5
What’s the Right Department for You?
The Strengths of High Performers by Department
BESIDES SEEING which industry might best suit you based on the characteristics of high performers, you also can match Executive Skills by department. High performers have different strengths and weaknesses depending on the department they work in, as you’ll see in the 10 departments profiled in this chapter.
By comparing your strengths to those of high performers by department, you can see where there are matches, the same process as by industry. If some of your strengths match those of high performers in a particular department, chances are that you could succeed in that department as well, all other things being equal.
And if you manage others, especially at an executive level, by comparing the strengths of high performers in certain departments, you can get a better feel for what strengths to look for in candidates you may be considering moving into that department.
There’s also the added benefit of using these insights to devise ways to better interact with high performers to your advantage once you know the Executive Skills strengths and weaknesses they’re likely to possess. This can not only help avoid conflict, but also make communications and interactions more effective, once you know what to look for and expect in the behaviors of the other person.
As you’ll see, there are similarities in Executive Skills strengths and weaknesses within any given department, providing insight into what departments may best suit you.
Marketing/Advertising/Promotion: Always Getting Better
If it’s very natural for you to continually review actions and activities seeking improvements, you may be well suited for marketing, advertising, or promotion departments. High performers there are strong in Metacognition, Working Memory, or Flexibility.1 Critical tasks would not likely fall through the cracks for those strong in Working Memory, and changing on the fly for a marketing program would easily fall into place for those strong in Flexibility.
As in many cases, these strengths seem logical based on the functions required for the jobs. You might expect that a successful marketer would always be looking for ways to improve and be flexible to change as market needs change. The significance, however, is that these skills are found in large percentages of high performers in marketing departments, making it predictive that if you have those skills, you could have a good chance of also being a high performer in that department, all other things being equal, of course.
If you’re not good at starting on time or managing time well, that wouldn’t be a problem for you in marketing, since half of high performers there are weak in Task Initiation, making it normal for projects or activities to be put off until necessary. It could be that tasks aren’t started by these high performers naturally but that others or external factors cause them to start things when absolutely required. The time to start projects and the time to complete them would also likely be an issue with these high performers, as relatively few of them are strong in Time Management, and almost a third are weak in it. Again, it would not be the high performers in this environment who would likely be responsible for managing time; that task would fall to others.
Interestingly, the two strengths that would be helpful for creatives, Metacognition and Flexibility (as we identified in SMARTS), are each found in more than a third of high performers in marketing/advertising/promotion departments.
Many high performers here may face the issue of keeping their emotions in check, since Emotional Control is the second most frequently found weakness.2 So while a rejected ad campaign or creative proposal may seem to be taken in stride, it could bother many of these high performers for hours, days, or even weeks without you or others knowing.
The Differentiator for high performers in marketing/advertising/promotion is Metacognition. With 88 percent of high performers here not weak in Metacognition and it being the leading strength, it isn’t likely someone weak in this Executive Skill would be a high performer in one of those departments. There are, of course, exceptions, but the likelihood is not high. So if Metacognition is a strength of yours, you’d match many high performers in marketing/advertising/promotion, as well as in general management, as you’ll see later in this chapter.
Executive Skills Strengths: Marketing/Advertising/Promotion
Metacognition
Working Memory
Flexibility
Executive Skills Weaknesses: Marketing/Advertising/Promotion
Task Initiation
Emotional Control
Organization
Differentiator: Marketing/Advertising/Promotion
Metacognition
This information can help you deal with people in marketing, notably the high performers, by realizing the common strengths and weaknesses of those you might be dealing with. For example, knowing that the high performers tend to be flexible problem solvers and can draw from past experiences would allow you to give them more leeway in solving a complex problem. If those are your weakest skills, you would want to defer to them even more.
Conversely, knowing many are weak in Emotional Control, Organization, or Task Initiation indicates that it could be more useful to be less focused on the starting time of a project rather than how well it is created and executed. Also, the office of the person you deal with in marketing may look like a disaster area due to his weak Organization, but focusing on the strengths could take away that potentially negative aspect.
