SCANNER FREEMONT / Data Analyst
Freemont is responsible for the digital conversion of survey responses while adhering to strict quality standards set forth by its managers. Freemont began its career at TruScore in 1996 as a Data Analyst and quickly became pivotal to TruScore's success. As the years passed, Freemont has slowly matured into part-time Data Analyst while also holding many positions in the work environment including On The Floor, On The Empty Desk, and Hold The Door (AKA Hodor).
RON SACCHI / Master Coach
A former Operations Manager in the High Tech Industry, Ron Sacchi brings decades of leadership and management experience to the organizational development and the executive coaching arena. An energetic thought-leader with a track record of success in all areas of Human Capital development, he has consulted and coached managers in start-ups, joint-ventures, high tech, pharmaceuticals, and media. Because of his business acumen and creative approaches to behavioral change, he is respected in the HR community specifically for the ability to direct, motivate, influence and inspire leaders to improve performance.
Holding an MBA from Saint Mary’s College, Mr. Sacchi is also licensed in various management, leadership and psychological profiling tools.
CARLANN FERGUSSON / Master Coach
Carlann inspires leaders to reconnect to their individual purpose and lead with contagious energy. She ensures leaders gain deep self-awareness and eliminate self-sabotaging behaviors. Her guidance is based on coaching, training and selecting hundreds of executives across diverse companies as well as her own journey into the executive ranks.
Carlann is the author of the highly acclaimed book The Insightful Leader: Find Your Superpowers, Crush Limiting Beliefs and Abolish Self-Sabotaging Behaviors (Praeger, June 2018). She holds a master’s degree in Industrial-Organizational Psychology. Her thirty years of experience include leadership roles in Fortune 500s, the private sector, and the U.S. Government. Carlann has been a featured guest on ABC News Radio, Wharton Business Radio and has been cited in CBS MoneyWatch, International Business Times, Newsday and Workday.
DR CHUCH MELTZER / Master Coach
Dr. Chuck Meltzer is a Master Coach and President of the SynTECGroup, an organizational development consulting firm. As an executive coach, he draws on his training at a doctoral level in psychology, direct senior management experience and management consulting with a wide cross section of industries. He has developed an extensive series of strategies to assist leaders in creating organizational wide and personal change. Dr. Meltzer has a decade of direct senior management experience and 20 years’ experience functioning within his consulting and coaching practice. His coaching approach is solution focused and time framed. Based on determined goals, a personally customized approach to the process has enabled his clients to realize sustainable change in a manner that allows them to enhance their effectiveness and success as leaders within their organization.
Dr. Meltzer is certified and a master trainer in several coaching assessment tools that he employs within his practice.
ERIN HIRSCHLAND / Master Coach
Erin is an organization development expert with nearly two decades experience serving organizations of all sizes across industries on a broad range of issues. Working with leadership teams, she helps articulate an actionable vision and corresponding values, connecting these to organizational strategy, execution and results. Her tools of choice include senior team retreats, one-on-one executive coaching and proven survey and related instruments.
Erin’s additional expertise includes designing employee selection systems, developing performance management tools that increase performance across the organization over time and employee and customer experience metrics. An effective facilitator and coach, Erin works with leaders and their teams to build trust, commitment and results.
She holds a Bachelor of Arts degree in Psychology from the University of California, Santa Barbara and a Master of Arts degree in Industrial/Organizational Psychology from the University of Colorado.
SONYA D HAMILTON / Senior Assessment Consultant
Sonya is a Senior Assessment Consultant at TruScore with over 24 years of experience designing and delivering 360 feedback solutions and providing 360-based coaching, training and interpretation.
Sonya has extensive experience working with Managers and Leaders, guiding them through the feedback and development journey and providing insights and direction to help maximize their impact within the organization. Sonya’s areas of expertise include 360-based coaching, 360 data analysis and interpretation, Train-the-Trainer certifications, facilitation, survey & questionnaire design, and the design and delivery of assessment programs.
Sonya has a Bachelor’s degree in psychology and a Master’s of Science degree in Industrial & Organization Psychology from Springfield College with a specialty in Counseling and Psychological Services. She is a Master Trainer for TruScore and the Clark Wilson Task Cycle surveys receiving a Certificate of Achievement in “How to Train a Trainer”. In addition, Sonya is certified to administer a variety of other psychometric instruments including employee engagement and organizational instruments as well as the line of Hogan Personality Assessments.
KAYLEY MOTZ / Assessment Advisor
Kayley draws on her extensive customer service background to provide clients with prompt, quality support. In her role as Assessment Advisor, Kayley works to ensure clients’ needs are being met. She assists in project set up and management, as well as processing and quality checking feedback reports. Kayley also aids in the execution of the day-to-day responsibilities of the production team, such as coaching session scheduling and tech support.
