On Initiative

Initiative is doing the Right Thing without being told

Here's another one of Hubbard's short essay that struck a chord with me, on Initiative:

The world bestows its big prizes, both in money and honors, for but one thing. And that is Initiative.

What is Initiative? 

I'll tell you: It is doing the right thing without being told. But next to doing the right thing without being told is to do it when you are told once. That is to say, carry the Message to Garcia! 

There are those who never do a thing until they are told twice: such get no honors and small pay. Next, there are those who do the right thing only when necessity kicks them from behind, and these get indifference instead of honors, and a pittance for pay. This kind spends most of its time polishing a bench with a hard-luck story. Then, still lower down in the scale than this, we find the fellow who will not do the right thing even when some one goes along to show him how, and stays to see that he does it; he is always out of a job, and receives the contempt he deserves, unless he has a rich Pa, in which case Destiny awaits near by with a stuff club.

To which class do you belong?

Wow, how's that for telling it like it is?? Keep in mind Hubbard's time was at a great stage of industrialisation (and capitalism) - still, take a look at your workplace, your organisation or project team that you're in, and look around - can you spot people that falls into the rough categories that Hubbard proposes?

Of course, times have changed - and in the workplace, we have to be supportive and nurturing, we have to coach, mentor and lead people, if initiative is not present, then we lead by example, inspire and instill confidence, sometimes acting as a protective shepherd would to his flock. Still, this is no easy task, it takes special patience and a level of integrity & leadership to grow people, transforming them from being reactive or bystanders to taking charge, not being afraid of stepping forward to take the initiative.

This is an example of where Leadership defers from Management. One could argue that Hubbard was a classic, no-nonsense manager, who was quite frank, and direct about his expectations. If you can't deliver the message to Garcia, then there's probably no place for you on his team.

Personally, I find myself caught in between these two styles of "Leadership Management". Depending on the engagement, projects that I work on with really hard delivery deadlines and sometimes unreasonable sense of urgency, one wishes to have more people with Initiative as Hubbard expects. And there are some gigs where it's okay to lead and allow the team to develop along the way.

My natural tendency is to take initiative, as they say "Better to do a thing and ask forgiveness later" - but it doesn't always work out like that. Recently I got my knuckles rapped because I took initiative, acting on cue assuming my client expected me to take his suggestion & run with it...only to be told later that actually, I had to place in executing that activity...So lesson learnt, depending on the stakeholder, in this particular context, the unwritten rule is wait until you're told twice (just in case)...

On the projects I run though, I value people taking initiative, letting me know their intent, and even if they didn't give me the heads up, I look forward to being pleasantly surprised by the team's / person's commitment to solving the problem without being told to do so...

A Message to Garcia

I recently came across some powerful essays from a writer, Elbert Hubbard from the later 1800s (19th Century), who became known as one of the most interesting business thinkers of his time. One particular essay struck a chord to many business owners at the time, titled A Message to Garcia, which I'd like to share with you in this post.

What is amazing is that this essay was written in 1899, over a hundred years ago, and yet I feel it still so powerful and relevant today. This essay is easy to read, although somewhat in old-school English, yet the points are crystal clear, solid and sound.

It surely resonates with me, both in my personal and professional life experiences...Work-wise, the tenets contained in A Message to Garcia are very relevant to project management and delivery, as well as the subject of mature, self-organising agile software development teams. As I spend most of my time wearing the hat of a program delivery manager, which supposed to be relatively abstracted away from details and hand-holding, micro-managing, I look to having at least one person of type Rowan that I can count on to get the message delivered....or ideally, at least one Rowan in every team or work-stream on the program...In a lean/agile software team, it would be great to have the entire team made up of Rowans (7-9 person team)... It's about the essence that counts!

Before I give more away, here's the essay, written 19th Century, still going strong in 21st Century...

