A Fascinating Confidence Booster!
4:30 am.
It’s 4:30am and I’m in my hotel room fully awake. Jet lag in full effect. I’ve been traveling non-stop and my latest NYC to LA trip really is taking a toll on my body. Not being able to sleep, I got up and opened my laptop and checked my to-do list…somewhere in there, one bullet point item stood out… “take the Fascinate test & blog about it!”
“Great! That sounds like something I should be doing at 4:30 in the morning Awesome!”, my sarcastic self said in my head.
It’s fascinating how fascinating this test is! But it’s more fascinating how the results were so close to describing me [so accurately] after just answering a few questions about myself. Actually, it was kind of creepy. But I found myself reading more and more from one article to another to want to know more about my archetype, the authentic.
The Authentic
The Authentic is someone who is agreeable, dependable and accessible. So far, I’m liking this these results! According to my Fascination Advantage Report, my primary advantage is Trust; and my secondary advantage is Passion.
I think the coolest thing about this exercise is that this personality test positions the test results from the point of view of how the world sees you as opposed to the other way around. Therefore, it changes how you interpret your archetype.
I really enjoyed learning more about my primary and secondary advantages and how these play a big role on who I am personally and professionally. But what I was most interested in was my dormant advantage. According to Sally Hogshead, “Your DORMANT Advantage is your most exhausting form of communication. It’s how you are least likely to surpass others. Tread carefully in these areas, because this form of communication is your “quicksand.” And it will cost you a disproportionate amount of time and energy.”
My dormant advantage is Alert. I quickly realized that probably one of the [many] reasons I was feeling restless and stressed-out was because of the million deadlines and structural challenges I was currently dealing with at work. Apparently this is a trigger in my book. And while I’ve always known this to some extent, it was refreshing to get some validation on how this affects me and takes so much out of me.
6:30 am
It’s now 6:30am and I had to get ready for a board meeting followed by budget meetings all day. I couldn’t help but to keep thinking about all my fascinating results and wanting to read and research more on them.
9:10 am
It’s now 9:10am and as I sat in a large conference room listening to our CEO brief us on quarterly performance and next year’s goals, I looked around the room and the 12 people sitting around me. How do these guys really see me? Can they tell about my dormant alert advantage? How do I see each of them? What’s their dormant advantage? So many questions running through my head.
Soon it was my turn to update the team. Regardless of how many times I’ve done this before, it’s always a bit nerve-racking when you have to present. This time was a bit different though… I really felt a sense of calmness “knowing” how my peers perceived me. And while I’d like to think that I’ve known this all along, learning more about my archetype and my advantages, really boosted my confidence a bit more.
I used my primary and secondary advantages of “trust” and “passion” to my advantage to engage and connect with my audience; but most importantly to identify more opportunities to exceed expectations.
I am “The Authentic!”
