Blog

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. 

by Gwen Parks