SCANNER FREEMONT / Data Analyst

Freemont is responsible for the digital conversion of survey responses while adhering to strict quality standards set forth by its managers. Freemont began its career at TruScore in 1996 as a Data Analyst and quickly became pivotal to TruScore's success. As the years passed, Freemont has slowly matured into part-time Data Analyst while also holding many positions in the work environment including On The Floor, On The Empty Desk, and Hold The Door (AKA Hodor).

RON SACCHI / Master Coach

A former Operations Manager in the High Tech Industry, Ron Sacchi brings decades of leadership and management experience to the organizational development and the executive coaching arena. An energetic thought-leader with a track record of success in all areas of Human Capital development, he has consulted and coached managers in start-ups, joint-ventures, high tech, pharmaceuticals, and media. Because of his business acumen and creative approaches to behavioral change, he is respected in the HR community specifically for the ability to direct, motivate, influence and inspire leaders to improve performance.

Holding an MBA from Saint Mary’s College, Mr. Sacchi is also licensed in various management, leadership and psychological profiling tools.

CARLANN FERGUSSON / Master Coach

Carlann inspires leaders to reconnect to their individual purpose and lead with contagious energy. She ensures leaders gain deep self-awareness and eliminate self-sabotaging behaviors. Her guidance is based on coaching, training and selecting hundreds of executives across diverse companies as well as her own journey into the executive ranks.

Carlann is the author of the highly acclaimed book The Insightful Leader: Find Your Superpowers, Crush Limiting Beliefs and Abolish Self-Sabotaging Behaviors (Praeger, June 2018). She holds a master’s degree in Industrial-Organizational Psychology. Her thirty years of experience include leadership roles in Fortune 500s, the private sector, and the U.S. Government. Carlann has been a featured guest on ABC News Radio, Wharton Business Radio and has been cited in CBS MoneyWatch, International Business Times, Newsday and Workday.

DR CHUCH MELTZER / Master Coach

Dr. Chuck Meltzer is a Master Coach and President of the SynTECGroup, an organizational development consulting firm. As an executive coach, he draws on his training at a doctoral level in psychology, direct senior management experience and management consulting with a wide cross section of industries. He has developed an extensive series of strategies to assist leaders in creating organizational wide and personal change. Dr. Meltzer has a decade of direct senior management experience and 20 years’ experience functioning within his consulting and coaching practice. His coaching approach is solution focused and time framed. Based on determined goals, a personally customized approach to the process has enabled his clients to realize sustainable change in a manner that allows them to enhance their effectiveness and success as leaders within their organization.

Dr. Meltzer is certified and a master trainer in several coaching assessment tools that he employs within his practice.

ERIN HIRSCHLAND / Master Coach

Erin is an organization development expert with nearly two decades experience serving organizations of all sizes across industries on a broad range of issues. Working with leadership teams, she helps articulate an actionable vision and corresponding values, connecting these to organizational strategy, execution and results. Her tools of choice include senior team retreats, one-on-one executive coaching and proven survey and related instruments.

Erin’s additional expertise includes designing employee selection systems, developing performance management tools that increase performance across the organization over time and employee and customer experience metrics. An effective facilitator and coach, Erin works with leaders and their teams to build trust, commitment and results.

She holds a Bachelor of Arts degree in Psychology from the University of California, Santa Barbara and a Master of Arts degree in Industrial/Organizational Psychology from the University of Colorado.

SONYA D HAMILTON / Senior Assessment Consultant

Sonya is a Senior Assessment Consultant at TruScore with over 24 years of experience designing and delivering 360 feedback solutions and providing 360-based coaching, training and interpretation.

Sonya has extensive experience working with Managers and Leaders, guiding them through the feedback and development journey and providing insights and direction to help maximize their impact within the organization. Sonya’s areas of expertise include 360-based coaching, 360 data analysis and interpretation, Train-the-Trainer certifications, facilitation, survey & questionnaire design, and the design and delivery of assessment programs.

Sonya has a Bachelor’s degree in psychology and a Master’s of Science degree in Industrial & Organization Psychology from Springfield College with a specialty in Counseling and Psychological Services. She is a Master Trainer for TruScore and the Clark Wilson Task Cycle surveys receiving a Certificate of Achievement in “How to Train a Trainer”. In addition, Sonya is certified to administer a variety of other psychometric instruments including employee engagement and organizational instruments as well as the line of Hogan Personality Assessments.