Understanding weaknesses of others tends to diffuse conflict in advance.
Sales: Not Falling Through the Cracks
If you tend to not let things fall through the cracks when under the gun, maybe you should be in sales. That skill is a common key for high performers in sales departments, since Working Memory is the most commonly found strength in high performers there. Other strengths are Goal-Directed Persistence, Planning/Prioritization, and Flexibility.3 As you’ll see in a later chapter, the strengths differ from sales employee to sales manager to sales executive, which could help explain why a great salesperson may not become a great sales manager.
As was the case with high performers in marketing, a full half of those in sales share the weakness of Task Initiation. Now you know why great salespeople might procrastinate before heading out for that sales call, or why they never get around to starting that sales or expense report, which is likely to remain on the back burner until absolutely required. And if these salespeople are criticized for this or any other reason, many of them may get upset, since Emotional Control is one of the most frequently found weaknesses, though they may not openly show it.
They also may not be able to find some of those reports, since a most frequently found weakness is Organization. This could help explain why their desks look chaotic and papers are strewn everywhere. You may see a strong salesperson scrambling to get ready for a sales call panic because she can’t find her car keys. Now you know why.
For high performers in sales, correctly assessing how long it may take to get to a sales call or how long a meeting will last may be difficult, since only one in ten are strong in Time Management and about a third count it as a weakness. This could also be why a sales presentation is not finished on time, primarily because the salesperson grossly underestimated how long it would take. A solution here, of course, is for the salesperson to ask a high Time Management person to estimate how long the proposal will take and use that as a guideline, not what the salesperson thinks. So if you’re a high-performing salesperson and you’re calling on a client also low in Time Management, both of you are likely to be late for the start of the meeting, and neither will keep track of how long it should last. The good news is that it won’t bother either of you.
The Differentiator in sales is Working Memory, with 89 percent of high performers not weak in it and it being the most frequently found strength. If you’re strong in Working Memory, you match the key brain characteristic of high performers in sales.
Executive Skills Strengths: Sales
Working Memory
Goal-Directed Persistence
Planning/Prioritization
Executive Skills Weaknesses: Sales
Task Initiation
Emotional Control
Organization
Differentiator: Sales
Working Memory
In dealing with one of these high performers, you may want to consider that they’re likely to hit their end objective (strong Goal-Directed Persistence) but are probably going to have issues starting on time or even calculating time well along the way. Just keep in mind, they will get it done. If your strong skills are the weak skills of these high performers, you may have a tough time understanding how these people get the job done, since they are essentially wired differently than you.
Systems/IT: All About Road Maps
If Planning/Prioritization is one of your strengths, you could be a high performer in systems/information technology. High performers there have a natural ability to create road maps of where they want to go and how to get there, since Planning/Prioritization is the most frequently found strength. In fact, almost no high performers in IT are weak in this skill. This was highlighted in several IT departments, where large majorities shared this strength.
IT high performers can tend to be somewhat reflective, since the second most frequently found strength is Metacognition, followed by Working Memory, making it likely that these people don’t forget critical things at critical times. This could be a huge help in all areas of IT, from programming to strategic planning.
The most common weaknesses in high performers in IT are Task Initiation, Stress Tolerance, and Time Management. So while these people may be strong in sequencing tasks and events, they can have a tough time getting started or even accurately determining how long it will take to complete a project. Can you count how many IT projects have been delivered on time? Granted, there often are changes in requirements along the way, but it’s still not natural for a high performer in IT to accurately determine how long something will take to complete. This isn’t to say they don’t mean to; it’s just that their brain doesn’t process or estimate time with a high degree of accuracy.
The Differentiator for high performers in IT is Planning/Prioritization, with 95 percent of high performers not having it as a weakness and it being the most frequently found strength among this group.
Executive Skills Strengths: Systems/IT
Planning/Prioritization
Metacognition
Working Memory
Executive Skills Weaknesses: Systems/IT
Task Initiation
Stress Tolerance
Time Management
Differentiator: Systems/IT
Planning/Prioritization
When dealing with high performers in IT, you may want to let them devise the planning process, since it will be natural for them to determine which items should be in which order. But you also may want to encourage the meetings to occur, since their low Task Initiation and Time Management are not likely to make that very easy for them to do.
