Incoherent leadership occurs when a leader holds contradicting beliefs and values arising from the presence of two contracting self-states: the true and pseudo-selves. This article describes what incoherent leadership is (and is not), what it looks like, where it comes from, what its impact on an organization can be, and what is required on the … Read More
The Hiring Intelligence
Your sales team is carrying hidden liabilities.The assessment data is the audit. Most CROs can recite their pipeline number cold. Far fewer can tell you which reps are performing at the ceiling of their potential and which were never built for the role in the first place. There’s a quiet reckoning happening in enterprise sales. … Read More
Two in a Bedroom: When Two High Performers Can — and Can’t — Work Together
Have you heard of the phenomenon called two in a bedroom? I learned about the phenomena in a movie called “In the Bedroom”.When two lobsters wander into the same fishing trap, they often fight. They use their claws to establish dominance, and the winner may injure or even kill the other. Lobsters missing a claw … Read More
Hiring Alpha: How Psychological Assessment Predicts Portfolio Manager Performance
You Can’t Interview for Alpha Getting a Portfolio Manager hire wrong costs more than $3 million when you account for compensation, team disruption, capital drag, and reputational risk with LPs. At larger multi-manager platforms, that number climbs considerably higher. Yet most firms still rely on the same hiring tools they used twenty years ago: track … Read More
A Crisis in Academics Signals A Need for Assessments for Early Career Hires
Executive Summary Elite university credentials no longer predict workplace performance. When 38% of Stanford undergraduates register as disabled—versus 3-4% at community colleges—and transcripts reveal nothing, employers face a hidden risk. The Credential Crisis: The Employment Reality: The Solution: Psybil provides the predictive signal that GPAs once offered but can no longer. Our assessments measure real-world … Read More
The 92 Percent Problem: How Pattern Recognition Reveals Truth and Character
Are you reading my mind? Reading people is not a psychic ability. It requires the same focus I once applied to counting cards at blackjack tables. Without too many details, my system assigned each card a value from -1.5 to 1.5. I used to carry a deck on the train, running through values until I … Read More
The Primary Challenge of Talent Assessment
I was in my 20s when I had my first experience with talent assessment for selection. I was introduced to it by my friend and supervisor, Monte Amundson. He was my boss in a firm dedicated to training and placing leaders in non-profit and religious institutions. During my brief tenure in recruiting leaders for the … Read More
The Chameleon COO – Incongruent or Adaptable
In my adopted hometown of New York City, startups bloom and wither like flowers that try to grow in the sidewalk cracks. I met an exception in 2015 while attending pitch events. He was a tech founder with a brilliant idea and chaotic execution. As soon as their funding round hit the bank, he hired … Read More
Bullying at Work
Growing up in the Midwest in the 1970s, bullying was one of the worst things a kid could do. My father made it clear that bullying was cowardly, and if someone bullied me, I should fight back. He used to say bullies were like kangaroos—if you hit back, they would stop. While I’ve never found … Read More
When Fear Leads: The Rise, Fall, and Redemption of a Paranoid Leader
“Paranoia, the destroyer.” — Ray Davies, The Kinks A few months ago, I received a long, detailed email from a CEO candidate applying to one of our client’s portfolio companies. He had just completed our online assessment, but couldn’t find our privacy policy — and that triggered a deep concern. He feared his information might … Read More