KAYLEY MOTZ / Assessment Advisor

Kayley draws on her extensive customer service background to provide clients with prompt, quality support. In her role as Assessment Advisor, Kayley works to ensure clients’ needs are being met. She assists in project set up and management, as well as processing and quality checking feedback reports. Kayley also aids in the execution of the day-to-day responsibilities of the production team, such as coaching session scheduling and tech support.

CRYSTAL HUGHES / Assessment Advisor

Crystal leverages her extensive background in Industrial-Organizational (I-O) psychology as she manages the day-to-day operational and tactical aspects of multiple and large scale projects for TruScore.

Crystal assists clients with setting up and managing feedback projects, and serves as the point of contact throughout the entire process. She quality checks feedback reports, and provides tech support when needed.

ELLIE SOLOMON / Assessment Advisor

Ellie manages project implementation for the entire 360 assessment feedback process and ensures that each client’s unique needs are met on time and in an efficient manner. Ellie consults with clients who use TruScore’s off-the-shelf Task Cycle® instruments as well as providing hosting solutions for clients using their own survey content, including custom processes and reports. She helps clients navigate through the TruScore® survey hosting software, having literally written the handbook that several clients are using.

She coordinates and implements all translation efforts, including soliciting bids, managing timelines, providing files to the translation companies, implementing translations for the web pages, and testing.

ULLA WESTERMANN / Software Engineer

Ulla uses her years of experience as a software engineer to maintain and add new features to TruScore's applications. She also helps with customizing feedback reports based on client needs.

HANK CURTIS / Business Development Manager

Hank manages and assists in the analyzing, planning, research, and development of TruScore’s objectives and strategic plans in order to achieve business opportunities, growth, and financial profitability.

Hank drives the expansion of TruScore’s direct sales, establishes relationships with TruScore’s clients, identifies clients, and keeps up-to-date on industry trends and client developments.

TAYLOR BRANTON / Bookkeeper

Taylor is responsible for managing payroll and employee fringe benefits programs, in addition to organizing company gatherings and outings. Taylor oversees day to day accounting needs as it relates to client invoicing, accounts payable, and general compliance requirements. She also has a hand in month, quarter, and year end reports and works closely with the CEO and CTO to furnish details necessary to make accurate business projections and decisions.

KURT BLAZEK / Design Director

Kurt uses a unique blend of strategic thinking with dynamic executions to create TruScore’s visual and interactive design. He is responsible for creating, evolving, and sustaining the company’s brand to internal and external stakeholders through multiple mediums. He oversees all of TruScore’s digital strategies, along with the implementation of social media tools and techniques.

Kurt leverages TruScore’s marketing and messaging information to identify, evaluate, and apply methods to maximize the effectiveness of the search campaigns across all of the major search engines. He tracks and measures the ROI of search engine rankings, direct print, and marketing websites.

JOSH SHEETS / Chief Operations Officer

Josh is responsible for all day-to-day aspects of managing the operations and various functional areas including business development, sales and marketing, client delivery, vendor relations, human resources, and IT.

Josh helps to ensure outstanding customer service, and the administration of long-term and day-to-day business processes that complement the delivery of high quality, innovative customer-focused survey tools, assessments and hosted survey offerings.

TOM KUHNE / Managing Partner and CTO

Tom joined TruScore in 1995 and has served in a number of roles, including Data Analyst, IS Manager, and VP & CIO. In his current role as Managing Partner and CTO, Tom is the driving force behind TruScore's technology vision for the present and the future. He manages all aspects of TruScore’s information systems, ensuring all systems meet the highest functionality and security standards.

Tom enjoys working hand in hand with clients and partners to make sure TruScore® delivers the technology and advancement that has become expected of it as a leader in the online assessment marketplace.

DEREK MURPHY / Chief Executive Officer

Derek joined TruScore in 1996 and has served in a number of roles, including Data Analyst, Operations Manager, and President & COO. In his current role as CEO, he is responsible for planning and implementing the strategic direction of the company. In addition, Derek is involved in product development and overseeing the day-to-day business operations for TruScore.

TruScore founder Dr. Daniel Booth, a pioneer in the field of assessment of leadership and management skills, served as a mentor to Derek for more than a decade. During this time, Derek became certified on TruScore’s full line of management and leadership assessments. He currently uses these skills to lead content debriefings with customers and partners on a regular basis.

How to Manage 9 Different Personalities at Work

Take a moment to think about your team. Chances are your team consists of a pretty diverse group of people who all have their various strengths and weaknesses.

