Game-Changing Impact: Maximizing Your Leadership Potential

emotional intelligence leadership personal branding & networking Nov 22, 2019

During the Net Impact 2019 Annual Conference, I had the opportunity to sit in on a session about Game Changing Impact with Shannon Houde, an ICF-ACC certified executive coach with more than two decades mentoring, coaching, and training professionals in the impact sector. She also happens to be my career coach.

I was quite interested to learn about the organimetric and assessment tool that Shannon’s been instructing lately, The GameChanger Index® (or The GC Index). I wondered how I might apply it to my own personal development and career in the impact space. I was impressed to hear that more than 700 companies are using this index for hiring, developing and promoting their people as well as maximizing the effectiveness of their teams, including Nike, Orange, Estee Lauder and PwC.

Shannon opened by explaining that being an innovator or a change maker means different things to different people. Her goal to help the audience figure out individually how our unique personality types apply to varying scenarios in daily life and in the workplace.

We began by exploring the organimetric, The GC Index, which is an assessment tool that gives us two ways to view the results - for the individual or in a team context. Either view gives us better understanding of where we fit into an effective team composition and where make the best impact.

To get our minds working post-lunch she posed a question to the audience:

  • What is needed to create inclusive leadership that will change the game?
  • What does it look like and how do we define it?

The audience responded with some good buzzwords like collaboration, influencing with empathy and unconscious bias.

Shannon continued to ask:

  • What does authenticity looks like, how do you connect to the community?
  • If you say you are a problem solver – what does that look like in practice?
  • How do you personally fit into the context of others in group settings?

Shannon uses The GC Index to help her job-seeking clients dig deep on self-realization so they can sell themselves to recruiters. Recruiters can make their decision on a resume in 6 seconds based on expertise and experience. It’s not until the interview process that personality will be evaluated, but what can’t be evaluated is the candidate’s purpose and fit for the role.

Ultimately, The GC Index can help us, as individuals, gain a competitive advantage and also therefore drive transformational change from within the organization.

It certainly gave me pause as I realized when I describe myself or the work that I rarely speak to the specifics. So take away one: Speak in more specific terms! Check.

Most candidates don’t have an answer to these questions for recruiters:

What is your personal brand? What defines you? What is your purpose? What tasks have you done that are proof you can make a difference?

The GC Index helps with this. It breaks competency profiles into five dimensions. Most people fit into more than one of the above dimensions, and this may shift over time. Take some time though to figure out the answers to these recruitment questions and you will move to the top of the applicant pile.

There are idea focused creative types:

  • Game Changers – transform the future. “I see a different way to do this.”
  • Strategists – map the future. “What is the purpose and how does it fit our vision?”

And task focused, get it done types:

  • Polishers – create a future to be proud of. “How do we improve on this for excellence?”
  • Implementers – build the future. “What is the outcome and how do we achieve it?”

Linking them all together is the fifth profile type.

  • The Playmakers – orchestrate the future. “Who is doing this and how does the collective make an impact?”

What are the take-aways on the organimetric evaluation?

From an organizational perspective, once a manager can understand the profile type of the individual members of the team, they can build a team that is balanced and dynamic. If a team is too heavily weighted in one area, there could be greater challenges. For instance you can’t have all Game Changers – this could lead to indecisiveness and no strategy to implement the change. But when a manager understands the strengths of their team, they can provide clarity of roles help employees feel empowered. An organization needs the balance of these five dimensions to work together for a team or company to truly excel.

On the individual level, you need to better understand your own profile type so you can determine where you fit in the team, how you add value and how best to leverage your strengths to help define your own personal brand.

My final takeaways from this session on The GC Index were:

  • Try to find people that differ from you to help increase productivity and to stretch your comfort zone.
  • Develop a personal brand so you can better communicate what your strengths are and demonstrate how you make an impact in specific terms.
  • Figure out where you excel within The GC Index and how to leverage that knowledge at an individual level and within a group context.

To close: a quote that Shannon’s grandfather used to share with her:

“You can’t learn when you are talking” – so make sure to listen. Really listen.

To learn more about The GC Index or for executive or careers coaching support you can contact certified GCologist, Shannon Houde at Walk of Life Coaching.

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