Highlands Certified Consultant Charlotte Hayes has seen business leaders leverage their Highlands Ability Battery (HAB) results in some powerful ways. That comes to no surprise considering she has administered the career assessment to more than 600 people since 1997.
Meet Charlotte
Currently, Charlotte is a career counselor and consultant at Charlotte Hayes Careers in Atlanta, Georgia. Previously, she worked as a career counselor for Jewish Family & Career Services among other roles as a therapist and counselor. She received her B.A. in Mathematics from Vanderbilt University and M. A. in Professional Counseling from Argosy University in Atlanta.
An Introduction to Highlands as a New Counselor
Charlotte began work at The Highlands Company right out of graduate school thanks to the recommendation of a friend. At first, she oversaw clients who took the HAB at the Highlands office — back when the assessment was only available by paper and pencil.
“I was working to get my license, which meant I needed three years of directed supervision,” Charlotte explained. “At that time, only masters level counselors or psychologists could provide the HAB. I was trained to provide feedback for HAB clients and then later for prospective Highlands affiliates.
The HAB was one of the most intriguing things I’d seen in my professional life, because it helped people to understand their strengths. During my time working at Highlands, I realized I wanted to combine my experience with the assessment and my counseling background to become a career counselor.”
Charlotte continued with Highlands to conduct individual and group feedback for nine years. She worked with many large organizations including banks and pharmaceutical companies to foster teamwork and career development with the help of natural abilities.
The HAB Is Not a Test to Stress Over
Although Charlotte does not work internally at The Highlands Company today, she has continued to provide the HAB to her clients through her work as a Highlands Certified Consultant. In fact, she recently worked with the facilities department of a large global professional services company using the Highlands Whole Person Method and saw tremendous results.
“My contact there originally worked with me to change industries, from education into construction management,” she said. “What he experienced with the HAB was nothing short of life changing, so it only made sense that he’d also want the managers of the facilities department he now directs to have a similar experience.”
Charlotte explained that this particular group, like many of the high-performing professionals she coaches, was apprehensive of the HAB because of fears about being tested.
“They were understandably nervous, because they didn’t know much about it. I explained that we weren’t using the HAB to evaluate them, but to understand their strengths individually and as a team. It helped them to understand that performance is a combination of abilities and skills and that HAB was measuring only abilities.”
Following the assessment and initial feedback sessions, the team has continued to explore results with monthly lunch and learns and an anticipated year-end debrief with Charlotte to review progress, which she says has been notable so far.
“One manager uncovered that he had the most energy when he taught, so now he does more staff training. Another was surprised by his talents for rhythm memory, which has inspired him to run more often. Finally, one of the managers came to understand what it really meant to be an introvert. Now she closes her office door at lunch to re-fuel.”
The examples Charlotte provides here only prove that the HAB is not a test to stress over. Instead, it’s an assessment that reveals truths about you. When you apply these truths to the Highlands Method, you’ll see how to make your strengths shine.
Learn more about Charlotte and her career coaching practice at charlottehayescareers.com.
