•  
    Reflecting (Northwest Heading)

    People who favor a NW Heading may seem quiet, especially in large groups; yet their inner life is not quiet at all. Rather, it is a richly passionate experience with deeply felt meanings, values, images. They have a deeply imbedded sense of values and may serve as the moral or ethical backbone to groups—quiet but resolutely loyal to their values. They tend to thrive on creative and focused work where they feel connected to enduring and important qualities of life. They will likely quickly feel drained if burdened with too much commonplace administrative detail.
  •  
    Formulating (Northeast Heading)

    People who favor a NE Heading enjoy the creative and purposeful work of formulating something new. Systems thinking, theories, concepts, plans, strategies, invention, innovation—these are the stock and trade of people whose energy for work moves in this direction. Work that requires complex problem-solving, creating order out of chaos, research, and discerning underlying or unifying patterns and systems will typically be invigorating. Routine, practical, detailed tasks will often wear them down.
  •  
    Associating (Southwest Heading)

    People who favor the SW Heading enjoy creating social harmony. They thrive on associating with others in every form that may take—meetings, conferences, seminars, conventions, events or daily work groups. They are highly attuned to the feelings, moods, behaviors and temperaments of the people around them. They readily champion the efforts of others. They do well at establishing and sustaining organizational norms, being quite attuned to social convention and standards. They thrive wherever empathy and social skills are needed. Solitary work with data will tend to drain them of the enthusiasm for people they are so eager to share.
  •  
    Producing (Southeast Heading)

    People who favor the SE heading must be producing something new. They must make progress, reach goals, organize procedures, direct, make decisions and respond to changing circumstances. They thrive on action—getting things organized and accomplished. Just conceptually formulating order out of chaos will never be enough. Once a solution is at hand, they must take action. They typically thrive wherever work requires decisive action regarding concrete problems. Passive, contemplative, conceptual work will tend to frustrate them and wear them down.
"Great ability develops and reveals itself increasingly with every new assignment." —Baltasar Gracián y Morales

"When love and skill work together, expect a masterpiece."
—John Ruskin

Match and Sculpt Work to People

People are typically more satisfied and productive when doing work that uses their best gifts. It is a simple premise, but often difficult to attain; over 50% of people in the work force report that they are not happy with their work.

To be sure that the right people are doing the right work, use the GCI Job Assessment to create a Gifts Compass for the work itself. Then compare that compass to an individual's Gifts Compass to see how well they match. Where the Compass for the job and the Compass for the individual show similar compass headings, the match would be considered a good "fit."

Where the fit is dissimilar, consider job sculpting—tailoring the job to create a better fit with the individual's best gifts.

Matching or sculpting jobs to people is good for everyone: The individual does more enjoyable work. The organization reduces turnover and increases productivity.

For training or coaching in the application of the GCI in organizations, please contact us via email.

Take the GiftsCompass Inventory now and get your FREE Profile!