“So often when we’re different we feel wrong or we feel like there’s something wrong with us. All of a sudden, here’s this beautiful assessment telling me that my strengths are perfect. They’re perfectly aligned for me. That assessment is called Kolbe.” – Eryn Morgan

At a recent networking event for female entrepreneurs, I was fortunate enough to meet someone with the most amazing energy. Her name is Eryn Morgan. As we got to chatting, I learned that her niche is helping business owners build their teams using the Kolbe assessment.

I was intrigued to say the least.

I’d actually had experience with this assessment previously when I was matched with my admin, Rachel, who turned out to be an amazing match for me and my business.

But even though I had success with it, I truly didn’t know a lot about this assessment or what makes it so special.

So I decided right then and there that Eryn would have to come on the Become an Unstoppable Woman podcast to teach us all things Kolbe assessment.

LISTEN IN AS ERYN AND I BREAK DOWN:

• What makes the Kolbe assessment different from the Enneagram, CliftonStrengths, and Myers Briggs assessments
• The 3 parts of the mind that shape our personalities, how we make decisions, and how we approach problems
• The 4 pillars of the Kolbe Assessment
• A real life comparison of my assessment results with my admin, Rachel’s results and how that applies to our working styles (spoiler alert: we work REALLY well together)

…and so much more

I was so impressed with what this assessment provides that I’m going to be bringing Eryn into my coaching business to help my clients apply this assessment to their lives and businesses.

The power of the Kolbe assessment is truly mind blowing! You’re not going to want to miss learning all about it on this episode today.

Tune in at the top of the page to learn all about this beautiful assessment.

POST EPISODE RESOURCES:

Full Transcript

Episode 124: THE KOLBE ASSESSMENT’S POWER
This is the Become an Unstoppable Woman podcast with Lindsay Preston Episode 124, The
Kolbe Assessment’s Power.
[music]
Welcome to the Become an Unstoppable Woman podcast, the show for goal-getting, fearfacing women for kicking ass by creating change. I’m your host, Lindsay Preston. I’m a wife,
mom of two, and a multi-certified life coach to women all over the world. I’ve lived
through enough in life to know that easier doesn’t always equate to better. jWe can’t fear
the fire, we must learn to become it. On this show, I’ll teach you how to do just that. Join
me as I challenge you to become even more of the strong, resilient, and powerful woman
you were meant to be. Let’s do this.
[music]
Lindsay: Hello, Ms. Unstoppable. Welcome to another episode of the show. Do I have a treat
for you today? I have a special guest, Eryn Morgan, who is on the show today. Eryn and I
actually met recently at a networking group that we’re a part of called the Advance. It’s a
networking group for women entrepreneurs who want to get to know one another and
what each other’s businesses do so they can refer people to one another.
Many times networking groups can be a little slimy. At least maybe that’s my thoughts on
it, but I am really loving this group that I’m in. Again, it’s called the Advance. If you’re a
woman entrepreneur I would highly encourage you to go check it out. It has a very
feminine energy about it. I’m loving the women that I’m meeting, Eryn included. When I
met Eryn I just loved her energy from the start, and I’m very picky about people’s energy.
She just has this energy of wanting to serve and she knows her shit as well.
When she told me that her niche is helping business owners really understand the Kolbe
assessment and how to hire with the Kolbe assessment or just better utilize their teams
with the Kolbe assessment, I was intrigued because I hired my admin, Rachel, who I speak
of often on this show who I adore so much, because she was such an amazing hire for me
over a year ago now. The way that the agency that we worked with, how they found us and
matched us was with the Kolbe assessment. They had me take it, they had her take it. Then
they sat down with the results of the Kolbe and said, “Okay, would these two women be a
great match?”
It has been a fabulous match and I’ve worked with many people and it seems like by far,
Rachel and I have really worked well together. I’m a big believer in the Kolbe without
really knowing much about it at all. Again, that’s why I wanted to bring Eryn on, was like
“Hey, what is this Kolbe thing?” It worked magically in my life by hiring Rachel and I want
to know more about it. She was able to sit down with me in this interview and explain
what the Kolbe does and how it’s different from other assessments. She even took my
results and Rachel’s results on this interview and started to talk about this is likely how we
work together.
I had lots of laughs from that because it’s so true. I’m hoping as you’re hearing how it’s
worked in my life and with my admin Rachel and our partnership, you’ll all be able to see
how powerful it is because I’m having ahas in the moment as she’s explaining this on this
interview. Get ready. This is a great one, especially if you are somebody who manages
other people. I think we all are as women. We’re managing family members, if anything, or
friendships, to be able to use this assessment in your life to help maximize your
relationships and especially in a working relationship. Without further ado, here is my
interview with Eryn Morgan.
