Forté FAQ's
Q: What is Forté ?
A: Forté (a French word meaning “one’s strengths”) is an interpersonal communication system that identifies a person’s natural communication style preferences and strengths, how they have been adapting to a specific individual and/or environment, and how they are most likely coming across to others. Forté also identifies an individual’s current logic style, current stamina level, and current feelings about goal attainment. Designed to enhance interpersonal relationships, Forté identifies and maximizes the positive strengths of individuals in teams, and minimizes their chances for misunderstandings and conflicts.
If you happen to be familiar with “personality” tests, then you will
appreciate the 3-5 minute Forté communication style survey. Forté is not a
test, nor does it survey “personality.” However, Forté can be used
effectively as a great next step to any profiling you have used previously.
Going beyond “personality testing,” Forté identifies very specific
self-motivators for each individual and provides interaction reports between
two individuals... guiding them on how to best communicate with each other
to build and, more importantly, maintain a trusting relationship.
Forté is a lifespan system. Individuals and teams can complete Forté
adapting updates as often as every 30 days.
Forté is an Internet-based, online, interactive system used by organizations of all sizes throughout the United States, Canada and the European Union.
Q: Does Forté fit into basic team leadership?
A: Leading people... at all levels... is more important today than ever before. Most of us have to do much more with less - faster and better than ever before. Forté is a tool that helps each team leader - and those they lead - to understand each other's strengths and work together to maximize those strengths for the benefit of your organization.
Team leaders are asked to complete Forté surveys using the simple question: “How do your team members expect you to act?” The question can also be more specific: “How does team member Jim expect you to act at work?” The Forté system will provide the team leader with current information on how he/she is adapting to either a general or specific team member or environment. The team leader will also be given a very specific set of communication directions to follow for the next 30 days to most effectively communicate with that team member.
In addition, the Forté system also provides the team member being supervised a profile of their strengths, as well as a specific report that indicates how they are currently adapting to their team leader, and how the team leader is most likely perceiving their communication style. The team member also is given a very specific 30-day prescription of how to best communicate with the team leader to accomplish both their goals.
The Forté system generates what is known as a Forté Interaction Report between the team leader and each team member, sharing with them how to best communicate with one another and build a lasting relationship of trust.
All of this information can be updated as often as every 30 days, keeping the team leader and the team members on track, effective and productive. The Forté system predicts employee burn-out or rust-out, and also identifies those leaders or team members who continually maintain higher levels of interpersonal productivity. Studies have shown Forté Performance Coaching (the coaching of “B” and “C” performers to achieve top “A” performance) can help organizations achieve 13 months productivity and a 12-month period.
Q: Is Forté used in team building?
A: The secret to a successful team is building an underlying foundation to ensure that long after the team building training is over, the team will continue to be productive.
The Forté interpersonal communication system:
- Helps team members understand each other's strengths.
- Provides specific interaction reports between each team member on how to best communicate and maintain an ongoing, successful, productive relationship with each other.
- Provides measurement... as often as every 30 days... as to how the team is continuing to grow and what communication styles are driving the team’s top performance.
The Forté system takes what you learn... in your very own environment... and molds it into a top performance coaching process that constantly monitors how top performers are adapting and in shares/coaches the top “A” performance styles in ways that “B” and “C” performers become successful, too.
Forté helps move the critical mass of your teams up a notch or two in productivity and success.
Q: Can the Forté system be used when hiring?
A: Turnover is often the silent stalker within an organization. High levels of turnover mean that low productivity is a primary product... not a by-product... of the work environment. The Forté system has helped organizations throughout the United States, Canada and the European Community to hire the right person the first time.
Don’t think of Forté as a screening tool to eliminate or select someone. Instead, think of Forté as an identifier of an applicant’s communication style strength and how those strengths can best be used... along with their other skills... to be most productive for your organization. Through Forté’s breakthrough interpersonal technology and research, organizations are learning that top performance is the direct product of an individual’s competency, skill set, adapting communication style, and flexibility.
