What Is Kolbe?

Human instinct is the power behind our actions. It's the source of our mental energy. Understanding how instincts combine with intelligence and personality helps you optimize the hiring, training, retention, and effectiveness of your team members.

Assessment tools have historically focused on measuring the cognitive (IQ) and the affective (personality) parts of the mind. While these tools are helpful in training and managing people, something has been missing. IQ scores are influenced by educational opportunities and being smart doesn't necessarily predict success. Personality traits are situational and people who get along don't always do a job successfully or accomplish the team's goals.

Assessing and understanding the instinctive ways your employees do things creates a less stressful work environment where employees are more satisfied and more productive in their positions. The Kolbe System, developed by Kathy Kolbe and Kolbe Corp does this.

Results You Can Count On

The Kolbe Method frees people to use their instinctive talents and harnesses that talent to drive individual and team productivity.

With Kolbe, you will:

• Discover the natural or instinctive ways your team members take action
• Boost team member performance capabilities
• Understand how individual strengths apply to team participation
• Select the right people for the right jobs
• Replicate the success of top performers by identifying candidates who match their profile
• Redirect talent to where it's needed
• Take advantage of underused and overlooked talents
• Reduce stress at work
• Give yourself the highest probability for team and organizational success

Kolbe Products & Services

The Kolbe A* Index

The Kolbe A Index measures an individual’s instinctive or natural strengths. It describes the natural way each person takes action in four distinct areas or Action Modes*. The Kolbe A results give team members a language with which to describe these strengths and a method to communicate with others more effectively.

The Kolbe B* Index

The Kolbe B Index measures a team member’s own expectations about fulfilling his/her job. A significant difference between the expectations in the Kolbe B and the reality of the Kolbe A identifies a stress point or strain. An individual attempting to work against his or her grain-whether because of perceived expectations or real requirements-needs additional coaching. Kolbe provides a number of recommendations to help team members or teams.

The Kolbe C* Index

The Kolbe C Index measures a supervisor’s requirements for a particular job-the external performance expectations or how a supervisor thinks a job should be done. A significant difference between the requirements in the Kolbe C and the reality of the Kolbe A identifies another point of stress or tension.

Kolbe Organizational Analysis* and Leadership Reports*

Kolbe reports offer the highly quantifiable and diagnostic information you need to maximize the effectiveness of any team. The reports assess team synergy and effectiveness, identify areas of individual and team stress, and present specific advice for improvement. Reports include:

Spreadsheet of Strengths*

Spreadsheet of Strengths is an at-a-glance reference of your company’s available talent. It lists all of your team members and their Kolbe results.

Your Complete Management View

Once you have discovered your team members’ innate strengths, you can take the information and apply it to successful team building. Achieving a diverse mix of instinctive talent on your team will do more to help you meet your company’s goals than almost anything else. Having this diversity, or synergy, means the outcome of your team’s combined efforts will be more significant than that of any individual effort.

Inertia Analysis*

Just as inertia in the physical world inhibits forward movement, mental inertia bogs down a team’s efforts. The Inertia Analysis identifies the causes of reduced productivity by evaluating the amount of energy within Action Modes.

Kolbe TeamSuccess Seminar*

Kolbe TeamSuccess seminars are dynamic full- or half-day sessions that provide an interactive way to explore the workings of specific teams within your company. Experience how team member’s strengths play off one another and assess the probability of team success.