Eryn, I’m so excited to have you on this show. I can’t wait to learn all things Kolbe and I
don’t know anything about this assessment really. I love assessments. I love Clifton
Strengths, I love Enneagram, Myers-Briggs, so thank you for being here.
Eryn: Oh, Lindsay, thanks for having me. What fun? [laughs]
Lindsay: How did you get into Kolbe?
Eryn: It’s a funny twist of fate. This was back in 2016. I was one year into my business fulltime on my own. I was really struggling with sales, really struggling. My way of finding
experts, mentors, is through connections. I had said to one of my coaches at the time, “I’m
really struggling with sales,” and she said, “Oh, you need Laura.” I got on a call with Laura
Wright, and she’s just this magical person. One of the things she asked me to do before we
got on our official intensive that we were going to spend about three hours together
working on my sales process. She said, “I want you to take this Kolbe assessment.” I went,
“Okay, Laura. At this point I’ll do whatever you tell me to do.” [laughs]
I went on and took the assessment, took about 20 minutes, and I came back with my score.
It was like my eyes opened to why I felt so different when I was working alongside other
people. Why my process always felt different and why I approached things and looked at
things so differently. So often when we’re different we feel wrong or we feel like there’s
something wrong with us. All of a sudden, here I have this beautiful assessment telling me
that my strengths are perfect. They’re perfectly aligned for me. My uniqueness is so
valuable, and I was like, “Oh, I need to know more about this.”
As I went through my career building out my business over the years, I’ve gotten to a place
where when I know your Kolbe score I can unlock a whole lot for you because I understand
it at such a deep level that I can instantly value your strengths, but also help you to take
action and make decisions in a way that’s unique to you and perfect for you. It was a
really– My sales coach is the short answer to the question, but what a blessing. I’m so
grateful that she asked me to take the assessment back then.
Lindsay: That’s how I feel when I had the Clifton Strengths or even Myers-Briggs and then
later Enneagram, of just this aha moment. Like, “Oh, it all makes sense now.” So cool. Tell
us about Kolbe. What is it? What is it testing?
Eryn: This is something I really want to break down just a little bit for everyone who’s
listening. You know, you’ve even mentioned Clifton Strengths, Enneagram, there’s DISC,
there’s all kinds of fabulous assessments out there. What they’re measuring is your
effective personality or your effective part of the mind. There’s actually three parts of our
mind. Most people really only focus on two. The effective, which is a lot about our
personality, what we like, our preferences, really good stuff. Our effective part of the mind.
The second part is the cognitive, and this is all about your skills. What you know how to do,
your knowledge, the talents you developed, and even some of your habits. If I say to you,
think about how you brush your teeth. That’s a habit. It’s a skill you know how to do and
you have a rhythm, so it comes very naturally to you.
There’s this third part of the mind and it’s called the conative. The conative part of the
mind, and what this piece of your mind measures is what you will do, how you’ll make
decisions. How you’ll take action when you’re striving towards a goal. If you think about
these three parts of the mind, cognitive, this is the kind of thing that in school they give
you a test. What careers you have. It comes out that you should be a bus driver or x-ray
technician or whatever. That’s a skill based, a cognitive assessment, and that’s great. The
effective assessments that so many of us are familiar with, again, measuring your
personality, those preferences, this is all about what you want to do.
If cognitive is about what you can do, effective is about what you want to do. This is really
great, but there’s one tricky thing about this. Have you ever taken, I don’t know, maybe this
is just me, but have you ever taken an effective personality test and one day you get one
answer and another day you get a different one? This Myers-Briggs, this happens to me all
the time. Depends whether it’s raining. It depends whether I feel good. Depending on my
mood, I can actually change the answer to the test and it’s not because I’m trying to be
difficult. It’s because I truly feel differently. My preferences have changed in that moment
and so an effective personality test is measuring.
It’s like a snapshot in time. Here’s where you are right now. The cool thing about the Kolbe
assessment, and it’s the only one that measures conation, is that your conative abilities,
this is what you will do. What you will do, how you’ll take action. It doesn’t change. It
remains statistically consistent over time. They’ve measured it over 20 years and the
statistics say it doesn’t change. It remains consistent, which is so cool for us because we
can understand how we’ll take action and know that we can trust that. It’s really, really
cool, so that’s what it is. It isn’t actually a personality test if you think about it in terms of
what we usually associate with personality tests. It’s a cognitive conative assessment.