In all this Cuban business there is one man stands out on the horizon of my memory like Mars at perihelion. When war broke out between Spain and the United States, it was very necessary to communicate quickly with the leader of the Insurgents. Garcia was somewhere in the mountain vastness of Cuba - no one knew where. No mail nor telegraph message could reach him. The President must secure his cooperation, and quickly.

What to do!

Some one said to the President, “There’s a fellow by the name of Rowan will find Garcia for you, if anybody can.”

Rowan was sent for and given a letter to be delivered to Garcia. How “the fellow by the name of Rowan” took the letter, sealed it up in an oil-skin pouch, strapped it over his heart, in four days landed by night off the coast of Cuba from an open boat, disappeared into the jungle, and in three weeks came out on the other side of the Island, having traversed a hostile country on foot, and delivered his letter to Garcia, are things I have no special desire now to tell in detail.

The point I wish to make is this: 

McKinley gave Rowan a letter to be delivered to Garcia; Rowan took the letter and did not ask, “Where is he at?” By the Eternal! there is a man whose form should be cast in deathless bronze and the statue placed in every college of the land. It is not book-learning young men need, nor instruction about this and that, but a stiffening of the vertebrae which will cause them to be loyal to a trust, to act promptly, concentrate their energies: do the thing- “Carry a message to Garcia!”

General Garcia is dead now, but there are other Garcias.

No man, who has endeavored to carry out an enterprise where many hands were needed, but has been well nigh appalled at times by the imbecility of the average man- the inability or unwillingness to concentrate on a thing and do it. Slip-shod assistance, foolish inattention, dowdy indifference, and half-hearted work seem the rule; and no man succeeds, unless by hook or crook, or threat, he forces or bribes other men to assist him; or mayhap, God in His goodness performs a miracle, and sends him an Angel of Light for an assistant. You, reader, put this matter to a test: You are sitting now in your office- six clerks are within call.

Summon any one and make this request: “Please look in the encyclopedia and make a brief memorandum for me concerning the life of Correggio”.

Will the clerk quietly say, “Yes, sir,” and go do the task?

On your life, he will not. He will look at you out of a fishy eye and ask one or more of the following questions:

Who was he?

Which encyclopedia?

Where is the encyclopedia?

Was I hired for that?

Don’t you mean Bismarck?

What’s the matter with Charlie doing it?

Is he dead?

Is there any hurry?

Shan’t I bring you the book and let you look it up yourself?

What do you want to know for?

And I will lay you ten to one that after you have answered the questions, and explained how to find the information, and why you want it, the clerk will go off and get one of the other clerks to help him try to find Garcia- and then come back and tell you there is no such man. Of course I may lose my bet, but according to the Law of Average, I will not.

Now if you are wise you will not bother to explain to your “assistant” that Correggio is indexed under the C’s, not in the K’s, but you will smile sweetly and say, “Never mind,” and go look it up yourself.

And this incapacity for independent action, this moral stupidity, this infirmity of the will, this unwillingness to cheerfully catch hold and lift, are the things that put pure Socialism so far into the future. If men will not act for themselves, what will they do when the benefit of their effort is for all? A first-mate with knotted club seems necessary; and the dread of getting “the bounce” Saturday night, holds many a worker to his place.

Advertise for a stenographer, and nine out of ten who apply, can neither spell nor punctuate- and do not think it necessary to.

Can such a one write a letter to Garcia?

“You see that bookkeeper,” said the foreman to me in a large factory.

“Yes, what about him?”

“Well he’s a fine accountant, but if I’d send him up town on an errand, he might accomplish the errand all right, and on the other hand, might stop at four saloons on the way, and when he got to Main Street, would forget what he had been sent for.”

Can such a man be entrusted to carry a message to Garcia?

We have recently been hearing much maudlin sympathy expressed for the “downtrodden denizen of the sweat-shop” and the “homeless wanderer searching for honest employment,” and with it all often go many hard words for the men in power.

