I'm your host, Amy Dardis. And today we're continuing our seven-part series on creating alignment with your people. In this series, we're exploring the three dimensions of alignment: culture, capacity, and contribution. And we're currently focusing on the culture dimension. And so far, we've covered the alignment overview, talking about the three C's of culture, capacity, and contribution. So you know what to expect. We've talked about values alignment, defining what we believe as an organization. And we've talked about work style alignment, which is defining how we work and then finding people who are naturally hardwired to thrive in that same environment based on their individual working style. So if you've missed those episodes, you can check out episodes 12, 13, and 14 respectively. But today we're diving into traits alignment, which is identifying the inherent traits of people who will thrive in your business based on these elements that we've already talked about, based on values, based on work style. And business is about people. I've said it before, I will say it again. You will hear me say that over and over and over again. And what we believe, how we operate, our personalities, our backgrounds, who we are as individuals, it shapes how we show up. You cannot remove the individual from the work. You can't remove the individual from the role. We are the business. We are how things get done, how we operate. So when we're looking to create alignment with our people within our business, we have to look at who people are. We are not just looking at their work experience or their skill sets or their capacity, which we are talking about in the next episode, little preview there. And no amount of coaching or training or performance improvement plans will ever change our innate character or our innate personality. And so those are the two lenses we are looking at today is looking at when we talk about traits and personality traits and characteristic traits, we are really looking at the their character and their personality. So when we look at a person's character, well, what is character? What are those character traits? Well, character traits define a person's moral and ethical code. This is their internal compass for what they believe to be right and important. So to put simply, someone's character, their character traits are going to reflect what they value, what they believe in action. Their character traits are how their values show up in their life. And so character is a blend of just how we're born, how we're hardwired, how God designed us and created us, and this moral sensitivity that we're born with. We have different types of people, some who have strong senses of a moral compass, and some people who have less of a moral compass when they're born just naturally. But then that's just one part of it. The other parts of it are what we believe, what we believe about God, what we believe about ourself, our faith, and and how that shapes our understanding of right and wrong, and how that shapes the world around us and how we act based on what we believe. And then life experience. What light has life has taught us about perseverance and humility and growth and really what are the experiences that have shaped us? And the thing about character is it grows and it develops over time through choices, through experiences, through discipline, through maturity. I mean, just think about like when what you were like when you were in a teenager or your early 20s or when you became a parent. Those experiences developed your character. You grew, you've matured over time, and different paths have shaped what that looks like in each of us. And so, character, I guess, in in a spiritual sense, really is given to us. We see this portrayed like through the fruits of the Holy Spirit. So Galatians 5, 22 says, But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. So this isn't these this fruit that we get to bear in our life based on what we believe, based on how the Holy Spirit shapes and guides us, whether we're abiding in Christ or whether we're trying to forge our own path. This isn't about our personality or natural temperament. It's about who we're becoming through the work of the Holy Spirit, based on what we believe. And this character reflects our moral and spiritual maturity. And we had go through some seasons where that is grown and developed intensely and significantly in a short amount of time. And then we have other seasons where it takes a lot longer. It just depends on what's going on in our life at the time. But the character traits of an individual are going to reveal whether that someone aligns with your values as a company, whether they believe what you believe and their actions in their life will prove it. They'll reflect that. And so some examples of character traits could be their humility, whether they are a humble person, being respectful, being courageous and bold, being generous and stewarding well, being responsible and dependable, their self-control, whether that's something that's a strong thing in their life or if it's something that they struggle with, whether or not they're kind and gentle, whether or not they are teachable and coachable. These are all things that can be developed. But they are something that I believe innately there has to be a seed there already. And what we're looking for in alignment is not a development project. I mean, I think we're all going to grow and develop along the way. So in addition to that, we're looking at their character. And then we're also looking at their personality. So this is this describes how a person is naturally wired to think, to react, and to relate to the world. This is something we're more familiar with, more common with. This is what we're we can better understand through things like personality tests. They are consistent with the patterns in how we process information, how we make decisions, how we interact with others. And each of us has our own unique personality. And yes, that is affected by our character. Yes, that is affected by our backgrounds and experiences. But our personality is something that we are born with. We see this come out as kids, and