The Beermat Profiling Tool

In The Beermat Entrepreneur, Mike Southon and Chris West talk about the three roles which make up a well-balanced team: ‘Magnet’, ‘Maker’ and ‘Monitor’. This Profiling Tool is designed to show you which one of these roles you are most suited to.

Please answer the questions honestly.

Don’t over-think this task. Just choose the option which immediately seems the best one for you. There are no right or wrong answers, just your personal choices.

 

The Scenario

You’ve been working in a company for some time and your boss is already very pleased with your progress. You have been asked to participate in a project with a number of your colleagues.

The project will involve researching an issue, coming up with potential solutions for it, preparing a report and, if the report is accepted by senior management, putting the solutions into action.

 

Find out what your result means…

 

Result #1:
You are a MONITOR!

Below are outlined some of your strengths and weaknesses in a business setting.

You can use them to either play by your strengths or improve your weaknesses.

1. Strengths:

  • You are a reliable person who is really careful for what you are doing and with who you are doing it.
  • As a highly-responsible individual, you could lead a large or multiple projects.
  • You pride yourself in delivering on time and with a quality end product.
  • Time-efficienct and highly organised, you can find a time and place for everything.
  • You can spot problems before they even arise by judging trends and patterns.
  • You are good at analysing data and are extremely data-driven about your decisions.
  • You have a detail-oriented nature.

2. Challenges:

  • You find it difficult to decide between equally good decisions.
  • You are easily distracted by details.
  • You are often worried about getting things wrong.
  • You have the problem of walking away from chaos. You have a difficulty dealing with toxicity in the workplace.

3. Successes:

  • You might be slow to get started, but once you get rolling, you become the tortoise that wins the long game race.
  • You deliver great results by putting in the ”leg work” that others do not want to.
  • You closely watch the details, spotting any problem as it arises and ensuring the longevity of the company.


4. Struggles:

  • You will often wait for enough information or direction, which makes most Monitors extremely risk-averse.
  • You are an amazing defender of company policies, your people and deadlines as you are a very careful person yourself. But you struggle to see the need to lead up front, meaning that you will find it difficult to take leadership in times of crisis.
  • You struggle with working under pressure.

5. Best roles in teams:

  • You contribute the best by keeping the project on time and ensuring that everyone is contributing.
  • You are good at delegating work and keeping the team together.
  • You are good at organizing and scheduling.
  • Your leadership is not motivational but activity-focused – leading by example and with measures.
  • You learn through measurement and observation. That helps you communicate well through data and reports.

6. Worst roles in teams:

  • It’s difficult for you to create change in chaos (difficult times).
  • You would rather not do creative design or creative writing.
  • You would rather not do people-focused leadership that has too much networking.
  • You would rather not learn through debate and discussion.
  • You would rather not communicate through visuals or conversations.

7. Best roles in life:

  • Project management
  • Scientific research and market research
  • Calculation, time-keeping and time management – jobs that require accuracy
  • Organisation and delegation

8. Worst roles in life:

  • You can, but you would rather not do public speaking, networking, and negotiating.
  • You can, but you would rather not do creative design, strategic leadership, and creative writing

9. Difference between Developed Monitors and Bad Monitors

A developed Monitor would be a data-driven individual who makes calculated decisions with slight risks. They’d be someone who can oversee an entire company’s line of work and would be able to ensure that a company does not go bankrupt on their watch. The developed monitor would be someone who is saving on things the company does not need, and spending well on things the company really does need for its longevity (e.g., investing in talent, training, proper recruiting, etc.)

An Underdeveloped ”Bad” Monitor would be someone, as described by Mike Southon:

”Someone who knows the price of everything but the value of nothing.”

Think about a company CEO who sees their employees simply as numbers that can be reduced at any time for a higher profit. Or think about the financial advisor who advises the CEO to cut down the training budget for the employees in order to cut costs.

 

Result #2: 
You are a MAKER!

Below are outlined some of your strengths and weaknesses in a business setting.

You can use them to either play by your strengths or improve your weaknesses.

1. Strengths:

  • You are a hardcore worker. You will get a project done no matter what – even if you have to work the whole night for it.
  • You are good at starting things, and often good at completing projects.
  • You are good at simplifying hard things and finding ways to improve the current systems.
  • You are highly creative and optimistic, pushing projects forwards with your perfectionism.

2. Challenges:

  • You take such a big pride in your work that is often hard to criticise you. You do not take criticism well, unless it’s from someone you really respect.
  • You sometimes get caught up in the details, spending too much time over-optimising.
  • Some Makers can be inflexible and reluctant/unwilling to change. Other Makers can be impatient and over-optimistic with what others can achieve.
  • Makers often find it hard to work with other people. They’d rather work alone, but would not deny support from other experts.

3. Successes:

  • You are at your best when you are looking for ways to improve things. You are amazing at spotting areas for improvement and then acting upon it.
  • You are at your best when you are free to create your own version of a product or of a project.
  • You excel when you keep focus on the big picture strategy and the creative process through to the end result.
  • You love to take something apart and then put it together in a new and better way, changing how things work for the better.

