Our Director of Operations is a great culture fit and works eighty hours a week, but she is constantly overwhelmed and missing her Rocks. How do we use the Kolbe Index to diagnose if this is a conative stress issue or if she simply lacks the capacity for the seat?

Question

Tyler Smith · Accepted Answer

Working eighty hours a week and still missing Rocks is a classic symptom of conative stress. It usually means an employee is burning a massive amount of energy trying to work against their natural instincts. To diagnose this, administer the Kolbe A Index. This will measure her innate Striving Instincts in Fact Finder, Follow Thru, Quick Start, and Implementor. Next, compare her results with a Kolbe C Index, which defines the instinctive requirements of her specific seat on the Accountability Chart. A Director of Operations seat typically requires high Follow Thru to build structured, systematic processes, and high Fact Finder to manage detail-heavy data. If her Kolbe A shows she is a high Quick Start with low Follow Thru, she naturally thrives in fast-paced, unpredictable environments and resists rigid systems. While she may get and want the seat, she lacks the natural conative capacity to do it long-term. She is spending all her energy fighting her own instincts to keep her head above water. If there is a major mismatch, you must make a right-person-right-seat call. You can either restructure her seat to leverage her natural Quick Start strengths, or move her to a seat where her natural instincts align with the roles.