You also may want to keep in mind that when things get very busy and hectic, those high performers will be more prone to put things off and become stressed about the situation.
General Management: Goal-Oriented
If your Executive Skills matched well for marketing, chances are you may also be well suited for general management. High performers here are strong in Metacognition, also the most frequently found skill of those in marketing/advertising/promotion, as noted earlier. General management as a department comprises people with titles from CEO to employee and includes industries of all types. High performers also come from a range of organization size, from 100 or fewer employees to 100,000 or more.
The other top strengths of high performers in general management are Planning/Prioritization and Working Memory.
These high performers are also goal-driven, with more than a third strong in Goal-Directed Persistence and 92 percent not weak in it. You may recall that Goal-Directed Persistence was also a leading strength of those with C titles (CEO, CFO, etc.), which would make sense since many of the chiefs are within the category of general management.
The most common weaknesses in general management are Task Initiation, Time Management, and Emotional Control. If you’re a high performer in general management and are weak in one of these skills, you probably rely on assistants and others to keep you starting and running on time, since you’re not likely to excel in those functions.
The Differentiator for high performers in general management is Metacognition, with 91 percent of high performers not weak in it and it being the most frequently found strength. If Metacognition is one of your strengths, you match the strength of high performers in general management as well as several other departments.
Executive Skills Strengths: General Management
Metacognition
Planning/Prioritization
Working Memory
Executive Skills Weaknesses: General Management
Task Initiation
Time Management
Emotional Control
Differentiator: General Management
Metacognition
Dealing with those in general management should be similar to dealing with those in marketing, at least as it relates to allowing the high performer to devise solutions to problems. You’ll face the starting and running on time issue with those in general management, since Task Initiation and Time Management are common weaknesses. If either one of these is one of your strengths, you should control as much as possible the time elements of the interactions between the two of you.
Operations: Good on the Fly
If you could be successful in IT, you also may be well suited for operations departments, where execution is king and where planning and the ability to retool on the fly as things change are common characteristics of high performers. The most frequently found strength is Planning/Prioritization, followed by Metacognition and Flexibility.
High performers in operations also may have some organized self-starters around them, since that would complement their weaknesses.
The most frequent weakness in high performers in operations is Task Initiation, identified in nearly half of them. It’s interesting that while operations departments may be noted for getting things done, getting them started is not so natural for high performers there. This weakness was followed by Emotional Control and Organization.
If you’re strong in Planning/Prioritization, you possess the Differentiator for high performers in operations, where very few count that skill as a weakness, the same as in IT departments.
Executive Skills Strengths: Operations
Planning/Prioritization
Metacognition
Flexibility
Executive Skills Weaknesses: Operations
Task Initiation
Emotional Control
Organization
Differentiator: Operations
Planning/Prioritization
When dealing with high performers in operations, you may want to keep in mind that while they may have logically sequenced a plan or process, it would be very easy for you to get them to modify that plan if there was a better way. Because of their strong Flexibility or Metacognition, changing from what was established would be no big deal.
Customer Service: Strategically Important
If you’re highly organized and highly adaptable, you may be a lot like the high performers in customer service departments.
Customer service is the department that business leaders say provides the most strategic competitive advantage.4 It’s also most frequently cited as the department that provides organizations with the most tactical competitive advantage. After all, every business needs to satisfy its customers’ needs first and foremost, and many business leaders apparently recognize the importance of those on the front lines.
This leads to the obvious question of which Executive Skills strengths would be most valuable or are most frequently found in those who are successful in customer service departments. You’ve probably had both positive and negative experience with customer service departments. You may have dealt with customer service reps, whether over the phone or in person, and found some to seem very together and able to adapt to your needs and others not. The Executive Skills strengths of high-performing people who work in customer service might help explain why.
