The problem with leadership development and hiring today

Organizations end up spending thousands of dollars on hiring the wrong people.
Hiring the right executive for your organization will have a big impact on its performance. Are the executives you’re hiring both top performers and the right fit?
Paper and online questionnaire-based assessments have been around for decades, but they are usually insufficient to truly validate a candidate’s strengths and liabilities as well as cultural fit.

At the end of the day, it's all about performance

The benefit of the Higher process

1. Identify the top people in your organization

2. Assess their strengths and liabilities with using our CulturalDNA analytics and AI

3. Develop a line of standardization in a data model that represents a cultural fit

4. Your next hire is a match!

We've solved your hiring and performance problem

We empower you to proactively take control of your organization's performance by taking a comprehensive view across all of the information that defines its people.

Our platform uses thousands of data points to create a unique model for each person, which helps uncover hidden strengths and liabilities to help organizations optimize, and isolate their top A-list candidates in the executive management space.

We help you validate the best candidates for the job

Our tools:

We can compare the behavioral performance and EQ technology read on each candidate.

AQ = Adaptability Quotient

The ability to adapt is critical to your future success, but how do you measure your business' adaptability? The Adaptability Quotient (AQ) can help you to improve your adaptability in the workplace.

Technology, culture, and the economy are evolving at a faster pace than ever before. Businesses and employees need to be able to implement new systems, processes, and ways of viewing the world quickly and effectively. The ability to adapt plays a critical role in the success of a business and whether or not it can navigate an unknown future.

What is an Adaptability Quotient (AQ)?

An Adaptability Quotient (AQ) measures someone's ability to adapt. It's similar to IQ, which measures intelligence, or EQ, which measures emotional intelligence. All of these measurements are important in their own way, but AQ is fairly new in the industry.

A person's ability to adapt might include how they handle change, learn from mistakes, overcome challenges, and adjust in real-time. The idea is to work with change instead of against it.

Adaptability has become a sought-after trait in employees, and more and more organizations and hiring managers are looking for candidates who demonstrate a high AQ.

Characteristics and skills of someone with a high AQ include:

  • Problem solver
  • Curious
  • Creative
  • Innovative
  • Mindful
  • Life-long learner
  • Continuously improving
  • Willing to make mistakes
  • Unafraid of the unknown
  • Considers the future
  • Environmentally-conscious

CULTURAL EPIGENETIC ANALYTICS

The following graph shows the BASIC congruent commonalities, strengths, and behaviors that the 5 applicants share. It precisely provides the latest average scoring system on what to look for when hiring and isolating our future final position from the applicants.

The graph highlights the common behavioral traits and shared points that make this particular group of applicants exceptional, giving us a standardization guideline on what to seek in future hires.

Accuracy in assessing your company's culture

With this complete picture, our analytics engine backed by world class experts in neuroscience and leadership can craft a customized model for cultural fit and identify those executives who are the best for your organization.

We identify high-performing executives who would be the best fit for your organization.

We go beyond assessment questionnaires to use neuroscience, video analysis of facial microexpressions, and AI machine learning to discern traits like:

  • Conscientiousness
  • Duty
  • Ambition
  • Drive
  • Kindness
  • Confidence
  • Composure
  • Team Player

We measure and target hundreds of cognitive and physiological data points of each candidate in 7 distinctive categories.

The industry-leading leadership assessment tool

Our software in action: accessible on tablets and mobile phones. Designed with simplicity and user-friendliness in mind, our platform offers an intuitive experience for you to access information in a clear, concise, and comprehensive manner.

Discover for yourself how easy it is to use our software and how it will help you effectively manage your hiring process. Obtain organized and quick access to clear, concise, and comprehensive information in your hands, anytime and anywhere.

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People at companies that trust us

Your time and your people are valuable - start assessing today!

Get the lastest research on your employees' predictive behavioral traits.

How we do it?

By quantifying concrete data points on human potential, strengths, workplace performance, and leadership attributes, we provide the necessary data for easy onboarding and targeted training.