Nothing is said about the employer who grows old before his time in a vain attempt to get frowsy ne’er-do-wells to do intelligent work; and his long patient striving with “help” that does nothing but loaf when his back is turned. In every store and factory there is a constant weeding-out process going on. The employer is constantly sending away “help” that have shown their incapacity to further the interests of the business, and others are being taken on. No matter how good times are, this sorting continues, only if times are hard and work is scarce, the sorting is done finer- but out and forever out, the incompetent and unworthy go.

It is the survival of the fittest. Self-interest prompts every employer to keep the best- those who can carry a message to Garcia.

I know one man of really brilliant parts who has not the ability to manage a business of his own, and yet who is absolutely worthless to any one else, because he carries with him constantly the insane suspicion that his employer is oppressing, or intending to oppress him. He cannot give orders; and he will not receive them. Should a message be given him to take to Garcia, his answer would probably be, “Take it yourself.”

Tonight this man walks the streets looking for work, the wind whistling through his threadbare coat. No one who knows him dare employ him, for he is a regular fire-brand of discontent. He is impervious to reason, and the only thing that can impress him is the toe of a thick-soled No. 9 boot.

Of course I know that one so morally deformed is no less to be pitied than a physical cripple; but in our pitying, let us drop a tear, too, for the men who are striving to carry on a great enterprise, whose working hours are not limited by the whistle, and whose hair is fast turning white through the struggle to hold in line dowdy indifference, slip-shod imbecility, and the heartless ingratitude, which, but for their enterprise, would be both hungry and homeless.

Have I put the matter too strongly? Possibly I have; but when all the world has gone a-slumming I wish to speak a word of sympathy for the man who succeeds- the man who, against great odds has directed the efforts of others, and having succeeded, finds there’s nothing in it: nothing but bare board and clothes.

I have carried a dinner pail and worked for day’s wages, and I have also been an employer of labor, and I know there is something to be said on both sides. There is no excellence, per se, in poverty; rags are no recommendation; and all employers are not rapacious and high-handed, any more than all poor men are virtuous.

My heart goes out to the man who does his work when the “boss” is away, as well as when he is at home. And the man who, when given a letter for Garcia, quietly take the missive, without asking any idiotic questions, and with no lurking intention of chucking it into the nearest sewer, or of doing aught else but deliver it, never gets “laid off,” nor has to go on a strike for higher wages. Civilization is one long anxious search for just such individuals. Anything such a man asks shall be granted; his kind is so rare that no employer can afford to let him go. He is wanted in every city, town and village- in every office, shop, store and factory.

The world cries out for such: he is needed, and needed badly - the man who can carry A MESSAGE TO GARCIA.

-Elbert Hubbard, 1899

My 2015 Enneagram Report

Continuing with my sharing the results of the various psychometrics I've been through, in this post I share a very recent report called the "Integrative Enneagram". The report is created from the responses I made to a series of multiple choice / scenario / feeling type questions. You can find free samples of these tests online...

What is the Enneagram...?

The Enneagram is a geometric figure that delineates the nine basic personality types of human nature and their complex inter-relationships. Each of these nine types has its own way of relating to others, its own set of perceptions and preoccupations, its own values and approaches to life. Each relates to others in different but understandable ways. The Enneagram helps everyone understand that there are nine different points of view, nine distinct sets of values, nine different communication styles, nine ways of solving problems - and so forth - that are all equally useful and valid. All of the types have something necessary to contribute to a thriving, balanced world.

Source: "Discovering your Personality Type", Don Riso & Russ Hudson

Enneagram Figure

Why Use the Enneagram?
To develop Self Mastery: Do you know what makes you tick? So that you can become more self-aware. Improve Self Development so you recognise and build on your strengths, and improve your weaknessses. Better Interpersonal skills - recognise 9 different personality types, nine ways of communicating & solving problems, respecting differences in order to coach your workers and enhance personal relationships.