CRYSTAL HUGHES / Assessment Advisor
Crystal leverages her extensive background in Industrial-Organizational (I-O) psychology as she manages the day-to-day operational and tactical aspects of multiple and large scale projects for TruScore.
Crystal assists clients with setting up and managing feedback projects, and serves as the point of contact throughout the entire process. She quality checks feedback reports, and provides tech support when needed.
ELLIE SOLOMON / Assessment Advisor
Ellie manages project implementation for the entire 360 assessment feedback process and ensures that each client’s unique needs are met on time and in an efficient manner. Ellie consults with clients who use TruScore’s off-the-shelf Task Cycle® instruments as well as providing hosting solutions for clients using their own survey content, including custom processes and reports. She helps clients navigate through the TruScore® survey hosting software, having literally written the handbook that several clients are using.
She coordinates and implements all translation efforts, including soliciting bids, managing timelines, providing files to the translation companies, implementing translations for the web pages, and testing.
ULLA WESTERMANN / Software Engineer
Ulla uses her years of experience as a software engineer to maintain and add new features to TruScore's applications. She also helps with customizing feedback reports based on client needs.
HANK CURTIS / Business Development Manager
Hank manages and assists in the analyzing, planning, research, and development of TruScore’s objectives and strategic plans in order to achieve business opportunities, growth, and financial profitability.
Hank drives the expansion of TruScore’s direct sales, establishes relationships with TruScore’s clients, identifies clients, and keeps up-to-date on industry trends and client developments.
TAYLOR BRANTON / Bookkeeper
Taylor is responsible for managing payroll and employee fringe benefits programs, in addition to organizing company gatherings and outings. Taylor oversees day to day accounting needs as it relates to client invoicing, accounts payable, and general compliance requirements. She also has a hand in month, quarter, and year end reports and works closely with the CEO and CTO to furnish details necessary to make accurate business projections and decisions.
KURT BLAZEK / Design Director
Kurt uses a unique blend of strategic thinking with dynamic executions to create TruScore’s visual and interactive design. He is responsible for creating, evolving, and sustaining the company’s brand to internal and external stakeholders through multiple mediums. He oversees all of TruScore’s digital strategies, along with the implementation of social media tools and techniques.
Kurt leverages TruScore’s marketing and messaging information to identify, evaluate, and apply methods to maximize the effectiveness of the search campaigns across all of the major search engines. He tracks and measures the ROI of search engine rankings, direct print, and marketing websites.
JOSH SHEETS / Chief Operations Officer
Josh is responsible for all day-to-day aspects of managing the operations and various functional areas including business development, sales and marketing, client delivery, vendor relations, human resources, and IT.
Josh helps to ensure outstanding customer service, and the administration of long-term and day-to-day business processes that complement the delivery of high quality, innovative customer-focused survey tools, assessments and hosted survey offerings.
TOM KUHNE / Managing Partner and CTO
Tom joined TruScore in 1995 and has served in a number of roles, including Data Analyst, IS Manager, and VP & CIO. In his current role as Managing Partner and CTO, Tom is the driving force behind TruScore's technology vision for the present and the future. He manages all aspects of TruScore’s information systems, ensuring all systems meet the highest functionality and security standards.
Tom enjoys working hand in hand with clients and partners to make sure TruScore® delivers the technology and advancement that has become expected of it as a leader in the online assessment marketplace.
DEREK MURPHY / Chief Executive Officer
Derek joined TruScore in 1996 and has served in a number of roles, including Data Analyst, Operations Manager, and President & COO. In his current role as CEO, he is responsible for planning and implementing the strategic direction of the company. In addition, Derek is involved in product development and overseeing the day-to-day business operations for TruScore.
TruScore founder Dr. Daniel Booth, a pioneer in the field of assessment of leadership and management skills, served as a mentor to Derek for more than a decade. During this time, Derek became certified on TruScore’s full line of management and leadership assessments. He currently uses these skills to lead content debriefings with customers and partners on a regular basis.
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First, Break All the Rules: What the World’s Greatest Managers Do Differently, by Gallup (2016). NY: Gallup Press.
The first thing you should know is that this is a re-release of a bestseller from 1999. As far as I could tell, the only thing different was an update of metadata at the end. So, if you have a copy of the first edition on your bookshelf, unless you’re a data wonk, there’s no reason to buy the new edition. If you haven’t read this book, it’s a worthwhile read.
