My Kolbe Score and What It Means to My Business

As I promised yesterday, today would be the first time I embarked on Rich Schefren’s GPS coaching program. I was promised an easy first day, but have already devoured two hours of video and if I want to go over the Q&A sessions which accompanied the introductory module, that’s a further two and a half hours of information to digest!

As you can appreciate, there is a lot to get through and I have no doubt it will take me the full six weeks to complete it all. While I cannot reveal every step of the program in this blog for obvious reasons, I will try to document my progress as well as I can do on this blog. I think it will be important for me to have a record, a journal, of what changes I am making and hopefully I will be able to see real progress being made.

One of the preliminary exercises I had to complete was to determine my Kolbe profile. I am usually quite sceptical of personality quizzes, psychometric testing and such like because they usually come to the conclusion that “you do X this way” and I usually respond with “no i don’t” and deem the entire thing a waste of time.

However, Kolbe was a little different. While I don’t whole-heartedly agree with everything it came back with, a lot of it made sense and should help me identify my strengths and also the areas where I need additional help. Kolbe determines your results based on conative strengths – based on who you are and how you take action.

Four key areas are given a score of between 1-3, 4-6 and 7-9, based around different methods of working. I was deemed to have a score of 7-8-3-2, which accounts to just 5% of the population and I will explain a little more about what this means to both myself and my business.

Fact Finder – 7

This section focuses on how you gather and share information. I have quite a high score which means I begin problem solving by looking historically at similar problems and gather as much information as possible. I am precise, strategic and want to ensure I am an expert in a particular area before sharing information.

This is true to a large extent and I agree with Schefren who argues that this way of thinking can cause “analysis paralysis”. I can get so caught up in trying to perfect every last detail that by the time I am finished I could have missed the boat. I guess I need to accept that sometimes “good enough” is in fact, good enough.

Follow Through – 8

Again, I scored highly in this section and it means I should be good at taking on a project from start to finish. I am organised, systematic and keen to finish one project before moving onto the next one. I solve problems by putting together a plan of action but should keep in mind my Fact Finder result and not over-egg the pudding.

Quick Start – 3

I was deemed to be a “stabliser”. Someone who does not change things for change sake and will do my utmost to maintain things that work the same. This is true of what I wrote about yesterday, how I am doing “just enough” to make a living online. I am in danger of keeping things in business the same because it is comfortable and I am prone to resisting change.

In the initial stages of the coaching program I think this is one of my biggest constraints and to combat this I need to be around somebody who can put forward some new fresh ideas and I need to embrace the notion that things can and perhaps should be done differently. Hopefully, this coaching will help me to achieve this.

Implementor – 2

This section I agree entirely with. In fact, I am amazed I scored as high as a two! Implementor looks at how you deal with space, implements and tangible objects. I am far more comfortable dealing with an idea as a concept and move forward with it, rather than having to build a model to see if it works first.

Anyone who knows me will know how opposed I am to doing anything “hands on”, whether it’s DIY or anything else. I can just about cope with Flat Pack (there’s my high Fact Finder score kicking in) but anything that needs further aptitude or experimentation then forget it! If my PC breaks I am more likely to buy a new one rather than try to fix it.

However, this is great because it means I should be well suited to creating non-physical products, such as ebooks, courses etc and if anything “physical” needs to be created to coincide with this then it is a perfect opportunity to get it outsourced.

Conclusion

Overall, I found doing the Kolbe test helpful and a positive first step during the coaching process. According to the results, I am able to work to the best of my abilities when I can arrange my schedule, coordinate with others and look at the worst case scenario. A good way to start my perfect working day would be to first decide what I am not going to do.

I would benefit from setting myself mini-deadlines because I am likely to procrastinate if I have to start a project before knowing when it is due. This was true during my university days when I would leave things late and really power through when I knew it had to be done.

Finally, other people can throw my day off kilter by disrupting my schedule and ideally I need as few interruptions as possible. This is true today as my girlfriend is home rather than being in work and I struggle to get things done when she is around! However, I am quite pleased with the several hours of coaching videos I have consumed and also written this blog post!

Have you gone through the Kolbe process? What do you think? Please leave your comments below!