our personality doesn't change much over the course of our life. Like if we are born and we are, you know, a toddler and and a kindergartner and an elementary school kid, and we're extroverted and we are super curious and we love to learn and we're very charismatic. And I'm just describing my my son here that has been consistent throughout his life. Whereas his sister, she is introverted, she is kind and compassionate and creative and empathetic and very emotionally intuitive and reflective and observant. And those are things that from a very young age she has that have come been obvious, like being a two-year-old, being a six-year-old, being a ten-year-old. These she hasn't changed much like in her personality. Like it if it's growing and it's developing, but it's very distinct and it is very consistent. So that is kind of how we operate as individuals, and these personality traits that we have are going to reveal whether or not someone is going to thrive within our work style, if they're going to thrive in the role and the seat that they're in, whether like the pace and structure and rhythm of how you operate as the business is going to match and complement how they operate as an individual. So some personality traits we might see are whether they're introverted or extroverted, whether or not they're assertive or more easygoing, someone who is analytical versus creative, someone who might be detail-oriented versus big picture and strategic, someone who is curious, someone who is seeking experiences, wants to be very expressive. I mean, these are very common things that we would look at. Someone like when we look at a Myers-Briggs personality test or a disc personality test or even an Enneagram, we are looking at like what are the things about this person that seem to be consistent across this personality type. And the reason we want to understand these characteristics and uh personality traits is because when we are looking to add people to our team. So in this world of this clarity, alignment accountability framework, we first clarify what it is we're who we are, what we stand for, what we believe, and who it is that is going to align in our business. So we're talking about alignment and this culture alignment. So we talked about our values, we talked about what we believe as an organization. We talked about our working style and how we operate best. So traits are going to be what we're looking for in individuals that are going to reflect success in those areas. And so it's a very objective and tangible thing that we can look for and hold on to. Because when we're look in this hiring process, it's going to change what you're looking for. It's going to change the questions you ask. It's going to change how you evaluate a candidate. So you will be able to recognize a fit much faster. And you won't stop, you won't waste time on a candidate who seems nice, who has all these great qualities, but doesn't have the right qualities for your specific business. And that really is the difference. Because right now, when we don't have these traits defined, I mean we don't have any of this defined, we're going into an interview process, we're going into a team building process, and we don't know what it is that we're looking for. And so when someone is dependable, when someone's detail-oriented, when someone's creative, when someone is outgoing, when someone is humble, like these are all really good things. And so we we're like, well, what's the problem with that? Well, there isn't a problem with that. The issue is that it does create misalignment, and misalignment creates friction and tension. But we're not going to know how to align unless we first describe what it is that we're looking for first. So this is going to help us know who we're looking for so we can build alignment, so we can build the right team of people. It's going to help us communicate our expectations clearly so that our team knows exactly what behaviors and attitudes are expected. And because of that, then we can hold people accountable fairly. So instead of having subjective opinions, you have clear behavioral standards to measure against. And then your feedback and your coaching and your measuring and your looking at performance and stuff, it becomes objective. It's consistent. And that makes all the difference in the world. That specificity is what is eliminating confusion. It's eliminating double standards. It's eliminating friction. And it's giving you something to hold on to. It is creating these guardrails for our business. And all of these elements create guardrails. And that's why we do it because it helps us to be consistent. It helps us to be authentic. And that's where we're really able to pick up momentum, build trust and loyalty and grow the way that we want to. So bringing it back to an example, we've introduced our tale of two brands, and we have our two different home building companies with contrasting cultures, both good in their own way. So we have company A, which is precision builders, and they value precision and integrity and safety. We talked about their working style, they operate in a very structured, methodical, and buy the book type of way. They are very big on documentation. They love the process and they trust the process because that's what gives them consistent results. Now we have company B, vision builders. They value innovation and flexibility and creativity. They operate there in a very fast-moving, collaborative and idea-driven way because their goal and objective is to find better, smarter ways to build. So precision builders, they have values like we do it what's right, safety first, unimpeachable character, and their work style is structured, detail-driven, process-oriented, risk-averse. So traits in individuals that thrive here would be being dependable. Someone who follows through on their commitments with no surprises. Someone who's conscientious, someone who pays attention to the details and takes pride in doing things right the first time. Someone who is calm under pressure, someone who is going to maintain composure in safety critical situations, someone who is disciplined, someone who stays consistent with