Who Am I? Part 3 | Self-discovery Tools | Gloves & Hand Sanitizer | Aim for the Terminator | News to Start Your Day
Who Am I? – Part 3 (A personal and CK Story)
[This is Part 3 of a personal/CK history story. This post can be read on its own. If you’d like full context, feel free to read Part 1 and Part 2 first.]
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It is Friday, friends! I’m keeping things a little lighter (but not shorter, haha) today.
After my experience with a deepening faith and letting go of the need to prove myself over and over, I really wanted to understand who I was at my core. What was I made to do? Is a person made to do just one thing?
I believe there are many ways to take the journey of self discovery, and I see value in employing tools to help along the way. In business and in personal relationships, using the same language to discuss differences and strengths creates alignment. It is one of the reasons tools like Enneagram are so popular. Do you know your Enneagram number? (I am a 5w6, “the Investigator”.)
A few years into running CK, we began using several different personality tests to help us determine if a candidate is a good fit for a position. We also have done some fun internal team building exercises. I enjoy getting to know more about everyone in that way. I like it when things are organized by like type, even people, ha.
One of the things I discovered in my testing is WHY I am passionate about helping others understand themselves and find a place to flourish in work and in life. It is one of the things I missed most about work life: interviewing, hiring and building teams that work well together.
Does your business use any tools for hiring and team building? Have you found them helpful or not useful at all?
The three main tools that we use at CK are: the DiSC, PIAV assessment, and the CliftonStrengths Assessment.
If you’ve been around “personality testing” at all in your job or otherwise, you’ve probably heard of the DiSC profile. It gives you letters, D (dominance), I (influence), S (steadiness), C (conscientiousness), associated with behaviors that together describe how you likely react to situations. Useful for team building for sure.
The PIAV – Personal Interests, Attitudes and Values assessment – gives you insight into the why behind your behaviors. What is motivating you to behave or react the way that you do?
Discovering a team member’s strengths (sometimes hidden) has been valuable to us. It is useful to have strengths on your team that span the four domains identified by the CliftonStrengths assessment, Strategic Thinking, Relationship Building, Influencing and Executing.
These three tests together, along with the experience of using them internally for years now, can give us a really clear picture of how a candidate will fit within a team, what kind of behaviors to expect from them, and what drives them. No test or tests can give you a complete picture, of course. We humans are complex. But we do love having these tools in our tool belt for hiring and for helping current employees discover and live within their strengths.
On the personal front, I believe that these assessments have helped me understand myself, helped Craig and I understand each other in deeper ways, and have given me the ability to walk confidently in my strengths, especially if I am the only one with that strength in our business. I have also used these tools to help and encourage friends.
What kind of assessments have you used to discover your behaviors, motivators and strengths? I’d love to hear any lessons you’ve learned from assessments like these!
Until next week,
Christin
Today’s Product Updates from Rebecca:
Happy Friday! I wanted to let you know that we just lowered the sale price for Blue Nitrile Gloves! We have stock of all sizes, and we have the new bundles available for an even better deal!
- Small (10 Boxes; 100 Gloves/Box)
- Medium (10 Boxes; 100 Gloves/Box)
- Large (10 Boxes; 100 Gloves/Box)
- Extra Large (10 Boxes; 100 Gloves/Box)
We also have slashed prices for Hand Sanitizer! We have got our 3 oz bottle on sale for only $1 and our 8 oz is available for $1.25! If you really want to maximize the deal, of course we have the case quantities available for purchase too:
You already know that we have Clorox Wipes in stock, but wanted to remind you anyways as these are going quickly! And remember to use coupon code PPESHIP at checkout for FREE SHIPPING on your PPE orders!
Main Safety Supplies Landing Page: https://www.cablesandkits.com/c/safety-supplies
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Today’s product spotlight may not be exciting, but it sure is necessary! Today we are featuring our Cisco Compatible 5-15P to C13 6ft Power Cord.
This 18AWG power cord is Cisco compatible and features a C13 (or IEC60320-C13) 3-prong female equipment end connector and a 5-15P (or NEMA 5-15P) three-prong male supply end connector.
