How Gallup’s EP10 can help shape your business or startup
Dr. Sangeeta Bharadwaj-Badal at the OECD LEED Conference Photo credit: Pobal
Last week we talked to Dr. Sangeeta Bharadwaj-Badal, the Principle Scientist of Entrepreneurship & Job Creation at Gallup, about how managers can use assessments like the Entrepreneurial Profile 10 (EP10) to help shape their team of employees.
Below you’ll find an explanation of the assessment, and tips on how to use the results to maximize your business’s potential.
What is the EP10?
Gallup’s EP10 is an assessment that measures ten personality traits (or talents) found in successful entrepreneurs and businesses based on extensive research by Gallup.
These measurable talents help describe an individual’s potential towards entrepreneurship or growing a business. The talents that the test measures include: risk, independence, selling, delegator, relationship, disruptor, knowledge, profitability, confidence and determination.
Upon completing the assessment, each talent is ranked from strongest to weakest. Gallup suggests that test-takers focus on honing their top four strongest talents, rather than improving their bottom six.
“If you work on the areas that you’re already strong in you can increase your overall performance far more than if you are working in areas that need drastic change,” Badal said.
Are some talents more important than others?
Research shows that all ten talents are equally important to have in a business. However, Badal explained that certain talents are more crucial than others during different stages of a business’s lifecycle.
“Certain talents are needed more depending on what stage the business is at,” Badal said. “For example, when you are starting a business, risk is one of the most important talents to have because you are taking a leap of faith to start something completely new.”
Using the results from the EP10 to form a stronger team
After the business is launched is that same employee, who has the high level of risk, still important to the business? Badal explained that this employee continues to hold value because there are other tasks they can lead later on. This employee could be the one who helps launch new or modified products, or develop new growth platforms– all in order to keep the business’s practices fresh.
Badal went on to explain that it is exceptionally rare for a person to have all ten talents at a high level, and that having a diverse team helps a business succeed.
“We highly recommend that a business or startup looks at all of the team members’ talents to see if they balance each other, and to notice what gaps they need to fill,” Badal said. “You want to hire people who can fill in where the team’s talents are not as high in intensity.”
Badal explained that startups would particularly find this assessment helpful because many of them have trouble forming roles like the CEO and COO positions at the beginning stages.
Connecting talents to business roles
Gallup has begun to sort out the research taken from the EP10 into three primary roles that every startup or small business needs to be successful. These roles include: the builder, the expert and the conductor. Badal said that you need these three roles at minimum to get a startup off the ground.
Gallup has started to combine these three roles with talents that best match up to each role. Badal explained that if the test-taker has multiple talents associated with the following roles, that role may be the best fit for the test-taker.
The builder is a CEO-type. They are visionary and able to align short-term and long-term goals to the business in terms of what the customer or market needs. The talents that are best-suited for this role include: profitability, confidence, determination, selling and risk.
The expert is usually the product developer. They are usually the research head or the innovator in a group of people. The talents that are best-suited for this role include: disruptor and knowledge.
The conductor is the person that is focused on day-to-day operations and scaling the business. They examine the business’s strengths and needs, and focus on how to get to future goals. The talents that are best-suited for this role include: delegator, independence and relationship.
Badal went on to explain that some of the talents overlap and that these categories are not 100 percent accurate. The test shouldn’t be used as a catch-all, but it can help employers fill needed gaps or help startups figure out their main roles as new businesses.
How often should you take the EP10 and what should you do after the assessment?
Badal explained that much like Gallup’s Strengthsfinder assessment, the test-taker’s results remain relatively permanent over time.
However, knowing what you do well and consistently utilizing your talents is an ongoing process. This is where the EP10 book and Gallup coaches may come into play to help guide your business to maximize your results.
“This is not a one-time thing,” said Badal. “Understanding your talents and making sure that you continuously develop and direct your talents towards the outcomes you need is a continuous process.”
Would your team benefit from taking the EP10? Read more about it here.