We provide not just a hiring tool, but a culture temperature gauge, retention device, and the data that help to optimize your leadership development in seconds.

Hiring the right executive for your organization will have a big impact on its performance. Are the executives you’re hiring both top performers and the right fit?

Have current or past executives really had a positive impact on the organization? The majority of CEO’s of leading companies indicate that finding and retaining talented employees is their #1 obstacle to growth.

How did you determine the right executives in the past? Even after spending large amounts to acquire executive hires, you still need help in understanding their strengths and liabilities.

Predictive analytics

Predictive analytics can be used to match prospective job applicants, reduce employee turnover, and increase employee engagement. Higher Executive Validations provide a combination of quantitative and qualitative data to allow organizations to reduce their employee turnover costs and increase employee satisfaction, which is particularly useful when labor markets are volatile.

Traditional HR analytics are descriptive in nature and examine employee data across different dimensions such as department and demographics to identify past patterns within metrics like turnover and retention. Conclusions are then used to formulate talent policies. Descriptive analytics, however, cannot predict future outcomes at an individual employee level.

Predictive analytics does this by going a step further and using the evidence from descriptive analytics as inputs for advanced techniques like statistical modelling and machine learning. Predictive analytics can also use assessments as inputs into models. These methodologies provide forward-looking measures such as the risk of a bad fit for an employee and flight risk.

Predictive analytics also identifies hidden connections between key factors contributing to employee fit. The main predictor variables normally studied include interpersonal, organizational, dedication, and self-control traits. Organizations use the findings from the modelling to better design timely interventions to help get a better fit with their employees.

The excellence of doing any thing is everything…

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Cultural Fit Analysis

We can provide a cultural fit analysis to determine what characteristics your organization’s culture is made of.

A 3-step process is used to define the strengths of your company's culture:

3 Step process

We analyze and show you the strengths of your existing core team.

A line of standardization is fitted to the data.

New team members or new hires are overlaid onto the analysis and we show you the areas in which they excel or will need training.

This data provides the key to integrating new hires into existing teams and the culture of the company.

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Executive Validations

You want to hire the best executive candidates possible for your organization, but how well do you really know a particular candidate and how well do they fit with your team’s culture?
Hiring the right executive for your organization will have a big impact on its performance. Are the executives you’re hiring both top performers and the right fit?
Have current or past executives really had a positive impact on the organization? The majority of CEO’s of leading companies indicate that finding and retaining talented employees is their #1 obstacle to growth.
How did you determine the right executives in the past? Even after spending large amounts to acquire executive hires, you still need help in understanding their strengths and liabilities.
The excellence of anything is everything…

CulturalDNA Analysis

CultualDNA Analysis is a diagnostic tool to determine issues in your culture.

We can provide a cultural fit analysis to determine what characteristics your organization’s culture is made of.

A 3-step process is used to define the strengths of your company's culture:

  1. We analyze and show you the strengths of your existing core team.
  2. A line of standardization is fitted to the data.
  3. New team members or new hires are overlaid onto the analysis and we show you the areas in which they excel or will need training.

This data provides the key to integrating new hires into existing teams and the culture of the company.

Based upon our CulturalDNA Methodology, an infographic will be created for each division in your organization. The data will depict the top core behaviors and skillsets of a candidate, providing your company with the foundation for a strong team and ensuring success in your hiring process!

The problem with performance today …leadership training!

Our executive consulting service provides the training your executives need to get them where they need to be with maximum performance!

Our AI-based EV tool is the instrument that provides critical intel for the human performance capabilities of your executives and teams, your company's DNA, and your next hire.
We provide ongoing training/coaching in the form of leadership development, executive presence, self confidence, building morale, and team camaraderie.
Our critical insight tool shows your actual Cultural Epigenetics assets. This establishes a line of standardization to keep your people performing at their best.

Our Partner Company

Le Confidant is our esteemed partner company that specializes in providing confidential and professional counseling services. They offer a safe and supportive environment for individuals seeking guidance, support, and personal growth.

Le Confidant is known for their professionalism, empathy, and commitment to ethical practices. Their counselors maintain the highest standards of care, continually honing their skills through ongoing professional development and training.