The strength most frequently found in high performers in customer service is Organization, which would make it likely they have an orderly system to handle problems. Many also are open to new ways to solve customer problems, since they’re strong in Flexibility, making them more likely to be creative and adaptive in problem situations. The third most commonly found strength is Planning/Prioritization, making it likely that the customer service person will figure out the sequence of events to solve a customer’s complex problem.
When it comes to weaknesses of high performers in customer service, the most frequently found are Stress Tolerance, Task Initiation, and Time Management. These people could feel bad if a customer interaction didn’t go as well as planned. They may seem rushed during a busy day, since they didn’t start something when they should have, leading to a sense of urgency, and crunched near the end of the day, because things took longer than expected.
These weaknesses don’t appear to be impediments to success in customer service, since they’re shared by the high performers. Some of these weaknesses could be negated by some of their strengths that can compensate for the weaknesses.
For example, a customer service representative may feel bad about an interaction with a customer (weak Stress Tolerance), but the reaction could come after the interaction and after the customer is gone. Because the customer service rep likely was prepared for the client or customer interaction (strong Organization), the result may have been as good as it could be. In addition, issues could have been outside of the customer service rep’s hands, such as a case where a customer is trying to get a difficult issue resolved that’s outside the representative’s area of responsibility. While a rep may lose track of time during the day and fall behind (low Time Management), he or she is likely to remember to deal with that last pressing issue before leaving (high Working Memory).5
The Differentiator for customer service departments is Flexibility, with more than four-fifths of high performers not low in it and it being among the most commonly found strengths. If you’re strong in Flexibility, one of your skills matches the key skill of high performers in customer service, so that could be a department for you.
Executive Skills Strengths: Customer Service
Organization
Flexibility
Planning/Prioritization
Executive Skills Weaknesses: Customer Service
Stress Tolerance
Task Initiation
Time Management
Differentiator: Customer Service
Flexibility
In dealing with strong customer service people, it may be helpful to consider that time isn’t much under their control, whether starting, tracking, or stopping, such as with a meeting. That means if you’re meeting with a high performer in customer service, you should make sure you’re the one who gets the meeting started and ended on time—that is, unless those are your weaknesses as well.
Administrative: Organized and Can Adapt
You might expect that high performers who work in administrative departments would require Executive Skills that would allow them to be highly organized, very adaptive, and able to keep things from being missed at the height of chaos, and it turns out that is just the case. The strengths most often found in high performers in administrative departments are Organization, Flexibility, and Working Memory.
And it’s a good thing that these high performers are organized and can remember important things when they count, because when things go badly, any of them may get upset, since their top weaknesses are Stress Tolerance and Emotional Control. They’re also likely to wait before starting, since many are weak in Task Initiation.
The Differentiator for high performers in administration is Working Memory, so if that is one of your strengths, you’re a match for high performers there, as well as in the next department.
Executive Skills Strengths: Administrative
Organization
Flexibility
Working Memory
Executive Skills Weaknesses: Administrative
Stress Tolerance
Emotional Control
Task Initiation
Differentiator: Administrative
Working Memory
When dealing with high performers working in administrative departments, you may want to be somewhat on the delicate side, due to the weaknesses of Stress Tolerance and Emotional Control. However, the people you’re dealing with will likely be highly organized, with a good handle on facts based on past activities. And dealing with those strong in Flexibility will allow you to make alternative suggestions that can be considered. You may want to make sure those suggestions are logical and orderly, which would be much easier received by these high performers.
Finance: Modify on the Fly
If you now work in finance and used to work in administrative, or vice versa, your strengths would match those of high performers in either department, since they’re the same for both departments.
Finance high performers are likely to be orderly and organized, have a good penchant to recall numbers and data when needed, and be able to modify on the fly based on the changing needs of those they work with. This is because they’re strong in Working Memory, Organization, and Flexibility. As in the other department, those in finance hold a wide range of titles, from employee to chief financial officer, and work in a wide range of industries, from nonprofits to financial services businesses.
While many high performers in finance seem highly organized, there are actually more who are disorganized. While Organization is the second most frequently found strength, it’s also the second most frequently found weakness. This means that being either strong or weak in Organization is not likely to be a factor to be a high performer in a finance department.
