The Importance of the Kolbe Profile

Guest Contributor: Chris Barrow
Chris' Posts - Chris' Blog


Looking back over my blog posts I made reference about a year ago to the use of the Kolbe profiling system in our dental mastermind groups.

To recap briefly, the Kolbe profile is way of measuring skills and identifying the unique abilities of individuals and their likely performance and behaviour in given situations.

You can find out all about the product at www.kolbe.com and I want to stress that I'm not an agent for their organisation and haven't negotiated some fancy sales commission or affiliate fee for this mention!

What I can say is that for the second year we have asked our Mastermind Group members to bring their own Kolbe "A" profiles to the meetings - and that was has followed has been a fascinating and detailed conversation about their own strengths and weaknesses - and those of the support team around them.

I am not a certified Kolbe trainer (although a member of our team here at Breathe Business is one of the few in the UK) and I'm personally developing a slow understanding of how the profiles can be interpreted - but I do know that the experience has been liberating for myself and many of our members.

Why?

Because, for me, Kolbe kind of de-bunks much of the personal development industry by explaining that we are the perfect version of ourselves, that we are unlikely to change our profile and that its important to play to strengths and delegate weaknesses.

I don't know about you - but I'm sick and tired of taller, fitter, wealthier and more handsome people telling me that if I will just purchase their book/audio/video course and try harder to be all the things I'm not - that somehow my professional and personal life will miraculously transform.

It never did for me (28 years now) and it hasn't done for any of the clients I have worked with.

The beauty of Kolbe is that I have been encouraged to be "ME"- emotional, grumpy, perfectionist, pithy ME - and I can now coach my clients to become their own selves.

In our Mastermind meetings so far this year, we have seen a principal's wife burst into tears of relief when she was allowed to stop trying to be an entrepreneur and concentrate on being the great clinician that she is.

We have equally seen dentists who have stopped doing dentistry - put down their drills - so as to focus on business-building and entrepreneurship.

The results have been a revelation and we are working with clients who, in the first three months of 2008, have made radical changes to their lives and businesses so as to focus on what they love to do and end sometimes years of silent suffering in unsuitable roles.

So I guess I'm a fan of Kolbe - and it's helping our Mastermind Groups to thrive.