The LAB Profile: Case Study
A senior manager in the public sector had recently been promoted and was managing a team of 50 staff. He had several challenging projects to achieve and needed some help to adjust to the demands of his new role. He heard that we did career profiling and wanted to understand what his motivations were at work. And most importantly, what this would tell him about how to succeed…
Career Profiling
The LAB Profile is a psycho- linguistic tool (conversational). Naturally we started off by having a conversation about the client’s behaviour at work. After 40 minutes, I had detected many of the motivation and working traits that the LAB Profile identifies (if you’re interested in these, read more here).
The reason I use the phone rather than meeting in person is to allow me to listen to how people say things, rather than what they are saying. I don’t need to see the person (or be distracted by visual things). I can hear from the tonality and phrasing of their responses what their decision making patterns and motivational triggers are. There is no preparation required by the client, and I’ve been told it’s an interesting and quite natural conversation! It’s important for the client to just be themselves in order for me to really understand who they are.
During this client’s Career Profiling feedback session he was particularly interested in how he tackled new projects at work. We discovered that this is usually by jumping in, taking the lead and focusing 100% on achieving his goals.
He often found himself frustrated by people around him and particularly those who would mention all the things that meant he couldn’t achieve his goals! He thought of these colleagues as ‘negative’. We worked on several of the language patterns these colleagues had that differed from his own. The client soon realised that those ‘negative’ people were also good at problem solving; their contrasting viewpoints actually helped to give him a different perspective on achieving his goals. They pointed out things that might go wrong and that allowed him to stay on track!
The outcome
The client learnt to “speak out of both sides of his mouth”. What do we mean? The LAB Profile gave him an understanding of language and motivations. This allowed him to use the exact language required to motivate these people. And ultimately, to encourage them to work with him to achieve the goals. This new skill changed his leadership skills overnight. He mastered a few simple techniques that ensured that everyone in his team felt included in decisions. His team were more motivated to do their jobs to the best of their ability and now enjoy coming to work.
The LAB Profile unlocked the power of communication for this client. His previous workplace issues all came down to poor communication. It’s widely thought that communication issues are our greatest problem in the World!
Client Testimonials:
“Working with Katherine increased my awareness about my own nature and motivations, and about my dealings with other people. I found myself spotting changes in my communication patterns and improvements in the way I was able to influence others after the coaching sessions. All without having to remember to put in conscious effort! I’m happier seeking out the individuality of others, appreciating their talents and finding common ground on which to collaborate with them.” Patrick
If you’d like to find out more about the LAB Profile, please get in touch: support@careerambitions.co.uk.