However, these high performers are not likely to get started on their own, since almost half of them are weak in Task Initiation. Many of them also may become upset by something that’s said to them in the course of a presentation, since Emotional Control is a weakness in more than a third of them.
In finance, the Differentiator is Working Memory, it being the most commonly found strength in high performers and not a weakness in most of them. If you’re strong in Working Memory, you have the Differentiator for finance, administrative, and sales departments.
Executive Skills Strengths: Finance
Working Memory
Organization
Flexibility
Executive Skills Weaknesses: Finance
Task Initiation
Organization
Emotional Control
Working Memory
If you deal with these people, keep in mind that some will be highly organized and others not, and you should be able to tell pretty quickly by just observing their office, paperwork, or approach to whatever you’re discussing. You may want to take the initiative in most cases, due to their low Task Initiation, to get the ball rolling on projects or even scheduling meetings.
The good news is that under pressure they will likely remember a critical element, even if you don’t, so if the two of you are in a rushed meeting, you can rely on them to make sure no critical issues are left behind.
Accounting: Methodical Approach
High performers in accounting are likely to be organized and methodical and tend to take a measured step-by-step approach that they can easily lay out even when very busy. They’re somewhat like high performers in finance departments in that they’re both strong in Organization and Working Memory. However, they are more likely to be organized across the board, since almost half of them are strong in Organization. Rather than it being a weakness in a large percentage of high performers, as it is in finance, Organization is a weakness in only a small percentage of those in accounting.
However, high performers in accounting may not be attracted to high-pressure situations, since the most frequently found weakness is Stress Tolerance, with more than half of them weak in it. As you might have expected, the next most commonly found weakness is Emotional Control, a typical combination with Stress Tolerance, as discussed earlier. And as with those in finance, high performers in accounting are not likely to be natural self-starters, since a commonly found weakness is Task Initiation.
These Executive Skills strengths and weaknesses in accounting could explain why tax accountants tell you not to worry, that your tax return will ultimately get done (high Organization), and then you’re finally told that they’ll be filing for an extension to the deadline for you (low Task Initiation). They know they’ll get your taxes done (high Planning/Prioritization) but have no sense of urgency or underestimate how long it will take to complete all the returns they’re working on (low Time Management is right behind low Task Initiation). For high performers overall who are weak in the skills that accounting high performers are strong in, none work in accounting departments.
These combinations of strengths and weaknesses in accounting don’t mean that if you have a different combination you can’t succeed in that role, but the chances are much lower than for someone whose strengths match those of the high performers.
The Differentiator in accounting departments is Planning/Prioritization, with 93 percent of high performers not low in it and it being found as a leading strength. If you’re strong in Planning/Prioritization, this is yet one more department where high performers share that same cognitive function.
Executive Skills Strengths: Accounting
Organization
Planning/Prioritization
Working Memory
Executive Skills Weaknesses: Accounting
Stress Tolerance
Emotional Control
Task Initiation
Differentiator: Accounting
Planning/Prioritization
In dealing with high performers in accounting, you want to consider that these are people who look at things sequentially. They can appear to seem driven and want to stay with a plan. If you get them to vary from that place of organization and method, they may become stressed and upset, since they’re more comfortable with things going as planned.
Clinical: Organized and Starting Right Away
If you’re good at keeping track of things and tend to pay attention to detail, you may have some of the same makeup of high performers in clinical departments of healthcare. Many of them are likely to be very good at determining next steps, especially in critical situations, and unlike high performers in other departments, many start things right away without any procrastination.
You may think this sounds logical for a healthcare professional in a clinical department, but this is also the Executive Skills profile of the most commonly found strengths in high performers there. The most common strengths are Organization, Planning/Prioritization, and Task Initiation.
In the overall study, there is a relatively even split between male and female respondents, though in clinical departments there are significantly more females than males. You might reason that this explains why Organization is the most frequently found strength since it’s also the most frequently found strength in female high performers overall. However, in clinical departments, Organization is also the most frequently found strength in males, so gender doesn’t seem to be a factor.
