Profiling – It’s a Judgment Call

Profiling often has a negative connotation associated with it; but when it comes to personality profiling, many people, corporations, and sports teams, put a lot of emphasis on this testing methodology.

 

Picking the right people, and the right combination of people – talent – personalities, is a key ingredient to building successful teams.

 

The powers that be are judging you, or any potential candidate, to see how well you will fit in and help them and the team to be successful.  In other words to win.

 

Though not a personality test, the NFL has had the Wonderlic tests for years. The Wonderlic does not help with judging personality or physical capability.  It is geared towards comprehension and problem solving.

So teams have in the past relied on certain psychologists to evaluate players, or at least come up with a list of questions to find out how players will handle stress, fame, fortune and life as it exists in the NFL.

The question – “Would you rather be a dog or a cat?” is one such question.  Dr. Robert Troutwine has tested and interviewed hundreds if not thousands of potential draftees and says this question has a lot of symbolism.

A dog is man’s best friend. A cat is more independent.  Players who go for dogs tend to like structure and being part of a team is more important to them.  Cats are guys who are more comfortable being a more solo contributor.  You have to let him feel like he’s making the decisions.

Troutwine assessed Ryan Leaf and Peyton Manning for the Indianapolis Colts.  His assessment stated that Leaf would have more problems coping with early failures than Manning and would have problems with mounting pressure.  He also consulted the Colts general manager Bill Polian that Edgerrin James was a better match for his team than Ricky Williams because James’ personality was more adaptable to having a bigger star – Manning – on the team.

But personality tests, just like any test, do not give a complete picture of the player.  What a personality test does do, is provide yet another data point to consider when evaluating a candidate.  It helps those who make the decisions, and those who are responsible for drafting good talent that will succeed, identify likely trends or responses to certain situations someone may face while playing in the NFL.  Such as: will they cope well with failure or be adaptable to a team with bigger names who attracting more attention?

I myself recently took such a test (it was a combination personality profile and Wonderlic type test) as part of a candidate screening and interview process. The personality test was filled with questions that asked what you thought about certain personality types or personal behavior and whether or not you valued feelings and those who do or not. The company and the testing organization made a big deal to make sure you understood there were no right or wrong answers. They also advised not to try and answer how you thought they, the company, wanted you to answer. Just like with the cat and dog question, different personalities are better suited for different roles.

So it is with great curiosity that I hear certain recently “troubled” NFL players “passed” their personality profile tests. Namely Aaron Hernandez.

Now I do not know what questions were part of this test, but I am sure most did not concentrate on guns and behavioral tendencies to commit, correction be accused of committing, felony offenses.

These tests again, are geared towards finding players who will “fit” well into a particular team or organization.  They are not necessarily geared toward identifying someone who might become violent.

Can the NFL do more to identify those who will cope with stress and failure well and fit into a particular mold?  Yes.

In fact just this past year the NFL has introduced a new testing criteria to compliment the Wonderlic test.  These new questions measure a wide range of competencies, including learning styles, motivation, decision-making skills, responding to pressure or unexpected stimuli, and core intellect.  Every NFL team will now receive a one-page profile for each player who completes the new exam.  The profile will assess a player’s learning type and personality and suggest ideal coaching styles to instruct the athlete.

When someone says that a particular person “passed” his or her personality profile test, it only means that chances are the candidate will fit in with the organization and perform well in the roll they are considering hiring them for.

So when Hernandez (a potential top 1 or 2 round pick) fell to the fourth round in the NFL draft because of questions regarding drug use and failed drug tests, Belichick took a chance because Hernandez has immense talent and “passed” their tests to see how well he would fit into the Patriots organization and offensive scheme.

Could the NFL do more testing to spot even more dangerous behavioral tendencies?  Again, yes.  It is possible to do more and even better testing.  But I believe that no amount of testing will eliminate all the possibilities.  Plus, sometimes, test results can be wrong. One would not want to falsely accuse and potentially hinder another career because of one question on a test.

Tests will always provide more information.  This information will always be incomplete and subjective – open to interpretation and up to others to decide if it is relevant or not.  In the end the decision-making will ultimately come down to a judgment call by the coach and or the GM.

Everything I need to know about life…

I learned from Fantasy Football.

and yes I did steal borrow my post title from the All I Really Need To Know I Learned in Kindergarten book by Robert Fulghum.

So, how can Fantasy Football teach us about life and ourselves?

Well, for one thing, it can tell us if we have any addictive personality traits!

Seriously !

One could write a book about what constitutes an addictive personality, and many people have. The topic is far too big to go into here, But I will include this one…

“Addictive personalities have difficulty planning and achieving long-term goals because they are focused on the short term. They may exhibit impulsive behavior or a disposition toward sensation seeking.”

How many of us have fallen for the hype from experts and others about a particular player only to have our expectations dashed!

It can teach us how we plan and budget.

Do we keep falling into the same hype pattern on a weekly basis? Or do we plan for a longer term goal? Like making the playoffs and winning the championship.

Do we keep throwing good money after bad?

Do we look for players who are consistent or a streaky home run hitter or perhaps a combination of both?

If you are in a league that puts a price on such things as waivers, trades, players or positions; this translates into how we handle budgeting and investments.

And yes I am still talking about Fantasy Football.

But as you can probably tell, I believe this can, and probably should tie back to how we handle other things our life.

How much do you invest, spend in relation to your expected return?

We have an owner in my league who is consistently the king of transactions on the waiver wire. He is also consistently a playoff contender and he even won the championship two years ago.

This year he spent so much on waivers and trades, that he needed to win the championship or finish second just to end up in the Black. He finished 4th.

How much time and effort do you put into research, statistics, matchups, trends and patterns?

I bet a lot!

How many of us spend hours looking for that diamond in the rough or the old veteran everyone forgot about? This is like a battered stock that reemerges to outshine all the others in the industry. See Dogs of the DOW.

Or, how many of us look for the rookie or the newcomer in the industry that defies odds with his new talent and skills and surprises everyone with his success!

Conversely, How many of us know folks who don’t even bother to show up week after week?

Active participation vs. autopilot.

They set their drafts to autopick, don’t log in, don’t trade or do anything on the waivers, heck maybe they don’t even make roster moves based on bye weeks!
This usually translates into nothing ventured nothing gain, and if you are lucky, nothing lost. But, in reality one rarely wins with this plan.

Automatic is a good saving vehicle for budgets, but it can have its disadvantages in purchases and merchandise and god forbid if someone stole your identity and your were not researching and tracking what you purchased and spent money on.

Autopick in fantasy football does not account for changes in what is going on in your league. It is static and based solely on your preferences and statistics at a previous point in time.

When to hold, fold, walk away…and get back in.

In Fantasy Football you also need to track the health of your current players. If someone gets injured, do you dump them out to the waivers and pick up another? Do you bench them, save, for another day when they are healthy?

Same thing applies to stocks and other finances.

Oh and I just thought of another thing.

Late Fees and missing the boat!

How many of us have missed a deadline? Maybe had an eye on a player but failed to log in to snag him up at the right time or maybe we did and forgot to move him from the bench to active roster!

That is like paying late fees and ruining your credit ratings, significantly hurting your chances of cashing in on that winner of a player or stock and shooting yourself in the financial foot.

I think everyone should play Fantasy Football!

How else will you learn from your mistakes and apply what you do in the rest of your life?

This is serious stuff!

This is really fun stuff too!

As always,

Be good, do well, have fun!