My Enneagram Report: it turns out I am a 3 with a 2-wing

Type 3: The Achiever

The adaptable, ambitious type. Focused, excelling, driven, and image-conscious. Threes know how to work efficiently to get the job done according to customer expectations. Often attractive, charming and energetic, they are conscious of the image they project of themselves as well as of their team and company. They like getting recognition and are attracted to success and positions of prestige. They can be competitive and workaholics, driven by the need for status and personal advancement, deteriorating into cutting corners to stay ahead. At their best, they are accomplished and admirable, often seen as inspiring role models by others.

Type 2: The Mentor / Helper

The helpful, interpersonal type. Generous, appreciative, people-pleasing, and possessive. Twos are sensitive to the needs of others and seek to be of service. They appreciate the talents of others and act as confidants and guides, good at networking people and services. However, they typically have trouble saying no to requests and tend to become stressed by trying to help others too much. They dislike impersonal rules and work situations and can deteriorate into favouritism and time-wasting personal over-involvements. At their best, they are empathetic and generous and help build team interpersonal connections.

Snippets from my Report, you can download the full report here.

Multichoice Psychometrics (Feb 2011)

Continuing with my psychometrics journey in self-reflection...

I'm almost drawing to the end of my psychometrics review. One more post to follow which is what I recently did in 2015, the Enneagram (scheduled for publishing in May). In my previous post, I shared the EQi report which was part of the Multichoice HR assessment. To complete Multichoice's assessment, HR collates all reports from the various testing and compiles a single report that offers HR's overall assessment of the candidate, made up of the following:

• Occupational Personality Profile (OPP)
• General Reasoning Test Battery (GRT2)
• Cognitive Processes Profile (CPP)
• Emotional Quotient Inventory (EQi)

I had an interesting session with HR, as I didn't agree with some of the feedback. Bear in mind that I did rush through the assessments, so it could've been a factor. Anyway, the profile that was targeted at the time was for a Scrum Master role, which according to HR was an "average fit" (my point of contention!). Anyway, as the story unfolded - the management team felt I was too senior and experienced for that role, and instead offered a Senior Project Manager role, which I eventually accepted. Shortly after being hired, I ended up being promoted to a senior Program Manager role, where I remained for about two years, before branching out on my own as an independent consultant.

Current Level of Work: Tactical Strategy

Evaluate practices and systems to identify and co-ordinate optimal methods

Consider alternative  routes to  maximise the goal achievement of the functional unit

Potential Level of Work: Parallel Processing

Pursue and co-ordinate multiple parallel  pathways

Synchronise and connect  efforts of the different functional and/or business units

Focus on  business  processes  and  business strategy

Interpersonal Skills/ Team Orientation

A fairly sociable and outgoing person who enjoys working within a team. He feels at his most constructive as a member of a group. In meetings and discussions, he will frequently adopt a leadership role. Given his high need for affiliation he may however become a little restless if he has to be by himself for long periods of time.

Emotional Intelligence: Total EQi: Enhanced Skill

The Total EQ indicates an individual who overall feels good about himself and others and who is leading a successful life. Such individuals are generally optimistic about dealing with problems and have a positive outlook on life. He successfully controls his emotions and typically is not impulsive. He is probably realistic, assertive, and at least fairly successful in solving problems. He is likely to be optimistic and have a positive outlook on life.

Intrapersonal: Enhanced Skill

Interpersonal: Enhanced Skill  

Stress Management: Enhanced Skill 

Adaptability:  Enhanced Skill

General Mood: Effective Functioning

Implementer & Coordinator

He should be particularly adept at co-ordinating a team to achieve a practical result. He will establish well-defined areas of responsibility in a group, supervise regularly, and set an example of conscientious determination and hard work.

Self motivation

A fairly optimistic person, he has a basic belief in his own abilities and will generally expect to be successful in most things he does. A very resilient and secure person who will be able to quickly recharge his batteries given demanding work schedules.