Our Leadership Development programs are designed to empower individuals to reach their full potential as effective leaders.

Our Executive Coaching programs offer personalized guidance and support for senior executives and top-level leaders.

Our Keynote Speaking and Training / Live Events programs bring together industry experts and thought leaders to deliver inspiring and informative sessions on a variety of relevant topics.

FIND OUT MORE LECONFIDANT.COM

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Our Team

Higher is the gold standard in human performance

Higher Science

The science behind Higher
Everyone has large amounts of data about them… valuable data from online assessments, video interviews, past and current behaviors, and social networks that can be analyzed to determine a person’s behavioral traits. Information that can help you understand who someone is and how they would fit into your organization.

A lot of this data from different sources already exists today, but is not being brought together to form a complete picture of the executive.
We measure and target thousands of cognitive and physiological data points of each candidate in 7 distinctive categories. We go beyond assessment questionnaires to use neuroscience, video analysis of facial microexpressions, and AI machine learning to to discern traits like:
  • Conscientiousness
  • Duty
  • Ambition
  • Drive
  • Kindness
  • Confidence
  • Composure
  • Team Player

Higher Platform Foundation

The Higher Executive Validation reports enable employees to achieve their potential and the reports produced to draft prospects and develop players were utilized by every team in the MLB and NHL, most teams in the NFL and NBA, and Olympic teams in the USA, Canada and England.

Most assessments were created by psychologists for psychologists. The Higher Executive Validations were developed by business leaders and executives who truly understand the demands of business and life balance. This innovative approach includes insights from professors of psychology at MIT, Kellogg School of Management, CalTech, with comprehensive validation from the University of California at Berkeley.

The Higher platform has 10 exclusive features not available from any other company, including: most comprehensive assessment, most comprehensive feedback, Position Compatibility Summary Forms, Assessment Validity Controls to assure answers to the Executive Validation accurately describe the participant’s personality, and others.

The benefits of utilizing the Higher Executive Validation are higher sales, profits and personnel performance by reducing labor turnover, increasing production, improving quality, enhancing communication and effectiveness of management, and others.

Accuracy

To screen for accuracy, we ask questions that ensure the individual was undistracted, that he understood the questions and that he replied carefully, rather than impetuously.

An example would be:

The automobile was invented in 1960

The correct answer is “Disagree"

Of course, but occasionally participants choose another answer because they impulsively rush through the questions or may have difficulty reading. Selecting a wrong answer on two such questions would invalidate the entire assessment labelling it as “Inaccurate”.

Typical reasons for Inaccuracy include:

  • Inability to comprehend the questions
  • Failure to pay attention (checking the wrong answer)
  • Excessive levels of stress
  • Inability to read at a 9th-grade level
  • Deliberate attempt to “fool the test”

We discard such results, inviting the participant to retake the assessment.

Objectivity

We screen for objectivity using two kinds of questions. First, we describe scenarios using common, typical human frailties that everyone has experienced. If the individual denies or minimizes the presence of these behaviors, the results are considered to be “Positively Biased”. An example might be “I have broken things in the past.”

We do not accuse anyone of deliberate manipulation if their answers lack objectivity. Many people mean well, but tend to confuse their good intentions with their actual, sometimes awkward, behavior. We pose questions that describe extraordinary, superhuman behaviors found only in comic books and fantasy movies. If an individual lays claim to a certain number of these unnatural qualities, we determine that the profile results are biased.

Incredibly 30% of all Profiles, from any testing service, are invalid.

One profound distinction of the Higher Executive Validation is that we recognize and act on that statistic by refusing to print invalid reports.

90% of invalid participants will be valid on their second try. (There is a remnant of perhaps 3% that will be invalid twice.)

We recommend that managers only allow three attempts maximum; otherwise we run the risk of an applicant memorizing their previous replies and eventually providing us a valid, but “selectively biased” assessment.

