Develop Your Team's Instinctive Drives
“Why are they doing that?”
As a leader, have you ever struggled to bring the best out of everyone on your team?
Trying to figure out how to best lead people by watching and interpreting behaviors can be both time-consuming and perplexing.
I have spent my consulting career helping leaders and teams work better together by developing an understanding of the WHY behind everyone’s actions.
Instinctive Drives
Personally, the Instinctive Drives (I.D.) assessment provided me with insights that few other assessments had previously. I was so intrigued I became trained on Instinctive Drives and built my skills working with large tech firms in the Silicon Valley.
Our work at Level 8 Teams and Gwen Parks Group is focused on helping you know yourself, work well with others and lead successful teams and organizations. Here are a few ways we use the Instinctive Drives system to make that happen.
Assessment tools make it easier to lead people.
Using an assessment tool can neutralize charged conversations and help explore solutions through difficult discussions by addressing characteristics rather than people. It can minimize defensiveness because people are talking about data rather than judging each other. The I.D. System™ introduces a different lens – that people have a natural style that works for them that is innate rather than learned behavior or personality.
The I.D. System™ provides a different, precise language for people that describes the way they instinctively are wired in a way that usually unlocks new insights. Over and over I have been part of a conversation where people say “I wish I had known that before!”™
The I.D. System™ will prompt different results.
- New insights. The I.D. System™ describes instinctive drives rather than learned behaviors. It reveals a person’s natural way of succeeding – what a person needs to be at his or her best, the innate talents and vulnerabilities that accompany each I.D. profile and strategies for success. The premise that people are born in a certain way and can’t change these drives gives people language to own their talents and vulnerabilities, offers new avenues of self-awareness, new insights into how other people are wired differently, and how to perform best in collaborative settings.
- Effective strategies. People will discover why they continue to encounter the same problems despite their best intentions to change. With insights of natural vulnerabilities—things a person cannot change about themselves -- come powerful strategies that seem simple and are immediately effective.
- Deeper Self-Awareness. The insights offered by the I.D. System™ provide powerful self-awareness and can soften harsh self- assessment. Knowing that everyone has talents, needs and vulnerabilities help people accept that they too “are” a certain way that isn’t bad or good. The I.D. language provides a path to self-acceptance and self-management as a journey.
- Understand others. Assessment tools offer data and logic to explore ambiguous and amorphous areas of human interaction. Frustrations over how to connect with people who are unconsciously creating barriers to success for teams are hard to articulate. The Instinctive Drives System™ provides quick insights to the differing needs of people. Providing a positive and neutral language for understanding how people are wired differently offers insights that are different from personality. The I.D. System™ helps a leader develop strategies to effectively manage people in a way that is effective, fun, and easy and doesn’t require inauthentic leadership. One of the magic pieces to the I.D. System™ is how easy the strategies are to successfully use.
- Saves time. The predictive nature of this tool helps leaders save time when launching and executing new initiatives. Just by analyzing the instinctive makeup of a team, we can predict needs ranging from how to plan effective meetings with rich dialogue, anticipate resistance and plot strategies to successfully adopt growth strategies and complex change initiatives.
- Change the Conversation. I’ve seen friendships develop between people who previously didn’t enjoy each other’s company. I’ve seen marriages improve once I.D. knowledge was introduced to the couple. I’ve seen leaders who were perceived as disconnected and aloof become vulnerable and open in a way that created new levels of connection and achievement in their organizations. Applying a new language of understanding to someone’s differing needs and styles creates bonds where barriers to collaboration and connection previously existed.
The I.D. System™ works. I’ve personally witnessed it create powerful positive results for leaders and teams for over 15 years. I’ve watched leaders grow and flourish and personal relationships transform from resentment to connection. I’ve watched teams who were frustrated by their struggle to collectively decide and move forward create protocols that accelerate performance. I’ve watched people who were once defensive about themselves open up, blossom as leaders and create strong teams. I’ve helped others use the I.D. System™ to create strategies to get through traumatic life events.
Check out Instinctive Drives
I invite you to explore how the I.D. System™ can help your team perform better, help you a better leader, and lead a better life.
For customized coaching information please visit www.gwenparksgroup.com or contact us at [email protected] .
For customized team/leadership development information please visit www.level8teams.com or contact us at [email protected] .
I.D.™, the Instinctive Drives, the Instinctive Drives System and I.D. System are all trademarks of Instinctive Drives Inc.
All content contained herein about the I.D. System and application of the I.D. System expressed in these blogs are those of the author. These blogs are based on opinions and experiences of the author, and expressly are not intended to be interpreted as the opinions of Instinctive Drives, Inc.
Welcome to Great Leader, Great Life
Becoming the Best Version of You: Welcome To Great Leader Great Life
Driven to succeed. Naturally attracted to leadership positions. Stepping up to solve problems even when it’s not your job. Leaders appear everywhere.
Great leaders know themselves well, and are authentic in all aspects of their lives. Great leaders know themselves – and embrace themselves – for who they are in positions of leadership and outside of formal settings. If you want to be a great leader, and live a great life, self-awareness is a journey that can be enlightening, fun, daunting and frustrating.
Once you decide embrace yourself honestly and with appreciation, you are well on your way to being a great leader who is leading a great life.