Lindsay: Eryn, what would be the benefit of having that information?
Eryn: The first thing is it teaches you about yourself in terms of how you make decisions or
how you approach problems. Why this can be great, is that sometimes when– Have you
ever been in a situation where you’ve been asked to do something, but in a way that really
feels unnatural to you? It just doesn’t jive with the way that you would want to approach it
and that’s probably because it’s not using your unique cognitive strengths.
When you know this, when you have this level of self-awareness about your strengths, you
can actually take action or suggest to a boss or a friend or a family member that you need
to take action differently in order to get to a great outcome. Knowing this and having a
little bit of science to back it up is a really, really powerful thing. That’s the first thing, you
can know yourself. In knowing that, you can work to align your action in a way that feels
good, the way that feels natural to you. That’s one of the ways.
Lindsay: Eryn, my brain is still like, I’m not quite getting it.
Eryn: Sure.
Lindsay: Okay, because you have my Kolbe score.
Eryn: I do, I do.
Lindsay: Explain it to me through my scores.
Eryn: Okay, I can do that.
Lindsay: Okay.
Eryn: Imagine for our listeners, if they haven’t seen what a Kolbe grid looks like. There are
four pillars. Imagine four columns or four pillars on a building. They are holding up a
building, there are four of them. The first one is called Fact Finder. Fact Finder is all about
how you gather and share information. How you gather and share information. For you
specifically, Lindsay, as a four in Fact Finder, what that tells me is that you like to explain
things and you can explain things, but you don’t need a lot of detail. You don’t need to do
a ton of research in order to make a decision or to take action on something.
You’re also not a total bottom-line person, just give me the bottom line. You’re somewhere
in the middle. You can talk with somebody who has gathered lots and lots and lots of
information like your assistant, Rachel, she’s a seven. She’s going to gather a lot of
information and then you are going to hear what she’s saying and summarize that
information.
Lindsay: [chuckles] So true.
Eryn: One of the other things as I’m going through this, you’re asking, how is this useful?
It’s really useful when we’re working with other people. That’s really what my specialty is,
it’s not only just understanding you, but understanding the people around you and how
you work with them and how you work together. Knowing that even just that one little
piece about Rachel and your interaction around facts, how you gather and share
information, that’s the first one. There’s a lot of information here.
Lindsay: With the Fact Finder score, is it the higher you are? Can you go up to a 10?
Eryn: Yes.
Lindsay: A 10 would be someone who does a ton of research?
Eryn: Yes, yes, absolutely. They really, really dig in and specify. One of the cool things
about the Kolbe is whether you’re a 1 or you’re a 10, we’re still used to, on a scale of 1 to
10, 1 being terrible and 10 being amazing, no, not that way with the Kolbe. Every single
number is perfect. Every single number is beautiful. What we use the numbers for is to put
you on a continuum to very, very, very detailed to people who are bottom line, give me the
quick and dirty facts. That’s how we use those numbers. Not to rank you as good or bad but
to give you a sense of the level of detail in this particular case that you’d like to do
research.
Lindsay: So cool.
Eryn: Okay, so I’m making sense so far?
Lindsay: Yes, totally.
Eryn: Okay. The next pillar on our building, the next column is Follow Through. When
people hear Follow Through, at least for me, I go to flaky. Do you follow through? Do you
do what you say you’re going to do? That’s not exactly it. It’s more like the steps, the
putting it in order and understanding the steps that you might go through to solve a
problem. For both you and for your assistant, Rachel, you guys are pretty great at putting
together project plans, putting together steps. Even this podcast, you probably have a
bunch of checklists, and this is all the stuff that needs to be accomplished and done so we
can get each episode out on time.
Somebody like you, you’re able to maintain that system. You may not love to build them,
maybe you do, you can do that, but somebody who would be a 1, 2 or a 3 on the Follow
Through, they’re all about adapting. They’re breaking things and creating shortcuts. You
give them a system that they’re supposed to take the steps and they’re like, “Yes, whatever.
I’m going to do it a different way,” because they find the shortcut or these are the people
who don’t really like to follow directions.
You’re like, “Okay, I need you to do these three things,” and they’re like, “I’m not doing any
of that.” It’s because their natural tendency is to adapt things. Whereas for you, but also for
Rachel, your tendency is to really create systems, really create the structures and then hold
onto and maintain those structures. That make sense? It’s all about systems and how to
organize step-by-step information.
Lindsay: Yes. What numbers are we there, Eryn? I’m curious.
