Let me tell you about a candidate at an organisation I worked at, who was rejected at the psychometric stage of a hiring process.

They had made it through two rounds of interviews. The hiring manager liked them. The team liked them. By all accounts, they were the right person for the role.

Then the assessment came back.

Something in the report gave the hiring team the jitters. A single trait that did not quite fit the picture they had in their heads. Nobody rang the candidate. Nobody invited them back for a conversation.

The candidate simply did not progress.

No context. No conversation. No chance to respond to something they did not even know was being held against them.

That is not how a psychometric assessment is supposed to work.

And yet I have seen versions of that situation play out in organisations of every size, across every industry, more times than I have had hot dinners!

Here is the pattern I keep seeing.

An organisation decides to introduce assessments into their hiring process. Almost immediately, it becomes a tick-box exercise at the end of a process that is already effectively decided.

The report lands in someone’s inbox. It confirms what they already thought, in which case it gets filed away. Or it raises a flag, in which case it becomes a fail.

“They failed their psych test” is what is usually said.

But you cannot fail a psychometric assessment. Because you cannot fail who you are.

Either way, the report is treated as a verdict, not a starting point for a conversation.

And here is something worth knowing. Best practice guidelines are clear that a psychometric result should never make up more than 30% of your hiring decision. The other 70% is still yours to make.

Treating it as a verdict is precisely where the value disappears.

The other mistake I see constantly is organisations applying the same generic profile to every role. The same dimensions measured for the customer service coordinator and the national sales manager. The same expectations for the graduate and the CFO.

A hammer being used as a scalpel.

What works best is starting with the role. Defining precisely what success looks like in that specific position, in that specific team, in that specific business. Build a benchmark that reflects those requirements. Then use the assessment to measure a candidate against that benchmark, not against a generic ideal that may have nothing to do with what the role demands.

The right moment to use an assessment is before the final interview, not after. Use it to inform the conversation, not to replace it.

Then comes the interview . An exploration of what the data shows and what it means for this person in this role. That conversation protects the candidate. It protects the organisation. And it often surfaces insight that changes the hiring decision for the better.

And it does not stop at hiring.

Companies that integrate psychometric data into their onboarding experience a 25% -30% reduction in first-year staff turnover. When a new hire’s development plan is shaped around their natural behavioural traits they feel understood rather than forced into a rigid mould from day one. Think of the assessment as a user manual for your new team member.

Used properly, a psychometric assessment does not replace human judgement.

It makes human judgement significantly better.

The candidate who was rejected without a conversation?

They went on to become a high performer at a competitor.

Are your assessments starting conversations or closing them?

The post I Have Spent 15  Years Using Psychometric Assessments. And I Think Many Organisations Are Using Them Completely Wrong. appeared first on Directions Unlimited.

Early in my career, I joined a healthcare business as Sales Manager. Seven people on the team. On my first day, the GM pulled me aside and said something that genuinely shocked me.

A new broom sweeps clean. Feel free to let go of anyone you do not want.

I was not built that way. So instead, I set about evaluating everyone properly.

One team member stood out for all the wrong reasons. Always willing to help. Always busy when you spoke to them. Always had a reason why the numbers were not there yet. But the KPIs told a different story every single week.

And there was a complication. This person was a distant relative of the GM through marriage.

My gut was telling me something. But I was new. I did not want to rock the boat. So I did what seemed reasonable. I spoke with the GM, who was ambivalent. I had a genuine performance conversation with the team member. We co-created a plan together. They committed to it fully.

Six weeks later, nothing had changed.

So I decided to go out on the road with them. See the selling style for myself. I called their mobile to arrange it.

They answered, but not with their name and our company.

With the name of a completely different business, in a different industry entirely.

In that moment, everything made sense.

They were not struggling to sell our products. They were too busy selling someone else’s.

We parted ways that afternoon.

But here is what stayed with me long after that day.

I had known. Not about the other job, but about the trust. The feeling that something was off had been there from the beginning. I had ignored it because of the relationship, because I was new, because I told myself I needed more evidence.

The evidence had been there all along.

After that, I delved into the subject of trust. Read everything I could find. Attended seminars. The book that shaped my thinking most was “The Truth About Trust in Business by Vanessa Hall.” Her framework is simple, and I have carried it ever since.

