About the LAB profile

LAB (Language and Behavior) principles and profiling is one of the foundations of my work. It is a psycho-linguistic tool that is effective and powerful, yet relatively few people have heard of it. A description, courtesy of www.johnstangelo.com, is below, but first I’d like to address the question I am most often asked:  “What is the difference between LAB and other kinds of profiling?”

Sure, I could talk about the methodology and psycho-linguistics, but the most important difference for anyone who is interested in what it actually does is this: other kinds of profiling are about personality, while LAB is about motivation and behaviour in context. Personality profiling seeks to neatly categorise people, but no matter what we may like to think, people aren’t so easily categorised! Even when we get someone’s personality type down pat, their behaviour is still up for grabs. It changes from context to context. And LAB tells you the behaviour for the context.

The other important difference is that personality profiling doesn’t tell you how to communicate with or influence that person, or get ultimate performance from them. LAB, however, gives you the precise language that person needs to behave in the optimum way. LAB tells you the language that will motivate them, and reveals what will de-motivate them. Because of this, it has a myriad applications. I have used LAB in vastly different scenarios, with predictably brilliant results:  to resolve inter-departmental conflict, to write ad copy that brings business, to create job adverts that attract the precise candidates, to coach sales people and increase sales, and even to write online dating profiles!

LAB gets it done because it works on an unconscious level: no time wasting, no flailing around, no throwing at the wall to see what sticks. It’s scientifically proven to work. In using LAB, you are miles ahead people who are wondering what to do with the “personalities” around them.

 

What is the LAB Profile?

The LAB Profile predicts behavior based on one’s use of certain types of language patterns (which reflect the thinking styles of a person and indicates their motivation and attitude). With this information you can predict job performance, you can assign tasks efficiently, and you can influence behavior. The LAB Profile is a systematic way of gathering this information about a person and it is a set of clear-cut procedures to help you utilize that person’s talents more effectively.

Benefits of the LAB Profile…

The LAB Profile is an advanced communication tool which provides unique insights into the below-conscious motivational patterns we have in the context of work. It identifies what is required for an individual to be motivated in that given context. When this information is made available it becomes possible to make informed changes that can produce remarkable results. As well as giving powerful insights to the person being profiled it enables you to Understand, Predict and Influence others with integrity.

Many organizations are already using this tool in a number of ways:

  • Shorten the sales cycle and increase customer satisfaction
  • Design powerful marketing and advertising campaigns
  • Hire the right people who are motivated and suited to performing in their specific roles
  • Lowering attrition rates and thus reducing the cost of recruitment
  • Minimize the pain of implementing organizational change
  • Understand the personality clashes that occur in meetings
  • Understanding to reach successful outcomes quickly and effectively
  • Identify why some people seem so difficult to deal with – and how to overcome that
  • Dramatically improve results in negotiation and litigation
  • Simplify career counseling and professional coaching
  • Create high-performance teams by managing people’s strengths

There are 14 traits in the LAB Profile; six Motivation traits and eight Working traits. The Motivation traits show how people trigger their motivation and behavior in the given context of work. The Working traits identify what sustains their motivation. There is nothing good or bad about a particular trait – it is a matter of understanding which is the most appropriate in the particular context of work for that individual.

LAB Profile applications…

  • Marketing Research: Since these patterns vary by Context, several methodologies have been developed to empirically determine the different below-conscious motivations customers have for competing products and services. This is used to create whole mass communication strategies.
  • Coaching: The LAB Profile uses what’s called Conversational Coaching, whereby the coach elicits conversationally the LAB Profile patterns of the present and desired state and casually overlaps the Influencing Language to enable the client to experience the outcome and develop his or her own solutions.
  • Training for Behavior Change: Using the LAB Profile you can choose activities which will create the desired behavior changes for any target group, first by decoding the Motivation Patterns for the group and then understanding which LAB Profile patterns are addressed by any given activity.
  • People Management: Train managers to identify the LAB Profile Patterns and thereby the strengths of their team members, so they can adjust tasks to suit what staff members naturally do best at work.
  • Recruitment: You can profile a position and the corporate culture to create an advertisement that will be irresistible to those who fit, and turn off those who do not fit. You can screen the selected short-listed candidates to find the best match. (Note: LAB Profile does not measure skills, knowledge or attitude; just whether the person has Motivation Traits and Internal processing to fit the tasks and environment.)
  • Skills Training: the LAB Profile will enable people to develop finely-tuned abilities in the following areas: Influencing & Persuading, Negotiating, Leadership, Conflict Resolution, Sales and Customer Service.
  • Consulting and Problem-Solving: An easy to use LAB Profile methodology to diagnose and develop solutions to any communication problem. This is a favorite amongst business leaders and consultants. 

 Implementing Organizational Change: Diagnose the present and desired organizational cultures in LAB Profile terms and determine the appropriate change methodology for maximum sustainable results.
  • Team Building: When you do a team LAB Profile, you’ll determine the team’s strengths and weaknesses with regards to their mandate. You’ll identify communication patterns within the team and between this team and others, as well as determine the patterns of the next person to add to the team.
  • Teaching and Learning: Teachers and students can easily identify LAB Profile Patterns which facilitate or cause difficulties in learning for individuals and groups. Minor adjustments can then be made to the teaching/learning methodology to correct challenges.
  • Modeling: The LAB Profile patterns can be used to decode any strategy or any skill, simply by identifying the behaviors (internal and external) used. This is an essential part of the modeling any particular behavior or skill another manager or employee exhibits, which can be duplicated.

 

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