Ecquire, one of GrowLab’s first cohort companies, has always been one to push the boundaries of workplace culture. With their emphasis on freedom, no emails between team members, and honest communication to customers, Paul DeJoe, CEO of Ecquire, is doing something different.
This may be why it didn’t surprise me, but did impress me, when he published his own personality test, administered by cream.HR, on the Ecquire Blog. Cream.HR is an employment assessment tool, and was one of the Ecquire’s first customers, so DeJoe wanted to help bring attention to their interesting service.
Here’s just a sample of what DeJoe shared with his audience:
You scored extremely high in agreeableness. This sounds good, but really it is a double edged sword. Agreeableness isn’t a predictor of performance; in fact some research indicates that disagreeableness is a predictor of higher rates of promotion and higher pay grades.
You are exceptionally compassionate, polite, and trusting. Colleagues and family likely say you are very congenial and considerate. This makes you extremely likeable. You are very likely to be highly accomplished at listening to others, and parroting back complimentary responses. In this way you are very adept at mirroring whomever you are interacting with. You are extremely likely to interview very very well. All of this is good, but it comes at a very significant price.
You are unusually trusting. Unfortunately this puts you at a very high risk of being ‘walked on’ or ‘taken advantage of’.
When I asked DeJoe why he made it into a blog post, his answer was interesting: “I thought it would be really uncomfortable, a little weird, very different, something I’d be embarrassed by, and I had no idea how it would be received, so I knew it would be a good blog post.”
But, the reasoning behind posting his personality test amounts to much more than just entertainment to DeJoe: “I also wanted our customers to see the people they are relying on for an important part of their day. They trust us to pay for Ecquire and I want to return that trust in some way.”
Sharing a CEO’s personality test is just one unexpected approach to experimenting with transparency. What do you think of Ecquire’s tactic?
