Growing LEDIC, a real estate management company, taught me to realize that almost all of our challenges came down to my people – my executive team, our managers, our workers, and our relationships with our vendors and partners. Executing strategy is difficult if your people are struggling with breakdowns in internal communication, demotivators, and personal problems – all issues that hinder their performance.

I was compelled to find a solution, so I began researching the science relating to human psychology – what motivates us, our different communication styles, how we respond to stress – in hopes of getting my people to be more effective on the job. While certain personality tests had been available in the marketplace for decades, psychologists had recently made scientific breakthroughs and were able to deliver something that was almost unthinkable 25 years ago: a blueprint of a person’s cognitive and emotional makeup.

I dove headfirst into the science, reaching out to the different PhDs and organizations that were creating these powerful new assessments, to understand their research and how to use the assessments effectively with my own people. I didn’t immediately find a silver bullet, but the psychology was fascinating and I began to see an improvement in my company. My goal was still to create profitable, transferable growth for LEDIC, but I needed to get my people to communicate and perform better in order to meet my growth and profitability targets.

As I increased my use of these cutting-edge assessments, I gained a clearer understanding of how to use a strategically-chosen sequence of validated assessments to create a complete picture of a person – a blueprint, if you will, about our motivators, decision-making processes, personality, and communication styles. Most importantly, I learned how to interpret the results and share them with my team, so they understood how to better communicate with each other and resolve the differences that hindered our effectiveness.

The results were measurable. Our organizational culture improved immediately, and our company grew faster and became more profitable. Improving the performance of my people was a key driver of our company’s ability to successfully create profitable, transferable growth.

As my career has evolved, my personal goals have played a greater role in shaping the work that I perform. My mission is to positively impact 25,000 people: to share what I’ve learned through my life experiences, not only as a business executive, but also as a father, husband, and volunteer in the community.