A Fancy Piece of Furniture

My parents purchased a baby grand piano when I was in middle school. The only problem - no one in the family knew how to play. Eventually, my father and I took lessons and learned to play chopsticks and other simple tunes. But over a few years, our interest in playing fizzled, and the piano became a fancy piece of furniture rather than a source of beautiful music.

Assessments are very popular in the business world. Employers, rightly so, want to measure the intelligence, personality and natural strengths of employees and potential job candidates. Most every employee appreciation event or training seminar today includes some sort of index or profile. But it usually stops there. Each person completes the questionnaire, quickly reads over the result, and goes back to work as usual. The assessment ends up collecting dust in a file drawer. It reminds me of my parents buying a piano, and it becoming a fancy piece of furniture. Yes, the piano is pretty to look at, but its primary value is not being utilized. Thus, an incredible tool -- like a piano or an assessment -- becomes underused and under-appreciated.

If you or your organization have taken assessments in the past or plan to in the future, I strongly encourage you to make the additional investment and hire an expert to explain how to understand and apply the results. I often tell my clients that the tool is 1% of the value, knowing how to use it is the other 99%. It's like buying the Steinway piano and hiring a piano teacher. 

Most assessment makers/distributors have a listing of certified experts in your area. This resource is a great start in connecting with a specialist who can help you unlock the value of the assessment...that is currently stuffed away in your file drawer.