Why a person’s results might be invalid:

  • A. Exceptionally Private Nature – some people refuse to let us know them very well, saying “I don’t like for anyone to really know me.”
  • B. Argumentative – these folks debate with the sentence structure of our questions
  • C. Fearful/Distrusting – some individuals are afraid of what we’ll do with the information, wondering: “Will the results be used against me somehow?”
  • D. Learning Style – some people don’t read well
  • E. Trying to Improve – candidates may be sincerely working on a particular behavior
  • F. Unconsciously Adding Words – some people add words that are not on the screen in an attempt to steer the question in a more suitable direction.
  • G. Desperation – “I really (need/need to hold onto) this job.”
  • H. Perfectionist/Moralizer – those with a “performance orientation” put excessive pressure on themselves to excel and can’t stand to admit they ever make a mistake. They say: “I never lie. I always maintain a sense of honor and duty.” Watch for absolutes in the way they express themselves.
  • I. Intellectual Arrogance – one who wants to beat the test. They say to themselves: “That question is poorly phrased” or “What they should have asked is…”
  • J. They think only in “Teams” – especially found in executives who think, “My team and I can do anything.”
  • K. Hyper-confident – those who believe they hung the moon in its orbit.
  • L. Delusional – If I close my eyes tight and wish upon a falling star, anything can happen.

Definition of the 4 trait groups:

Interpersonal Traits: This group includes characteristics that influence how an individual interacts with people. This includes relationships and communications with peers, managers, subordinates, clients, family and friends. Friendly or reserved? Expressive or shy? Trusting, or naive or cynical? Empathetic or cold? The six traits in this group are Sociability, Recognition, Conscientiousness, Exhibition, Trust, and Nurturance.

Organizational Traits: This trait group will determine how an individual handles the tasks and responsibilities assigned. How will he/she function in our work environment? Disciplined or intuitive? Accountable or defensive? Quick learner, or not? The six traits in this group are Alertness, Structure, Order, Flexibility, Creativity, and Responsibility.

Dedication Traits: The behaviors indicated by traits in this group are fundamental to success and satisfaction regardless of the person’s career or personal lifestyle. They speak to motivation, persuasiveness, work ethic, risk-tolerance and respect for authority. The six traits in this group include Ambition, Endurance, Assertiveness, Boldness, Coachability, and Leadership.

Self Control Traits: These six traits will determine an individual’s emotional state, including the ability to handle adversity and cope with stress. Temperamental or calm? Confident or apprehensive? Peaceful or fretful? Deliberate or impulsive? The six traits in this group are: Self-Confidence, Composure, Tough-Mindedness, Autonomy, Contentment, and Control.

The Higher Executive Validation is the most comprehensive assessment available for measuring the personality, behavior and attitudes of employees and applicants. The EV measures 24 personality traits, on a bi-polar scale, for a total of 48 dimensions of personality. It measures every trait relevant to success in all positions at all levels of an organizational chart.

Federal Guidelines on Employment Testing

Some misinformed managers believe that testing of applicants is illegal, or that the use of assessments in the selection process invites litigation. Nothing could be further from the truth.

The EEOC, FEPC, Department of Labor, Department of Defense, U. S. Supreme Court, and other state and federal agencies have all declared that valid and reliable assessment programs contribute substantially to an equitable and non-discriminatory selection, placement, and development policy.

Further, their position is that assessments can be an organization’s strongest defense against discrimination and wrongful termination law suits. The probability of employee litigation is significantly higher for organizations that do not use tests, than it is for organizations that do.

This is because the courts are ruling that it is the responsibility of the organization, not the applicant, to determine the applicant’s suitability for the position. The best method to determine suitability is behavior assessments.

The Higher Executive Validation (EV)

The Higher Executive Validation (EV) is a resource for organizations designed to allow insight into the personality and behavior of their applicants and current employees. This platform is used to provide information to the participants and their organizations about themselves and their group.

For example:

This instrument can be used to collect data on the personality of team members prior to a team-building effort or the personality of employees and managers prior to an organization-development effort.

