***Using Assessments to Develop Yourself and Others

By Regina Barr

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Have you ever taken a development assessment? Many organizations that I work with are now turning to behavior assessments and other types of personality trait testing for employees or prospective employees. Assessments can:

1. Help individuals better understand their strengths and position them for jobs that leverage those strengths, and help them create development plans to mitigate weaknesses.

2. Provide a common language to help improve communications between individuals and teams thereby enhancing interpersonal relationships and productivity.

3. Help human resources professionals and managers in selecting, hiring, developing, motivating and positioning employees for success, by matching them to jobs that best meet the individuals and organizations work preferences and needs.

Assessments can provide you or your organization with the opportunity to create a roadmap for success. You can use assessments to create benchmarks for success by identifying values, emotional competencies and other behaviors required for success in a given position, department or organizational culture. This process can save organizations not only time but money in the thousands of dollars that it
costs to hire and train new employees, and by reducing turnover due to poor job fit. For the individual, it
saves not only time but the emotional energy that is invested in pursuing new job opportunities.

Self-analysis is a critical component of any management development program. With today's technology, most assessments are available online for quick and easy administration and tabulation of results. Since all assessment tools are not created equal, you should consider working with a management consultant and coach who is trained and qualified to administer them.

Understanding yourself and others better through assessments can help to better position you to manage, understand and lead others. The outcome: increased productivity, increased morale and improved employee retention. Assessments can help you work smarter, not harder. All around, that just makes good sense.