choices
for the right reasons from moment to moment, day in and day out, he will
have made the best use of his (and the company's) most important resource,
himself. And he will have made the best possible use of all the resources
at his command.HEADCOUNT©
Over the years, in helping companies to carry out our plans, it has
often come down to how each manager decides what to do next. Does he do
the next thing because he likes to do it, or is good at it, is simply comfortable
with it or because it will be profitable? If he makes the right
choices
for the right reasons from moment to moment, day in and day out, he will
have made the best use of his (and the company's) most important resource,
himself. And he will have made the best possible use of all the resources
at his command.
H K Ball and Associates has evolved through 25 years of practice in solving this fundamental resource equation a software driven system called HeadCount©. The Head part of the system involves the measuring of the manager's personality characteristics, constructing a four point graphic profile, and comparing it with a like profile for each component of his job. The Count part involves the now and future profit impact of each job element, and the constructing of a present value dollar per hour impact based on how each manager spends his time. By using a combination of computer generated graphics and numbers, it is possible to see the whole story of a manager's work life on one piece of paper.
Head
The procedure
for identifying manager profiles by grouping personality characteristcs
has been in existence since the late 1940's, has been marketed by a number
of firms, all using the same basic concepts, although the approach and
formatting varies. The two primary ones are Predictive Index (Figure 1)
and D I S C (Figure 2), both of which are incorporated into HeadCount©.
The input required from the manager is to place a number by any of 100
adjectives or phrases that tend to describe him all or in part. He is asked
to grade the words in two contexts, what he feels is expected of him by
others, and how he feels he really is deep down. These graded words are
then grouped into 4 categories and counted. The counts are then scaled
to produce two curves, and the curves are
placed against curve patterns for various job types (production, sales, engineering, accounting, etc.). It is then possible to match the individual with the job and reach some conclusions about compatibility and to what degree the manager is altering his basic personality (the way he really is) to perform in the work environment (expected by others). A typical grouping of adjectives might be as follows:
A - dominance - self-sufficient, independent, inner directed doer, problem solver, technically oriented.
B - sociability - pleasant, friendly, cheerful, fluent, lively, poised, good mixer, people oriented.
C - stability - comfortable, secure, easy going, relaxed, deliberate, methodical.
D - craftsman - the expert, specialist, details, accurate, thorough, systematic, careful.
These four groupings,
with different counts, can describe a large number of different profiles.
Figure 3 shows the Self (the way he really is) and Others (what others
expect) curves for John Smith. Superimposed is the curve that would be
required for the skill of Creative Intellectual. Notice that the three
curves are somewhat different, denoting that he is expending a sustantial
amount of energy "bending himself out of shape" to perform that
particular skill. The color coded numbers on the lower right are indications
of the amount of energy expended, or stress level.
HKB, in working jointly with marketers of these techniques, began to realize in the late 1970's that a good manager, in order to perform his various tasks, had to modify his personality from task to task, not just from his personal to his business life. The different skills in any job require different personality characteristics. Each function of a job is made up of a mix of these skills. The good manager is flexible enough to change his mix of skills as the job dictates, even though they may conflict with the way he would really like to be in his normal state.
Figure 4 shows
a profile of a n accountant, with the job functions down the left side
of the chart, with the skill components listed across the top. The numbers
in the table reflect the amount of that particar skill, hence personality
characteristic, is required for each function..
Figure 5 shows the resulting curves for the job Marketing Manager. Notice
that the curves going down each skill column are the same, but are sized
differently in accordance with the importance of that skill in each function
The curves in the far right hand column are the composits of the skills,
that is the weighted averages of all the various sized skill curves. When
we superimpose Smith's on top of the store manager job curves, the eye
can immediately see the gaps, areas where Smith must expend energy to accomodate
the skills and therefore the functions. The numbers to the bottom right
of the curve reflect the differences between the two curves. The larger
number, the greater the amount of energy expended. Notice the “smudgy”
curves, denoting a critical combination of 
Head
and Count considerations. planning, things,
one-on-one, and ideas are particularly difficult for Smith. This affects
his performance in the job functions of distributor calls and mergers and
acquisitions. By scanning the chart, Smith's problems can be quickly spotted.