Trust rests on three things. Managing expectations honestly. Identifying real needs rather than assumed ones. And delivering on commitments without exception.

When any one of those three breaks down, trust does not bend. It breaks. And once it breaks, it is practically impossible to rebuild.

From that point on, I made trust a standing agenda item with every team I led. Every time we brought someone new into the business, I was direct about it. Trust is not a given. It is earned on both sides. It is fragile. And the cost of losing it, to the individual, to the team, and to the business, is far higher than most people ever calculate.

I still think about that phone call.

Not with bitterness. But as a reminder.

Your instincts are data. The most underrated data you have.

It’s best to learn to trust your gut before someone gives you a reason to.

The post The Phone Call That Changed How I Lead. appeared first on Directions Unlimited.

Not what you needed a few years ago. Not what the last job ad you posted says. Going forward, what are the must-haves, not the nice-to-haves.

If the honest answer is not really, you are not alone.

Australian research tells us that 16% of employees are currently not proficient in their roles. Not underperforming in a general sense. Specifically, not meeting the competency standards their role requires. In a team of 20, that is three people operating below where they need to be. In an NFP or SME, that gap is felt immediately.

And here is the part that should make every leader sit up.

Gartner research tells us that only 8% of organisations have reliable skills data. That means 92% are making decisions about their people based on information they cannot fully trust.

As a result, they promote people based on performance in a role without understanding what the new role needs. They hire based on experience without mapping whether that experience translates precisely to the competencies needed. They adopt a one-size-fits-all training approach and invest without knowing which skills need developing and in whom.

The World Economic Forum’s Future of Jobs Report 2025 is spot on. Skills gaps are now the single biggest barrier to business transformation, cited by 63% of employers globally. And 39% of existing skill sets will be transformed or become outdated between 2025 and 2030. But knowing that at a macro level is very different from understanding what it means for your team in your business in your industry.

A competency gap analysis closes that distance.

It starts with defining clearly what top performance looks like in each role. Not a generic framework borrowed from a template. A precise, context-specific picture of the behaviours, motivators, and capabilities that currently drive success in your organisation.

Then it measures where your people are against that picture. Objectively. Without the bias that comes from familiarity or how well someone presents in a performance conversation.

The gap between those two things is your roadmap. It tells you who needs what kind of development. It tells you whether you have the right people in the right roles. It tells you where your succession risks are. And it tells you what to prioritise in your next hiring round.

For SMEs and NFPs this is not a luxury exercise. It is one of the most practical and commercially useful things you can do with your people data.

Because you cannot close a gap you have not measured. And you cannot measure a gap you have never looked for.Is your organisation flying blind on this? You might be surprised by what a closer look reveals.

The post Mind the Gap: What Gets Measured Gets Managed appeared first on Directions Unlimited.

AI tools can do the work faster, cheaper, and without a learning curve. And they do not take annual leave.

Why hire a graduate to process data, draft reports, or handle routine analysis when a well-prompted model could do it in minutes?

The numbers tell an interesting story.

Australian graduate job postings fell almost 15% in 2025 and were down 35% from their peak in 2023. At the height of the pullback, just 9% of Australian SMEs were actively hiring graduates, down from 19% only two months earlier. Globally, entry-level hiring fell an estimated 29% since January 2024. And in big tech, the proportion of Gen Z employees at large public firms was cut in half between 2023 and 2025.

It is not all doom and gloom, though. Graduate demand has stabilised in early 2026, with Australian postings rising 6.4% in the March quarter. The sky is not falling.

But stabilisation does not fix the three years of reduced intake that preceded it.

Because the senior person you need in 2028 is the graduate you should have hired in 2025. The team leader you will need in 2030 is the person who is not getting their entry-level role today. Short-term budget pressure is producing long-term consequences that will not become visible for years. And by the time they do, it will be too late to do much about them.

When you close the front door, you do not just lose the graduate.

You eventually lose the pipeline.

The World Economic Forum is direct on this point. Without deliberate entry points into the workforce, organisations risk slower AI adoption, weakened succession plans, stalled knowledge transfer, and cultures that struggle to renew themselves.

In plain language, the leaders you will need in 2030 and 2035 are the graduates you are not hiring today.