Eryn: You are a 6, and Rachel is a 7. Again, because your numbers are so close, you work
really well together on these types of projects. If Rachel would create or craft a checklist
for you, you’ll follow it. You’ll do what the checklist asks you to do in the right order. I can
do that too but I have my coach, Laura, who I talked to at the beginning about how I found
the Kolbe in the first place. Laura is a 2. Laura is going to break any system [laughs] that
you can put in front of her, she’s going to find a way to break it.
This is really, really great to understand when we’re thinking about other people, because
if you find somebody who consistently doesn’t want to follow the directions, doesn’t want
to create a system, doesn’t want to create follow the steps, chances are they are somebody
whose strength is actually adapting. They change things up, and that’s their strength.
Lindsay: Yes, my daughter, [chuckles] she’s 10, but she’s definitely probably a 1 too.
Eryn: Yes, absolutely. The way that someone who is a 1, 2, 3, it’s all about developing
shortcuts. It’s about multitasking. They’re actually really cool with being interrupted and
thrown off track, it actually gives them more energy when that happens. You are really
beautifully aligned with your team member but knowing that about your daughter, it’s
interesting.
Lindsay: Those of us who can be more structured, especially in her role because she’s a
child, my husband, who I bet is even more structured tends to be like, “Oh, that’s so
disrespectful.” I’m like, “I don’t think it is.” That’s where this information again, can be so
helpful.
Eryn: Yes, absolutely. It’s amazing once you unlock the code, and I’ll give you an example
once I’ve gone through this so that you’ll understand. Even in my marriage, with
communication with my husband too, I’ll give you a funny story. Let’s do the third pillar.
The third pillar is Quick Start. We associate that with, oh, we go really fast. That’s true. In a
lot of cases, it’s true. You innovate, you brainstorm naturally, you really are willing to take
risks.
When you deal with uncertainty and risk, if you were 7, 8, 9, 10, you’re all in. You’re out
creating original ideas and really innovating and willing to try things, even if you don’t
know how it’s going to work out. That’s 7, 8, 9, 10, versus somebody who is a 1, 2 or 3,
they’re all about stabilizing. Let’s keep things consistent. Let’s avoid unnecessary risks.
Let’s just keep things on the level. We need these people who have the ability to stabilize
because you and me, you’re a 7, I’m an 8. We’re out there innovating and it’s actually how
we initiate our problem-solving.
If I say and give you a particular problem to solve, you’re going to start with brainstorming
creative ideas, ideation, maybe you put it up on a whiteboard or you do a mind map. You’re
just getting all those ideas out in the world. Somebody who is like Rachel, she’s a 5, which
means that she has the ability to just keep pace with both things. She is able to keep up
with you and your innovative ideas and your creativity. She’s able to say, “Okay, well that
sounds really cool but have you thought about this?” She can tweak and make little
suggestions to an idea that would make it a little bitLindsay: Totally. That’s totally true.
Eryn: -more doable, right?
Lindsay: Yes.
Eryn: Versus somebody like my assistant. Well, she’s not my assistant, she’s my creative
director, she feels like my assistant because she grounds me in this exact way. I come up
with all these ideas and these things we should do and she’s like, “Actually, can we just
finish the thing we’ve started? Can we hold the line here? We’ve started about eight
projects this week, can we finish maybe, I don’t know, one of them?” She’s very much that
too and the stabilizing energy for us on our team. That’s Quick Start. That’s the third
column.
Then the fourth column is Implementer. Implementer really deals with how someone
interacts with space and tangibles. Someone who is a 7, 8, 9, 10 as an implementer, they
want to deal in the three dimensional. They want to touch it, they want to construct it,
build it, feel it. A lot of times makers, people who make things are very high implementer
scores. They’re great at quality control. They’re really good at looking at something and
inspecting the quality of a good– Maybe they make handcrafted mugs, as an example.
They’re going to look and they’re going to go, “Now there’s a flaw here. Do you see that
crack in the handle?” You’re like, “I don’t know. It looks a mug to me.” They’re like, “No, this
one doesn’t pass our standards.” These people are amazing with quality control.
Where a lot of people, especially in the online space, I see this a lot, 1, 2 and 3. People
who envision. They can imagine a solution without actually having to touch and feel that
solution. This is great for us in the online world because even the internet, the internet
exists but it really doesn’t. What does the internet feel like? How do you touch the
internet? You can’t. We’ve created the device like an iPhone which feels like holding the
internet in our hand, but I bet you Steve jobs was an implementer. A really high-level
implementer. That touch and feel tangibility of technology. We need both types. We need
people who can envision and imagine the solution, but also people who can build it.
