Why New Ventures Fail
• How many fail?*
– 20% within one year
– 66% within 7 years
• Why?
– Exaggerated sense of optimism
– Vacillation over funding options
• Who or what is to blame?
* Chiganti and Chiganti, Proceedings of the Small Business Institute, 2008
Why CEOs Fail
“More than any other way, by failure to put the right
people in the right jobs – and the related failure to fix
people problems in time.”
– Ram Charon & Geoffrey Colvin, Fortune magazine 6/21/99
What about the Team?
• CEO’s bet their vision on the team
• VC’s bet their funding on the team
• What are they really betting on?
What do you really know?
•
•
•
•
•
•
Personality (how applicable?)
Knowledge/Skill (how well performed?)
Previous experience (how relevant?)
Resume (how accurate?)
Recommendations (how biased?)
Interviews (how objective?)
VCs & entrepreneurs demand a new way to know who will
contribute productively, and who won’t
Assessment Origins - Who did what?
Performanc
e
TGI Role-
Behavior
GerberPresser
Exec. Behavior
Lowenfiel
d Mosaic
Rorschac
h
Gerber
Mosaic
Figures
MyersBriggs
Woodworth
(U.S. Army)
MMPI
Patholog
y
GerberPresser
Enhanced EBA
Allport
Values
Cattell
16PF
Personality
Personality
Based
Assessment
Components
Hartman
Axiology/EQ
5-Factor
Theory
DiSC
Predictiv
e Index
Caliper
Intellect
BinetSimon
IQ
Raw Material
Stanford
-Binet IQ
Wechsler
WAIS
U.S. Army
AlphaBeta
1900
1920
1940
1960
1980
From Intellect, to Personality, to Behavior
2000
2010
What you
measure
is what
you get.
What you
measure
is what
you get.
What is Role-Based Assessment™?
• Both Theory and Method focus on the way a person will
tend to work in a group (their Role), rather than on his/her
individual characteristics
• Roles do predict how people will behave: collaboration,
motivation and engagement
• Role-Based Assessment is very different from other
assessments
RBA Measures Coherence
Diffuse
•
•
•
A Coherent person has a well-developed sense of self and others; seeks to contribute
A Rigid person is self-involved; is motivated to self-protect by dominating/manipulating others
A Diffuse person is self-involved; is motivated to self-protect by misdirecting attention
Coherent
Rigid
Roles are not Jobs
• Your Role is not your Personality; very different kinds of
people may have the same Role
• Roles serve the group’s universal needs:
– Envisioning (or inventing) the future
– Turning ‘the Vision’ into strategies and plans
– Overseeing and guiding the group
– Making detailed schedules and assignments
– Following plans and getting things done quickly
Roles are not Jobs
• Roles serve the group’s universal needs:
– Creating and building ‘community’ (team spirit)
– Identifying and solving tough problems
– Preserving/providing knowledge and group history
– Tending to the needs of others
– Searching for new possibilities, resources, and
information
Most people have a distinct preference or drive
to fulfill one of these needs. That's their Role.
Roles are not Jobs
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
Envisioning the future - - - - - - - - - - - From Vision to Strategy - - - - - - - - - Big-picture Guidance - - - - - - - - - - Getting it done! - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - Planning, scheduling, tracking - - - Creating ‘community’- - - - - - - - - - Solving thorny problems - - - - - - - - Preserving knowledge - - - - - - - - - Tending to immediate needs - - - - Searching for ‘treasure’ - - - - - - - - - -
> Founder
> Vision Mover
> Vision Former
> Action Mover
> Action Former
> Communicator
> Conductor
> Curator
> Watchdog
> Explorer
Some Roles are a natural ‘fit’ to specific kinds of jobs
How Bad Hires Happen
Finalist
Candidates
Personality
Knowledge/Skill
Career Path
Resume
References
Interviews
HIRED!
1
PP
PP
PP
PP
PP
PP
PP
2
3
PP
PP
P
PP
PP
P
P
PP
PP
PP
P
PP
P


How Bad Hires Happen
Finalist
Candidates
Role-Based
Assessment
Personality
Knowledge/Skill
Career Path
Resume
References
Interviews
Uh-oh!
1
Rigid; wrong Role;
teaming = poor
PP
PP
PP
PP
PP
PP

2
3
Coherent; wrong Role; Coherent; right Role;
teaming = excellent
teaming = fair
PP
PP
P
PP
PP
P
P
?
PP
PP
PP
P
PP
P
PP
Put first things first: Coherence, Role-fit, Teaming!