Essentially, this book is about how to be a good manager. It is chock full of data-driven conclusions. After interviewing a million employees and 80,000 managers, Gallup discovered that twelve items describe the health of a workplace. The first six are most important. They are:
These items are positively linked to at least one of the four business outcomes: productivity, profitability, retention, and customer satisfaction, and most are linked to two or more. Employees who score high on the items are said to be engaged. Engagement is most closely linked to how satisfied the employee is with his or her immediate manager. People leave managers, not companies.
According to Gallup, the management role has four core activities. These are: select for talent, define the right outcomes, focus on strengths, and find the right fit for employees. Most of the book discusses these four core activities and how to excel at them. Discovering and working with people’s talents are at the heart of good management. The authors state that it’s more important to select for employees who have the right set of talents for the job than it is to select for either skills or knowledge. Both of these can be taught, but talents are inherent.
Gallup’s research describes 34 talent themes divided into four categories: executing, influencing, relationship building, and strategic thinking. If you buy the book, you can take the Clifton Strengthsfinder Assessment and the Q12 Employee Engagement Survey for free, and discover your individual strengths, at least as defined by Gallup.
It’s important to slot people into jobs that reflect their talents rather than their resumes. One of the most touching sections, for me, was about hotel housekeepers. Gallup asked hotels to identify their best housekeepers, and they interviewed these outstanding workers. Now, cleaning hotel rooms isn’t most people’s idea of a good time. In fact, it’s considered to be an entry-level job that most people will choose to leave as soon as possible. But, exemplary housekeepers love the job and often stay in it for their entire careers. When asked how they know if a room is clean, one said that the last thing they did before leaving a room was to lie on the guest’s bed and turn on the ceiling fan.
“Why?”
“Because,” they explained, “that is the first thing that a guest will do after a long day out. They will walk into the room, flop down on the bed and turn on the fan. If dust comes off the top of the fan, then no matter how sparkling clean the rest of the room was, the guest might think it was as dirty as the top of the fan.”
Sweet. Others talked about making a show for their guests. “Unless the guests object, we will take the toys that the children leave on the bed, and every day, we will make a little scene for them. We will put Pooh and Piglet on the pillows together. Pooh will have his arm in a chocolate candy box. Piglet will have his on the remote control. When the children come back, they imagine that all day long, Pooh and Piglet hung out on the bed, snacking and watching TV.”
These great housekeepers had talent. Seen through their filters, cleaning a hotel room wasn’t just another chore for them to complete. It was a world, a guest’s world. Making each guest’s world just right brought them strength and satisfaction.
In the mind of great managers, every role performed at excellence deserves respect. Every role has its own nobility.
I wish there had been more inspiring stories like this in the book. Instead, there were lots of sections based on data, for example: Rules of Thumb, How to Manage Around a Weakness, The Art of Tough Love. Maybe these sections will be exactly what you need to read, or maybe, like me, you will skim through them. I found that the last section, called “Turning the Keys: A Practical Guide” really made me sit up and take an interest. For me, this section was, well, practical. For example, the section on performance management was extremely helpful. Gallup found four characteristics common to the performance management routines of great managers.
First, the routine is simple. Great managers don’t want to spend their time trying to decipher alien terms and filling out bureaucratic forms. Instead, they prefer a simple format that allows them to focus on the employee’s difficult work.
Second, the routine forces frequent interaction between the manager and the employee. It is no good meeting once a year. More frequent meetings are essential in order to capture the specifics of an employee’s talents.
Third, the routine is focused on the future. The good manager discusses what could be rather than focusing on postmortems.
Last, the routine asks the employee to keep track of his or her own performance and learnings. The purpose of self-assessment is to serve as a counterpoint or comparison with the assessment of the manager.
After discussing the aspects of the routine, the book lists questions the manager can ask in the first interview with the employee. These include such things as: What did you enjoy most about your previous work experience? What do you think your strengths are? What are your goals for your current role? How often would you like to meet with me to discuss your progress?
I found these questions to be very useful. In addition, there are questions to use in the performance planning meetings as well as career discovery questions. Every manager, I believe, would find these helpful.
One thing I found annoying in the book was how it set up its ideas of the “rules” for management, and described how people who excelled at Gallup’s definition of management did things differently. For example, according to the “rules” they describe, traditional managers believe their job is to help a person overcome weaknesses rather than focusing on developing strengths. The managers I know do help their team members overcome their most glaring weaknesses, but they also help them identify their strengths. It’s not an “either-or” proposition. Maybe the rules—accepted wisdom–have changed in the seventeen years since the first release of this book. Even though it’s a bit dated, it’s still a thought-provoking book, and one that managers should know.