This is one of the rare departments where Task Initiation is a common strength, since many high performers in other departments possess it as a common weakness. It also makes sense that a high performer practicing in a clinical area would need to deal with patients right away rather than procrastinating. Indeed, starting things right away is a characteristic in clinical high performers. But as with Executive Skills, these high performers did not learn this skill; they were basically born with it.
The leading weakness in high performers in clinical departments is Stress Tolerance, which would likely make these people become emotionally distressed in a crisis situation and be resistant to change. They’d also be more comfortable knowing what to expect every day.
Many high performers in clinical departments are weak in Emotional Control, followed by Goal-Directed Persistence, making them somewhat sensitive to or focused on the short rather than the long term, which also seems logical based on what they do each day. Stress Tolerance and Emotional Control are commonly found together in a high performer, so if you’re weak in one, there’s a good chance you’re weak in the other. If you’re a high performer strong in Organization, you have a high chance of being weak in Stress Tolerance and/or Emotional Control, as is the case in clinical high performers. This is also true if you’re strong in Sustained Attention or Time Management.
For high performers in clinical departments, the Differentiator is Planning/Prioritization, with 92 percent of high performers not low in it and it being one of the top strengths.
Executive Skills Strengths: Clinical
Organization
Planning/Prioritization
Task Initiation
Executive Skills Weaknesses: Clinical
Stress Tolerance
Emotional Control
Goal-Directed Persistence
Differentiator: Clinical
Planning/Prioritization
When interacting with high performers in clinical departments, you can expect them to be organized and ready to go. Keep in mind that because of the weakness in Goal-Directed Persistence, they may be a lot better at starting something than in following it to completion. In such interactions, it would be helpful to have someone involved who is strong in Goal-Directed Persistence, which would be a strong complement to the strengths of a clinical high performer.
Executive Skills in a Department: Clinical High Performers
It can be helpful to see what strengths and weaknesses look like in a department overall, since you often will be interacting with more than one person in any given department. And if you manage others, this could be even more important as you identify typical combinations of strengths of high performers to see what behaviors you can expect based on those strengths.
Chest PT Services is a New England-based home physical therapy service provider. The therapists at Chest PT Services provide healthcare services for patients with cystic fibrosis (CF), a genetic disease that causes mucus secretions to be thicker than normal, according to John Nadeau, who has been president of the company since its founding 30 years ago.6
In the airways of the lungs, the thick mucus can cause infection, and patients require various therapies to remove it, one of the therapies being chest physical therapy. Since this is a daily routine until a cure for CF can be found, the therapists provide their services in the patients’ homes, a safer environment than health clinics, where infections are more easily acquired. In 2008, the average life expectancy of a cystic fibrosis patient in the United States was the mid-30s.
At Chest PT Services, there’s a somewhat distinct profile of the therapists who work there. For example, two-thirds of them are strong in Organization, the most commonly found strength in high performers in clinical departments. More than half of them are strong in Planning/Prioritization, the second most commonly found Executive Skill strength among clinical high performers.
Interestingly, none of the therapists are strong in Stress Tolerance, and almost all are weak in it (Stress Tolerance is the most frequently found weakness among clinical high performers). Almost half of the high performers at Chest PT Services show Flexibility among their weakest skills, and none show it as a strength. Many of the therapists also are strong in Emotional Control, one of the most commonly found weaknesses in clinical high performers overall. (High performers in any given area, such as clinical, possess one or more of the top Executive Skills strengths, but typically not all three. This means that if you’re a high performer in clinical, you’re likely to have one or more of the most commonly found strengths, but not all of them.)
So the profile of people at Chest PT Services is one of people who are inclined to be neat and keep track of their belongings and easily arrange their schedules to manage the week’s work. They’re not easily sidetracked and tend to get the job done. They’re very good at clear thinking and have the aptitude to develop step-by-step processes and are able to easily determine what’s important and what’s not. They prefer jobs where they know exactly what to expect every day. Says Nadeau:
Out in patients’ homes in various communities around the state, our therapists are required to work very independently and professionally. In addition to providing therapy treatments, they must, of course, provide the necessary evaluation and documentation to fulfill requirements of the health insurer and medical care system. Our top-performing therapists were identified as those who continually provide excellent health care to their patients, but also who complete the more mundane but necessary reports and get them back into the office with consistent timeliness and accuracy. They are our “go-to” people when a new case comes in because we know that all tasks will be accomplished like clockwork. Essentially, these are the therapists that have made my job easier and their patients’ lives healthier for many years.
