For a work leadership summit recently, I took an extensive personality profile that was meant to describe my personal style, decision making trends, ways of interacting with others, strengths, weaknesses, ideal means of communication and motivation, and a variety of other factors (over 21 pages of text and graphs). Needless to say, it painted a fairly extensive profile of me.
Both K and I found it (sometimes frighteningly, sometimes amusingly) accurate, so I figured I’d share the summary here, just for fun. The outcome: I am a “Motivating Inspirer,” but my favorite part is that the test measures both your conscious and unconscious responses. In a very unusual twist, my responses were identical (no one else’s were). Said the woman who read me my results: “With you, what you see is what you get.” I really loved that. Even if nothing else is true (though it is, believe you me), this was my favorite part of the results. I love that transparency – whether emotional, or otherwise – is a defining part of my personality. I’m not the type to be cagey or deceptive, and now I have proof! 🙂
So here we go. I know it’s long so I bolded parts I think are most accurate and telling (okay, and are my favorite parts). The parts in italics I think are just plain wrong!
“As she puts as much energy into maintaining personal relationships than into maintaining tasks, Caitlin likes to keep a wide assortment of relationships alive and kicking. Routine is the real bad news for her, and it may sap her energy. At times, events can overwhelm her and she may find it almost impossible to say “No”, even when the demands are unreasonable. Work that is purely practical or work that leaves her on her own for long periods can make her irritable. She flourishes in jobs where she can be of constant service or use her talent to persuade.
She is inventive, independent and can be extremely perceptive of the potential contained within the views of others. Caitlin is sympathetic, empathic and affable. She should take care to include the practical details in her projects and continually try to look at situations from an objective viewpoint rather than just her own perception. Her obvious charm and enthusiasm tends to make her popular with friends and colleagues alike. When an inspiration materialises, she will throw herself into it completely.
Her energy comes from a variety of new projects and interests. She may show interest in so many different things that she has difficulty focusing on priorities. Caitlin may generate more ideas, possibilities and plans in one day than others might manage in a month! Her social gatherings are frequent and worth attending, particularly when they mark important events. She prefers to be seen as rather sociable and may relish the occasional spotlight. She may lose interest and move on to the next thing, once a job becomes routine or dull.
She is an imaginative and creative visionary who is a source of inspiration to most. She has an urge for lifelong learning and can shake off depression by simply finding projects that fascinate her. She possesses a natural gift for presentation. She is motivated by approval and reacts unfavourably to indifference or rejection from others. Caitlin is curious for new ideas and insights. Her home will be a haven for people to have a good time, and will have mementoes or photographs of people having a good time!
Seen by others as spontaneous and charming, Caitlin is persuasive, loves surprises and enjoys finding unique ways of bringing delight and unexpected pleasure to others. Caitlin can be very effective in using her concern for others to ensure involvement. Ingenious, enthusiastic and outgoing, Caitlin has great personal charm and can be successful in a variety of roles. With her friendly organisational skills, Caitlin is supportive of other colleagues and will enthuse over most projects. She is bored by facts, details and repetitive activities, especially those not relevant to her current areas of interest.
Remarkably insightful and perceptive, Caitlin cares about the development of others. Usually verbal and persuasive, she will seek or wish to withdraw quickly from confrontation unless provoked to the extreme, when she may go “off the deep end” verbally. She enjoys meeting like minded people, to allow her to relate her experiences at length. She radiates sympathy and understanding to all by nurturing and supporting. Caitlin is both charming and popular, constantly enthusing through her gift of ready articulation.
She is enthusiastic in helping people make the best of themselves and she is proficient in making lots of contacts. Usually exciting for most of those involved, her activities do tend to leave some others exhausted by the process. Caitlin’s preferred focus is on the positive, harmonious and uplifting aspects of people and human relations. Caitlin is a popular colleague and is at ease in the company of most people and in open work situations. Caitlin can generate positive energy and high morale within most groups or teams.
She prefers communicating verbally rather than through the written word. Even-tempered and tolerant, Caitlin constantly tries to be the diplomat. She excels in promoting harmony around her. Shifting attention inward for long periods may produce anxiety for her as she prefers to look outward towards others for her emotional security. She is a particularly good communicator and uses her gift of verbal expression often and effectively. Caitlin has a remarkable ability to get people to follow her lead.
People occasionally see Caitlin making decisions that appear to fly in the face of logic. If everyone can be involved in a project, she will ensure that they are. Others may see her decisions as unrealistic in certain circumstances. She is prepared to make decisions through group consensus. In her attempts to please others she may make promises she cannot fulfil.
Her occasional failure to face up to disagreeable facts can mean that problems are sometimes ignored rather than solutions sought. Trying to focus more on the facts, not just on the people, can be helpful in her decision making. She recognises judgements that rely heavily on logical analysis, but then may ignore this in making her decisions. When a situation demands forceful tactics, she can take the action necessary but will seldom go to extremes to obtain retribution or reward. She may get bored quickly and tend to ignore significant detail in her desire to move on to more exciting things.
Her direct, sometimes erratic approach tends to work against her being totally consistent on a day to day basis. She would perform better if she focused more on in-depth study of analytical data during the decision making process. Through her intuitive feeling personality, she may have difficulty in limiting herself to a single project and usually prefers to keep many balls in the air. She may be perceived by others as a somewhat impulsive decision maker. Caitlin will usually encourage democratic or even consensus decisions, as opposed to having them imposed autocratically.”
And this was only the summary! 🙂
baby boy blue 