Candidate #1: Operations Manager
• She has little interest in finding or fixing other people's
problems or of actually doing things that other people want her
to do.
• She has little interest in organizational tasks, which is going to
keep her disorganized in both her approach and her work.
• In general, this candidate is so burdened with problems that she
is likely to be a high maintenance employee.
From the actual RBA report of Candidate #1.
If you had known, would you have hired her?
Select from the Best of the Best
Finalist
Candidates
Role-Based
Assessment
Personality
Knowledge/Skill
Career Path
Resume
References
Interviews
HIRED!
4
5
PP
P
P
PP
PP
PP
P
PP
P
P
PP
PP
PP
PP
P
6
Coherent; right Role; Coherent; right Role; Coherent; right Role;
teaming = excellent
teaming = excellent
teaming = excellent
PP
PP
PP
P
PP
P
PP
RBA screening adds value to other assessment methods!
Candidate #6: Administrative Support
• This candidate is the type of support person who can be
found in the front of the group with marker in hand,
developing a list of things that need to be done or important
points or project benchmarks.
• He is the consummate organizer. The key is that he does not
organize for the present but as a way of getting things ready
for the future. His style is one of handling many things
simultaneously.
Key information in plain English, identifying strong performers
and future leaders
The Team Starts with the Founder
 First on your timeline
 Has the Vision and writes the paper - not
a statement – before the business plan
 Gets people to want to be part of it
 Keeps one eye inside and the other
outside, connects the organization with
the world
Vision balanced by Grounding
Vision Mover
Vision Former
Drive balanced by Organization
Action Mover
Action Former
Obtain and Provide the Essentials
Explorer
Watchdog
Create Community, Culture,
and Coordination
Communicator
Fix Problems, Bank the Solutions
Conductor
Curator
Finding & Keeping Good People
• Effective people are ‘Coherent’; use Role-Based
Assessment to identify and develop them
• Align Roles to job responsibilities to strengthen team
performance
• Give people goals that require constructive and
challenging interaction, and reward them as a team
People don’t leave companies, they leave managers!
What Diffuse Managers Do…
Create Rivalry & Conflict
Plans
Synergy
Goals
Blame &
Victimize
Engagement
Rewards
Vision
Achievement
Objectives
Schedules
Confuse & Frustrate
At Best: Inconsistent, Unpredictable Performance
Misdirect &
Deprive
What Rigid Managers Do…
Demean
Discourage
What Rigid Managers Do…
Demean
Manipulate
Discourage
Micromanage
What Rigid Managers Do…
Demean
Discourage
Manipulate
Micromanage
Inhibit or Compartmentalize Team Synergy
What Rigid Managers Do…
Demean
Discourage
Manipulate
Micromanage
Inhibit or Compartmentalize Team Synergy
At best: High Performance -- but at High Cost
What Coherent Managers Do…
Organize
Empower
Respect
Acknowledge
Lead, Inspire, Engage, Integrate, Motivate
What Coherent Managers Do…
Organize
Empower
Respect
Acknowledge
Lead, Inspire, Engage, Integrate, Motivate
At Best: Build Teams, Resolve Problems, Improve Productivity, Exceed
Expectations
Building a
Coherent Human Infrastructure
• The keys to strategic intervention: What makes a great
team great?
– Analyzing teams
– Role-fit, Coherence, and team
structure
– Diagnosis and repair of
organizational performance
problems
• CHI Indicators provide global
metrics
You Can Do This Now
• Mine your current workforce for ‘hidden
treasure’
• Create a Coherent workplace and improve
performance across-the-board
• Develop Leaders and Teams
• Get a simple, accurate, actionable agenda for
solving organizational problems
DrJ’s Rules of Entrepreneurship
• You can’t do it alone
• No one gets it right the first time, so don’t hesitate to reevaluate
• Cash is king, but the team determines how effectively it will be
utilized
• The marketplace rules, but you and your team can create and
control perceived value
• What you do + how you do it = who you are
Make your workplace a place that works better!
Dr. Janice Presser, CEO
The Gabriel Institute
1515 Market Street, Suite 825
Philadelphia, PA 19102
215-825-2500
jpresser@thegabrielinstitute.com
Ask Dr. Janice Blog: http://drjanice.wordpress.com/
CEO2CEO Blog: http://ceo2ceo.wordpress.com
Twitter: http://twitter.com/DrJanice
LinkedIn Group: www.linkedin.com/groups?gid=1855357