Lindsay: Where do I fall there, Eryn? I’m so curious.
Eryn: You’re a 4 and 4 means that again, you’re going to be able to work in that space if
you could create the tangible and deal with the physical 3D, but most of the time you’re
going to be more towards that envisioning imagination space. Rachel is a 2, so she’s
imagining too. She’s envisioning the possibilities without having to touch them.
Lindsay: Interesting. That’s so cool.
Eryn: Once you understand those four columns that I know that’s a lot when you’re
listening, but if you have the visual, a Kolbe A assessment grid, you can see the four
columns and it starts to begin to make a little bit of sense. Remember your numbers 4, 6, 7,
4, those numbers don’t change. Once you really get to know your type and understand how
you naturally take action, then you can start to compare your scores with other people and
know, “Oh, here’s how we would best work together,” and that’s where the magic comes in.
Lindsay: Yes, that’s so cool Eryn. In the intro of this episode I talked about how I became
interested in Kolbe because the agency we used used Kolbe and Rachel has been such an
amazing fit. I was like, “There’s got to be something here.” Then I met you and you did
Kolbe, I was like, “Oh my gosh, I got to learn about this thing.” Now you just explaining it
makes so much sense how powerful this can be. Here’s where I am, here’s where you are,
this is likely the magic we’ll create together.
Eryn: Yes, absolutely. Let’s use a specific example on the quick start continuum. I’m an 8,
which means that I move fast, I have huge ideas. Like to envision and imagine the
possibilities for what we can do in business and life. Specifically in life I’m like, “I know
what we’re going to create in our lives and in our marriage and in our family.” I go really
fast. My husband, not so much. He is a 3 in quick start, which means his job is to stabilize.
He doesn’t want to go particularly fast. He doesn’t want to do big grand things that are
risky things. The number of times in my business I’ve bet the rent, more than once. I just
don’t tell him these things because he is like, “Wow, just keep it stable.”
What we’ve learned to do in our marriage is that he knows I need to go off and create and
try things. The compromise we’ve made is that there’s always three months worth of
money in our savings account because he needs to know things are going to stay stable.
He’s not comfortable with that level of risk but he’s gotten comfortable with my style in
terms of how I take risks and we’ve created that little safety net. That’s a specific example
of how it can work or not work. [laughs]
Lindsay: I’m already sold Eryn, and I’m like, “I’ve got to get my husband to take this,
anybody that I ever worked with has to take this.” Tell us, Eryn, because this is what you
do, right?
Eryn: Yes, this is what I do.
Lindsay: Explain to us your process, because typically it’s a business owner that’s coming
to you.
Eryn: Oftentimes, yes. A business owner or occasionally I might see a leadership team
member come to me, for example a creative director who leads a team or the director of
marketing who would lead a marketing team inside of a company. Those leaders often will
come to me or a CEO or a business owner if it’s mostly a small team that they’re leading
the charge in most of the area. Yes, usually a decision maker and a leader.
Lindsay: They’re coming to you and they’re saying either, “Hey, I want to hire for this role.
Let’s use Kolbe to help me hire,” or, “Can I just understand my team?”
Eryn: Usually they’re coming to me because the team they have around them, even if it’s
just an assistant, they only have one person working with that, something’s not working
when it comes to communication or collaboration. There are disconnects. They’ll come to
me and say, “My assistant’s really great but I just don’t think she’s the right person for this
role.” Ding ding ding that instantly says to me this person is great, which means they have
a great personality, they’re smart, they’re communicative, they want to engage. They’re not
the person for this role says the work that I’m giving them and the way that I’m asking
them to do things doesn’t match their style.
What I love is when somebody comes to me with communication challenges, my team just
isn’t getting very much done. I used to describe a team in the past that I led, is it felt we
were steering a cruise ship. It was big and clunky and just making– We’re going to do a
launch, no, we’re not. Maybe not this month or next month or yes, we might launch that in
nine months. We couldn’t move quickly with that agile-ness that is required in business so
often. It was because everybody was working in a way that didn’t match their strengths. It
just always felt like quicksand, like we were stuck in the mud. I get a lot of people coming
to me for those kinds of problems.
Lindsay: Wow, Eryn, so helpful.
Eryn: Well, I hope so. [laughs]
Lindsay: Are you able to then go in and say, “Hey, yes, this person’s not the right fit, or if
you just approach it this way, you would get better results from this person.”