For SMEs and NFPs, this matters enormously. You don’t have the luxury of a global talent pool or an executive search budget when a leadership gap opens up. Your bench strength depends almost entirely on the people you have developed from within.

So what do you do about it?

Start by understanding who in your current team has the potential to step up. Not just who is performing well today, but who has the natural qualities, the curiosity, the resilience, the capacity to influence and lead, that will matter most in the years ahead.

That conversation will not only drive retention. It will build the bench strength your business depends on.

The data to guide those decisions exists. The question is whether you are using it before the gap appears or scrambling to find it after.Now more than ever, the decisions you make today in this era of uncertainty will shape your business future. And your legacy.

The post You Stopped Hiring Graduates. Did Anyone Tell Your Succession Plan? appeared first on Directions Unlimited.

The one who nails the interview is not always the one who nails the job.

I learned this early in my own leadership career, with a hire I was convinced was going to be a superstar.

One candidate stood out head and shoulders above the rest. Relaxed. Confident. Sharp as a tack in the room. His CV was “sound as a bell,” with a strong sales history and no job hopping. He had never worked in our industry, but with a track record like his, we weren’t worried.

We gave him every chance to succeed.

Four months later, after a couple of shocking quarters and activity levels that told their own story, it was obvious. He was a bit of a chancer. Brilliant in the room. Could not execute in the field. We had to part ways.

That one stung, because I liked him. And that’s exactly the problem.

When we’re drawn to one trait in a candidate, charm, confidence, a good story, we tend to assume competence everywhere else. Psychologists call it the Halo Effect.

We also gravitate toward people who remind us of ourselves, which feels comfortable right up until it becomes a liability.

Every wrong call comes with a price tag too. A failed sales hire in Australia costs between $115K and $300K, once you count salary, lost pipeline, training, and management time. Most businesses don’t spot it until month four or five. By then, the damage is done.

A CV tells you what someone has done. It doesn’t tell you how they think under pressure, whether they’ll front up again on Wednesday after a brutal Tuesday, or whether they’re a hunter or a farmer. Mine was a fantastic farmer we’d hired to hunt.

This is more of a measurement problem than a talent problem.

The businesses that get this right measure core selling competencies before the interview, not after. Tenacity, resilience, mindset, the actual skills, not just the pitch, the hardwiring underneath it.

So next time you catch yourself thinking, “I really like this applicant,” pause. That feeling is data. But it is not enough data.

I still think about that chancer sometimes. Sharp as they come. Just not built for the job we needed done.

The next great sales hire won’t be found by instinct alone. Measure what matters, hire with confidence, and build a sales team that performs long after the interview ends.

The post The Difference Between Your Best and Worst Sales Hire Was Decided Before the Interview Began. appeared first on Directions Unlimited.

Why does conflict occur in teams?

Some of the main reasons conflict occurs in teams include a lack of effective communication, competition, personality differences and underperformance.

What should managers do when conflict does arise?

The best thing for managers to do when conflict arises is to address it head on. If conflict goes unresolved in a team environment it can fester and cause big and costly problems for companies. At the very least it can cause a communication breakdown in your team and at worst it can negatively impact on company results and increase staff turnover.

When conflict arises, managers and leaders have an opportunity to strengthen communication and trust within the team. To be effective, leaders must calmly and objectively address the issue with a direct conversation. Coming to a resolution will involve setting clear intentions, being considerate of both sides and encouraging input.

In some cases conflict can’t (and shouldn’t) be avoided in the workplace, but there are many ways to reduce the likelihood of it occurring. Here’s what you can do.

Hire the right people

Choosing the right people for your team can help to minimise conflict. By hiring people based on not only their experience and qualifications, but their personality type and working style, you can ensure they’ll fit in with your workplace culture and work effectively with other employees. JobFit is a great tool for selecting the right candidates. JobFit uses objective data to identify the attributes that will make a candidate most successful in the role, like personality, behavioural traits and occupational interests. By selecting candidates based on these attributes, you can handpick personality types that are likely to meld with your existing team members and workplace culture.

Seek out tension

One big mistake that poor managers make when conflict arises is to ignore it. Conflict can be uncomfortable to address, so many managers put blinders up when there is tension in their team. While it might seem easier to just ignore it, conflict that goes unresolved will not disappear. Unresolved conflict can reduce productivity, damage morale and cause disengagement within your team. To minimise the likelihood of conflict occurring, managers can look for tension points and address them before they become a problem.