routines, checklists, and safety procedures, and someone who's accountable, someone who owns their mistakes, corrects them, and communicates clearly. So these traits, and it you don't have to list whether it's a character trait or a personality trait. It's just important to understand that we're looking for both because we need to find alignment with both our values and our working style. So we want to just be specific about what it is that we're looking for. And during our interview process or when we're assessing the alignment of an existing employee, we're actually looking for specific examples where we see these traits in this individual. And the beauty of this is traits are about the person, not the role. So these traits show up in all areas of their life, or they should. It should be how they parent, how they are at home. It should be how they serve at church, it should be how they are involved in the community, it should be how they act with their friends. Like these are traits that are inherent to who they are, who God created them to be. And we can't force them, we can't make them up, we can't coach, coach them up a little bit. Like they either have them or they don't. They are either prominent driving characteristics in this individual's life, or they're not. And the best thing you can do is just answer that question clearly and make your decision accordingly. Now, having these traits for this precision builder company, if you're interviewing a candidate and they're talking about how they love spontaneity and they're all about the big picture and they're they love flexibility and they don't like to feel restricted, though you could actually be able to tell very clearly, oh wow, like this person is great and they might have really great experience and they we might like them a lot. But because they have these driving characteristics, we know we're just gonna be putting them into a company where there will always be friction, there will always be tension, and that's going to kill their momentum. It it'll be okay for a little bit. I mean, you might get a year, two years out of them, but eventually these frictions become roadblocks. They become something that detract from our contribution, they detract from meaningful work, they detract from unity and cohesiveness. And that becomes a problem. That hurts performance, that hurts retention, that hurts the team's ability to trust each other and collaborate well together. So then if you're company B, if you're the vision builder company who has values like challenge the ordinary, stay curious, win as a team, and their work style is fast-paced, it is collaborative, it's adaptive, it has this like entrepreneurial spirit about it, then the traits that are gonna thrive there are someone who's adaptable, who can pivot quickly when plans change. It's someone who is creative, who wants to bring fresh ideas and problem solve. They want to throw things up on a wall and see if it sticks. They want to experiment and they want that to be celebrated. They want that to be encouraged. They don't want that to be like, well, I don't know, this is just the way we do it. Like they don't want that to be tampered or just downplayed. They want that to be something that really does drive contribution. Traits that would also thrive in this company would be someone who is very self-motivated and they don't need consistent direction to make progress. It's all about like, hey, tell me what the goal is, and I will find the best way to get there and I will enjoy it along the way because part of meaningful work and part of fulfillment and part of the challenge is routing the path. Someone who is very collaborative and wants to work well with others and wants to share these ideas and hear their perspective and come up with a plan that is better than anyone could have come up with on their own. And it's someone who's resilient, someone who's going to like keep the momentum going, even when things are unsure, even when there's roadblocks or oh, here's a problem, here's an obstacle, this is in the way. Okay, now what do we do about it? Let's push through this problem to find a solution. So these two companies are very different companies, even though they do the same thing. And even though all of these values are good and all of these traits are good, but they each have their place where they were going to thrive in one environment far more than they will in another. And that's what we're doing here is we're maximizing contribution, we're maximizing impact through alignment. And it's looking at who that individual is on a at their base level, like who they are with their character, who they are in their personality. So when you know your values, when you know what you believe, and you understand your work style and how you operate, that helps you define the traits that are going to fit in your culture and not just fit, but thrive, flourish, contribute in a very meaningful way. And when you know what those traits are, you know what you're looking for and you can plan accordingly, you can attract accordingly, you can message accordingly, you can interview accordingly, you can hire and make decisions accordingly, and you can create this alignment. And this alignment becomes this place where these people have these shared values and these shared traits and these shared beliefs. And you're building up unity, you're building up trust, you're building up this team that is super clear on their mission. They know what they're going after, and they're enjoying the process of doing it along the way. And that is the most magical thing that happens in business, and which is why we're diving into this and explaining how this really works. So that wraps, no, that does not wrap up. So we have another component to the culture part here. So we have covered, sorry, so we've covered values, we've covered work style, we've covered traits, and there is one more component that we will be covering, which is our non-negotiables. And those four components are what makes up whether someone aligns with your culture. So as always, you can learn more at ClearAuthenticBrands.com. That's all for this episode. I will see you in the next one.