Over the years, I have collaborated a number of times with Dr. Edward Monte, a psychotherapist and family business consultant. He is the founder of Family Solutions Group. Family businesses have unique stressors because of the overlapping professional and personal relationships. Dr. Monte helps family businesses work together more effectively and harmoniously.
Testing business executives yields a wealth of information which can be used to help them work more efficiently and collaboratively. If an executive in a company better understands their strengths and weaknesses, they can focus on using their strengths and delegate tasks involving their weaknesses to other people. Freeing the executive from tasks they don’t do naturally well and don’t enjoy can free up large amounts of mental energy that can be used to improve performance in areas which are more important and which they have innate ability. Guilt often plagues high-achieving people who delegate their disliked responsibilities to others. However, if there is a reason for delegating based on the science of testing, it can be easier to overcome this guilt and improve performance and production.
In a family business, it can be illuminating to test multiple family members and compare and contrast the results. For example, in one family Dr. Monte and I worked with, I determined that one family member tended to forget what they heard but remember what they read, while for another family member, it was just the opposite. Therefore, we could suggest that people communicate with each person accordingly, sending emails to the first, and leaving voice mails for the second. This finding also helped the family to understand each member better. Whereas someone’s forgetting or neglecting to respond to communications were formerly taken personally, it was now possible for other family members to see these issues as a quirk of the individual and to adjust behavior, expectations, and emotional reactions accordingly. This small bit of knowledge and resolution produced profound improvement in their communication and their relationship.
Testing can also be very helpful with succession issues. When the older generation is ready to begin the process of passing the business to the next generation, it can be difficult to decide which role each younger person will have without conflict and personal feelings getting involved. How do you put work aside and have a pleasant family Thanksgiving dinner in that context? Again, testing can help because it provides objective input for this type of decision. Comparing and contrasting the test results of several family members can help the consultant and senior family members to see who would function best in which role and with what responsibility. Sharing the information with the family as a whole (with everyone’s permission of course) allows everyone to understand why certain decisions are being made. This is likely to reduce conflict and hurt feelings. All of this is done without judgment or shaming but with the intent to highlight what are each person’s natural strengths and challenges for better performance, cohesion and complementarity.
Business consulting is a somewhat atypical but very useful application for neuropsychological testing.