The problem is not understanding people. It is leading them – when they are stressed, disengaged, or different from you.
That is the moment when your tools matter most. And it is the moment where many traditional approaches fall short.
Personality assessments and psychometric tools can help you understand how someone is wired. They give you a profile, a snapshot of preferences and tendencies. But knowing someone’s profile is not the same as knowing how to lead them.
Profiles give you a map, but they do not help you navigate the terrain in real time.
They can tell you what to look for, but they do not teach you how to respond when a team member shuts down in a meeting, when a colleague avoids conflict, or when someone’s energy shifts unexpectedly.
That is the gap PCM helps to fill.
Profiles and Skills
Taking the above into consideration, PCM serves a different purpose from traditional personality profiling tools, even though it also generates a profile as part of the process. The real value lies in the practical skills that come with it. These skills enable trained users to recognise behavioural patterns and adjust their communication, even without a formal profile. This proves especially valuable in fast-moving team and leadership contexts.
How to Turn Profiles into Real-Time Leadership
For executive recruiters, HR professionals, and leadership development consultants, understanding people is at the heart of the work. The tools we choose shape how we assess, select, and support talent. Yet not all tools are built the same way.
The key difference between PCM and personality profiling tools lies in the underlying intention or framework they are built on. Most personality profiling tools begin with a model or hypothesis, often based on established psychological theories, such as Carl Jung’s archetypes. Their purpose is to assess personality by identifying traits, strengths, and preferences. In this sense, they focus on the “what” – what kind of person is this?
PCM started differently. It emerged from behavioural analysis, not from a predefined model, and was built around communication. Its purpose is to understand how to build and maintain rapport with another person as quickly and effectively as possible.
This becomes especially clear when you consider PCM’s origins in clinical settings. In those environments, the priority is to connect with patients quickly, establish trust, and communicate in a way that truly lands. The goal isn’t classification but real connection – one that supports care and positive outcomes.
Kahler’s early work focused on identifying maladaptive behaviours, patterns that signalled distress. For this contribution, he received the Eric Berne Memorial Award. He later expanded the model to include the healthy, resourceful side of personality, completing the other half of the picture.
Today, PCM is used globally to support communication, collaboration, and leadership development across industries. Its impact has been documented in research, showing how PCM training improves engagement, connection, and team performance.
So, PCM focuses on the “how” – the dynamic process between people. It’s not primarily about sorting individuals into categories or assigning labels. Its purpose is to provide people with the skills to create immediate, meaningful connections, regardless of similarities or differences. It also helps us understand how to recharge our own internal batteries so we can engage effectively with people whose communication styles differ from our own.
This becomes especially relevant when we talk about leadership.
Recruitment
Many profiling tools are well-established and widely trusted. There are even guides available to help candidates prepare for them, including how to tailor responses to match what a company may be looking for. AI now supports this kind of preparation as well. As a result, candidates often arrive for interviews ready to highlight the traits they believe are most desirable for the role or organisation.
This is where PCM offers a deeper layer of understanding. By tuning in to how a person communicates – the rhythm of their speech, the way they frame ideas, and how they respond – we can begin to sense whether their words align with their natural style and what we observe in the moment. This process is quick, yet powerful. Often, just a few minutes of conversation reveal communication preferences and behavioural patterns that might otherwise be missed.
This is particularly valuable when assessing cultural fit. Instead of relying on instinct alone, PCM brings structure and clarity to the process and offers a more grounded, consistent way to evaluate alignment.
(NASA’s astronaut selection team discovered just how powerful this could be when they partnered with Dr. Taibi Kahler. Read how it happened in our NASA feature).
Beyond Recruitment – Real-Time Leadership
As mentioned earlier, PCM is, above all, a skill and a way to build connection. This becomes even more significant in leadership.
- How do you read a room?
- How do you notice if people are genuinely engaged in a board meeting?
- How do you know when a client truly feels heard and understood?
- How do you support a team member who isn’t performing, and why might they be pulling back?
These are real-world challenges that can’t always be solved through reports or data. In the flow of day-to-day leadership, we don’t always have a profile in front of us. And even when we do, what do we actually do with it?
This is where PCM becomes a practical tool for leaders.
We work with what’s in front of us. We observe. We listen. We adapt our own behaviour to meet the other person where they are. When we do this, we create connection. And once connection is made, trust and motivation follow – often surprisingly fast.
That’s when true collaboration and creativity can flourish.
That Apple Ad
Apple’s “Intelligence” ad shows a bored and disengaged employee writing a casual message to his boss. Before sending it, he clicks the “Professional” option. Instantly, AI transforms his message into a polished, structured version that feels aligned with workplace expectations.
The ad suggests that we can now “connect” using AI. But I found the message quite sobering, and if I’m honest, a little unsettling.