One of the principal benefits of using the EV in organizations is that it provides participants with a new vocabulary for describing others. This vocabulary allows an objective description of a person's behavior, rather than describing behavior in subjective or emotionally laden terms that interfere with, rather than enhance, communication.

In addition to identifying the behavior of participants, the comparison of scores from the Executive Validation provides group members with a convenient and relatively neutral way of exchanging interpersonal feedback. The EV is objective and employs a common language so participants can give standardized responses that are quantifiable and economical to attain and summarize.

One reason for the growth of instrumentation in organizations is the increasing complexity of modern organizations, in which the ability to access information and gain cooperation are critical factors in achieving success. The EV provides the useable feedback that participants' desire in today's human resource settings.

The EV is utilized by organizations for the following human resource applications:

  • Screening: Screening out unqualified applicants from the selection process
  • Selection: Selecting the best available applicants for any position from entry level clerk to CEO
  • Placement: Placing newly hired employees in the most suitable position, group, department, etc. or with the most suitable manager
  • Needs analyses: Identifying the training and development needs of individuals or groups of employees
  • Development: Assisting individuals in achieving their potential in a given position or career
  • Human resource development analyses: Providing feedback on the effectiveness of an organization's development programs
  • Promotions: Assisting management in identifying individuals qualified for advancement
  • Progress evaluations: Assessing growth and change on both individual and group levels
  • Career pathing: Identifying a progression of careers most suitable for employees to pursue
  • Team building: Selecting individuals who will function best in a particular team
  • Termination decisions: Assisting management in exploring alternative options to terminating employees not functioning adequately in their positions

The EV is also a resource for individuals striving to achieve career success and/or attain personal contentment. In this application, the assessment can provide information to individual participants on their personality or modes of behavior. In general, more growth can occur for a participant if he or she is provided with a method for focusing specifically on his or her own personality and behavior.

Externally derived data can provide the basis for potentially significant growth experiences and changes, especially if the data are understandable, reflect actual behavior, and are discrepant from some ideal or desired self-image. Individuals can utilize the assessment results for a number of purposes such as personal growth, management development, career advancement, stress or conflict management, communication, or achieving personal contentment.

Organizations that provide "Personal Coaching" in their personal development programs also benefit from the EV.

Reliability

Reliability is a general term for the class of statistical techniques used to estimate the precision of a scale, i.e. to what degree a scale is free of measurement errors. Two types of reliability were computed for the Higher EV.

The Alpha coefficient, an indicator of internal consistency and item homogeneity applicable to multiple-point item responses (Cronbach, 1951 ).

For the trait groups, the Alpha coefficients were high, with values of .87, .79, .88, and .91 on the Interpersonal, Organizational, Dedication, and self-control trait groups, respectively.

The Rasch reliability was also high, with values of .87, .79, . 88, and . 90 respectively, calculated from standard deviations of .41, .31, . 41, and . 46 respectively, and root mean square error of .15, .14, .14, and .14 respectively.

High reliability on the trait scales reflects both the greater number of items and the precision of the combined scales in measuring a more general personality description. The standard deviation on the twenty-four scales ranges from .63 to 1.26, while the root mean square error ranges from .36 to .61.

Validity

Validity is the degree to which a survey measures what it sets out to measure. One way of assessing validity is convergent validity, that is, comparing the results of the Higher EV to the results from other methods generally acknowledged as gold standards for assessing the same variable (Litwin, 1995).

Convergent validity was tested using two personality surveys, the Personality Research Form (PRF) and the 16 Personality Factor Questionnaire (16PF).

Proactive approach for the wellness of our community’s first responders by gauging behavioral temperature

Police

35% of Police Officers suffer from PTSD (from The Ruderman White Paper Update on Mental Health and Suicide of First Responders). This can lead to massive liabilities for departments, from misconduct to excessive force.

Fire

Performance and team cohesion are critical when quickly responding to emergencies. PTSD and ongoing trauma can lead to loss of life and property.

Dispatchers

Dispatchers are vital first responders who manage critical communication lines. Any impact on their decision-making can have life-changing consequences.

