No 8 HR principal consultant, Lee Astridge, had attendees at the Australian Dairy Conference in Wollongong in late February quickly split into four roughly even groups depending on whether they considered themselves to be action oriented and decisive (eagle), friendly and fun (peacock), an accommodating peacemaker (dove) or careful and correct (owl).
She warned that behavioural style was only one of the components which made a person unique and it was important not to pigeonhole people using just one technique.
“The purpose of looking at behaviour is to help build a fuller picture around a person and how we can get the most out of them at work. Behavioural style isn’t an intelligence test – it’s only one of the things that dictates your success.”
The other components were skills, capability and values.
When it came to staff recruitment Astridge said people should ask themselves which behaviours they complained about time and time again, what skills they didn’t want to train, with capability how smart did their new worker really need to be and with values what people had done in the past which had pushed them over the edge.
Eagles were people who were decisive, spoke up and needed to get results. Peacocks were creative, loved change and variety, led by enthusing and being spontaneous and sought popularity. Doves were those who were security conscious while owls were thorough and liked to maintain the status quo.
She asked each group how they wanted to be treated when someone wanted them to listen, disagreed with them or if they didn’t understand them. As predicted the owls drew up a very long list, compared with a very small one for the doves.
“They will be self-sacrificing then snap,” Astridge said.
The peacocks highly valued a fun and social environment around work while eagles valued honesty. But told they were wrong they often thought the person saying that was wrong themselves.
