The Health Crisis

I was scheduled to travel to work with a client in a different city. Having worked with me before, he asked me to go ahead and do EQ Profiles with his management team.

Then the trip was postponed for about three months.

When I arrived, I shared my concerns about Jim’s Profile. I hadn’t yet done my assessment interviews but wanted to alert my client that I was already concerned about Jim’s fitness for a demanding job heading up a team that was charged with developing an important project.

In short, his results suggested someone who was having a difficult time. Note the Energy score at 4.4. Someone with his level of responsibility needed a score that was closer to 6.5. Given he was just below the normal range, I was concerned that if the score dropped much lower, it might indicate depression, burnout, physical illness, or something going on in his life that was tapping out his resources.

Note the low Work, Detail, Courage, and Direction scores. This indicates that Jim was most likely not doing a very good job, both in terms of his personal productivity and as a leader. He was not engaged with his work or managing details well in a job that demanded much more from him. His self-confidence was extremely low and he was most likely having a difficult time making important decisions.

Finally, note the pattern of low Assertion and excessive Tolerance. This combination predicted a very unassertive style of management. He was probably having a tough time making reasonable demands, convincing and persuading, and holding people accountable. In addition, his Tolerance score is out in the range of denial…not even wanting see things that needed an assertive response.

After reviewing the Profile, my client added an interesting details. About a week after taking the Profile, Jim had been diagnosed with a serious but manageable physical illness. He had since embarked on a regimen that included diet, exercise, and medication. We felt it was appropriate to ask Jim to take the Profile again.




We felt it was appropriate to ask Jim to take the Profile again.

Jim’s 2nd Profile, 10 Weeks After His Diagnosis

In my interview with Jim, he reported that he had been feeling ill before his diagnosis. While he was able to work, he would be exhausted by the end of the day. Moreover, he was feeling discouraged and mildly depressed at the time.

Since receiving his diagnosis and getting on the proper medication and making dramatic changes in his self-care, he was feeling much better.

His second Profile produced mix results, at least in terms of how well he might be expected to perform in his position. Certainly, his Energy score was up from 4.4 to 5.5 but still well shy of the 6.5 that I prefer to see in someone in his position. I had concerns that, while he was healing, his position was demanding more of him than he had the horsepower to bring to the job.

Note that his Optimism went from a rather low 4.5 to the giddy level of 8. People out in this range are so unrealistically optimistic. He was so upbeat and positive that he might very well overlook problems that needed his attention, given that he was seeing life through rose-colored glasses. Sometimes the light at the end of the tunnel is a train.

Note the number of >’s behind the black bar, the S (self-concept) and O (how he thinks or wants others to see him). These arrows suggest variability in the expression of a particular dimension and possible movement in the development of that dimension. It looks like he was gradually feeling more self-confidence and willingness to take risks and that he was becoming more comfortable with making decisions.

However, notice the pattern of very low Assertiveness, and excessively high Tolerance and Considerate scores. He was still too unassertive and tolerant to be leading a team developing a project that was of such importance to the company. Given this pattern of low assertiveness, high tolerance, and unwillingness to do things that might hurt peoples’ feelings, he was far too likely to fall back on his now high Work and Detail scores and do things himself rather than ask others to do them and then hold them accountable.

Note the high Sociable score, with >’s taking him out into the range of 9. Scores this high are often a “Band Aid” score. It is paired with an excessively high Self-Esteem score. People with scores in this range and trying to maintain the outward stance that “everything is fine with me” but usually have more internal concerns about themselves than they want others to see. They sometimes compensate by adopting a excessively social posture at work. It is almost as if they fear they aren’t doing well so they try hard to get other people to like them so that these people won’t judge them as harshly as they otherwise might.

I encourage my client to place him in a new position, one that wouldn’t require being responsible for leading a large team on a critical project. He still needed several more months to get his disease under control and rebuild his physical condition. I did share, however, that I was concerned that his pattern of low Assertion and high Tolerance was a lasting weakness that may ultimately lead to failure as a leader, regardless of his health.

My client wanted to give him a chance to succeed. Much as I feared, Jim was terminated about three or four months later. His reluctance to make demands of others and attempting to compensate by doing most of the work led to two predictable outcomes: His supervisors revolted, going to my client with complaints that Jim was not delegating or letting them do meaningful work. In addition, Jim was completely oblivious to poor performance and the tolerance of an unproductive supervisor and team was creating even more morale problems.

Jim’s team missed a couple of important deadlines and unhappiness from senior management left my client no choice but to replace him.