Have regular one-on-ones

Having regular one-on-one meetings with each member of your team provides a forum for giving and receiving feedback, building trust within your team and making sure communication lines are strong and effective. One-on-ones also give you an opportunity to identify tension and problem areas.

Foster communication

One of the main causes of conflict in the workplace is ineffective communication. When team members don’t feel comfortable communicating with every member of the team, tension is given an opportunity to brew and cause problems. To foster communication, managers can regularly discuss individual and team wellbeing, have an open door policy, and most importantly they can adopt a coaching mindset. A coaching mindset is all about facilitating an environment in which individuals can grow, develop and solve their own workplace problems independently.

Undergo team coaching

A team coach works with teams to strengthen lines of communication and streamline collaboration so that individuals can work more effectively together. A coach provides non-judgemental support, ensuring the welfare of the team and can give teams the tools needed to address tension when it occurs. Team coaching can also help individuals gain a coaching mindset so that they can communicate more effectively and support their teammates to do the same.
To find out how your team could benefit from team coaching, contact us today for an obligation free discussion.

The post How to reduce conflict in teams appeared first on Directions Unlimited.

Lazy, entitled and flaky – just a few of the stereotypes given to millennials in the workforce and wider community. While data is increasingly indicating that these stereotypes are untrue, it’s also showing us that they are very unhelpful, especially for hiring managers and employers.

Born roughly between 1981 and 1996, millennials are predicted to make up the bulk of the workforce by 2020 – and they’re driving change at a rapid pace. This is something that employers can no longer afford to ignore, especially when it comes to hiring the right people and nurturing talent.

So, what do employers need to do to keep up with the changing paradigm, to source, retain and nurture millennial talent?

Read the full article at Dynamic Business.

The post How millennials are changing how we source, retain and nurture talent appeared first on Directions Unlimited.

Some of these more challenging issues can creep their way into your team’s workflow – damaging productivity and team success. These issues can sometimes act like a virus, going undetected until it’s too late and you experience your team performance crumble before your eyes.

A team coach gives teams the tools to identify and work through these issues before they become a bigger problem.

So what are the early signs that your team needs team coaching?

Your team isn’t hitting targets

A team is greater than the sum of its parts. While it’s a bit of a cliché, this statement couldn’t be truer when it comes to high performing teams. While individual talent is one of the key ingredients for driving company results, it doesn’t necessarily translate to the team hitting important workplace targets.

Team success relies entirely on effective collaboration. Take sport for example. An outstanding soccer player would not be able to succeed without the help from their team. A team coach can help teams overcome difficulties so that they can collaborate more effectively, work more productively and reach their targets.

There’s a communication breakdown in your team

It happens in all workplaces. People have different communication styles, some of which don’t blend easily together. This doesn’t mean certain members of your team are doomed to work in confinement. This simply will not work.

For a team to work at optimum performance, there needs to be clear and distinct lines of communication between every member of the team. Think of these lines of communication like electricity lines in a power grid. If lines are missing between members of your team, certain people will be left in the dark. Lack of effective communication can lead to misunderstandings and frustration among your team members. It can inhibit productivity, hamper morale and damage your overall team performance.

Team coaching helps teams communicate directly and efficiently so that teammates can work better together and improve team results.

There is a feedback gap

Constructive feedback is one of the most important tools that individuals and teams can use to work through challenges and improve results. While this is true, a really common workplace issue is the absence of regular feedback among teams – both positive and constructive. Feedback is best given frequently and to every member of a team in order for it to be effective. A coach will work with teams to streamline the way feedback is given (and received) so that individuals can work more constructively together and achieve team objectives.

Morale is low

Low morale can occur for many different reasons. Whether it’s personality differences within your team, an absence of transparency or a lack of forward progression, low morale can result in a major dip in productivity levels. It also often results in higher turnover rates which can cause companies to incur huge unwanted costs.

A team coach can help every team member feel ownership over their own success and the success of the team. This feeling of accountability helps to give team members a drive to succeed. It does wonders for team morale and can improve workplace results. A team coach will also give your team the tools to communicate more efficiently, build trust and improve engagement.

