t possess the innate compassion that would make him a great doctor. He is a poor fit for his job.

Skills can be taught, but behaviors are much more difficult to change A doctor can improve his bedside manner through training and mentoring, but it takes tremendous effort and motivation to change natural behavior. If an individual isn’t motivated to change, then he probably won’t.

It is important to understand a person’s innate behaviors and interests when trying to match him with the right job. Know the job, know what type of person is successful in that job, and then hire others who have the behavioral traits that fit that job. This is easier said than done because it is difficult to gauge behaviors in a job interview, but behavioral assessments can be extremely helpful.



Clear goals help focus and motivate employees to achieve the desired results

3. Fuzzy goals and accountabilities



Employees need to be very clear about their responsibilities and about the results you expect them to achieve. Daily work and priorities are easily affected by the crisis of the day, new requests or changes in direction. Setting and tracking SMART goals helps your employees focus on what is most important to your business, and clear accountabilities help ensure that the work gets done with minimal conflict.

Use SMART goals to create clarity and improve the employee’s performance

Specific – Your employee has a much better chance of accomplishing a specific goal than a general goal. To set a specific goal, the employee must answer, at a minimum: Who is involved? What needs to be accomplished? When is the deadline? Why is this goal important?

Measurable – Establish concrete criteria for measuring progress toward the attainment of each goal you set. When you measure your progress, you stay on track, reach your target dates, and experience the thrill of achievement that motivates you to keep working toward your goal.

Aligned – The individual’s goals need to support the organization’s priorities. Otherwise, the employee is not channeling his efforts in the most productive manner for the organization.

Realistic – To be realistic, a goal must represent an objective toward which you are both willing and able to work. But be sure that every goal represents substantial progress. Your goal is probably realistic if you truly believe that it can be accomplished, or if you have accomplished something similar in the past.

Timed – A goal should be grounded within a time frame, otherwise there is no sense of urgency.



4. Poor relationship with manager


Do as I say and not as I do…clear as mud!


A poor relationship with one’s boss is the number one reason for failure at work. There are two common flashpoints that adversely impact performance.

1. The employee is unclear about the manager's expectations Goals should cascade down from a manager to his employees so that everyone understands how they contribute to the objectives of both the team and the organization. If an employee does not understand the goals she has been given, or if she hasn’t been given goals at all, the onus is on her to seek clarity. Asking a simple question such as, "What are the top three priorities in my role that you would like me to focus on?" can help everyone on the team gain clarity. Employees should also ask "Why is this so important?" as the answer will give them a lot of good clues for developing the relationship with their manager.

2. Managers fail to adapt their styles to the employees’ preferred styles. Every employee/manager relationship is unique and requires a different management approach. For example, the approach taken by highly decisive boss working with a highly decisive employee should be significantly different from the approach taken by this same boss when working with a less-decisive employee. The decisive employee thrives on quick decisions, while the other employee will be more methodical in his or her decision-making approach. The less-decisive employee will potentially enter into conflict with the faster-paced manager. A "one-size fits all" management approach will likely result in frustration for everyone.

Managers and employees who understand each other’s preferred styles will better understand how to communicate and work together effectively. We have identified seven factors that strongly predict the compatibility between a manager and her workers. These are: self-assurance, self-reliance, conformity, optimism, decisiveness, objectivity, and approach to learning. Assessing a manager and her employees allows her to use objective information about herself and her workers so that they can work more effectively toward a common goal.



5. Poor relationship with co-workers

Can’t we just all get along?



There are four primary factors that harm relationships among co-workers:

1. Insensitivity toward others – Insensitive co-workers damage any sort of team dynamic and potentially expose the employer to hostile work environment and employment discrimination law suits. Any remarks that might be interpreted as discriminatory with regard to gender, age, sexual orientation, race, or disability contribute to a hostile work environment. Managers who sense this hostility need to take quick and decisive action to prevent it from continuing.

2. Unclear accountability – Conflict between interdependent employees or groups emerges because they are unclear about business objectives, priorities, and deadlines, as well as processes and resources for delivery. Additionally, mixed messages create incongruence that actually encourages departments to pull against each other in the interest of achieving their own objectives—to the detriment of the greater organization . When accountabilities are unclear, balls get dropped, turf wars rage, confusion reigns, and productivity plummets. This leads to frustration and indifference, and ultimately underperformance.

