The secret to sustainable success: Understanding your conative strengths

Key Takeaways

• Sustainable success depends on all three parts of the mind: cognitive (thinking), affective (feeling), and conative (doing).
• Conation is your instinctive, natural way of taking action or solving a problem. It does not change over time.
• PMP owners often hire for cognitive (skills) and affective (culture fit) but end up firing for conative (instinctive) mismatch.

Do more, naturally

As business owners, we all want to get more done. We try to grow faster, lead better and find time to enjoy the success we’ve built. But most of us try to do that by working harder, not smarter. We push, grind and stretch ourselves thin, wondering why it still feels like we’re running in circles.

The truth is, it’s not about doing more; it’s about doing more, naturally.

Rely on instinct

When you understand how you’re wired to take action — what the Kolbe tool for evaluating an individual’s conative abilities calls your conative strengths — you unlock a completely different kind of productivity.

You stop fighting against your instincts and start leaning into them. Instead of constantly trying to fix what’s “wrong,” you begin building your business around what’s right about you and your team.

For example, I’m a 3-5-9-2 on the trademarked Kolbe A Index (Kolbe.com), which means I naturally thrive on ideas and quick starts but prefer to leave details and followthrough to others who excel in those areas.

Once I began operating in alignment with that, my stress dropped and my results skyrocketed. The same is true for every member of your team. When people are forced to work in ways that go against their natural strengths, burnout follows. But when they’re encouraged to “do more, more naturally,” productivity soars, teamwork improves and turnover drops.

Conative versus cognative

While the term cognitive is much more recognizable, conative means something a little different. In essence, cognitive refers to what a person knows and believes. Conative refers to how their knowledge and beliefs influence their actions, persistence and goals.

Use a practical tool

That’s why understanding Kolbe isn’t just for personal development; it’s one of the most practical business tools you’ll ever use. It helps you hire the right people, assign the right tasks and lead in a way that honors everyone’s natural strengths. (Full disclosure: I am a Kolbe Certified Consultant.) If you’ve ever wondered why some people thrive in chaos while others crave structure — or why certain projects energize you while others drain you — Kolbe gives you those answers. Once you know them, you can design your work and your company for success that actually feels sustainable.

Learn to do more

I recently hosted a webinar that focused on how to “Do More, More Naturally,” including how to identify your conative strengths, how to apply them to your leadership and team, and how to stop fighting against your instincts. You’ll walk away understanding how to get more done with less stress, simply by being more of who you already are. Email me at sheri@ pestcontrolbusinesscoach.com to receive a link to the archived presentation, free of charge.