This is one of our most universal power cords for households and businesses in North America. Our power cord is RoHS compliant, CSA approved, UL/cUL listed!
Aim for the Terminator – by Gary our Chief Administrative Officer
(If you missed the previous parts of this series, you can read them on our blog.)
Apollo Mission Moment #5
During the return flight back to Earth, the Apollo 13 crew had to burn the engines to correct their trajectory. If they came in too steep, they would burn up in the atmosphere. If they came in too shallow, they would skip off the atmosphere like a rock off a pond. The target was distressingly narrow–the equivalent to hitting the thickness of a piece of paper if the Earth was the size of a basketball. Part of the solution was aiming for the terminator (a line on the Earth which when viewed from space divides night and day). Their operating conditions were far from ideal. They had earlier shut down the computer to conserve electrical power and could not risk restarting it. Additionally, they were flying backwards; so the countless hours they had spent practicing in the simulator had trained their instincts to react in ways which would miss the target.
The Apollo 13 crew had one chance to get this manual burn right. Accuracy and speed determined whether they lived or died. Now that’s working under pressure!
Most of us do not work in situations where we and others die when we mess up. Nonetheless, the livelihood of your organization depends upon effective execution. Businesses with excellent products and services die every day, because they cannot get it right the first time every time. Customers leave; never to return. Your business reputation precedes you and influences some prospects to never give you a chance.
LEVERAGING THE MOMENT:
- Define and communicate specific, measurable goals. (“What gets measured, gets done”)
- Make sure team members understand their roles and responsibilities.
- Avoid the tyranny of the urgent, but never forget that execution is about the small stuff.
- Expect excellence in every situation.
“Execution is THE differentiator between winners and losers in business.” (Unknown)
News to Start Your Day With:
- Right at 36,803,300 cases worldwide, with 27,697,400 people who have recovered, with 1,067,553 deaths AND 7,834,300 cases in the US with over 5,025,900 people have recovered, with 217,750 deaths.
- The FBI announced Thursday that it had thwarted a plot to kidnap Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer, instigated by a group that objected to her coronavirus-related restrictions.
- Amazon is already offering some early discounts ahead of next week’s Prime Day 2020 sales, but the e-commerce giant gave us apreview of its upcoming sweet deals late Thursday. The sales will run Oct. 13-14 sales, and you’ll need to be an Amazon Prime subscriber to take advantage of most Prime Day deals.
- Gilead Sciences said late Thursday that final data showed its antiviral drug remdesivir, the drug doctors gave to President Trump last week, cut coronavirus recovery time by five days compared with patients who got a placebo. That’s one day faster than indicated in preliminary data.
- Regal Cinemas, the country’s second-largest movie theater chain, started suspending operations at its 536 locations on Thursday — a bold move that its parent company, Cineworld, attributes to an “increasingly challenging theatrical landscape.” The decision affects approximately 40,000 jobs and was primarily driven by delayed release dates and continued closures in major markets like New York. This coming after delays for James Bond’s “No Time To Die”, “Dune”, and “The Batman”.
- Apple’s latest tease: “Hi, Speed.” 5G speed, that is. The company is gearing up to introduce its iPhone 12 lineup next week, and the biggest new feature is likely to be something commonly found in Android smartphones; next-generation 5G cellular connectivity. The new version of wireless networks started rolling out across the globe last year and picked up speed in 2020. Now that Apple is jumping into the fray with its 5G-enabled iPhone 12 models, the buzz about 5G is only going to get louder — even if consumers in places like the US aren’t exactly clamoring for 5G devices.
- Microsoft is allowing its employees to work from home permanently. While the vast majority of Microsoft employees are still working from home during the ongoing pandemic, the software maker has unveiled “hybrid workplace” guidance internally to allow for far greater flexibility once US offices eventually reopen.
- Forecasts see Hurricane Delta on course to hit the U.S. Gulf Coast on Friday evening, around the same southwestern part of Louisiana that was ravaged when Hurricane Laura blasted ashore just six weeks ago. The question was whether Delta would remain at devastating Category 3 strength, with top winds of 129 mph, or drop just before landfall to a still dangerous Category 2 storm with winds 96 to 110 mph.