Communication

Somewhat more persuasive than most people he will be a moderately effective speaker, particularly when he is talking about a subject he is familiar  with. He is fairly aware of social expectations.

Assertiveness

An extremely assertive person who usually dominates interpersonal relationships.

Forceful and at times somewhat brash, he rarely 'takes no for an answer'.

Quick to challenge he will speak his mind, even if it means upsetting some people.

He may be inclined to force decisions through, with scant regard for other people's feelings

Creative

As interested in artistic, creative activities as most people. While not overly creative he will nonetheless see the value of the arts.

Planning and Organising

Not inclined to be impulsive, he usually plans well ahead. He likes to work  in a systematic methodical way, within  fairly well defined structures.

Leadership Style

Directive: Characterised by having firm views about how  and  when things should be done.

Delegative: Characterised by delegating work to subordinates.

Subordinate Style: Informative & Receptive.

Generally, he is likely to produce creative ideas and innovative solutions. A very accommodating individual who is eager to complete the work that is assigned to him in accordance to pre­ specified procedures .

Reasoning Abilities

Verbal Reasoning: Slightly Above Average

Numerical Reasoning: Well Above Average

Abstract Reasoning: Slightly Below Average

Problem Solving Styles: Logical Reasoning

Looks for logical evidence to verify arguments.  Follow  reasoning processes through  in a self-aware and logical way.

Reflective

Usually associated with a relatively slow approach, pace control does occur. Tendency to explore.

Learning Potential

Muhammad shows a high level of learning potential.

Recommendation

There is an  average job-person fit. May be forceful and inattentive to the needs of others. May tend to be inflexible and resistant to change. Highly communicative, he may have difficulty distancing himself from subordinates and will not enjoy working alone.

Click here to download the official report.

My 2011 BarOn Emotional Quotient Inventory

Continuing with my psychometrics journey in self-reflection...

In 2011 I decided to leave the UK and relocate back to my home country South Africa, after spending all my professional life overseas, having setup my life and family from scratch, so decided to leave it all behind and start afresh in South Africa. At the time, I was experimenting with other job applications in the UK, but my heart had already decided to move back to SA and give that a chance.

At the time, I was engaging with a company called Multichoice, the technology providers behind DStv PayTV service in South Africa & rest of Africa. I had interviewed for a Scrum Master role (anything to get my foot through the door really, it turned out in the end that an entirely new position was created for me since I was considered too experienced for the Scrum Master role), passed the interview rounds, then had to undergo a battery of psychometric testing before final decisions were made.

Truth be told, I was rather impatient to get through the exercise. The first appointment was a mess, I had to travel to London in the early morning, pitched up at the appointed place - only to find out the building on that day, was under construction and couldn't be used. I was a little annoyed by the organiser to say the least, we went from one hotel to another, looking for a suitable quiet space, in the end decided to reschedule. So a wasted trip - not a good first impression on the company's part.

The second trip was scheduled for a few weeks later, it was cold and miserable - I had to drive for about an hour, on a weekend... Apparently, these EQ tests must be done first thing in the morning, when your mind is fresh, etc. Seeing this was my second trip, I rushed through the tests, just wishing to get through it as quickly as possible (at the time I wasn't too convinced about the need for these psychometric profiling, my track record along with my network of contacts, testimonials - should speaks for itself, so I thought) - and what would usually take four hours to complete, I completed in under two hours, didn't go back and double-check my work, and left (requirement ticked)...

In this post, I share the results of the EQi BarOn Emotional Quotient Inventory report, that I believe was hosted by this company.

I sometimes wonder how the report would have panned out had I went into the session with full body, mind & soul, fully supportive of the psychometrics instead of seeing the testing as somewhat of an HR irritation (I was under a lot of stress at the time, leaving a well-earned dream techie software labs job, having built-up-a-life-and-family-in-UK, I used to be the one that said "I'll never return back to SA" and here I was actually applying for a job in SA!)...

My EQi Development Report (Weighted against South African Profiles)...