Eryn: Exactly. I’m always looking to find out is this person the right person for the role?
The thing is that people don’t– You can’t change people. These innate strengths, the way
you approach things, they’re you. They can’t be changed. If you’re not aligned in the role
that you’re in, their default is to replace the person. My default is adjust the role. That
doesn’t mean the outcome can’t be the same. That the goal of the role can’t be the same.
It’s the idea–
Let’s use an example. It’s like we’re going on a road trip and you and I both, we are in
Boston and we need to get to Miami. You and I are both in our cars and I’m allowed to go
and take that road trip any way I want. So long as I get to Miami by the time I’m supposed
to be there all is well, but you have somebody telling you exactly the way you have to go.
Let’s imagine that they’re saying, “Oh, you have to take I-95 south,” and you get right
outside of Washington DC and there’s a massive accident. Huge, huge traffic jam, and
because you’re supposed to take that route you have to sit in traffic. You ultimately don’t
get to Miami on time.
Whereas for me I’m allowed to do whatever I want. My GPS says get off here on the
highway and go this way and take this back road and go around the traffic accident and I’m
allowed to do it, and so I do and I get to Miami on time. At the end of the day, does it
matter that we did it differently if we get to the same goal? You didn’t. You were late
because I didn’t let you do it your way.
That’s exactly the way I like to explain it in terms of a role that somebody might be
fulfilling inside of a company. If they can get to the goal and they can meet the standards
are required inside the role, why do you care how they get there if they can do it maybe
even better than you would tell them they have to do it? Why can’t we let it do them do it
their way as long as they’re meeting that goal and maintaining those high standards?
That’s where things start to really open up. The communication opens up, the outcomes
that we’re reaching really start to be achieved and everybody’s suddenly happier. Imagine
that.
Lindsay: Yes, it’s so true. That would drive me crazy if someone said you had to go this
certain route. I would be like, “Oh my gosh, this is painful.” It reminds me a lot of my
corporate experience. It’s like these are our systems, this is our process. For certain people
it’s just not a good fit. Then Eryn too, once you open up hey, here’s how people work best,
and they still don’t meet the standards. That’s when you really know hey, this is not a good
fit.
Eryn: Yes, and so in those cases I never use Kolbe as a tool to fire people. I use Kolbe as a
tool to help them get more aligned with the role. What will often happen if somebody is,
we’re making adjustments and it’s still not feeling right, they may choose to go to a
different job within the company. There’s a lot of really cool stories about people who
would– When a consultant will come in and start to look at all the people and look at all
the jobs and say, “Wait a second, Susan would be amazing if you put her in the sales
department. Poor Jane is in the sales department and she’s struggling, but what she’d be
amazing at is doing the job Susan’s doing. Let’s swap roles.”
In big corporations there’s so many moving parts and pieces in terms of how they’ve built
an organization. They’re a little less open to that flexibility, but the midsize or smaller
companies, I’ve worked with a company who had 14 contractors. Somewhere between
eight and 14, depending on what they were working on. I was able to go in and say, “This
person is really talented but not in the role they’re in. They’d be amazing over here.” The
owner of the business, the CEO was willing to say what if we just changed their role? The
person was like, Oh my God, this would be amazing. I would love this job.”
You have these opportunities to shift the way the work is being done or shift the people
inside of the roles to get to greater alignment. People are like, “That’s never going to
work,” but it actually can. It can be really powerful inside of a company. A lot of really cool
examples of that.
Lindsay: What I love about that most is how people-centric that is. We care about our
people, let’s make this work.
Eryn: Absolutely. How many times have you met somebody amazingly talented who is
struggling and what do they do? They leave, because you can only struggle for so long. It
doesn’t matter even if they’re being– It’s not like they’ve been fired, it’s just that they’re so
unhappy. They’re working against their strengths that they say, “I can’t do this anymore,”
and they leave.
Lindsay: Many times it’s just a little bit little tweaks.
Eryn: That’s all it is. It’s all it takes. Absolutely.
Lindsay: Eryn, next question for you. If someone’s coming to you and saying, hey I want to
hire for say, my assistant, like in my case. You were to say let me get your Kolbe. Then I’m
going to get the Kolbe of all the applicants.
Eryn: We absolutely can do it that way. It is called the right fit. Where I would start is you. I
would say tell me about you. We’d look at your Kolbe score. I’d want to hear about the
expectations you have of the role. I might even have you take an assessment called the
Kolbe C —
Lindsay: Yes, I did that with Rachel.
