The Birkman Distinctive

You attend a department meeting or an event with colleagues and each of you come away with different accounts of what happened. Our perceptions influence our thoughts, views, assumptions and behaviours and can be a source of insight for us or lead to mistrust, unproductive behaviour and communication with others in organisations.

“Your eyes will seldom deceive you, but your brain will. The things you witness are usually correct, but the conclusions you reach based on those observations can be quite erroneous.” Roger Birkman, PhD (True Colors, 1997, p. 137)

Perception is a key differentiator between the Birkman assessment and other personality or strengths-based assessments. The Birkman assessment is the only assessment that measures how individuals see themselves and how individuals see others and how this impacts workplace performance.

measuring perceptions of self and others

Birkman insights generated from the Birkman assessment which asks about how individuals see themselves and how they see others, can enlighten individuals about their perceptions and how these influence their behaviours. This enables individuals to manage their perceptions and move towards more productive behaviours at work.

Understanding our own perception and those of others will help us understand the “whole picture”, enabling us to communicate and work better with others. This greater clarity in understanding oneself and others can result in more openness and productive work relations and the development of safety and trust that helps each one to bring their best self to work with others.

Birkman also helps individuals recognise their perception biases, blind spots and hidden assumptions. This can result in better understanding and strengthen communication, work relations and performance for individuals and teams.

measuring usual behaviour, interests and needs

Another key differentiator of the Birkman assessment is that it measures the usual behaviour, interests, needs or inner motivations of individuals. This understanding helps individuals tap on their strengths and inner motivations to be their best self at work and understand what are stressors for them at work.

This can enhance their work satisfaction and performance as individuals develop strategies with these insights to manage unproductive stress behaviours to move towards more productive and creative behaviours.

Enabling individuals to connect with their inner interests and needs with what they do at work can also renew their motivation and energise them which results in improved satisfaction at work and performance.

birkman occupational data

Besides measuring Perceptions, Interests and Needs, Birkman is also distinct in that it includes occupational data of tenured professionals in twenty two job families and over 150 job functions. This data can be used to plan an individual’s career direction and Career Next Steps by aligning his or her strengths and interests to Birkman’s occupational data.

how the birkman distinctive creates value for organisations

Adopting Birkman organisation-wide from recruitment, leadership and talent development and conflict resolution can facilitate good organisational-fit in recruitment and provide the organisation with a common language to facilitate better understanding, communicating, relating and performing of individuals and teams.

By tapping into the strengths, inner interests and motivations of individuals, Birkman can empower employee growth and engagement, develop leadership and talent and build organisation culture supportive of high-performing teams. This builds organisational capability to meet market needs in an always-changing business environment.