Compass Settings’ mission is to work with you, others, teams to answer some simple questions:
- Who am I (who are we)?
- How to I (we) operate most effectively?
- What is unique about me (us)?
- How can I (we) build on that?
To delve into and answer these fundamental questions, we use a 70-year old technique called The Birkman Method®. The process is really rather straightforward: you answer a bunch of questions online, we prepare a report, for you – and/or your team – we use the report with you to answer the questions just posed.
Looks easy, right? You are complex, we are all complex. And so having a guide to fully understand your uniqueness, effectiveness and potential is what we do with you.
Compass’ partners, Barry and Louise, have been working with individuals and companies for many, many years and are experienced guides. When you combine the power of The Birkman Method® and the experience of the Compass team you are in for a tsunami of information and exploration about yourself and/or your team.
Principals
Rather than post the usual bio information, we are using information provided in our own Birkman reports. This is the kind of information you can expect when you have your Report done:
Barry Lovelace: Most likely satisfied with positions that involve working directly with people in a creative way; likes to persuade other people and does so with an idealistic rather than self-serving agenda; enjoys a variety of tasks.
Finds security in action-based answers and needs new challenges or special projects to compensate for a tendency to get bored easily. Enjoys a variety of tasks, particularly if these require and open-minded rather than structured approach. You tend to be something of a natural authority future.
You are generally logical and objective, able to get to the heart of the problem faster than people who are more emotional than you are. You appreciate an environment where everyone wins together.
Louise Menlo: You are equally at ease with people socially and one-on-one and prefer to relate to other people by being direct and straight-forward. You believe that being open and frank is the best way of communicating with others: it saves time and enables you to be forthright.
You take a balanced approach to dealing with systems and procedures. Where appropriate, you consult with others to determine if some effective method already exists. But you are equally open to more novel approaches if those enable you to do what you believe is a better job. You find it easy to exercise authority — it comes almost naturally to you. It is generally quite clear to people what you want to happen. Your use of direct orders or commands is not domineering — it is simply an economical expression of what is to be done.
Your strongly directive style of authority is accompanied by a commitment towards common, abstract goals and team-based motivation.
When multitasking is needed, you achieve this by “compartmentalizing.” Rather than work at several tasks simultaneously, you keep them separate and dedicate a specific amount of time to each one. At the same time, you maintain a clear hierarchy in your mind of these tasks, with your priority remaining on the key long-term goal.
Your main focus is always on the long-term target.
Consultants
In addition to the Principals Compass works with other, independent, consultants. They, and their Birkman information are:
- Laura Rupp Consulting, lruppconsulting@yahoo.com, Cincinnati, OH. Laura works primarily with high school students.
- Joe Eberly, L2dream@comcast.net, Arvada CO. Joe works with students throughout Colorado.
- Geraldine Tigner, gtigner@sbcglobal.net, Romulus, MI. Geri works globally with individuals and organizations in many areas.
Testimonials
– We, at Kostal North America, used Birkman to substantially improve our inter-team relationships and were able to create a surprisingly huge understanding between all members of our executive core management team. This enabled us not only to understand better our own personality and qualities and sub-sequential actions but the personalities and actions of all members of the entire management team. In a stressful environment and in times of crisis the Birkman method helped us to substantially reduce conflicts between team members but also to create a trusted and supportive group spirit where everybody felt happy.
– Discovering how Compass Settings can help me make smart decisions about staffing has been a game changer for Benz Resource Group. Beyond making hiring decisions, Louise has coached us about how best to communicate with each other and our clients making our team that much stronger.
– The Signature Report (Compass Settings) set the fire under the management team of Creative Partnership Marketing and kickstarted a major turnaround for the whole company. The in-depth understanding of how we all worked individually and collectively was invaluable and allowed us to work together in a more mature and productive manner. It was a lot of fun to be part of and a definite plus for the company. Compass Partners worked incredibly hard to ensure people understood their own profile and then how that would impact others. I would recommend it highly.
– The Birkman process with Compass settings was an incredibly useful and ingenious process that individuals end up with a more thorough understanding and appreciation of themselves. Louise was insightful, intuitive and amazingly understanding and patience going through each of the three of us individually and collectively. I recommend it to many a person and company.