Eryn: Perfect. You do the Kolbe C, and this is where you are defining what you feel the
expectations of the role are, which is this job requires somebody to be. Then somebody
like Rachel is going to come in with her Kolbe A score.
Somebody like me as a hiring consultant would say her A is this, you’ve said the role
requires this. This is a match.. They call it right fit. We’re looking at the A scores of the
candidates in relation to the C role that you expect. That’s how we know whether it’s going
to be likely to be a good match from an action oriented perspective. From decision-making
and collaboration and all those things, we know it it’s likely to be a good fit.
Lindsay: You’re mostly looking at the role and how that applicant fits in the role versus my
Kolbe and her Kolbe.
Eryn: Correct, correct.
Lindsay: Interesting.
Eryn: For a job position, yes, of course. I’m comparing and thinking about and looking at
your, we call it an A to A comparison. What I actually have pulled up on the screen here is
your A to A comparison with Rachel. I’m actually looking at it and seeing about how you
would work together. You can do a Kolbe and you can look against the role. Then you can
also look at the individuals.
While I’m not a recruiter, I don’t go out and find people for you. If you were to post a job
on your LinkedIn or on Indeed or wherever you might want to post your job description,
then you were to work with me as a consultant, I would be able to use those Kolbe tools to
help you find the right fit for your position based on the applicant pool that you bring in.
Lindsay: I can tell you that Rachel is the only person I’ve hired doing that process.
Amazing.
Eryn: How long has she been with you?
Lindsay: A year yesterday.
Eryn: Wow, congratulations. That’s great.
Lindsay: When I found you Eryn, I was like, “Oh, now I found my person to do this forever
and ever for me every time I need to hire.”
[laughter]
Eryn: You and I are a lot alike. We’re a lot alike. I’m going to understand how you think and
how you approach problems because you’re a lot like me. When we’re in synergy with
somebody who’s a lot like us, it’s easy for you to step into their shoes from the standpoint
of a decision-making opportunity or how you would approach problem, versus somebody
who’s really different.
My husband, he’s a 5, 5, 3, 7 and I go, he’s on a foreign planet to me. There’s too many
things that are different about how he approaches problems that I really don’t understand
his unique process in terms of how it feels in his body. I understand how it looks on paper
and I can match those collaborations, but you and I are really well aligned in that way. We
would work together fabulously.
Lindsay: I will tell you, with Rachel, it was an investment to go that route. Her agency was
just for VAs, so not an agency I could continue to use but I will say after getting her in the
role and now being a year and really still feeling like it’s a great fit, I’m like, Man, that was
the best investment ever.” Before when I didn’t do that, it was like this person’s not a great
fit. Then you train them, then they’re gone. Then all of the things. Then even too, let’s just
imagine I don’t do the Kolbe, hire somebody in, like you said, then looking at their Kolbe
and being like how could we adjust this role to be something that saves the game?
Eryn: You’re going to create different systems. You’re going to create ways of
communicating that are in honor of both of your strengths, and that can be done. A lot of
times people will come to me and say I really love this person but it’s not working. Can
you help me make it work? The answer is absolutely, but we have to be willing to make
some adjustments. If you are, it can work.
Lindsay: What would be the benefit of someone just taking the Kolbe to take the Kolbe?
Eryn: Understand yourself better. You can start to line up your actions when you’re striving
towards a goal in a way that’s going to feel really natural to you and take less of your
energy. You’ll use your time more effectively and more efficiently. You’ll get to the
outcome faster. It’s a great way to just get to know the things about you that are
unchanged, your innate strengths so you can operate more like yourself.
Lindsay: For some people it may be having lots of lists, for other people not having a lot of
lists. For some, really being in ideation and some not. I think that’s so powerful Eryn,
because I’m starting to put my coach brain around it of how could I use this to help
clients? Of how they can take these generalized goal setting techniques and really
specialize it to, “Okay, but based on you, here’s how you need to adjust these things.”
Eryn: Absolutely. That’s exactly how I used the Kolbe for the first really five years of my
career in the business coaching space. When I started out I didn’t require my clients to take
it. As I progressed I started to say this is just a mandatory thing. If you want to work with
me, have to take your Kolbe score. I almost felt like I was handcuffed if I didn’t know it
because the inputs they were giving me, what they were sharing with me, something
wasn’t making sense.
Here’s a great example. Think about our traditional schooling system. Good, bad, up or
down. It’s very sit in the classroom, sit still, read this information, memorize facts, take
tests. For somebody who is a quick start like me, I don’t thrive in that environment. I was
told I needed to go get As and Bs on my report card so I could get into a good college, so I
could get a job. All the things we’re told. Ultimately, that wasn’t who I was or how I was
best aligned with my strengths if I took action in that way.
