Assessment. Now, there’s a word you probably don’t take time to think about. It means to determine a value, as in the price for a piece of property, or to determine a level, as in a level of risk. Given these meanings, it’s safe to say that you make lots of daily assessments. Mostly you assess the external world, making determinations that support your choices. And that’s a good thing; for without weighing external factors, you could be making careless decisions.
Increasingly, people like you also look internally, making self assessments. Despite the discomfort associated with the appraisals that are so ingrained in your organizational life, you want feedback. So do lots of other folks. In response to this appetite, our pop-psychology-driven culture continually seeks to spark your curiosity about how you measure up in various ways. Whether it’s a short questionnaire in popular women’s and men’s magazine, a Tickle.com test, or a short test in a chain e-mail, you want to know.
You may even participate in your company’s formal assessments aimed at giving feedback to improve your productivity, team work, leadership, sales skills – well, you name it. Perhaps you’ve taken the Myers Briggs Type Indicator, or the DiSC Profile, or the Hermann Brain Dominance Instrument, the Birkman, or other psychometric instruments. If so, you’ve probably gained valuable insights.
Of course, a big concern is that these instruments are normative, a characteristic that affects your results in two ways. First, if you’ve taken a psychometric instrument as part of an organizational initiative, there is the slight -- or not so slight -- possibility that you responded based on the cultural expectations of your organization. After all, you didn’t want to seem out of step. Second, most instruments are constructed on a normative basis, identifying the characteristics that are common for all people who have taken the instrument. To the extent that there are similarities that cross individuals, generally, or that show up in specific organizations, there is some value in the results.
Still, what about the things that make you uniquely you?
You were not destined to live your life in a quadrant or as some combination of letters or colors. You were destined to live your life as you. So, it’s important to step back and put results in the context of other things you know about yourself. You need to consider the very personal experiences and attributes that shape your identity and make you unique; things like: Your passion for fitness. Your love of the sea. Your ability to come across as youthful, charming, and sensitive. The innocent facial expression that melts the heart of people closest to you. Your secret admiration for the athleticism of cheer leaders or the precision of marching bands.
Very personal qualities such as these are often beyond the reach of standard psychometric instruments, but they are no less important. It pays to discover them.
Contact me if you want to learn how to get started on finding the qualities that make you uniquely you!
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