The YOU Factor

Today, I want to inspire you to INVEST in getting to know more about yourself as a business owner, as an entrepreneur, as a manager, as a leader.

This is a key area that I work in – getting to know my clients and helping them get to know themselves better in order to understand the kind of people they need around them to support them. I absolutely encourage you to read until the end as this is definitely one of those things that you don't probably know, but that when you do know it, it will dazzle you and delight you, and really help you do better in business.

I think I first started getting my feet wet in this area about 20 years ago, which is really what I call the psychometric testing area. That sounds so fancy and complicated, but it's not. It's actually simple. But, what's the reason that I want you to digest all this and to consider using these tools? Well, the reason is what I call the You factor.

I work with lots of entrepreneurs. Some are doing really well, some are struggling, some are somewhere in between. And, I look at all the different variables that are affecting the success that they're having or struggling to find, and there are lots of things, but one big thing is the You factor.

It's You as an individual, and the IMPACT that you have on your business and the people around you, and more.

When you first understand more about yourself, you're then able to make decisions that really, really can impact the business in a massively positive way. Actually, I've said to business owners before when I am proposing strategic services, "I can help you when I understand more about you," and that is where we start. We start with just some really nice, simple, easy psychometric tests. On the whole, business owners are blown away by them. They're so insightful and they help them understand why they are failing in certain areas and why they are doing so well in other areas.

After all, we are not meant to be all things to all people.

We are beautifully flawed humans, and so this is about understanding YOUR zone of genius

– as they say in Wealth Dynamics (which is probably my favorite psychometric tool for entrepreneurs!). So, it's understanding your zone of genius so that you can work towards a time where you can just sit in that zone of genius, and surround yourself with your chosen team. First and foremost, these days, team is global – and they're not always employees. They can be anyone and then sometimes, they're employees.

But, what we want to do is surround ourselves long-term with people, even if that's one person or two person – even if they're part-time that have the other pieces of the puzzle – in order to take care of the things that we are not strong at and we don't enjoy, so that we can simply sit in our zone of genius and play our STRENGTHS. An example of how this works: I've personally got a team that spans a couple of brands, two or three brands. I have all of their psychometric testing on file. When we do an annual big session where we are looking at the big picture, it's really fun bringing up our wealth dynamic test so that we can see where we're alike and where we're different. I will tell you right now that no one on my team is anything like me. That is because at this stage in my business, I only need one of me, and I'm pretty unique.

A lot of entrepreneurs are pretty unique, and their zone of genius is a really great zone.

So the last thing you need to do is employ more of yourself,

and yet I see entrepreneurs with a tendency to employ people like themselves and that is definitely not what you want to do. On my team, a lot of my team are actually very similar in their profiles because I'm filling out my team to take care of the various things that I am weaker in. I'm going to give you an example of how we use this in recruitment as well. We actually do offer recruitment to our clients. We don't tend to advertise it on mass, but we absolutely do so as I've got a really strong background in HR recruitments, psychometric testing, and I would much rather take care of that for our clients to make sure that they get a killer result (because it is too critically important in many cases to get it wrong).

The cost of getting it wrong, I could give you the metrics on it – it's in the tens of thousands of dollars. In some of my podcasts, I've talked about my five-step operations methodology, which is plan, team, marketing, selling, and standards. Here, we're talking about TEAM, and key people on the team is so important, so as the impact of using the know you factor.

When we are recruiting for our clients, what we do is first of all, we get to know the key players by psychometrically testing them. We use three tests primarily, and one of the tests I've actually created myself!

So those tests include the Wealth Dynamics Test.

(A little tip there, if you follow Wealth Dynamics on Facebook for example, they do discount codes and you can get 50% off. It's such a valuable test that I do it for everyone on my team. Let's say I do a recruitment push and I get three top candidates and of those, I'm like, "You know what? I think that's the person I want," I will not press go on that until I've got that person's psychometric test. With my clients, they find it so impactful as well. They are more than happy to invest a little bit of money in psychometric testing to all their key players. And when they do, they're like, oh. my. goodness.)

Then the other one you can get (for free) is the DISC Personality Test,

Along with the Starter, Maintainer, or Finisher.

The concept is not new, but I'm not aware of a test that you can take, so I whipped up a really simple test that allows me to find out if you are a starter, a maintainer, or a finisher. On the whole, entrepreneurs are usually starters, but not always. I'm a starter and almost everybody else is either a maintainer or a finisher because I'm happy to get the ball rolling. But then in one key area, one of my subcontractors that works around brand and graphics, an area not that's not my zone of genius – I didn't want to have to get that ball rolling. I want him to do that. So he is also a starter, and that works exceptionally well. But he is also a superstar that does well in maintaining and finishing.

As for me, I do well with maintaining and finishing because I work really hard on my WEAKNESSES. That said, I'm always going to know that my zone of genius is getting the ball rolling. Then, I've got an amazing right hand in my business who is more of a maintainer or a finisher, and I'm never going to beat her up for not getting the ball rolling.

When we know our team, then we know how to build them up and get the most out of it.

In fact, years ago, I was running a day spa. This is close to 20 years ago. Even back then, because I'm a trainer and assessor and I understand the adult learning styles, I would get to know my team in this same way. I could take a team member who failed dismally in another business and make her a national superstar. Honestly, the impact of understanding this stuff's really important, but start by understanding you.

