SIMA Is a Way of Identifying Strengths SIMA® involves people recalling a number of achievements they enjoyed doing and believe were done well. An analysis of these enjoyable achievement experiences reveals a consistently recurring pattern which emerges in early years and stays constant throughout each person’s life. In this pattern, which helps to answer questions about job fit, we find certain abilities the person is motivated to use (e.g., analyze, organize, persuade); subject matter with which the person is motivated to work (e.g., details, people, concepts); circumstances within which the person is motivated to work (e.g., stress, structured, novel, difficult); a certain relationship to others the individual is motivated to establish (e.g., leader, loner, team member); and a certain result he or she is motivated to accomplish (e.g., serve others, make money, build things). These patterns of strengths and motivations reveal what is most important to people — what they really want to do in life, what they get excited about, what they get satisfaction from. People perceive through their Motivational Patterns how they see the job’s requirements, how they approach and solve problems, how they react to assignments, in what they strive to achieve, in the type and nature of relationships they seek. With a rare exception, neither the people nor their advisors or managers are aware of the existence, much less the dynamic nature of a person’s pattern. Because people will strive to fulfill their patterns of strength and motivation in any job situation, a person’s pattern makes clear the kinds of work at which he or she will excel. Because people will avoid doing those things that prevent or are in conflict with satisfying their motivations, a person’s pattern also suggests the kinds of work at which he or she will not excel. A number of people have studied and written about the validity and utility of SIMA® and that information is available in a separate handout. One of those studies that we are particularly proud of was conducted by Dr. John Crites, an internationally recognized testing specialist, who was hired by a Fortune 50 organization to determine the validity, reliability and predictability of SIMA® in relationship to identifying leaders. In his final report Dr. Crites wrote, "SIMA® is both theoretically sound and empirically reliable and valid for use as a selection tool. It meets standards, as enumerated by the American Psychological Association, for the assessment and selection of leaders." He found the profiles to be "stable over time," the level of objectivity to be "outstanding," reliability to be "quite high," and content validity to be "exceptionally high." Overall he found the results to be "unique and highly positive," the findings to be "impressive" and concluded that "SIMA® can be used with confidence as a selection and leadership identification method. SIMA® is Used in Numerous Ways to Assist Organizations and Individuals • Making better selection decisions (hiring, promotion, succession). • Identifying the types of environments in which someone will best excel. • Redesigning jobs to enhance job fit. • Helping people to make better career and job fit decisions. • Enhancing individual effectiveness. • Enhancing team effectiveness. • Helping resolve conflict or performance problems. • Identifying future leaders early in their careers. • Improving one's ability to better manage themselves. • Improving one's ability to better manage others. • Developing critical job requirements and performance models. • Assessing people against performance models and identifying areas of strength and potential weakness. • Generating better candidates in executive search. • Helping those in career transition to better secure work that fits their Motivational Patterns. • Helping those starting out in their work lives to make better career and educational decisions. • Helping those who are in or approaching retirement to identify new vocational or avocational opportunities.