There’s tension in your team

Negative tension between members of your team can be extremely harmful for a number of reasons. It can draw focus away from important workplace tasks, hamper morale and damage employee engagement. Even worse, it can result in your best talent heading out the door.

While conflict isn’t inherently bad, when it isn’t addressed or resolved, it can interfere with a team’s workflow and inhibit success. Team coaching helps with conflict resolution and more importantly helps the team understand why a fear of conflict within the team can be detrimental to top performance. A coach will give members of your team the tools to identify conflict and address it head-on so that tension doesn’t brew and become a bigger problem than it needs to be. A coach will help each person in the team optimise their own communication skills and formulate strong lines of communication so that tension can be aired and overcome.

Our team coaching programs generally consist of a 6-12 month process that develops a team’s capacity to deliver measurable business outcomes and a self-sufficient approach to steer its ongoing development. In our experience, team coaching works best with newly forming teams, or when the membership of a team changes significantly, or when an existing team wants to ramp up their performance or reinvent itself to meet new business challenges.

To find out how your team could benefit from team coaching, contact us today for an obligation free discussion.

The post The top 5 signs that your team needs team coaching appeared first on Directions Unlimited.

It used to be fairly standard to review your employees using a list of criteria that needed to be addressed and ticked off as completed. The process, being quite stiff and structured, didn’t allow a lot of give when it came to new ideas and varying management styles.

Thankfully, this approach has become outdated and it is now estimated that about 70% of global companies are moving towards a model that caters for regular performance, feedback, development conversations and coaching opportunities instead.

Why is the new way better?

When feedback is delivered ineffectively, the results can be highly detrimental to an employee’s performance. If the employee consistently receives feedback in a way that undermines their ability to perform their job, their confidence may be weakened, and their overall performance can be impaired.

Therefore, by using a regular performance management approach that is open, conversational and tailored to the employee, the manager or leader will find greater success in the outcome.

How can you ensure you approach performance management correctly?

By adopting a ‘leader as coach’ mindset, a manager can approach performance management with the necessary skills and qualities needed for successful outcomes.

They can do this by:

Being consistent

A great manager with a ‘leader as coach’ mindset will arrange regular one-on-one meetings with employees to see where each employee is at with their work. They will check in to see if individuals feel good about their work. These managers prioritise the development of individuals because they know that in order to achieve vital business objectives, the company needs engaged, motivated and high performing individuals to work collectively towards a shared goal.

Asking and listening

A ‘leader as coach’ mindset involves asking the right questions and listening intently. Rather than always adopting a ‘telling’ approach a coach may ask “what approach do you think will help to achieve this outcome?”

By asking open ended questions, employees are given the space to think creatively and develop their own path to developmental success. In addition to crafting great questions, a manager with a ‘leader as coach’ mindset will listen attentively to what their employees have to say. They will resist the opportunity to finish sentences, they will use silence. By not only listening but taking on board their employees’ concerns and desires, managers can help them to better develop in their role and in the company.

Building trust

Successful coaching relies entirely on a relationship of trust between a manager and their employees. Adopting a ‘leader as coach’ mindset requires managers to start with a firm belief in the ability of their team members to be successful in the role. If a ‘relationship of competence’ does not exist then coaching may not be the correct intervention by the manager, and a discussion around the obstacles that are preventing the employee being successful will need to occur. Building trust is a gradual process which can be achieved by maintaining open lines of communication and providing support whether it be task-related or emotional.

Being constructive with feedback

Constructive feedback is a developmental tool that is vital for organisational success. A great manager will make connections between an individual’s strengths and the company’s mission to improve development and drive success. Expressing these connections positively through regular feedback is the best way to achieve results.

Working with an executive coach is a great way to master giving constructive feedback to your employees. An executive coach will work with you to ensure your feedback is digestible, specific, objective, honest, accurate, solutions-focused and balanced.

Being inclusive

Make sure your employee is part of the performance management process and give them some ownership of the outcomes. Often you’ll find that your employees can come up with a wider array of solutions than you can, simply because they are in a different position with different perspectives.

Ideally, you want to reach a level of understanding and agreement between you and your employee. You want to use the time for an engaging and quality conversation and not just to tick off certain requirements.

Keep in mind that employees may respond to their performance management differently, so it’s important for managers to be receptive to the individual’s response. This way you can tailor your next discussion according to the techniques the person responded best to.

