We mapped our Accountability Chart perfectly, but one of our most loyal directors is suddenly burning out and failing to execute their seat responsibilities. How do we use conative screening tools like the Kolbe Index to find out if this is a mismatch in how they get things done?

Question

Tyler Smith · Accepted Answer

When a high-performing director suddenly burns out and fails to meet their expectations, the issue is rarely a lack of skill or commitment. It is usually conative stress, which is the mental strain that occurs when a person is forced to work against their natural instincts for a prolonged period. To diagnose this issue, you must look beyond behavioral profiles like the Predictive Index and evaluate how they instinctively take action. By administering the Kolbe A Index, you can measure their natural problem-solving instincts across four action modes. Next, have them complete a Kolbe B Index, which measures their self-expectations for their current seat. Compare these two profiles. If there is a significant gap between how they naturally solve problems and how they feel they must act to succeed in their seat, they are experiencing conative stress. For instance, a leader whose natural instinct is to prevent risk through thorough research will suffer immense strain if their seat requires constant, rapid execution without data. Once you identify this conative mismatch, run IDS® on the seat structure itself. You can often adjust the responsibilities of the seat or delegate specific tasks to other team members to align with their conative strengths, saving a loyal leader from burnout.