4. Struggles:

  • Some Makers are not so good at starting things from scratch, as they are perfectionists who are worried of getting it wrong from the beginning. Other Makers, on the other hand, are amazing at starting, but struggle finishing what they have started.
  • You are not so comfortable in chaotic or political situations, having to deal with the internal politics of the company
  • Failure can come from trying to control too much, run too fast, or expect too much of others.

5. The best activities in teams:

  • You are good at creative problem-solving as well as making smart incremental improvements.
  • Your leadership style is task-focused, meaning you are good at distributing work after evaluating each member’s individual strengths and weaknesses.
  • You can communicate well in flow charts, visuals and mind maps.
  • You are good at big picture thinking and overall strategy.

6. The worst activities in teams:

  • You dislike having to micro-manage people. Having to do necessary socialising and having to do small talk.
  • You dislike doing detailed analysis and you dislike learning with text books.
  • You dislike having to communicate the little details to your team members.

7. The best activities in life:

  • You like brainstorming ideas and big picture strategic thinking.
  • You are accepting of risk taking and mostly working on the back-end side of a product or a project campaign.
  • You love to design systems, perfect processes, and complete tasks.

8. The worst activities in life:

  • You can, but you’d rather not do negotiating, marketing or direct sales, as well as managing people and having to motivate people on a daily basis
  • You can, but you’d rather not do repetitive routines, too much market research and too detailed analysis

9. Difference between a Developed Maker and a ”Bad” Maker

The developed Maker would be someone who is really hard-working, being able to solve any problem and build any product with enough stubbornness. It is someone who can outwork and outsmart their competitors.


The still-developing ”Bad” Maker would be someone who starts multiple projects but then fails to act upon them. It’d be someone who guarantees a lot of work to be done but then finds themselves being lazy. Also, it would be someone who you cannot change their mind about anything.

 

Result #3:
You are a MAGNET

Below are outlined some of your strengths and weaknesses in a business setting.

You can use them to either play by your strengths or improve your weaknesses.

1. Strengths

  • Extremely creative and outgoing, you are able to motivate and inspire others.
  • Persuasion and negotiation. You can win people over with your charm and persuasive talking.
  • Presenting. Given the right resources and an audience, you could put on quite the show!
  • You are good at ideation and figuring out the whole project idea and scope.
  • You can create a unique identity for yourself, and a unique brand for your project or business.
  • You are a quick thinker who thinks best on your feet and in front of others. You are good at improvisation and that’s probably why you never do detailed plans.

2. Challenges

  • You are often criticized for not taking the time for the little details.
  • You do not like micro-managing people and telling them what to do exactly.
  • Sometimes you might appear to people as arrogant or overly confident without you realizing it.
  • You could forget to consider everyone in your equations.
  • Your judgment is often not objective, but rather how something makes you feel. You base your decisions based on how much they excite you, rather than if there are better alternatives.

3. Successes

  • You are at your best when you are feeling free to express yourself and develop your own identity.
  • Despite you needing a team to be at your best, you can be at the front of any project and be the face of the company.

4. Struggles

  • You struggle from expecting too much from other people and taking on too much work yourself.
  • You generally want to make everyone happy at the same time and find that this might be impossible.

5. The best activities in teams:

  • You’d be the perfect person to pitch an idea or a concept or to present the presentation
  • You can be the lead negotiator and the people’s person who pushes the company forward with your good sales skills.
  • You can get corporate buy-in or any authority buy-in to get more funding or anything that helps your team succeed.
  • You are good at big picture thinking and promoting the projects

6. The worst activities in teams:

  • You can, but you’d rather not solve the little problems in the project, like correcting grammar or ensuring usability.
  • You can, but you’d rather not do tedious geeky research and conduct detailed studies.
  • You can, but you’d rather not have to micro-manage your team members and tell them what to do all the time.

7. The best activities in life:

  • You are good at solving problems and arguments with words by understanding the other side and coming up with a solution that fits both sides.
  • You are good at building friendships and connecting with other people.
  • You are good at leading a company out of a crisis.
  • You are good at negotiating higher salaries, getting corporate buy-in, and finding work via connections.

8. The worst activities in life:

  • You can, but you’d instead not do throughout planning about outside-of-business matters like family trips.
  • You can, but you’d instead not look after financial details, and do boring research and measurements

9. Difference between a Developed Magnet and a ”Bad” Magnet

A developed Magnet would be someone who slowly builds trust with people and delivers on their word. It’d be someone who, despite promising big, knows that they can back up their claims with their hard work and amazing product. They’d be that likable person everyone wants to buy from. The developed Magnet would also be very good at motivating others and demonstrate good leadership in times of crisis.

The still-developing ”Bad” Magnet would be someone who is entitled and would lie to get what they want. Or even worse, lie to make themselves or their product appear better than what it really is. The underdeveloped Magnet would be the classical ”snake oil salesman” who tries to scam you with their terrible product, overpromising amazing benefits that they themselves know they cannot deliver.

 

NOTE:

Finding out your preferred role does not mean that from now on, you perform that role and nothing else. In a small business or a team with a lot to do in a short time, you will often find yourself having to play other roles, as there is nobody else available at that given moment.

Understanding that you won’t be as good as the specialist for whom you are deputising, but that at the same time you must do your best, will help you carry out this ‘stand in’ role effectively and with as little stress as possible. The experience will also help you understand the issues faced by other team members. And you might find that you are better at it than you think!