Description: Maybe you’ve taken Myers-Briggs or StrengthsFinder. These tests aim to tell you about your personality, your traits, your preferences. But they don’t answer an important question for high-performance teams: where are people energized to contribute? And how does that energy (or lack of it) affect everyone around you?
Nathan Ott, Chief Polisher and co-creator of the GC Index, has spent over a decade measuring what he calls an “organimetric” on energy for impact. Hear why being skilled at something doesn’t mean you’re energized by it, and how understanding where your team’s energy goes depersonalizes friction. The aha moment happens when you develop awareness of your product team members’ wiring, not just your own.
Self-awareness vs. other-awareness
Personality tests are great for self-awareness. They help you understand yourself. But where they fall short is “other-awareness” or understanding how to work with others effectively.
“We value people for what they do, not what they intend,” Nathan explains. “We see their actions, their personality, their learned behaviors. But it doesn’t get to where their intentions are.”
The GC Index measures something different: how people are energized to contribute. It surfaces the real intentions driving someone’s behavior at work. When you understand that your colleague is energized by making things brilliant (high polisher), their critical feedback isn’t personal, it’s simply how they see their work.
The 5 proclivities
The GC Index measures proclivity, not to be confused with preference. Preference suggests you have a choice in the matter. These are the five ways people are naturally energized to make an impact:
Game Changer - Generating breakthrough ideas that could transform the business
Strategist - Making sense of complexity and creating clear direction
Implementer - Executing plans and getting things done
Polisher - Refining and improving to achieve excellence
Play Maker - Bringing out the best in others through collaboration
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You get a score from 1-10 on each. A score of 1 doesn’t mean you’re bad at it — it means don’t leave you there alone for too long. High scores aren’t always good, and low scores can be strengths depending on what the work requires.
When you walk through the door at 9am on Monday morning, you have a go-to energy to do something. That’s all the GC Index picks up on.
Skilled doesn’t mean energized
Here’s a common misunderstanding leaders have that could actually be harmful. They assume that because someone is technically excellent at something, they should keep doing it.
You could have a skilled product manager who facilitates stakeholder meetings and builds consensus across teams. They’ve developed those capabilities over years. They’re good at it. But if they’re actually wired as a Strategist who gets energy from making sense of complex problems, spending 30 hours a week in meetings coordinating people could wear them down, (even though they’re good at it).
When work drains you rather than energizes you, you’re running on willpower instead of natural momentum. That’s sustainable for short bursts but exhausting long-term. Skills matter. Experience matters. But energy reveals whether someone will thrive or just survive in a role.
Depersonalizing friction
An aha moment comes when teams finally make sense of friction that’s been happening. When you know your CMO is energized by making things excellent (high Polisher) and won’t settle for good enough, their critical feedback isn’t about you, it’s how they see their work. When you know someone is energized by seeking clarity (high Strategist) before moving forward, you stop taking their questions as obstacles.
“It’s not personal,” Dan Linhart (GC-ologist) explains during the episode. “You’re not doing this because you’re just that way. You’re doing this because you intend, you wanna make things perfect. That’s how you see your work if you’re a polisher.”
Nathan puts it even more directly:
“If we didn’t have the GC index, the conversation would be based on personality. You’re stupid, you don’t understand, you’re not listening, you think you know it all, whatever it should be, yeah? Those sorts of things. Words we can go, you’re all a bunch of strategists. You’ve all got a fixed view of the world, but you’re gonna have to get aligned... And it just takes the personality out of it, see? Much easier.”
That’s the real power! Understanding the intentions behind the actions removes the personal sting from team dynamics.
The wrong energy in the right role
Product leaders constantly look for ways to optimize teams and work better together. But hiring someone for a role based on skills alone, without understanding their energy for impact could be a ticking time bomb.
You need a developer to be strategic and look ahead, but they’re energized by writing really quality code (high polisher, high implementer). There’s nothing wrong with them — they’re just the wrong energy for what you need. You can’t bank on someone succeeding in a role when their proclivities aren’t aligned with what the work requires.
A real world example from Nathan…a European bank was rolling out a global procurement system upgrade. They hadn’t embedded version one well — it was buggy, with lots of issues and customer complaints. But everyone on the leadership team was busy looking at version two.
When they profiled the team, it became clear: 85% game changers and strategists. Excited by new ideas. Excited by the future. No one was paying attention to version one, which desperately needed implementing and polishing.
The solution was straightforward once they could see it, they needed to segment the team. Put the game changer and strategist energy on version two. Put the implementer and polisher energy on fixing bugs and embedding version one.
Recap
Understanding what the GC Index doesn’t measure is just as important as what it does:
It’s not personality - The GC Index won’t tell you if you’re introverted, extroverted, agreeable, or conscientious. Those matter, but that’s not what this measures.
It’s not skills - It won’t tell you if you’re good at your job or what capabilities you’ve developed. Skills and experience still matter—the GC Index just tells you what energizes you when you show up to do the work.
It’s not meant to work in isolation - The GC Index is most powerful when used with other data, processes, or projects. If you have a project methodology, innovation process, or change framework, integrate the GC Index with it. One plus one makes three when you combine energy for impact with how you already work.
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