Personality: A Key Piece of the Puzzle to Achieving Your Goals
Hard conditions of life are
indispensable to bringing out the
best in human personality.”
—Alexis Carrel, Nobel Prize in Physiology
Do you know what makes you tick—what behaviors you need to tap into, and use to your advantage, to help you achieve your BIG, SCARY, HAIRY GOAL?
Are you aware of thinking patterns and behaviors that get in the way of achieving the things you’ve always wanted to achieve?
Have you ever sat down and really explored your core values—and then ensure those values align with your BIG, SCARY, HAIRY GOAL?
Did you know that you can do all three of these things in about two hours?
Understanding your personality—consistent thoughts, emotions, and behaviors over time and across situations—is a crucial piece of the puzzle to helping you establish your BIG, SCARY, HAIRY GOAL and start telling the story you’ve always wanted to tell.
A Tool to Help You:
The Hogan Personality Assessment
The Hogan Personality Assessment helps you understand three core aspects about you and your story:
How your personality traits and your go-to behaviorsimpact the way you approach your goals on a day-to-day, week-to-week, and month-to-month basis.
How certain behaviors and ways of thinking may interfere with your success in pursuing your goals and/or building meaningful relationships to help you accomplish your goals.
How your inner motives, personal preferences, and values can help you establish lasting goals that align with your core—your WHY.
A Look Inside the
Personality of Reed Steele
(or a few moments of extreme vulnerability)
Last year, I took the Hogan Personality Assessment and had the opportunity to work with a coach for a debrief session of the assessment.
Here are some things I learned about myself:
As far as one of my go-to behaviors, on the AdjustmentScale, which is a measure of resiliency, I scored a 0 out of 100—or, a better way to think of it, way to the left side.
That’s the great thing about personality—there is no good or bad personality. There just is personality.
So, what does a score of 0 on the Adjustment Scale mean?
It means that I’m extremely vigilant and self-aware of my thoughts, emotions, and actions—I like to fix what’s not working. It also means, though, that I’m inclined to anxiety and worry when it comes to my own performance and, as a result, can be quite stress-prone. It’s funny, though, I like going after really BIG, SCARY, HAIRY GOALS in my life. In doing so over the years, I’ve learned that stress has definitely played a major role in my life. However, the Hogan Personality Assessment helped me develop strategies to continue to go after the things that I want—the really hard things—in a more systematic and deliberate way so that I reduce the amount of stress that I experience. In other words, I learned how to work with this trait.
In exploring behaviors that get in my way, I scored way to the right side on the Diligent Scale, which is measure of detail-orientation and perfectionism. At times, this helps me. When it comes to projects or working with clients, I like to make sure all the details are covered and that I’ve done all the necessary preparation to provide the best services. However, at times, this can lead to increased levels of stress, particularly in situations that involve ambiguity. It can also push me to hold others to really high standards. Developing an awareness around this behavior, though, has encouraged me to hone my listening skills—paying particular attention to what a client wants rather than what I want for the client.
In regard to my values, I scored way to the right side of the Power Scale. At first I was a bit put off that this was a value of mine—power, it didn’t seem to fit. However, what I learned is that this value is all about wanting to make a difference, being strategic in pursuing goals, and striving to motivate and empower others. Learning this helped me to solidify my purpose in coaching others: helping you develop the necessary tools and strategies to tell the story you’ve always wanted to tell.
But This Is About YOU:
A Personality Activity—Your Values
Personality is fascinating and can be a key piece of the puzzle to achieving your goals.
A personality assessment is the best way to get an accurate and reliable understanding of your go-to behaviors, thinking patterns and behavioral characteristics that may get in the way of your goals, and your core values.
But, there are ways to start to get a better understanding—a rough idea—of who you are and what drives you.
In the image below, you will find the ten Motives, Values, and Preferences measured within the Hogan Personality Assessment.
For each Value Scale:
Read the definition as well as the descriptors on the left side and the right side of the continuum.
Then ask yourself: “Where do I fall on the continuum?”
On a piece of paper (or, keep track in your mind), jot down where you think you would fall on the continuum line for each value.
On some, you may quickly put yourself way to the right side or way to the left side.
On some, though, you may not feel quite as strongly. You can fall anywhere on the continuum.
Take a guess.
When you’re done, review the ten Value Scales and where you fall on each continuum.
If there is a continuum where you fall way to the right sideor way to the left side, these are likely strong values for you. These are what you want to pay attention to. In particular, you should definitely take them into consideration when developing your BIG, SCARY, HAIRY GOAL.
A lot of the goal-chasing process is about tapping into intrinsic motivation. When our goals align with our values, we’re much more likely to feel that inner drive—intrinsic motivation—on a day-to-day, week-to-week, and month-to-month basis and, as a result, increase our likelihood of achieving our goal and telling the story we’ve always wanted to tell.
Your puzzle is worth solving.
If you’re interested in learning more about the Hogan Personality Assessment, I’d love to answer any questions and potentially explore your own assessment in detail with you.
