Clients and Testimonials
I've used GBB with two church planter candidates so far. In each case, I asked them to share the profiles with their spouses and close friends. Both candidates said that they, their spouses and their friends thought the GBB was an accurate representation of who they are. Both candidates also completed our church planter assessment interview process.
I have found the GBB to be a great compliment to our planter assessment process. The GBB profile gives me a much more comprehensive look at the candidates than our assessment report alone. For example, the Birkman profile gives me a heads up for potential stress areas for a prospective church planter and suggestions of how to coach him through it. I have found The Leadership Grip triangle to be a valuable tool for helping a church planter to discover if God has called him to serve upfront as the lead planter or alongside as a team member.
I recommend the Grip-Birkman Blueprint as a valuable resource for church planters and those who coach them.
Mark Weible
Director of Church Planting
Greater Orlando Baptist Association
I am 60 years old and have taken just about every assessment known to man. NONE have affected my whole life like GBB. All of the others I took either gave a limited or shallow view of who I am. The GBB helped me to understand why I have acted in ways others couldn't understand me by pointing out my underlying needs which are subconscious. When those needs aren't met, I act out of stress. That alone made it worth the time and effort to take it.
Additionally, the GBB has given me tremendous insight into understanding what contributions and limitations I bring to a team naturally and supernaturally. This has given me the freedom to step up in areas I am strong and also to be dependent on others in areas where I am weak. I know now "Who I am and who I need." Now that makes for powerful teams! I strongly encourage you to take the Grip-Birkman Blueprint. I believe it will change your life-it certainly has mine.
Dr. Hal Burke
Team Leader
Global Training Team
No matter what words I use to try to describe the experience of going through Coaches training for the Grip/Birkman, the effort will be paltry in comparison to the impact of the week both then and since then! As you know, I approached this experience with some trepidation, and a healthy dose of skepticism about what I initially perceived the profile result was saying about me. I prepared for this training by researching information about Dr. Birkman and the instrument he designed so that I could defend my position of ‘healthy skepticism’, as well as defend my person, because I felt anxious in facing the magnitude of printed information waiting to be exposed in the evaluative process of learning about this instrument and its’ lengthy, detailed, and revealing description of me.
As the week progressed, my fear changed to AWE at how truly magnificent is God’s creation of the human being. As a psychotherapist, I have always been intrigued by the person beneath the facade that most of us reveal to the world, in that this typically provides only a small part of the story about the individual and have found that the experience of listening is more than rewarding in revealing ‘the rest of the story’. However, I was inspired beyond what I could imagine when going through this training process, in being confronted with God’s creative design in fashioning the person just as He intended. My fear was now exposed and unnecessary in that I had acknowledged my weaknesses and learned that He had created me this way so that I would need others to come along side me and fill in the empty spots.
He makes us stronger in acknowledging our limitations, weaknesses, and vulnerabilities! Only God could think this up!! We are now preparing to present this information to the first group. I am so excited to share this experience with others and watch as God heals the wounds of self-rejection as only He can...through our sober estimation, He reveals His unconditional love and wisdom in making us to be just who He intended us to be...WE ARE MORE THAN ENOUGH IN HIM
Jean Frueh
Psychotherapist
In addition to using Your Leadership Grip in an introductory seminary course, I have used the assessment with the Birkman Method in a week-long intensive seminary course on The Dynamics of Effective Leadership Behavior... The assessment served to help the students gain an appreciation of their own leadership contribution and preferred style as well as an appreciation of different styles and preferences for working in groups. The information was a foundation for better understanding one's own leadership behavior and for proactively preparing for leadership interactions with others.
The other context in which I have used Your Leadership Grip enhanced by the Birkman Method is in the context of a local church staff retreat in February 2004. In preparation for the all-day retreat, each staff member did the assessment. My role was to share the results, offer some insights into the implications, and lead the staff in affirming each other and appreciating the team contribution of each staff member. The assessment tool provided a remarkably accurate portrait of the multiple staff as each staff person shared his/her Leadership Grip and Lifestyle Grid with the others.
Based on my use thus far of Your Leadership Grip enhanced by the Birkman Method in both the classroom and congregational setting, I appreciate this resource for several reasons. First, it is affordable. The depth of information it provides far outweighs the cost in comparison to other assessments I have used. Second, it is holistic. Unlike most spiritual gifts inventories and personality assessments, this one integrates personal style and spiritual gifts in a holistic manner. The very idea that God gifts us for powerful service through and beyond our personalities is both simple and profound. Third, the entire process provides a window for seeing one's unique contribution in leadership and the team setting without elevating some gifts over others or denigrating certain personality profiles as less than ideal. I would recommend this resource for churches that desire to develop a multiple staff team which maximizes the strengths and minimizes the weaknesses of each staff member. I would also recommend its use in Christian colleges and seminaries as a tool for providing vocational counsel to students in preparation for leadership ministry.
Don Green
V.P. of Development
Lincoln Christian College & Seminary
Lincoln, IL
[The Grip-Birkman Blueprint has] allowed me to “take the red pill” and escape the Matrix! By this I mean that in understanding better my spiritual gifting through YLG and then looking deeply into who I am with the Birkman Method, I have felt a sense of release and empowerment to do even better in the work to which I have been called. Why? Because I can see “outside the box” now and realize that I can faithfully do the work I am called to without denying who I am. That’s what I mean by the ‘red pill’ and stepping outside the ‘Matrix.’ To say it another way, in understanding better who I am through these two assessments, I have been able to do my job better because I know better how to do it through the in-depth personal discovery of who I am in Christ through these instruments.
Gary Fujino
Do you have feedback from your experience with the GBB? Email John Blake.