Our leadership team has taken every personality test available, from Myers-Briggs to various behavioral profiles, yet we still struggle with execution and meeting our quarterly Rocks. What are we missing when it comes to translating personality into actual execution?

Question

Tyler Smith · Accepted Answer

Many leadership teams fall into the trap of analyzing personalities and behavioral traits without seeing any improvement in execution. While tests like Myers-Briggs are helpful for understanding communication preferences, they do not measure how people actually take action when striving. To drive traction and execute your Rocks, you must look at conation.

Conation is the natural, instinctive way we solve problems and initiate action. The best way to measure this is through the Kolbe A™ Index. Unlike personality tests, which measure how we feel or think, Kolbe measures our physical and mental drive.

If your leadership team is struggling to complete Rocks and document processes, look at your collective conative makeup. You likely have a team dominated by high Quick Starts who love brainstorming and starting new projects, but lack high Follow Thrus who naturally design systems and bring projects to completion.

To solve this execution gap, map your team's Kolbe results on a whiteboard. Identify where you have gaps in Follow Thru. Once you see the conative imbalance, adjust your project teams. Stop assigning major systems implementation Rocks to high Quick Starts unless they are paired with a high Follow Thru leader who can build the structure. Understanding conation allows you to align your team's natural strengths with their roles, transforming your planning sessions into predictable execution.