Remember, when performance issues are handled promptly, and desired outcomes are achieved, it can mean a huge improvement in your employee happiness and engagement levels, leading to an efficient and productive workplace.

A lot of managers find that delivering effective performance management is a skill they may need to develop, or improve on. Adopting a ‘leader as coach’ mindset will help you as manager to identify coachable moments. At Directions Unlimited we offer executive coaching to help you develop those skills, and more! To find out about how to use a new approach to your performance management, contact us today.

The post How performance management has evolved into something your employees will actually enjoy appeared first on Directions Unlimited.

You might ask yourself, “does this person have the right skills to perform the job?.. the right credentials?.. enough experience?.. will they fit in with the workplace culture?” While some of these questions can be easily answered with a CV and interview, others are trickier. One question that is difficult to answer through the traditional hiring process is “will this person be a high performer and engaged with their work?”

Great managers know that higher employee engagement levels in the workplace translate to higher productivity and better company performance. So how can hiring managers improve the likelihood of hiring highly engaged top performers?

It all starts with thinking about job fit, rather than experience, qualifications, and even age and gender. Studies have shown that these factors are not statistical indicators of future top performance in a job, but that ‘fit’ is what counts if you want a top performer.

Job fit refers to how well a person is suited to their job role and the surrounding workplace culture. Whether or not a person ‘fits’ in a certain role depends on a few factors, for example their attitude, personality and enthusiasm for the work at hand. To find out which candidate is the right fit for the job and culture, hiring managers must check their biases at the door and use objective information to make their decision. This can be trickier than it sounds, but it can be done.

Assessment tools that allow you to develop a customised benchmark or model for the role you are hiring for bring objectivity into the hiring process. They validate data on existing performance, job tasks and results so that you hire individuals who are indisputably right for the role.

How does it work?

Hire someone who is objectively the right fit

Choosing the right person for a role can influence how long they stay in the job and how engaged they are with their work. According to studies of more than 650,000 people by Towers Watson, businesses can expect a 13.7% rise in net income with engaged employees. While this knowledge is fairly widespread with hiring managers, the wrong people still get hired for roles time and time again. Why? Hiring someone through the traditional interview process alone can be a bit of a guessing game. Someone might be highly proficient at talking their way through the interview process, but their skills at talking the talk mightn’t translate to walking the walk in the job. Validated benchmarkable assessments take the guesswork out of the hiring process. They evaluate information about a person that cannot be determined by a traditional job interview. Instead of solely relying on opinions or a hunch, the assessments we recommend provide you with tools which use objective data to determine whether your candidate is right for the role.

Use your top performers as a benchmark for new talent

When a top performer walks out the door, it often feels like you’re back at square one, scrambling to build your team from the ground up again. But it doesn’t have to be this way. Companies, teams and hiring managers have the ability to make the process of replacing top performers easier, while improving their hiring process each time.

The assessment tools we recommend can increase your success rate of identifying future top performers by 300%. These tools use information pertaining to your best talents’ abilities, personality traits, behaviours, and preferred learning styles. Using this information creates a benchmark for hiring new people who can successfully fill the shoes of your existing and past top performers.

Avoid hidden biases

It’s difficult to glean more than credentials and a few superficial personality traits during the traditional hiring process. Because of this, managers often need to rely on instinct when hiring someone new. Unfortunately a person’s instinct can be riddled with pre-existing biases towards certain types of people, whether it’s people from a certain race, gender or even people with similar interests to them.

As much as we’d like to say that this doesn’t happen, it’s more common than you might think. In an experiment by Harvard and Princeton, a blind hiring process increased the likelihood of a woman being hired by between 25% and 46%. This is bad news for company performance. Hiring according to hidden biases significantly narrows your options according to information that doesn’t necessarily pertain to candidates succeeding in the role. The range of assessment tools we recommend remove bias from the recruitment process so that you can choose candidates that will help drive team and company performance and answer the question you had when starting the hiring process – “will this person be a high performer in this role?” Which, after all, is what recruitment is all about!

If you would like to learn more about how Directions Unlimited can help you objectively measure the required attributes for roles within your business and increase your success rate by 300% then contact us: info@directionsunlimited.com.au 

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