Dr. Mickey's Corner

(An interview with Dr. Mickey Fineberg, preprinted from Clique, the monthly newsletter for a national professional services association).

Mickey Fineberg, Ph. D. the Managing Partner at King of Prussia, Pennsylvania-based Delta Consultants LLC, has been a psychologist to businesses for 28 years.

“Fundamentally, we help companies select, develop, and manage their talent,” says Fineberg.

Regarding individual development, Fineberg says he provides executive coaching services both in person and by telephone.  “We’ve discovered that coaching via telephone has some advantages in terms of cost and time savings.  And, the phone also enables people to relax in their own environment without being visually scrutinized.  We’ve also learned how to further hone the listening sense to accurately read and respond to clients when the visual cues are absent.”

“We often coach people for proactive reasons,” he says. “For example, for a high-potential person, a company wants to get as much out of her talent as possible, and may want her to prepare for more responsibility in the future.  So we do coaching around those issues.”

Fineberg also does coaching for what he calls “remedial issues.”

“People that may be derailing in their careers.  They may be adding value to their organizations in a certain way, but on another dimension, they’re difficult to deal with,” he says. “So I could work with individuals who are what our clients consider problem cases, but worthy of investment.  Even if the person presents a problem, there is still an opportunity to help the individual become more effective beyond the original referral issue.”

“About 60% of the time, we do some kind of an assessment that will help accelerate a person’s insight and discovery about the strengths that they can leverage (and how), and the weaknesses that they have to address in order that they not get in their own way,” Fineberg says. “It’s a psychological profile and it relates to the mental, emotional and social DNA that applies to job effectiveness and career potential.”

Fineberg also conducts what are known as 360’s. That’s a developmental evaluation wherein a person assesses himself on various work, communications, management and leadership practices, and then gets feedback from those surrounding him in the workplace, such as the boss, peers, and direct reports. Sometimes indirect reports and customers participate as well.

“A 360 reports on how your practices are currently perceived.  A psychological assessment describes who you are and the implications of that now, but also in the future,” Fineberg says.

“Whether coaching is done in person, by telephone or with an assessment basis, our clients often say that we’re very good at handling individual differences, understanding a person’s mission and purpose, and asking the right questions to help them establish a way of operating that’s going to be more effective for them. We have a way of overcoming resistance and enabling people to discover and experiment with ideas or strategies that can truly benefit them and their companies.”

Fineberg says that when it comes to team coaching, he uses different kinds of approaches and vehicles to help people open up more quickly.

“We get teams to respond not only in terms of any dysfunction that they have, but to go way beyond that in creating more effective ways to work together, and in building competitive advantage for their organizations.  Essentially, this is similar to our philosophy when working with individuals.”

He also mentions that he believes Delta Consultants is unique on the organization development side.

“It’s not just management as parents and what they can do for their employees,” he says. “A lot of what we do is to sensitize employees to their responsibility to improve things for themselves and their companies.  And, we get employees and management together so that they both take responsibility for what needs to change.”

Fineberg says that for the talent selection side of the business, he will either interview and assess candidates in person or conduct telephone assessments with them.  He adds that selection assessment includes both internal and outside candidates for various executive, management and professional positions.

“It typically involves an in-depth interview where we ask a lot of situational questions and a few character development inquiries that go back to what they were like in the family and who they identified with,” he says.  “But I ask mostly business-related, situational and philosophical questions.  I’m trying to get to the way they think about and handle things, which tells me a lot about their attitudes and behavior across various circumstances.”

Fineberg also conducts standardized assessments of intellect to evaluate tactical and strategic problem solving skills.  “I may also give a basic academic aptitude test to gauge their analytical and administrative efficiency and agility.”

The candidate also self-administers a multi-assessment battery of personality, preferences, values, style and attitudes. “I don’t believe in using one assessment.  I believe in going at it from multiple perspectives in order to optimize accuracy and depth.”

Fineberg says the candidate’s time is typically three hours of taking self-administered assessments.  Depending on the job, the process also includes about an hour-and-a-half on the phone, or up to three hours if assessment is done in person.

It’s this attention to building a multi-dimensional profile on a candidate that Fineberg says sets him apart from others in the selection (and developmental) assessment business. 

“It’s the degree of utility that I think the client gets out of our report.  They don’t get psychologese or a lot of clinical statements.  They understand what drives a person, but they also get clear implications relative to job function, culture fit, and capability for the future,” he says.

Putting his report in terms a company can understand is a key to the process.

“It’s describing people as they would look like in the job and environment.  How they would be with their direct reports.  How they would be with their peers and customers.  How they would be with their boss.  What their approach to organization would be.  But it’s specific in relationship to job, company and industry issues.  It’s not just a trait analysis with general implications.  It’s very specific and in-depth.  And the reason we can do it is because we use multiple assessments to provide a total picture, and to check and balance each other.”

Fineberg’s clients are typically companies between $10 million and over $1 billion in revenues, with several hundred million being the modal client.

“They’re multi-industry,” he says.  “We serve various financial, service, retail, manufacturing and healthcare clients.  We’ve seen a lot of different businesses and a wide variety of industries.”