We did a kickoff meeting yesterday with Kolbe, which is a client gets close to my original love: organizational and industrial psychology (my undergrad degree.) For any of you that are feeling stress, you should find out your Kolbe index so that you can finally do what other books, tests, and methodologies won’t tell you: stop doing the things you are not innately good at or driven by, so that you have less stress in your life.
I could go on and on in this post about the index and how my 6483 score truly showcases who I am at the core, and more importantly how I’m doing the EXACT type of job (entrepreneur in communication) that I am best fit to do. I could also go on and on about how cool Kathy Kolbe is in real life, or how her son David is the first client ever that truly understood, and said before we did, that a PR/marketing team can’t be held accountable for ONLY sales because we don’t control the funnel or activity from within the company. And I could tell you of the magic there is in a meeting with a client that already knows your motivations, strengths, weaknesses, and the like and let’s you be exactly who you are. But there is something that got me on my soapbox more about the meeting.
Kolbe tells you to not apologize or feel guilty for who you are. And that is so unlike any other personality inventory (for lack of better term) that I have ever taken.
Myers Briggs shows me that I am a ENTJ. And I believe that it nails my personality. There is no doubt that my off-the-chart J (judgemental) is spot on. But the follow up to this definition of my traits is a bunch of recommendations on how to CHANGE them, as if they are negative. My DISC assessments and counseling that I got through an EO event reiterated my egocentrism and need to persuade others, and then gave me ideas on how to move my scores into a more even output. And everyone loves to tell you for free that you should always work on your weaknesses.
But no one except Kolbe has made me feel that who I am, and how I function, is perfectly ok.
So where’s the spin that are in all of my blogs? It’s simply this (directed to my fellow CEO’s:) trust your gut more than you do whatever book is on the bestseller list that week. You’ve seen in many of my posts before, and heard in many of my speeches on entrepreneurism that I think where most companies fail after year 5 is that the CEO/founder stops listening to their gut, and putting more faith into “business book of the week.” Kolbe shows that if you are meant to be an entrepreneur, and therefore more successful, then you should stick to what drove you there – being a “quick start” that trusts their gut and instinct – in order to be successful.
So take your Kolbe test. (And no, I’m not being paid on sales.) Find out about your conative mind and stop creating stress by spending your time doing things you will never be good doing.