The Forté system identifies the applicant’s primary communication style, how they are currently adapting, and how they are most likely coming across to others. At the point of interview or employment... you decide... organizations share with the applicant the top performing adapting styles for the person they are seeking to fill. The applicant is given specific information on how they will best “hit the street running” with the team or fellow employees, and most importantly... why this particular style of communication is working. They will be adapting to the work environment anyway... so, why not the right way?
Anyone can adapt to any environment. Forté has developed a technology that continues to monitor top interpersonal performance. As customer needs or market shifts occur, the top-performing style is reassessed, updated and shared with the employees. So, irrespective of who the individual is or what their away-from-work preferences may be, Forté helps you coach them to maximize internal and external customer relationships in ways that keep productivity high, build the business and maintain touch with the styles that keep the business on track. Also, this entire process is very measurable and can be correlated to other standards are goals your organization tracks for performance or productivity.
Forté interaction reports are shared between the new hire and their team... thus the team is energized, not diluted, as the new member comes aboard.
Q: Does Forté fit into customer service?
A: Customer service does not just happen... it’s very much the people side of any business and has become regarded as a key strategic element in most of today’s leading organizations. Before someone can be highly effective in customer service, they need to know their own individual strengths and how to apply them in positive and productive ways.
The Forté communication style profile helps each customer service representative gain an instant understanding of how to best utilize their strengths, how to most effectively communicate and listen to the customer, how to effectively adapt to the needs of that customer, and finally, how to understand the follow-through process so important in achieving higher levels of customer service satisfaction.
In fact, the Forté system is often used with the customer in building a stronger or preferred relationship. If your organization has identified key customers you want to keep especially happy, then the Forté system has a process that involves both your organization’s customer service representatives and those they serve in the customers organization. This bridge will give you a strategic advantage over your competitors in serving your key customers.
Look at it this way, too: Customer service builds business. The Forté system helps you build people and customer relationships. Forté also provides ongoing adapting update information for customer service representatives to best serve specific customers and/or specific individuals within each client organization. Gone are the days when “cookie cutter” customer service programs work. By using a computerized Forté process, Forté develops a written strategy specific to your service program and also provides trending information to measure the adapting styles of your customer service representatives on a customer-by-customer basis.
Q: For organizations that already have training programs in place, where would Forté fit in?
A: The Forté interpersonal communication system can overlay virtually any training process or program.
Typically, it is best to start at the beginning, but you can utilize Forté to immediately create an environment of rapport, mutual understanding, and mutual respect in any environment. Organizations can use Forté:
- As a way to begin teambuilding processes.
- As a way to maintain teambuilding processes.
- As a great kick-off event for a strategic planning retreat.
- With their customers, so those key relationships can be built upon and expanded.
Forté is particularly effective in narrowing the gap between high-tech skills and people skills. Through use of the Forté interpersonal communication style reports, individuals and teams come together as they never have before.
Q: Can the Forté system help develop better “soft” skills within an organization?
A: The Forté process is one that focuses on individuals’ “soft” skills, their people skills. It is sharing the assets of highly accurate, focused, and effective people that makes an organization more effective. Think of Forté as quality control management for people. The Forté process has measurements-the Forté adapting profile can be updated as often as every 30 days. Forté interaction reports bring people together quickly, sharing insight and interpersonal mastery skills some individuals would never learn otherwise.
Forté is very visual... the computerized system generates graphs that show each employee how they are adapting-over the long term-and provides positive coaching prescriptions for top performance.
If you’re familiar with the book “EQ” by Daniel P. Goleman, which deals with how the EQ (emotional quotient) is probably more important than the IQ (intelligence quotient) in the workplace, think of Forté as CQ... meaning the pathway to building the interpersonal communication quotient within your organization. Forté is what soft skills are all about, and the beauty of it is that Forté continues to help you maintain the soft skills growth so important for organizations to succeed in today’s environment.