3. Poor cultural fit - Cultural fit refers to the employee’s compatibility with the organization's values and mode of operation. While the employee presents well on paper and performs well during one-on-one interviews, the employee’s style, approach, and behavior on the job are simply inconsistent with the values and expectations of your organization. Their modus operandi is foreign to their colleagues.

4. Incompatible styles – Co-workers have communication styles and natural behaviors that simply don’t mesh well with one another, and neither is willing to adapt his style. This creates conflict and hostility, which creates stress and distraction for the entire team.



6. Health and wellness issues

An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure



Approximately $260 billion in output is lost each year in the US because of health-related problems. Whether they are absent from work altogether, or present but working at a reduced capacity, employees suffering from physical or mental illness have difficulty performing at their peak.

Employees spend approximately 36% of their total waking hours at work. This makes theworksite an ideal place to provide workers with the knowledge and skills needed to helpimprove attitudes and behaviors concerning health.

A comprehensive worksite health promotion program typically contains six elements:

1. Education about—and encouragement of—healthy living, focusing on overarching lifestyle changes. Disseminate information and build awareness of healthy living issues, preferably tailored to employees’ interests and needs.

2. Supportive social and physical environments. This includes implementing policies that promote healthy behaviors and reduce risk of disease.

3. Linkage to related programs that help employees balance work and family life.

4. Worksite screening programs, ideally linked to medical care that ensures follow-up and appropriate treatment as necessary.

5. Processes for supporting individual behavior change with follow-up interventions.

6. A continuous improvement process that enhances the program’s effectiveness.



7. Physical and environmental factors

Snug as a bug in a rug



Numerous behavioral studies have proven that a pleasant and comfortable work environment improves worker productivity and reduces turnover.

For example, indoor temperature affects several human responses, including thermal comfort, perceived air quality, sick building syndrome symptoms, and performance at work. Researchers in Finland showed that when the interior air temperature was 30oC, worker performance was 8.9% below worker performance at the optimal temperature of 22oC.

Physical Factors1. Workplace layout encourages efficient communication flow but minimal disruption 2. Ergonomically correct workplace reduces fatigue and distractions to reduce errors and injury 3. Safety awareness and concerns that can cause stress and accidents

Environmental Factors1. Temperature2. Air Quality3. Lighting Conditions4. Excessive Noise5. Traffic

Indeed, it has been found that a productive work environment requires that management be able to positively motivate its employees in an infrastructure that is amenable to employees’ needs.



Summary:Why Smart Employees Underperform: 7 Hazards to Avoid

1. Inadequate capability

2. Poor job fit

3. Fuzzy goals and accountabilities

4. Poor relationship with manager

5. Poor relationship with co-workers

6. Health and wellness issues

7. Physical and environmental factors



TYCOON Consulting – Who We Are

www.profilesinternational.comWhy Smart Employees Underperform: 7 Hazards to Avoid | 12


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Contact Us

P.O. Box 3092Kansas City, KS 66103Primary: [email protected]

Talent Made Easy!

Reference: "TYCOON." Dictionary.com Unabridged. Random House, Inc. 09 May. 2010. <Dictionary.com http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/TYCOON>.

Tycoon (tahy-koon) noun—a businessperson of great wealth and power At TYCOON Consulting, we are not about our own wealth and power. Rather, we help our clients become more successful and more prosperous. It is through our relationships and the experience we gain from our clients that makes us want to be the BEST at what we do. To us, this experience is more powerful, and worth more, than any amount of money! TYCOON Consulting was created for businesses, small and large, who want to gain a competitive advantage, experience growth and achieve more success. We assist businesses with these goals as well as help to improve efficiencies through careful measurement and tracking of your employee performance. After all, employees make the products and services that generate bottom line profits. We specialize in talent selection, placement, progression, development, succession planning, employee engagement and more. Our Motto: Talent Made Easy! Our Mission: Live up to our business name and our clients’ expectations. We are committed to building, sustaining and satisfying our most valuable asset… our clients. Our Vision: To be the premier consulting company in the world... Help each client be not only their best… but be a TYCOON!