Imagine somebody who’s been conditioned that way, who then comes to you with a
business and is trying to operate in that conditioned way when they’re not wired that way.
They’re saying, I want to go and I have all these ideas, and then they’re getting stuck in the
fact finder. They’re getting stuck researching. How many people have had great ideas. You
meet them, they’re like, “I have all these ideas.” Then they go and start to research and
they never take any action. They get stuck in research mode.
What I’m always trying to do as a coach and as a consultant is to look at what your Kolbe
score is telling me versus what you’re actually doing to see if there’s alignment there. If
there’s not we got to make changes so that you actually get it out the door. You start to
take action, try stuff, experiment, ship. A lot of clients will hire me and probably you too
because my high quick start inspires them to take action.
It gets them out of that decision constipation constantly researching and trying to figure
out the plan. How many times I need a plan? You do, and plans are great. What you really
need to do is take the first step. Find out, get some real life data by taking some action.
Then we can start to synthesize that into a plan.
Lindsay: I laugh because I have a couple of clients right now who I’m on that with, just
take the action. You know enough. [laughs] It’s so true, Eryn. It’s so true. My brain is
already like, okay, how can I add Kolbe into the mix here of all the information, because
really what I’ve leaned on the most is Clifton Strengths of, oh, well you have all these
thinking strengths. You don’t have enough executing, but now it’s like, oh, let’s add on this
other mix. I’m already like Eryn, you need to come teach all my clients.
Eryn: It’s such fun. One of the things that I actually get to do this later today, and I get to
do a workshop with 15 business owners, all of whom have different businesses. They’re
not associated. They’re all just in the same group, they’re in a mastermind together. I’m
going to come in and do a presentation about Kolbe so that each of them can hear a little
bit more about themselves. That’s a great way for people to get their feet wet if they’re in
a mastermind group, but I also do one-on-one work. It’s easy for me to come in and work
with a particular client of yours who was struggling. We could do a Kolbe assessment and I
would give a personalized reading, like fortune-telling.
Lindsay: Yes, a reading. Analysis is what I hear.
Eryn: Then from that perspective I can say to you as their coach, “Okay, here’s where their
strengths lie. Here’s what their Kolbe score is telling me. Here’s even how you would work
together.” I could give you a report that would say, Lindsay, you as their coach, this is how
you would want to work with them. A coaching report that I could produce for your client
on your behalf so you would ultimately be able to then work with them in a more effective
way.
Lindsay: So fun. I just love how you’re the subject matter expert on all things Kolbe. I have
a little resource in my pocket now.
Eryn: Sure. Absolutely, I love to be that. Really, all that’s required for me because I’ve
gotten to this place in my expertise, all I need are the four numbers. Just give me the four
numbers in order and I can tell you exactly where they’re stuck, where they’re succeeding.
Everybody’s different, but the numbers are like a superpower. It unlocks like a code that
it’s so powerful. Then once you understand just enough that you could hear somebody
else’s numbers, you instantly start to make those comparisons. When you can do that, then
you get the synergy in terms of how you communicate. It’s really cool.
Lindsay: Cool. Thank you, Eryn. Did we cover everything?
Eryn: I think so. It’s a big topic and it’s also something that a lot of times when you can’t
see the grid in front of you, you’re like, “I don’t understand what these columns look like.”
All you have to do is go to Kolbe.com and it’s K-O-L-B-E. You can look at the visual of what
it looks like to take an assessment. You can take it there, or you can come hang out with
me and I’ll help and give you the analysis, the specific analysis of a test.
Lindsay: All your info’s in the show notes so they can find you, but thank you, Eryn. I
learned so much.
Eryn: Thank you, Lindsay. It’s a great opportunity and I love, loved getting to know you.
[music]
Hey there, Miss Unstoppable. Thanks so much for tuning into this episode. If you enjoyed
it, share it with a friend. Send them a picture of this episode via text, via email, share it on
social media, I’m sure they would be so appreciative to know these strategies and tips on
how to accomplish your dreams. If you are ready to guarantee you’re going to accomplish
your goals and dreams, then it’s time to start coaching with me.
In my nine-month simple success coaching system, I am going to walk you every single
step of the way to ensure that you get the goals and dreams that you want. The first step is
to apply for a free 60-minute consult call. Just go to LindsayEpreston.com/apply to get
started. As always, my friend, remember, you’re only as unstoppable as you believe you can
be, so believe in yourself. You got this.