From this information, management can council Smith, make he and his boss aware of the problems, and to some degree he can work around the difficulties by delegating, picking the right time of day to perform, practicing better flexibility. But there is only so much energy that can be expended. The job itself may be modified, or the manager may "stick it out" until a more suitable opportunity presents itself within the company.
Count
Probably the most important single charac-teristic that makes for a good manager is his ability to relate everything he thinks or does, as he does it, to bottom line profit impact. The ability is rarely found in nature. Most of us are not born with it, but rather have to learn it through experience or some kind of osmosis. Over the years HKB has developed a systematic way to do this.
The process is to first establish what kind of plan for the company makes sense over, say, a five year period, and to construct a mathematical model of the plan broken down into its key components. Then an assessment is made of what kinds of events outside management's control could influence these projections, and by how much, and what effects this would have on profits. A similar assessment is made of what the differences in good and poor performance by management might do to key components of the plan, and how much that might affect profits up and down. Then, the primary programs, projects, and ongoing activities that will steer and carry the company are determined, and management's up or down profit impact is estimated within the context of the plan model. The profit impact of each program or activity is then diced up by specific functions of key management, and diced up some more by key managers.
All of this ends
up giving an annual profit value for each manager for each function that
he performs. This is then compared with some subjective views he has about
what he does (the functions). Notice that there is a big difference between
his subjective viewof the Importance of Competitive Info vs the dollar
per hour value computed as shown in Figure 6. Notice that he does not Like
that function as much as others, although he is reasonably comfortable
with it. Perhaps if he Liked it more he would spend more time doing it
and the dollar per hour value would go down. By the same token, the Customer
Interface value is the other way, indicating he may spend too much time,
bringing the dollar per hour value down.
Combining Head and Count
Figure 7 shows
the personality curves along with dolars per hour and per year for Smith
in his job on one chart, with computerized color highlighting to give an
indication of the appropriate action to be taken.
These are therefore the true profiles of the function The addition of profit impact gives far more dimension to the personality fit problems. Management (and Smith) can see where it is worth it to expend energies and to what degree. For instance, Maintenance, Merchandizing and Cost Control are areas of high dollar per hour value where Smith's personality does not totally fit the tasks. Knowing this can enable management, through appropriate action, to make a difference in his peformance.
How It Makes Money
If a manager can recognize at any moment what the profit impact of his next move is, he will have more reason to act or find out more before he acts. Since managers act largely in an intuitive way, it is important to understand the nature of their feelings. If they don't like what they are about to do, they are uncomfortable with it, but they are made aware of the underlying personality mismatch, they may double check their thinking. Or, they may wait until a better time when they have more data. Or they may seek help from others.
A useful analogy is the batter in baseball. HeadCount© can raise the hitter's batting average from .280 to .300, which while not a lot in an absolute sense, can make a very large difference to the management team, particularly if every team member's average is also going up a few points.
Probe
As resources strategies
begin to evolve it is vital to have exchanges with other management and
with human resources personnel. This is done with one click for each key
man on Probe (Figure 8). This sends exactly what is on the screen to any
and all personnel clicked, and hardcopy if needed. All can remotely, at
the same time, look at and manipulate what is on the screen, including
the a manager in the field with his laptop.
Multiple Job Analyses
A powerful tool of HeadCount© is to look at a number of different people for the same job for short and long range planning ,or conversely, to look at a given individual for a number of prospective jobs that might be in their future over the years. If a person is having some problem with “smudgies” in his job, he can envision light at the end of the tunnel when he is able to move as part of his pesonal develpment program into another job. Different “smudgies”, and the hopes of maybe a better fit. The typical array as seen on the screen might look like Figure 9.
