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Economics For Entrepreneurs – de psychologische make-up

Economics For Entrepreneurs
Economics For Entrepreneurs

Deze aflevering van Economics For Entrepreneurs gaat dieper in op de psychologische make-up van de organisatie en die van de ondernemer.

Lisa Stevenson studied I/O Psych as an undergrad, in connection with business courses, and became fascinated with it. I/O Psych is shorthand for Industrial and Organizational Psychology — the application of psychology in the workplace. Lisa went on to post-graduate studies and a Masters Degree in I/O Psych. She applied it in consulting companies, first as a recruiter and then as an organizational development consultant.


Duur: 47:11

Publicatie 7 mei


Show Notes

The application of I/O Psych is aimed at improving people outcomes and people performance within firms. The discipline embraces talent and fit — does an organization have the right talent to get jobs and projects done now and in the future, and do the people with the right talents “fit” the firm’s values. Often, firms use I/O Psych to develop pro forma profiles and compare individual assessments to those profiles, looking to emphasize the most desired characteristics and avoid those that are unwanted.

One of the methods of I/O Psych is the application of self-assessment tools. There exists a wide range of psychology-based or psychology-inspired self-assessment questionnaires and surveys that are focused on assisting firms and their HR departments to evaluate and optimize their employee base. One particular application is the combination of different personality types in teams in an attempt to balance strengths and maximize collaborative output and productivity. One of the prominent self-assessment tools Lisa mentioned is MBTI (Myers Briggs Typology Indicator) — a popular free version of which is available at 16Personalities.com. Another is “Business Chemistry”, the internal tool used at the global consulting firm Deloitte, where Lisa works in Talent and Development. You can take this self-assessment yourself at BusinessChemistry.Deloitte.com, and find the explanations and implications of their personality classifications. A third widely used self-assessment tool is StrengthsFinder from Gallup.

Can self-assessment help entrepreneurs to succeed? Lisa says yes — but not in the same way that corporations use self-assessment. The entrepreneurial role — whether (co-)founder / CEO or team member — is different. It requires adaptability, being able to do lots of things well, not just one thing; to earn new jobs and skills, including “dirty work”; to be deeply involved in all aspects of operations to understand and master how the entire business functions, not just one aspect of it. When she is hiring for entrepreneurial roles she looks for (1) a bias for action and (2) a willingness to take risk (such as learning a new skill or taking on a new task) combined with a skill at mitigating risk (learning fast, narrowing options quickly, reversing bad choices when new information requires it, without self-criticism). Entrepreneurial self-assessment is not concerned with strengths and weaknesses, but with knowing oneself candidly and acting on that information. There is an entrepreneurial personality based in bias for action and risk mitigation, but it’s not the same for every entrepreneur. It’s best to find your own balance. (At Economics For Entrepreneurs, we are developing a self-assessment that assesses behavioral traits rather than personality traits — you can take the first iteration here).

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