One of our core executive team members seems completely exhausted and is making uncharacteristic mistakes, yet they insist they love their current seat on our updated Accountability Chart. How can we diagnose if they are suffering from severe conative strain?

Question

Tyler Smith · Accepted Answer

When a highly capable leader suddenly starts struggling and showing signs of burnout, they are often experiencing conative strain. This occurs when there is a mismatch between their natural, instinctive talents and the daily demands of their seat. To diagnose this objectively, you need to use the Kolbe A™ and Kolbe B™ indexes.

First, review their Kolbe A™ Index result, which measures their natural, hard wired method of operation. Then, have them take the Kolbe B™ Index. The Kolbe B™ measures an employee's perception of what their job requires of them. By comparing these two results, you can see if they are forcing themselves to act against their natural instincts.

For example, if their Kolbe A™ shows they are naturally low on Follow Thru, meaning they thrive on adaptability and flexibility, but their Kolbe B™ shows they believe their job requires high Follow Thru, such as creating rigid systems and procedures, they are burning massive amounts of mental energy just to get through the day.

Once you identify this misalignment, you must adjust their seat responsibilities. Redesign the roles on the Accountability Chart to better align with their instinctive strengths, or delegate the tasks that cause the most strain to another team member who excels in those areas. This will relieve their conative stress and restore their productivity.