The Executive Skills profile of our top performers is right on. Their strong Organization is obvious when completing their administrative duties. But what is surprising is that the survey indicates high Emotional Control along with Planning/Prioritization skills. These may define the special skills needed in the healthcare aspect of their job. Our therapists work with patients who have short life expectancies and who require a very vigorous but repetitive form of physical therapy that helps to add years and improve the quality of life. Not much generally changes from day to day, and the treatment routine varies little. Yet the emotional dynamic of a family with one (or more) members having a shortened life is continually in the background. And occasionally our patients become more ill, and for several weeks require more medical care in an attempt to bring them back to “baseline.” At these times the therapist must adapt treatments to the new patient status, and help patients to prioritize their care vs. the total time available, in order to optimize treatment success.
In this homecare scenario, our therapists need to provide emotional support as well as physical therapy in a job that, while very repetitive, attempts to fight a relentless disease process to buy time for our patients. Our therapists most often treat the same patients for many years. Each day the treatment requires a high level of physical effort and time. And while therapists must provide adequate time for each patient, the routine generally allows for very stable daily schedules. To avoid situations where there are too many patients per therapist and thus not enough time for adequate treatment, we have always given our therapists the ability to say “no” to additional patients. That apparently has also allowed them to keep their stress levels low, and may be a key reason why so many therapists have been with us for many years, and indicate that they enjoy their work with us.
From the profile it seems that somehow we have found some of the right therapists and they have found the right job. This also helps us understand why some therapists, while very good clinicians who work wonderfully with their patients, just cannot seem to get their paperwork in on time.
As might be expected, we did find differences in Executive Skills in high performers in healthcare based on whether they worked in clinical vs. non-clinical departments, which we detail in the next chapter.
So as you look around your own organization, you likely can identify patterns of behaviors of people based on their Executive Skills strengths and weaknesses, as in the case of Chest PT Services. You also can use this insight to identify patterns of behaviors in those who work at other organizations you may deal with.
Right-Seating People the First Time
Now that you can identify likely Executive Skills strengths in high performers by the department in which they work, you probably have a better understanding of how these characteristics come into play in the everyday world of work. This knowledge can help you move from department to department, a typical scenario in large companies, as top management seeks to broaden those on the way up by exposing some to varying experiences, perhaps as part of management training.
With this knowledge, you can predict with a degree of certainty in advance of a departmental move where there’s likely to be a goodness-of-fit situation and where there’s likely to be a misfit, creating a potential series of never-ending effortful tasks for you if you’re the one being moved. This can be identified in advance by you or by the executive managing the move, or by both.
This understanding of Executive Skills fit and nonfit can be used for career planning as well, either by you or by executives and managers who plot moves of subordinates as they grow within an organization. There will be times that the right people are in the right seats and times when they are not. But by looking at where high performers are found by industry, title, and department, there’s a higher probability of placing the right person in the right seat at the right time without the guesswork. The ideal is to get the right person in the right seat every time, not just sometimes. It is all about first-time right-seating.
The other significant aspect of right-seating people the first time is there’s less need to monitor whether the right person is in the right seat, which is known in advance with Executive Skills matching. You now know how to identify strengths and weaknesses of high performance by industry and department. This information also should help you deal with people in those industries and departments by identifying their likely behaviors in advance, giving you new ways to deal with them based on the anticipated behaviors. The next step is to identify what strengths and weaknesses look like based on title, which we do in the next chapter.
This can help you match what job you may be likely to be a high performer in by comparing your strengths to those of high performers with those jobs now. If you manage others, you also can see what characteristics match the titles to use for moving people into those jobs with the same Executive Skills strengths, to increase the probability of success.