One of the first steps on this journey is to identify the qualities of yourself that don’t change over time … your natural personality, talents, needs and vulnerabilities. Learn to identify behaviors that work well for you and that you want to apply more often as well as behaviors that aren’t helping you lead the life you want to live. Assessments can help you put words to your inherent traits, values and natural, preferred style. Don’t judge your past behaviors or current mindset, just learn about yourself. It’s a journey that will help you find the freedom to be who you are and connect more deeply with the world.
My career as a leadership and team consultant began with friendship and a common interest in self-discovery. My friend Paul Burgess introduced me to his I.D. System™ more than 15 years ago, and it has been incredibly helpful to understand aspects of myself that I intuitively knew but couldn’t articulate. My experience with the I.D. System has created opportunities to work with terrific leaders around the globe, helping them grow their leadership skills and develop their teams.
Commitment to self-awareness is one of the universal traits of successful leaders. I recently participated in a Women’s Conference for a large Corporation. Without prior planning, every one of us presenting at the conference emphasized and shared this fundamental belief -- that a key to success is finding one’s passion and creating a career and life that reflects an honest embracing of one’s natural style.
Actively growing as a leader will make your life better. Work life balance is really a desire to live a full and rewarding life. Discussions about how to best lead teams and hit aggressive business goals morph into thoughtful exploration of how career aspirations can enhance rather than infringe on your life. Many of the leadership management strategies I create with clients in the office became effective life management strategies.
Great Leader Great Life is intended to be a fun way to explore leadership growth, self-awareness and fulfilling integration of work and life.
No one is a Great Leader living a Great Life without encouragement of others. Great Leader Great Life is an idea that evolved from some wonderful discussions that started over five years ago with my Mastermind mates, Scott Propp and Barbara Stafford. They have encouraged me through the slow creative process. Thanks to Scott and Barbara for years of weekly support and inspiration.
Thanks also to Michelle Jennings for putting action to my ideas. I wouldn’t be launching Great Leader Great Life without her. Thanks also to Keri Rivera for contributing additional momentum through her ability to help put my feelings and ideas into words.
One of the key ingredients to my great life is a rich and rewarding marriage. I am deeply grateful for and to my husband Steve Feinberg. His patience with randomly being asked I.D.™ questions as well as his devotion to me being at my best lets me take risks I wouldn’t think of taking otherwise. Thank you Steve for always being by my side no matter which way I meander.
You’ll meet these wonderful people as well as others as I share Great Leader Great Life stories with you. I will never share stories without permission, and will change the facts of examples and discussions to protect the anonymity of people I’ve met over the years.
Knowing yourself will be a recurring theme through Great Leader Great Life. We’re starting off with exploration of talents, including how to look at what seem to be vulnerabilities to see what talents are there to be leveraged.
If you want support on creating your Great Leader Great Life journey, give thought to the one trait about yourself you wish you could change. Feel free to share your trait in the comment section. We’ll explore the hidden talents of our most persistent vulnerability, and work on some ideas to be manage the traits at work and in our life as the next step of the Great Leader Great Life journey.
Welcome to Gwen Parks Group
Welcome to Gwen Parks Group. If you are facing intense demands and juggling the needs of a team you want to perform better, we’re here to help you. If you're committed to being a great leader and want to empower the people you lead to lead rich fulfilling careers, we’re here to help you with that also. We thrive on challenges, including supporting you as a leader meeting your own set of challenges.
We’ve spent years working with Executives and teams who want to achieve world-class results. Our clients are exceptional performers in highly competitive organizations who recognize the value of having objective support from a trusted advisor. Our passion is helping great leaders manage their human assets wisely.
In today’s workplace, people are on the move. Teams are often global which imposes additional demands of creating virtual relationships. A team that is high-performing can suddenly falter when facing unexpected tensions, conflicts and performance dips. In short, the barriers to creating personal connections necessary to build strong teams are greater than ever. Our proven methodologies help leaders understand the individual needs of their teams and create strategies to get the best out of the team.
Leading and managing your human assets aren’t like managing inventory – people aren’t predictable. We use assessments to provide objective data to explore the fundamental reasons of why people do what they do. Then we design customized coaching and consulting based on the needs of the leaders and team.
The ability to influence others and create strong collaborative teams through multiple outlets in a highly collaborative world is a necessary talent for all leaders today. We know from experience that our methods work for executives searching for ways to reduce the amount of time and energy needed to keep their teams performing smoothly. We help leaders increase their effectiveness with teams that are positive, productive and collaboratively producing results.
In addition to our customized consulting, we are excited to launch our Great Leader Great Life series. This series integrates the best practices and lessons from our experience with consulting at work – Great Leader – into broader application into the personal life our leaders – Great Life. Over the years, our business consulting has organically leveraged into deeper, more personal relationships and helping our clients integrate leadership strategies into their lives. Great Leader Great Life addresses the broader aspects of personal growth, leveraging professional and personal lessons to every area of our clients’ lives. Many of the leader practices and strategies we explore in our corporate consulting can make personal relationships more fulfilling. Check out our Great Leader Great Life page for a bit of variety … blogs, VODs and guests. When you look back on your career, we want you to be confident that you had a great career and have lived a wonderful life.
Welcome. We are excited to be part of your journey.