Now, let’s become more familiar with the reports that you will use when looking at personality profiles.

We start with the Personality Trait report, which looks like this.

It shows 18 different traits grouped into three different domains.

These domains are called ‘Leading and Working with Others’, ‘Organization and thinking style, and ‘Interaction and Managing Emotions’. As we have discussed before, the value is shown on a ten-point scale that starts in the middle and goes either to the right or left depending on your preferred behavior.

As we have discussed before, the value is displayed on a ten-point scale that starts in the middle and goes either to the right or left depending on your preferred behavior.

Note that if someone ends up completely to the left, it might seem like they have scored five on a ten-point scale. This is not correct, as the result starts from the middle.

This profile does not measure competence. Competence is covered in our competence framework. However, competence can be influenced by character traits. We will talk more about this later in the course.

Each trait, in turn, consists of three indicators. These are found in the report called the Trait and Indicator Profile.

Here you find traits with three indicators underneath.

You read the indicators differently. The results go from left to right and do not start in the middle. You use the indicators to better understand the character trait. If someone lands in the middle of a trait, it could still be the case that they lean significantly to the left or right in the different indicators.

For example, when you look at ‘Supportive’, at the bottom of the image, this person appears to be in the middle on the supportive scale.

But if you look at the indicators, you see that it’s because the person tends to help others grow, but also focuses on their own tasks rather than dropping everything to constantly be available. So even though it looks like supportive is in the middle, there are still some strong preferences.

The indicators thus help to better understand the character trait. It shows all traits on a deeper level.

Once someone has completed the questionnaire, we can see their response styles. The response styles are found in the Trait Profile.

This is where we start when analyzing the results and getting a first indication of the person’s profile.

Response styles are reported through 3 scales that start from the middle and go either to the right or left.

Social desirability shows how positively or self-critically the person tends to describe themselves.

If someone lands far to the left on social desirability, they might be self-critical. It could be valuable to ask them about their view of themselves, and if there’s anything specific they’ve been too critical about that we can highlight.

If someone lands far to the right and presents a very positive image of themselves, it might be good to ask for concrete examples of how this manifests in their daily life. Sometimes people can be too positive, and it’s important to get a more nuanced picture.

Then we have the consistency scale, or profile spread, which measures how consistent the person has been in their answers within the same trait.

If someone lands far to the left, it means they have been inconsistent in their responses. This could be due to different perspectives they had when answering, such as personal experiences versus work context.

The ratings spread is about how extremely the person has answered, whether they click far to the right and left, or if they tend to stick to the middle.

If they land far to the left, it means they stick to the middle, while far to the right means they have been more extreme in their answers, showing clear and consistent opinions.