It’s easy to focus on the employee, who might appear unmotivated or checked out. But what stood out to me was the manager, the so-called leader, who seemed completely disconnected from the team.
Consider the broader context. Warren, the employee, is disengaged and unproductive, currently seen as dead weight. But why? Because he’s being mismanaged. He has no outlet for his creativity, lacks meaningful connection, and isn’t being reached in a way that truly lands. As his engagement drops, so does his performance.
J, as the leader, has a responsibility to connect with Warren on Warren’s terms. Strong leadership includes the ability to build trust, communicate effectively, and adapt to different personalities.
What the ad didn’t show is that Warren’s disengagement might actually be the flip side of a highly creative, original personality. Someone who could bring enormous value if someone knew how to reach him. In this case, the leader simply didn’t yet have the skills to switch that person on.
And that’s part of the responsibility that comes with leadership – to guide not only those who naturally align with us but the full range of individuals on our team. The ones who see the world differently. Because as leaders, we are responsible not just for results but for creating the conditions where results can happen.
The Skills that Matter Most
If we look at the qualities that are most in demand in leadership today, the list consistently includes:
- Creative and divergent thinking
- Adaptability and agility
- Intuition
- Emotional intelligence
- Communication
These are the capabilities that move teams, fuel innovation, and sustain success. But often, the people who naturally rise to leadership roles excel in analysis, critical thinking, and structured decision-making. They may not as easily access creativity or emotional adaptability.
This is where PCM can unlock new possibilities. It helps us access the less visible aspects of ourselves and others – the “hidden floors” of ability and perspective that are often overlooked but deeply valuable.
Stretch, Rewire, Connect
Our brains are naturally programmed to stay in the comfort zone. Their aim is to keep us safe. But real learning and growth happen just beyond that edge. We need to become more at ease with discomfort, because that is where the good stuff lives.
It is true that we all have natural talents. Approaches like Gallup’s StrengthsFinder remind us of the power of working from our strengths and delegating the rest. And that makes sense, up to a point. But neuroscience tells us something more. Our brains are plastic. We are capable of learning new behaviours, of changing how we relate, respond, and lead.
Top athletes and performers say the same thing. Talent is only the beginning. It is grit, repetition, and intentional practice that really drive performance. So yes, I can delegate. But if I want to lead well, I also need to connect with those I delegate to.
And that brings us to a critical point.
Those with different strengths will also have different communication styles, different needs, and different ways of operating. If I stay only in my comfort zone, even if I perform brilliantly there, I will only ever connect with people like me. And everyone else? They risk becoming like Warren – switched off, misunderstood, and disengaged.
That is not just a people problem. It is a performance problem. When I lose that diversity, I lose essential skills from my team.
Imagine you are riding a bike. When you are working in ways that align with your natural strengths, it feels like cycling on a flat road – smooth, energising, and efficient. But when you need to stretch into behaviours that are not second nature, when you need to enter someone else’s world, it is like riding uphill. The effort increases, the pace slows, and the ride takes more out of you.
This is where having the right tools makes all the difference. With a tool like PCM, it is as if you are riding an e-bike. You still need to pedal. You still need to do the work. But you have extra power behind you, reducing the strain and helping you climb higher with less effort.
With practice, you build the muscle. The hills become manageable. And the view from the top? Just as spectacular.
That is what stretching and rewiring look like. It is not about abandoning who we are. It is about expanding what we are capable of, so we can connect with those who are wired differently. And when we do, the whole team gets to perform – not just the people who look and sound like us.
For leaders, this is more than a personal growth exercise. It is the key to unlocking the full potential of their teams. When leaders stretch, they create a ripple effect – inviting others to do the same. The result is a culture where people feel seen, heard, and supported to grow.
Why PCM Matters
This is why these skills matter so deeply.
They help us:
- Leverage our natural strengths
- Stretch into our potential
- Connect with others in ways that truly land
- And create the conditions where everyone, not just those who think and work like us, can thrive.
With the right tools, connection becomes easier. Effort becomes sustainable. Leadership becomes something more than direction; it becomes alignment, energy, and trust.
That is the kind of leadership PCM was built to support. The future of leadership is not about knowing more. It is about connecting better. PCM helps you build that connection in real time, across personalities, pressures, and challenges. It is the skill that makes leadership more human and more effective.
(To explore how this differs from traditional assessment tools, and why great assessments alone don’t always lead to great leaders, see our article on Why Great Assessments Don’t Always Lead to Great Leaders.)
For a deeper exploration of how PCM supports executive recruitment, leadership development, and building strong teams, this article provides additional insights.
If you are curious about how PCM could strengthen your recruitment, leadership development, or coaching practice, or if you are interested in exploring how to become a certified PCM provider, we would be delighted to have that conversation.