I rolled out of bed at 6:30 in the morning on Wednesday and drove to work on my day off. The powers-that-be decided to schedule a meeting on my only day of freedom! But no less, I showed up for duty right on time. About two months ago, all of the Pharmacy Technicians at my workplace were given an employee profile to complete online. It was a personality test presented as a wide array of questions (personal, situational, math, vocabulary, etc). We knew the test would be utilized by our company for some greater purpose, but nothing happened with it for such a long time that it was no longer a concern. But hump day bumped the issue to the surface. A rep from the company that does the performance analysis (a.k.a. Performisys) was here to hand-deliver our results. My fancy, custom-bound “Confidential Report” had never been opened and I would be the first person to lay eyes on the results! After reading it through with some backbone information provided by the rep, I got some great insight into how I tick. (On these scales, which are 1 to 10, either extreme will have its strengths and weaknesses. A 10 isn’t necessarily better than a 1.) Here are some of the more predominant scores from the list:

Learning Index : 9 out of 10
Strong capacity to adapt quickly in a learning situation.
Typically finds it easy to learn the requirements of a new job.

Numeric Ability : 9 out of 10
Quick in mentally determining mathematical solutions to problems.
Demonstrates a sound understanding of mathematical processes.

Numeric Reasoning: 10 out of 10
Demonstrates little difficulty in assimilating new information of a numerical nature.
Can process numerical data to reach conclusions or understand inferences.

Assertiveness : 4 out of 10
Low need to control others and very diplomatic.

Attitude : 9 out of 10
Optimistic, Relaxed Social Style and Trusting.
The kind of person who immediately gives trust but won’t give it back when its broken.**
**A low attitude score would be skeptical and only give trust where its earned.)

Independence : 2 out of 10
Cautious and reserved; May seek support or supervision often

Objective Judgement : 8 out of 10
Will tend to trust observable facts in their thinking process.
Comfortable with a logical approach.

Accommodating : 9 out of 10
Holds societal norms and self-control as important guides for behavior.
Cooperative; likes harmony within a group

I mulled over all of these key points in my profile and applied it to how I work with others. In doing so, I realized I could also use this in my other social settings. Even though I already knew these things about myself, I always ignored it. So now that it is in writing, its unavoidable. Because of my personality, I tend to leave a lot of things unsaid around people who are on the opposite side of these scales. But meeting them half way will solve a lot of communication issues and hopefully result in amazing relationships. Stepping outside of my norm will be awkward, but rewarding. I guess rolling out of bed with the sunrise wasn’t such a bad deal after all.