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Your Business Objective Our Popular Solutions High-level Strategic Workforce Management Identifying high-potential employees and managers PXT CP360 PSA CSP Strategic workforce and succession planning PXT PPI CP360 PSA CSP Restructuring, reorganizing and downsizing PXT PPI PMF WES PSA CSP PLPPost-merger integration of organizations PXT PPI PMF WES PSA CSP PLPEveryday Workforce Management Basic pre-employment screening SOS PST Screening, interviewing and selecting job candidates PXT PST EBC PSA CSP Onboarding new employees PXT PPI PMF Improving employee productivity and work quality PXT PPI WES Improving employee motivation and communication PPI PMF WES Resolving conflict between co-workers PPI Selecting and managing teams PPI Evaluating management effectiveness PXT PPI CP360 WES Prioritizing management development needs CP360 WES Sales and Customer-facing Workforce Management Screening, interviewing and selecting job candidates PST EBC PSA CSP Retaining and growing customers and accounts PSA CSP PLPImproving sales performance PPI CP360 PMF WES PSA PLP

Legend SOS Step One Survey PMF Profiles Managerial Fit

PXT ProfileXT WES Workplace Engagement Survey PST Profiles Skills Tests PSA Profiles Sales Assessment EBC Employee Background Checks CSP Customer Service Profile PPI Profiles Performance Indicator PLP Profiles LoyaltyPro CP360 CheckPoint 360



How We Do It – Assessment and solution descriptions

Step One Survey II® (SOSII)The SOSII is a brief pre-hire assessment that measures an individual’s basic work-related

values. It isused primarily as a screening tool early in the candidate selection process.

This assessment provides valid insight into an applicant’s work ethic, reliability, integrity, propensity

for substance abuse, and attitudes toward theft — including property, data and time.

ProfileXT® (PXT)The PXT assessment measures how well an individual fits specific jobs in your organization. The “job

matching” feature of the PXT is unique, and it enables you to evaluate an individual relative to the qualities required to successfully perform in a specific job. It is used throughout the employee life cycle for selection, on-boarding, managing, and strategic workforce planning.

This assessment reveals consistent, in-depth, objective insight into an individual's thinking and reasoning style, relevant behavioral traits, occupational interests, and match to specific jobs in your organization. It helps your managers interview and select people who have the highest probability of being successful in a role, and provides practical recommendations for coaching them to maximum performance. It also gives your organization consistent language and metrics to support strategic workforce and succession planning, talent management and reorganization efforts. Why Smart Employees Underperform: 7 Hazards to Avoid | 14




Profiles Performance Indicator™ (PPI)The Profiles Performance Indicator is a DISC-type assessment that reveals aspects of an individual's personality that could impact their fit with their manager, coworkers and team, and their job performance. It is used primarily for motivating and coaching employees, and resolving post-hire conflict and performance issues. The PPI specifically measures an individual's motivational intensity and behaviors related to productivity, quality of work, initiative, teamwork, problem solving, and adapting to change, as well as response to conflict, stress, and frustration. The output from this assessment serves as an “operator's manual” for an employee, which helps managers better motivate, coach, and communicate with the employee. It also helps to predict and minimize conflict among co-workers, and it provides crucial information for improving team selection and performance.

A powerful feature of the PPI is the Team Analysis Report, designed to help managers form new teams, reduce team conflict, improve team communication, improve their ability to anticipate problems, and enhance their team leadership skills.

It helps evaluate overall team balance, strengths, and weaknesses, as well as team members’ personality characteristics along 12 key factors: control, composure, social influence, analytical, patience, results orientation, precision, expressiveness, ambition, teamwork, positive expectancy, and quality of work. It also provides team leaders with practical recommendations and action steps to take in order to succeed in their jobs.




CheckPoint 360°™

The CheckPoint Management System is a 360-degree assessment. It is used primarily to evaluate the effectiveness of your managers and leaders. This assessment combines feedback from direct reports, peers, supervisors, and even customers, with a personalized program for developing specific leadership skills based on that feedback. This process highlights a manager’s job performance in 8 universal management competencies: communication, leadership, adapting to change, relationships, task management, production, development of others, and personal development. The CheckPoint 360 helps managers identify and prioritize their own development opportunities. And it helps the organization to better focus management training and development investments; proactively uncover misaligned priorities between senior executives and front-line managers; and surface management issues that could lead to low employee productivity, morale, job-satisfaction, and increased turnover.

