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Explain Yourself - The Elaura Blog

  • What pace are you setting? (Birkman Physical Energy Score)

    Your Birkman Physical Energy score tells you about the pace you set for yourself and those around you...

  • Motivation & Perspective

    The thing about the Behavioural data is that it also gives us insight into your Perspective, which is even more fundamental...

  • On the Grid: 4 Symbols

    So far in this series, we've covered what our 'map' tells us, and how to read its directions... But what about the data that we plot onto the map?

  • On the Grid: The Diagonal Axes

    Now that you're familiar with each of the 4 colours, you can probably see why the 2 diagonals are considered 'opposites'...

  • On the Grid: Map Reading

    It may look simplistic on first glance, but there's a lot of information you can get out of the Grid - provided you know what you're looking at...

  • A New Language: The Colours of Behaviour

    So far, we've talked about the colours in the context of Motivation, but these same four colours are also used to describe the Behavioural data...

  • A New Language: Anchoring the Colours

    Here's a couple of simple anchors, to help you remember what each colour represents...

  • A New Language: The 4 Colours

    For us, Birkman is all about providing people with a new language, with which they can explain and comprehend themselves, _and_ understand others...

  • Sharing Birkman with your own (or other) young people

    We set about building hoozyu so young people could access their Birkman data before they were having to make their transition from school to the marketplace...

  • Anatomy of a Lightbulb Moment

    One of the reasons I love working with the Birkman Method, is those moments when a lightbulb goes on for the other person...

  • The value of knowing who you are

    We are not talking here about a list of what every employee is expected to be. Rather, we are describing something much more fundamental about ourselves...

  • Get some perspective! Looking beyond behaviour on the Birkman Map

    If you are still new to your Birkman results (or even if you aren’t), you may just be thinking in terms of BEHAVIOURS when you look at the Grid or Birkman Map...

  • Now what? Getting more from your expresso data

    I've put together some ideas to get you started - but this is by no means an exhaustive list. Think about how you may be able to apply your expresso data in your own unique context...

  • Explain Yourself

    It’s a simple idea. Just tell me, who you are; what you need; what you want to do. Simple.

  • Symmetric Ignorance & Entry Level Recruitment

    The interviewer doesn’t know what the candidate is capable of, and neither does the candidate. The secret is that the candidate knows stuff about themselves that they don’t know they know...

  • Take Stock, Start Fresh

    Where are you heading? What new experiences are you seeking? What new knowledge or skills do you want to develop?

  • What drives you?

    Realistically, it is not just a question of what you care about, or what you enjoy, but also, more fundamentally, how you approach your life and everything you do...

  • Your unique context: framing the data within your life as a whole

    Out in the world, there may be a clear divide between your work life and home life, but on the inside there’s likely to be a lot more overlap...

  • Coping with Change: Returning to work after maternity leave

    Your Birkman / expresso data can be a huge help to you - both as you prepare for taking maternity leave, and when returning to work...

  • Where are you getting your energy from?

    The problem is that social desirability can effectively blind you to what is really, truly most important to you...

  • Practical People #2: Finding and retaining talent.

    Since McKinsey & Co. announced the War for Talent in the late Nineties, Talent has rarely been out of the business news. Here is my own (perhaps slightly contrarian) take on how to win that particular war...

  • Focus Factor

    I have heard it from external recruiters, and I have heard it from internal talent professionals. I understand the logic, but here is why I disagree...

  • Why, Robot

    There appear to me, to be two reasons why business leaders are so absorbed with (fixated on?) robots and AI, just now...

  • Practical People #1: How can my team work better?

    Whether you have just changed job, or are leading a long-standing intact team, there is one thing that you and your team members all need in order to become more effective...

  • The answer you really want

    Business is all about solving problems for other people; which in turn means finding answers to questions, both for your customers and your own business...

  • Human

    You are the CEO of a business with thousands of employees. You swim in an ocean of data and information about every aspect of your business - except one...

  • The Elaura Stack

    Yes, we do have a secret family recipe for delicious fat-free, dairy-free, no-egg pancakes, but that isn't the stack I am talking about today...

  • Talent Analytics: Blind Spots

    In business, as in life, it is usually what you can't see that kills you...

  • Snapshot: The power of Birkman for under $30

    We have spent a lot of time trying to make this enterprise-class tool more accessible to anyone who wants it, regardless of where they come from....

  • Cultural Diversity… are we mislabelling?

    We may be quite mistaken in attributing cause, and labelling lack of synergy between people, as ‘cultural’...

  • Damage: or "what's wrong with your Employee Engagement Surveys?"

    During the Second World War, the US Eighth Airforce brought in a statistician to look at combat damage on aircraft and advise them on structural alterations that might be needed...

  • The King's Speech: Understanding derailers

    There are a lot of assessments out there at the moment, designed with the aim of stopping people in organisations from derailing themselves...