Psychology and Management – The impact of psychology on management

The impact of psychology on management

The Assess Manager test is based on the most widely recognised theoretical references used by management specialists… But it also uses guidelines used by psychologists and neuroscience specialists… But what is it made of? What does it tell us about the relationship between psychology and management?
To what extent does our personality influence our managerial posture and even our management skills?

Management posture and psychology

What is posture? Literally, it describes the position of the body. It tells us a lot about our psychology.
What does a straight body look like to you? Let’s go further: chin up, chest out, hands on hips, legs slightly apart, or one leg forward. This is an offensive, even domineering stance… It’s a body posture that reflects a potentially directive management style. We all agree that it’s hard to imagine a participative manager adopting this physical posture of domination, isn’t it?

Our psychology, the education we have received, the role models we have encountered in our lives, the protections we have put in place (…) have a direct impact on our posture: psychological, physical and managerial. We measure them in the Assess Manager management test.

A person‘s managerial agility defines his or her ability to use several management styles, to adapt to situations and people, to be a kind of chameleon rather than just that character in a dominant posture, for example.

Is it enough to observe a person to deduce their psychology and managerial style?

A person who is experienced enough in observing behaviour could indeed deduce certain managerial postures, at least in broad terms, as we explained in the example above. The body is the reflection of the soul. If you read Lise Bourbeau’s book on the 5 wounds of the soul, you’ll discover a precise description of people’s bodies, according to the wounds they experienced in childhood. And a precise psychological description of how they function.

So why create a management test rather than simply using a personality test or even observation?

First of all, the human being is more complex than a stereotype, and segmenting it into 4 main boxes(the DISC colour model), 5 wounds (Lise Bourbeau, the 5 wounds of the soul), 9 profiles (Enneagram), or even 16 profiles (Young, MBTI) would be reductive and deductive, and therefore less scientific.
Defining your profile and your propensity to use one management style more than another is an interesting first step, but it is not enough. It tells us something about the “managerial colour” that a person will instil. It does not tell us anything about their managerial skills.
What’s more, observation will have to be lengthy in order to identify different postures, which can vary depending on the context and the people involved.

In the Assess Manager test, we frequently see people who are predisposed to using a delegative management style, for example, but who have not yet developed their delegation skills. So psychology and management go hand in hand, but they cannot be reduced to deductive schemes such as: “this person has this profile, so they know how to do that”. This is one of the flaws criticised by experts in the above-mentioned test models, such as the MBTI or the colour test in particular, which are used with managers, but more as self-knowledge tools than as management skills assessment tools.

Psychology and Management : Managerial posture – useful links

To measure an individual’s different managerial postures, the Assess Manager management test uses the following reference frameworks in particular:

• HBDI, similar to the colour model, DISC
• Karpman’s triangle
• Transactional analysis
• Some of Gustav Jung’s Five Factor indicators
• And certain NLP metamodels

We use other elements of psychological analysis, but here are the essential ones.

Management and Psychology – Soft skills or Competencies?

What is the difference between softskills and management skills?

To put it simply, management skills are a combination of well-balanced softskills. A management skill is not just a personality trait, it’s an ability, a capacity to do something with a view to obtaining a result, thanks to a set of faculties. For example, the Assess Manager management test assesses an individual’s ability to plan and organise the work of a team, manage conflict in complex situations, analyse situations strategically and develop a corporate vision and strategy, etc.

Certain managerial skills can be deduced from a personality test, but there is no causal link between a single personality trait and a complete skill.

Psychology and management versus knowledge and management

When management training was in its infancy, it was believed that all that was needed to make a manager a good communicator was to explain the DESC theory of communication to a manager. Experience has shown us that acquiring knowledge can help, but is rarely enough…

Management is very much a matter of common sense, coupled with certain knowledge, and also directly linked to psychology.

Let’s continue with the example – the link between psychology and management, beyond knowledge:

The manager uses the DESC method to give feedback to a member of staff he doesn’t really like. In phase E of the DESC model, where emotions are expressed, he’s not at ease and doesn’t dare say that he’s annoyed by the employee. He says things in hushed tones, doesn’t like to talk about himself, and even less about his feelings. Even if he’s familiar with the 4 stages of the method, he’ll certainly skip over the emotional part very quickly. So his knowledge of the method helps him, but that doesn’t mean he’s capable of using it to the full.

This is one of the reasons why coaching has developed so much. Knowledge is not enough. Acquiring real skills often requires a better understanding of oneself, and a profound change in behaviour.

A manager who is not at ease with his emotions may be cut off from them. As a child, he or she may have been taught that “boys don’t cry”, “anger is a negative emotion that must be curbed”, “fear is a sign of weakness”, “joy that is too spontaneous does not inspire charisma”, and “disgust is not polite”. These are all beliefs that can cut the little boy off from his feelings and from a precious tool for relating to others. The coach will support the manager in redefining the child’s relationship with emotions, now that he has become an adult and is able to make new choices in his relationship with his emotions.
What if sadness were a warning of disappointment, anger of frustration, fear of danger, joy of a pleasant situation, and disgust of violated values, for example? Emotions would then become a useful resource for understanding, exploring and exchanging, which the manager and all beings would gain from knowing and listening to.

If adults transform their relationship with emotions in the context of decision-making, for example, and combine this exploration and ability to feel emotions with an analytical approach, we will then be closer to a skill in decision-making.

How does the Assess Manager test assess managerial skills?

Without revealing all the facets of what makes Assess Manager the most innovative company in terms of managerial assessment, we can reveal that behaviour reveals the skills acquired. It therefore needs to be observed.

The management test proposes observable situations, from which psychological patterns emerge, as well as skills developed over time. For example, I may be a great communicator who is initially reluctant to organise and plan, and yet I may have developed real organisational skills so that an initial ‘weakness’ becomes a skill over time.

So we have people with predispositions to certain skills that are really exploited, and also predispositions that are unexploited.
The assessment of managerial skills through the test is detailed and defined in Assess Manager’s complete book on management. It defines each skill precisely, illustrates it with examples and counter-examples, and proposes solutions to situations that might seem unsolvable or complex, in a highly operational way.

All the subjects covered are reinforced by theoretical contributions in psychology and management.

Psychology and management – from softskills to management skills, useful links

Uses for recruiters

In this way, the recruiter can share the results of the test to open a dialogue and understand how the candidate operates in the target environment. The candidate is no longer someone to be judged, but someone to be shared with, in order to identify the environments that are favourable to him or her in terms of skills, qualities and areas for improvement. It’s a tool dedicated to recruiters who are building the relationship with their clients to integrate a real win-win logic.

Uses for support professionals

Similarly, companies, coaches and trainers will find that the test reports provide precise information to help people develop their skills and adaptability.

R&D MANAGEMENT STUDY SUMMARY

• A systemic approach to accurate, caring assessment
• Product innovation open to all, to make psychology accessible to everyone
• Products for professionals, but also for the main people concerned: the people being tested, to move away from an overly elitist approach and turn these solutions into genuine tools for dialogue and understanding