We can help optimize first responder wellness and mitigate risk Sign In

Wellness tool for first responders (HOPE)

AI without removing the human element. We bring HOPE into your culture.

IQ+EQ+AQ = Higher Optimized Performance Employee (HOPE)

With our advanced technological tools, our service will allow you to select the best candidates that match your agencies values and ensures all your members maintain those values and cultural fit.

Prevention is … smart policing!

Predict emotional stability: A proper cultural fit of candidates with your organization is critical to team cohesion and successful outcomes.

Based on over 55 years of solid research and practice in industry, the Higher platform enables the correct selection of candidates.

Precision leadership training: Higher saves time and effort for organizations with an online platform focused on the key drivers of human performance.

Live DNA on each department officer: The Higher platform makes a complex topic accessible for both candidates and organizations.

Benefits for

Departments Leadership engagement is key to help employees

City Psychological safety with employees

County 7 empirical emotions around wellness

Avoid lawsuits and give hope! In order to focus on the micro-issues leaders need to first build the social relationship capital with the group.

The profession is predisposed to creating mental casualties.

What's in place to mitigate those casualties?

The most valuable commodity is people.

What are we doing to help them help themselves?

When people dial 911, they are seeking hope and reassurance that help will arrive promptly. However, it's important to recognize that the reality of the situation could be different. Instead of a well-equipped and prepared emergency responder, they might encounter a wounded or ill-prepared individual.

The idea behind making good use of our platform is to ensure that such situations do not occur and that the qualified individuals who are going to be in the positions of care are as accurate as possible. This is made possible with the help of Higher, as it streamlines and finds the best possible candidate for the available positions.

With this, we will achieve and identify certain aspects that are important when considering the acceptance of a new candidate into our team and their fit with our culture. Aspects such as the following:

  • Settling in = finding their tribe
  • Frustration = bad decisions from leadership
  • Daily drips of trauma
  • Childhood traumas they didn't even know about
  • Trying to just numb the pain
  • An officer's ethical compromise begins when the supervisors dismiss or condone minor infractions

Ron Kardashian - Founder and CEO

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Leadership

Ron Kardashian

Founder and CEO

Naira Musallam

Board Advisor

Troy Foster

Board Advisor

Mark Sherwood

Advisor

William Mayfield

SVP Business Development

Glen Howard

Board Advisor

Dr. Moran Cerf

PhD. Board Advisor, Professor of Neuroscience

Ron Kardashian

Ron Kardashian

Founder and CEO

Troy Foster

Troy Foster

Board Advisor

William Mayfield

William Mayfield

SVP Business Development

Mark Sherwood

Mark Sherwood

Advisor

Naira Musallam

Naira Musallam

Board Advisor

Dr. Moran Cerf

Dr. Moran Cerf

PhD. Board Advisor, Professor of Neuroscience

Glen Howard

Glen Howard

Board Advisor

Our mission

Our mission is simple and clear: To provide a cloud-based human performance validation service to save companies time and money due to misplaced hires and the loss of top-performing employees.

Our focus is on the hidden behavioral traits that cannot be determined easily, specifically identifying the strengths and potential liabilities that improve or hinder candidate job performance. The results are predictive analytics and behavior-based hiring recommendations allowing organizations to ensure that the right candidates are hired and retained.

Our algorithms

Our algorithms in a SaaS-based platform provide organizations with Cultural DNA overviews, Executive Validation analyses, and Corporate Training that leverage over 55 years of behavioral and performance data from Stanford University, University of California at Berkeley, San Jose State, San Francisco State, MIT, Caltech, Northwestern University, professional athletes, executives, and venture capitalists. We successfully help organizations to optimize, isolate, and select top executives while simultaneously validating a precise company culture fit.

Our platform

The Higher platform tracks and analyzes over 60 cognitive and physiological data points in 7 categories and applies sophisticated algorithms from AI, cognitive technologies, and neuroscience to assess Cultural DNA and provide Executive Validation of newly hired & existing employee or independent contractors.

The platform also provides for Employee Governance that assists department heads for the continuous development of their employees, thereby maximizing their performance.

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