Profiles Managerial Fit ™ (PMF)People typically don’t quit their companies, they quit their bosses. Profiles Managerial Fit (PMF) measures critical aspects of compatibility between a manager and their employees. This report offers an in-depth look at one’s approach to learning, as well as six critical dimensions of compatibility with their manager: self-assurance, conformity, optimism, decisiveness, self-reliance, and objectivity.

Managers use this information for adapting their styles in order to get the most from each employee; improve communication; increase engagement, satisfaction, and productivity; and reduce employee turnover.




Workplace Engagement Survey (WES)Our Workplace Engagement Survey (WES) measures the degree to which your employees connect with their work and feel committed to the organization and its goals. This gives you and your management team a detailed view of what influences engagement across all of your workforce segments and how your employees compare statistically to the overall working population.

In addition, the WES measures “satisfaction with employer” and “satisfaction with manager” across your entire organization, and gives recommendations for your organization to improve.

Profiles Skills Tests (PST)Profiles International provides comprehensive assessments to measure essential knowledge and skills. We use powerful technologies, such as performance-based testing, which simulates popular software products like Microsoft Office, to ensure accurate, reliable, assessment of knowledge, skills, and abilities. Our skills assessments cover Software Skills, Clerical Skills, Call Center Skills, Accounting and Finance, Medical, Nursing, Legal, Industrial, Computer Literacy, Retail, Food Services, Information Technology, Staffing, and Human Resources.

Employee Background Checks (EBC)Profiles International provides comprehensive employee background checks for our clients. These include Consumer Credit Reports, Criminal History Record, Drivers' History Report (DMV), Education Verification, Employment History Verification, Foreign Nationals Terrorist Sanctions Search (OFAC, CLFST & OSFI), Identity Verification Search, Incarceration Records Search, Military Service Verification, Cursory Nationwide Criminal Index Database Search (CNID), and many more.




Profiles Sales Assessment™ (PSA)The Profiles Sales Assessment (PSA) measures how well a person fits specific sales jobs in your organization. It is used primarily for selecting, on-boarding and managing sales people and account managers.

The “job modeling” feature of the PSA is unique, and can be customized by company, sales position, department, manager, geography, or any combination of these factors. This enables you to evaluate an individual relative to the qualities required to perform successfully in a specific sales job in your organization. It also predicts on-the-job performance in seven critical sales behaviors: prospecting, call reluctance, closing the sale, self-starting, teamwork, building and maintaining relationships, and compensation preference.

Customer Service Profile™ (CSP)The Customer Service Profile (CSP) measures how well a person fits specific customer service jobs in your organization. It is used primarily for selecting, on-boarding, and managing customer service employees.

The CSP also looks at what your current and future employees believe is a high level of customer service, while at the same time showing where they align (or not) with the company’s perspective. We have a general industry version of this assessment as well as vertical specialties in hospitality, healthcare, financial services, and retail.




Profiles Loyalty Pro™ (PLP)Profiles LoyaltyPro™ is a web-based customer loyalty surveying tool. Loyalty, as determined through the “voice of the customer,” is a leading indicator that predicts the “staying power” of an account.

Profiles LoyaltyPro™ offers companies a tool to gather ongoing, critical account intelligence that helps them assess the relationship between the buyer and the supplier, ultimately driving the action plan to improve customer service. Having insight into your customer’s perception of your relationship allows you to steer the strategic business efforts and initiatives of the account management teams to continually improve customer relationships and build a network of loyal customers.


©2009 Profiles International, Inc. All rights reserved.©2009 Profiles International, Inc. All rights reserved.

Profiles International – Who We Are

Profiles International helps organizations worldwide create high-performing workforces.

Through our comprehensive employment assessments and innovative talent management solutions, our clients gain a competitive advantage by selecting the right people and managing them to their full potential.

Where We AreProfiles serves 122 countries around the globe and has material in 32 languages.


Contact Us

P.O. Box 3092Kansas City, KS 66103Primary: [email protected]


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