Profile Summary

Total EQ: 118

The Total EQ for Muhammad indicates an individual who overall feels good about himself and others and who is leading a successful life. Individuals like Muhammad who are at the upper end of the scale for Total EQ scale are generally optimistic about dealing with problems and have a positive outlook on life. Muhammad successfully controls his emotions and typically is not impulsive. He is probably realistic, assertive, and at least fairly successful in solving problems. He is likely to be optimistic and have a positive outlook on life. Muhammad's Emotional Intelligence will help optimize his achievements and success. A more detailed description of the EQ-i components is given in the next section.

The Overall EQ-i results indicate well-developed Emotional Intelligence. One or two subscales stand out as particularly high relative to the others. These components contribute the most to his Emotional Intelligence.

The highest subscales are Flexibility (127), Independence (120), Empathy (120).

BBC Psychometrics

Continuing with my psychometrics journey in self-reflection...

In 2010 I put myself on the job market in the UK before deciding to leave the life I built up there from ten years, and just return back home to South Africa. So I took a stab at applying to the BBC. At the time, the BBC was moving much of its organisation from London to the north Manchester, Salford Quays - they had hundreds of positions available. I actually sat in one session going through five different positions. 

I know now, that's not a good way to go about the job search, it had been a long time since I'd interviewed, I came off the biggest project delivery, and was confident in my chameleon-like abilities of taking on multi-disciplinary roles.

Anyway, the BBC had at the time, a long and intense filtering process, starting with email and telephonic conversations, a formal write-up to respond to scenario & experience-project-based questions, and an online assessment exercise, that lasts between two-five hours, with all sorts of profiling: pattern recognition, maths, scenario-based questions, video simulation, the works. Once you past that hurdle, your results are reviewed, and then if you're lucky, you get called in for the interview.

I tried to follow-up with BBC on their specific tools-set they used for their profiling. This was their response at the time:

As requested, please find attached feedback following your application for a role at BBC North. This has been generated automatically based on how you have responded to the questions as part of the online assessment. The assessment and feedback has been created using software developed by a company called Previsor (www.previsor.co.uk), who specialise in selection tools.

A key part of how we’re recruiting for BBC North is looking at the behaviours of applicants and whether they match the ones that we feel are important in our employees. Our online assessment is therefore based on finding out about your preferred working style and how well this matches our requirements.

We hope the feedback is useful to you. 

This company, Previsor merged with SHL and are still in the business of providing organisations with talent assessment tools.

The report that was generated for me, had this to say:

This report is designed to give you information about your relative strengths and weaknesses on the competencies known to be important for success in this type of job. In addition, the report provides valuable on-the-job tips and suggestions to help you excel in the workplace.
The score that you receive describes how your responses compared against our database of responses consisting of your peers. The assessment that you have taken has been scientifically validated by up to 30 years of statistical data collection and analysis. People who score higher on the dimensions tend to perform better on the job in the key areas outlined in the report.

What annoyed me was that there wasn't any indication of the relative errors in the report, that the results are based on theories, instead it assumed a validity of correctness that I found a little unsettling, because it assumed to "know me", since some of the findings reported were totally off, as you shall see below (see Flexibility & Resilience commentary).

In summary, I did fit into BBC's style, as the report concluded:

Situational Judgement

This is a measure of the degree of alignment between one's approach to resolving work-related issues and the expectations of BBC. This is characterised by responding to work-related scenarios in a way that promotes original thinking, connecting with audiences and communities, being open to new ideas, taking responsibility for decisions and actions, and displaying a can-do attitude when faced with obstacles.

Your responses to the work scenarios demonstrated a high level of match with the judgements and behaviours looked for by the BBC. The BBC values and promotes original thinking, connecting with audiences and communities, being open to ideas and partnerships, taking responsibility, and having a can-do attitude.

I was placed in their talent pool for Senior/Technology-Manager roles.

See detailed report below...