So back to the story of recruitment: We will, first of all, psychometric test the owner. If the new recruit's going to be working closely with the owner, that's really important. I once had two owners in a business and it was a trade business with a big, big team, and there was a bit of stress in the business. The two owners did tend to have this way about them that, there was a bit of conflict going on, but it was healthy conflict. But still, I knew.

So, they had a girl in the office that might be a good fit for the role. In the DISC personality profile, she was a high S, so that's supportive, but she was also a high I, so she was a chatter box. I wanted to get someone who works well with the boys that were quite rough and ready communicators, but also somebody who wasn't going to end up in a chat fest with the other girl in the office.

So I got them what's known as a high D, C – that is a direct, dominant, detail-orientated person. She was rough around the edges and she just fit in so well, and there was no chatting in the office because she's not a social butterfly! So that's a little bit of insight in how it can work in your team. You don't need to know everything to get started with this tool. If you don't know any of that, then this is day one of your 365-day lap around the sun and I'm going to give you ways to start today and actually use this tool to do better in business, so that when you're recruiting, they are the tools that you use.

Now, onto how you can start using them immediately to really start to plan for your dream business in life—

What I recommend is that you jump on and do the Wealth Dynamics test yourself. Invest the $50 US, read the results, and be dazzled. Read your strengths and read your weaknesses. Then, take the DISC test to get to know yourself, along with the Starter, Maintainer, Finisher.

Now in terms of having that help you do better in business, there's a couple of ways for that to work—

Let's say you're a solopreneur with no staff. Then, the testing has just given you an idea of the kind of profiles you're going to be looking for in the future when somebody helps you out.

Let's say you're an entrepreneur, that when you do all your profiling, you discover that you're a really social person and you are really supportive. You're not very detail-orientated. Let's say, you don't really like looking at the numbers. You don't like the project managing, box ticking, finishing stuff. You're like a visionary, big picture, just want to get the ball rolling, all that kind of thing. And, let's say, you are looking for someone to do the bookkeeping. You don't actually have to psychometrically test a contract bookkeeper, so let's say you were getting someone in-house. Then, you're going to be looking for someone who's the opposite to you. They're going to be detail-orientated, probably going to be quiet people. They're going to be great with that box ticking project management. They'll probably be a finisher, that kind of thing.

(The great thing about these tools is once you do them and you start to educate yourself around them, you are going to be able to start to analyze people's profiles without even testing them. Once you understand psychometric testing, it's really hard not to do it with those around you. It's lovely to understand people more. It is so important to seek to understand ourselves and others.)

Now, if you have team, then this is going to be great because

you're going to UNDERSTAND why they're doing well in an area they're doing well, and why they're not doing so well in other areas.

If you've got a team member that's a starter and you get frustrated that he or she doesn't finish things, it gives you some insights. Now, it is not an excuse to not finish things. It can be so that SELF-AWARENESS piece – like, I know I'm a starter and it means that when I have to finish things, I say, "Jeannie, you know that this isn't your strength. You know you need to work at it a bit more. You need to sit down. You need to tick the boxes, Jeanie, and you need to get things finished."

The self-awareness piece is so important, but there are instances when you really need to take a long, hard look at your team. Sometimes you need to reshuffle the team even if that's through what's called natural attrition, aka when somebody decides to finally leave because they're constantly being asked to work in an area that's not their zone of genius. When you are replacing them, you are considering a smarter replacement.

Another example: So, my right hand. I could already tell you a lot about her profile, but when we got the results of her Wealth Dynamics, she had this amazing mechanic profile. I had this aha moment because I'd noticed that she was really great at pulling things apart, like pulling a problem apart, and then putting it back together better. She seemed to be really great at systems and processes. The Wealth Dynamics was like, she's a mechanic. She's built to pull things apart and put them back together better than ever before. And these people are ideal for standard operating procedures.

So rather than just make decisions on gut feel and push her in a direction that I may not be correct about, I get this cold, hard proof and so does she, and we're both able to go, "Wow, look at that. This is my zone of genius" and she's able to say, "I felt like it was and I've always felt like I could have a huge positive impact on an organization when I work in that area and now I can see why." Then, I can have the confidence to support her in that role. Even when it's hard, we can both have confidence to go, "You're built for this. We know you can do it." It doesn't mean they won't need support and that you don't need other tools and resources, but oh, game-changing.

So a bit of a rinse and repeat on action: I really hope that you are valuing what I'm telling you here because even though you might think, yeah, but I just need to go out and make sales and work hard and get some cash in the bank – that my friends is hustle. What I have told you about today is STRATEGY. As I have talked about in a podcast,

one of the big mistakes that entrepreneurs make is focusing all their energy on revenue.

My goodness, that is just a massive mistake. Revenue is one piece of a much bigger puzzle. Ask yourself right now: do you think it's a good idea to get to know people around us? Yeah, it is. And I tell you, when I work strategically with clients, clients that are killing it, cornering their market, the first thing I want to do is I say to them, "I need to get to know you," and then you and I need to get to know your team. I tell you right now, they are dazzled and delighted and a bit shocked, and they are convinced that the stuff that Jeannie is saying is impactful.

So, this is about IMPACT. And again, action items– please do take the tests yourself. That is just one step you can take in the direction of working smarter rather than just harder. If you just want to jump on the phone with me and have a chat about this stuff, have a chat about something that's challenging you, I can answer any questions that you've got to see if there's any way that we can help you as well. We have a lot of planning and strategy tools that you can use one-off or ongoing. We can talk to you about any of that. But if you don't ask, you'll never know, right?