I recently wrote about my experience answering 298 behavioral questions about myself for a Birkman assessment. My answers to the personal inventory were then tabulated to provide scores across 11 behavioral components.
Bill Frank from CareerLab sent me a report listing clusters of my personal characteristics as they pertained to each of these components. He then called to walk through and review the asessment with me. This served as Part 2 of the process.
First of all, Bill reassured me that the Birkman Method has been used extensively for 60 years, allowing my scores to be standardized on a database of 2.5 million people. CareerLab has given more than 1,600 Birkmans since 1998. The instrument is statistically valid (ie, measures what it says it measures), reliable (ie, it gets the same result repeatedly), and studied through funding by the National Scientific Foundation and the National Institutes of Health.
My answers to the personal inventory were tabulated to provide scores across the following 11 behavioral components:
1. Esteem
Sensitivity in relating to individuals – the way the individual prefers or needs to deal with close, personal, one-on-one relational issues.
2. Acceptance
Relating to people in groups – the way an individual relates to others in groups or casual situations. The degree of participation and involvement the individual prefers in work, teams, group and social settings.
3. Structure
Systems and procedures – how the individual controls issues associated with detail, structure, follow – through, and routine.
4. Authority
Directing and controlling – how an individual deals with authority.
5. Advantage
Idealism versus realism – individual and team competitiveness, how comfortably an individual deals with security and materialism with financial or prestige risk.
6. Activity
Preferred pace for action – the degree to which an individual engages in energetic action or movement. How energy is expressed, directed and recharged.
7. Challenge
Self-imposed demands for achievement – how an individual manages or maintains commitment and overall self-worth.
8. Empathy
Involvement of feeling – how an individual expresses and deals with emotions and feelings; openness or comfort with the emotional aspects of life.
9. Change
Dealing with change – how an individual handles interruptions and disruptions of significant priorities.
10. Freedom
Personal independence – how unconventional a person is in outlook. The degree of spontaneity in life and work situations.
11. Thought
Active versus reflective orientation – how an individual deals with decision making. How much time and thought a person requires and expects from others when making decisions.
Each category was subdivided into my Usual Behavior (strengths, as I think others would see me, 95-98% of the time), Needs (my underlying individual needs), and Stress Behavoir (when needs not met, about 3-5% of the time), and then scored from Low (1) to High (99). Since there is no good or bad on Birkman scales, it is no better to be a 99 than a 3. Scores far to the right (highest) or far to the left (lowest) simply indicate that the association with the characteristics listed in the box on that side are particularly strong. Scores in the middle of the chart (41%-59%), however, mean that some descriptors on the left apply to you, as do some on the right. There is no correct or ideal pattern of scores in these components.
Bill warned that stress behaviors tend not to be very pretty, and that nobody likes to admit to them. They are behaviors such as withdrawing, procrastinating, talking too much, dominating, becoming discouraged, performing erratically, and being too critical of others. Under stress, we tend to become more of what we usually are or go to the extreme. If you are generally quiet, under stress you might become loud or even more quiet.
From this evaluation, I saw the underlying strengths and needs that make me entrepreneurial in nature. Here are the results from the Personal Strengths and Needs section of the evaluation as it pertains to two of the behavioral components: Change and Freedon.
CHANGE: DEALING WITH CHANGE
A sense of novelty and adventure distinguishes the strength you display in your readiness to start new things. You have an above-average resilience to change, an asset which stems from your adaptability to fresh and stimulating activities.
STRENGTHS:
easy to stimulate
responsive and attentive
adaptive
NEED: In the same way, you respond best to situations and surroundings which offer frequent changes of activity. You get positive reinforcement from an environment that allows you to move around.
CAUSES OF STRESS: Excessive emphasis on routine can easily put you under pressure. Without the stimulation of novelty and change you are likely to become restless and annoyed.
Possible stress reactions:
annoyance at delays
problems with self-discipline
inability to concentrate
FREEDOM: INDEPENDENCE
You have a strong sense of individuality, characterized by your rather independent outlook. You are comfortable in situations that allow you to be spontaneous and self-expressive, and do not need strong approval from others to justify your thoughts and actions.
STRENGTHS:
inner sense of freedom
individualistic
spontaneous
NEED: The notion that most people share your independent attitudes indicates that you have a greater-than-average need to sense support and encouragement of your personal freedom.
CAUSES OF STRESS: Since you are not necessarily bound by convention and precedent, you can easily over-react to situations which stress these things, becoming individualistic for its own sake and misjudging the thoughts and feelings of others.
Possible stress reactions:
unpredictable behavior
over-emphasis on independence
too ready to blaze trails
Recommendations were made for how to avoid or deal with these stress behaviors. For example, here are some of the recommendations regarding stress in the category of Change:
Set aside times every week to follow some new interest or satisfy a new curiosity.
Indulge my sense of adventure whenever possible; use vacations or hobbies to try new activities. Create frequent opportunities to discuss future goals, plans and activities with myfamily and/or co-workers.
Make schedules that allow myself flexibility in executing tasks and plans.
Build up a stockpile of small, worthwhile projects to work on when I need a break from a boring task.
Develop schedules and time management habits that allow me to routinely work on ormonitor several tasks every day.
Keep variety and a sense of newness in my hobbies and social life.
Avoid taking on home projects that will require me to do essentially the same thing every night for months on end.
How do these 11 behaviors come together to direct me toward a certain type of career or job? That will be the topic of Part 3 of this series.
Click here to read part 1 of this series.
Click here to read part 3 of this series.