While a diverse team has many benefits to the workplace, whenever people get together, there are bound to be different points of views that can lead to disagreements. It’s the manager’s responsibility to take care of any difficulties that arise within teams. An important way to properly handle a difficult situation is to truly understand the personalities you’re dealing with – after all there are nine different ones to consider.

Yes, nine different personalities. According to the Enneagram of Personality, a personality-profiling tool that dates back to 750 B.C, there are nine different personality types and everyone is said to fit into one of those nine. In fact, author and speaker Michael J. Goldberg believes that one’s personality type really says a lot about how that person acts at work.

Take a moment to think about your team. Chances are your team consists of a pretty diverse group of people who all have their various strengths and weaknesses.

While a diverse team has many benefits to the workplace, whenever people get together, there are bound to be different points of views that can lead to disagreements. It’s the manager’s responsibility to take care of any difficulties that arise within teams. An important way to properly handle a difficult situation is to truly understand the personalities you’re dealing with – after all there are nine different ones to consider.

Yes, nine different personalities. According to the Enneagram of Personality, a personality-profiling tool that dates back to 750 B.C, there are nine different personality types and everyone is said to fit into one of those nine. In fact, author and speaker Michael J. Goldberg believes that one’s personality type really says a lot about how that person acts at work.

In his book, “The 9 Ways of Working: How to Use the Enneagram to Discover Your Natural Strengths and Work More Effectively,” Goldberg introduces the nine personality styles of the Enneagram, which consist of:

  1. The Perfectionist gets things done right, regardless of the consequences. Famous example: Martha Stewart
  2. The Helper nurtures others’ careers and demands appreciation for it. Famous example: Mister Rogers
  3. The Producer works hard to succeed but can burn out in overwork. Famous example: Oprah Winfrey
  4. The Connoisseur explores his or her creativity and deep feelings, but may get lost in them. Famous example: Robert Downey, Jr.
  5. The Sage craves data, theories and insight but may forget the human element. Famous example: Bill Gates
  6. The Troubleshooter knows the secrets and who can be trusted but can get paranoid. Famous example: Jon Stewart
  7. The Visionary inspires with brilliant, fun, imaginative ideas but leaves closure to others. Famous example: John F. Kennedy
  8. The Top Dog exercises leadership but may end up as a vengeful bully. Famous example: Rupert Murdoch
  9. The Mediator wants everybody working as a conflict-free team but may forget his or her own goals. Famous example: Ringo Starr

Any of those personality types sound familiar or strike close to home? Now whether you “buy” into the idea of the Enneagram view, there’s no denying that one’s personality shapes how they think and how they perform at work. Once you can distinguish the various personality types of your team members; it will help you identify the most effective ways to work together.

One of the most desirable skills for a manager is emotional intelligence, which ensures that you have the perspectives and feelings of others available to you as you prepare to move your ideas forward. You develop emotional intelligence by practicing listening more and speaking less, and really trying to understand what other people are communicating. You will find that paying attention to different opinions actually increases your leadership effectiveness.

You should make a concentrated effort to read the emotional states of others.

Here are a few tips on how to do that:

  • Get to know your employees. Ask them about their backgrounds, experiences, education, and so on. Be willing to share this type of information about yourself.
  • Make a point of drawing together diverse groups when discussing issues, solving problems, and developing opportunities.
  • Evaluate how you view people who disagree with you. Do you try to understand the basis for their views? Do you ask questions respectfully? Do you work toward mutual understanding, or simply try to convince them that you are right?
  • When you make a decision, get into the habit of considering the impact it will have on the people affected by it. Sometimes you may determine that a decision has a higher cost than it is worth, in terms of its impact on people. Other times, you may make the same decision, but you will know you need to reduce its negative impact.
  • Recognize that timing is important. Your message might be the right one, but it won’t be well received if it is delivered at the wrong time. Before delivering your message ask yourself: “How will others feel if I say that?”
  • Analyze what percentage of time you spend listening as opposed to talking in interactions. You should spend more time listening than speaking. If this is a problem for you, practice listening carefully instead of thinking about how you are going to respond. Only after the person has stopped talking should you begin composing your response.

Working with an assorted team is no easy feat. But show you value the diversity of opinions and other points of view, no matter how different these are from your own, and it will earn you the respect of your direct reports. While it can be hard to find something for everyone to agree on, your efficiency as a manager could be that one thing they all have in common.

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