FAQ’S

Many of us spend most of our time in areas of our jobs or business activity that consume time and, more importantly, energy from us. The more time we spend in these areas of minimum contribution, the less energy we have and the less value we create for the company and, ultimately, for ourselves. When this downward cycle continues, we can end up needing to put even more time into these unrewarding areas of minimal contribution.

Ironically, our parents, our teachers and now even our employers often drive us to work hard on improving the areas in which we are ‘weakest’. Imagine for a moment that we all understood that if we supported each other to focus on the areas where we create the most value – where we are the A+ student – everyone would be better off, both in our work environments and at home.

What if, as a gifted salesperson, you were given the opportunity to focus 100% of your time on activating new sales while someone else focused on nurturing those long-term relationships once on board? Imagine what the rewards could be for you and your company. Think about how much more fun you would be having simply because it does not feel so hard and it makes a much more powerful impact on the world around you.

Unless we understand what our particular contribution is and where we add the most value, then how can we have the rest of the conversation? It is not to say that you are no good at the ‘other stuff’ and it is not to say that you ‘cannot do it’. Yet it is to say, let’s focus you on what you can do and on what creates the most value for you and for your organisation.

The Contribution Compass is a tool to guide your focus and direction. In understanding others more deeply, it supports you to make sure that all those on the journey with you are ‘aces in their places’ and motivated to achieve excellence. The whole really does then become greater than the sum of its parts.

Maximising a company’s growth potential, and its contribution to society, occurs in an environment where a team of loyal and supportive people with the appropriate energies and skills collaborate to achieve the business’ purpose. This should in turn support those individuals to achieve their own goals. Knowing how to choose the right person for the job and ensuring that the best people stay and continue to grow, is paramount in achieving this.

Every business is made up of people. People are the heart and soul that create the energy, activity and flow in a business. They are the lifeblood of an organisation. The magic that is achieved when you have a truly effective team is unmistakable. The approach to creating an effective team, or the lack thereof, can determine the success or failure of a business.
In applying this principle, you must ensure that your team is in flow and that people are in positions that leverage their individual natural energy. No matter how hard you try to follow processes to identify the ideal candidate for a position, to review and confirm their experiences and to consider their cultural fit in your organisation, if an individual is put into a role that does not leverage their own individual natural energy, they will not be a star player on your team.

A successful team requires diversity in its skills and abilities so that the team as a whole can achieve more than the sum of its parts can. A balance in natural energy is equally as critical in this requirement for diversity and ensures that every opportunity and challenge is seen from different perspectives. In doing so, team members can strengthen the whole through their own natural energy and through the insights that naturally arise from their point of view. Emotionally intelligent leaders understand how to balance their team and they engage consciously to maximise the contributions from each profile within the team, even from those who are directly opposite to their own natural energy.

Your natural energy reflects the way that you naturally think and operate. Your natural energy is most easily observed in critical moments, when you will always respond based on your natural energy. A critical or defining moment is usually a brief and intense pressure or turning point, in which the decision you make or the action you take, dramatically impacts your journey, either positively or negatively.

By default, you will respond in that moment from your natural energy as your instinct kicks in. However, your ability to respond effectively in a critical moment that is in alignment with your natural flow can be refined. This is achieved through developing a deep understanding of your natural energy, asking the right questions at the right time and committing to ongoing learning and development.
Some people are naturally innovative and intuitively drive concepts, projects and activity forward, despite all odds. Other people wait for the right time to make a decision or take action based on their sense of the market, their team or their clients. Some people will always be focused on who is affected by a decision and who they can connect with, whereas others will naturally think of the process or the system first and how that should operate.

The concept of natural energy does not suggest that any of these approaches are right or wrong. It simply acknowledges that they exist, and therefore different people will naturally be more effective at different aspects of a business’ activities. The ace in the finance department will never come close to being the star of the sales team. The individual who is brilliant at leading and inspiring the team will not be the best planner and innovator of new products and ideas to drive the strategic activity of the business forward.

The Contribution Compass profiler asks thought-provoking and self-reflection questions. Answer based on how you would have behaved and not how you would like to behave. Take your time to work through each question. It should take approximately 20 to 25 minutes. There are 24 questions in total. For each question you are required to rank each of the four options per question. One MUST be “Most Likely” and one MUST be “Least Likely”. The remaining two options must be ranked between 1 and 4. No option may have the same answer as another in the same question otherwise you will be notified of where corrections are required.

You will need to create an account to continue. Your username is your email address. To create a password, just click on ‘Forgot Password?’ and create one. Once you are in the dashboard, you will go into ‘Profiles’ and ‘Complete your profile’. If you have any other issues, you can email support@contributioncompass.com