Job and work success depend on three universal ingredients:
Motivation drives the other two. As they saying goes: “Where there is a will, there is a way.”
Q: How is motivation measured?
A: Indicators of motivation, the drivers of behavior, are embedded within the ‘deep structure’ of language. Like ordinary grammar, the motivation and decision features are inherent in the way people think in language and make choices. SommerYeager has developed this linguistic deep structure of thinking into motive and decision profiles for use in business throughout the world.
Q: What is the essence of the approach?
A: Motives and decision making are ‘situation-specific’ to the job challenges an individual manages. Managing a mission-critical job and its demands is ‘situation-specific.’ The assessment focuses on the intent and decisions that will drive the profiled job to a successful outcome.
Q: How does the Sommer Survey differ from popular HR tests used in business?
A: The difference is crucial. The Sommer Survey reports an executive's actual, real-time thinking and decision making. Anyone can observe that thinking in the person's actual choices on the job. This is because the components of the Sommer Survey capture real motives and decisions-not statistical averages, norms, theories or personality traits. The Sommer Survey reports the executive's thinking as it affects the job and the larger goals of the organization. In contrast, many popular tests create theoretical generalizations based on vague concepts. Their reports are hedged with sometimes, tends to, might, could or other vague phrasing.
Business is inherently about change. Typical popular assessments are not about change or real-time decision making. As reported in the December 2008 issue of Current Directions in Psychological Science, "Broad personality traits can be assessed, but they contain no implications for how you might change them." (Vol. 7. No. 6. p 392). Measuring how decision makers cause change on the job, and how experience changes them, is the essence of optimizing organizational performance. This is because measuring and managing change is the real task of assessing the motivations that drive success.
The Sommer Survey supplies information on motivation and decision making that cannot be matched with a week of intense interviews, intense supervision, nor with a dozen popular psychological tests. This is ideal for managers and executives who must get to know the performer’s driving motives and choose from the three classic build-vs.-buy decisions:
Central to our Motivational Intelligence™ system is an on-line questionnaire that allows an executive or professional to express his or her personal, detailed strategy for producing excellent results in an assigned role or proposed new role. The survey includes the executive’s concepts, communications, priorities, team orientation, leadership preferences and vision for the assignment—whether a large or small assignment. Reports are generated within 24 hours.