Discover How Others See You (the Good & the Bad) in Less Than 5 Minutes

I must admit: I’m star struck. I ran across Sally Hogshead about a year or two ago and have gobbled up everything she has to say. I’ve always been fascinated by human behavior so Sally’s first book “Fascinate: Your 7 Triggers to Persuasion and Captivation” naturally caught my attention. (My triggers are prestige and power, by the way.)

I originally bought the book because I thought it would help with my copywriting business. (And it has!) Understanding consumer behavior is vital to writing copy and content that motivates and entices others to take action. I was excited to discover that I had some qualities I was proud of and it felt great to find out that these are my descriptors:

• Rapidly earns respect
• Focuses on adding value through better execution
• Conscientious of the smallest details
• Motivated by a competitive spirit and determined outlook
• Expects highest quality deliverables from self and others
• Earns respect with higher standards
• Enjoys leading projects and easily wins buy-in of teams
• Directs individuals and groups with confidence and success
• Sets ambitious personal and professional goals
• Expresses opinions and makes complex decisions with unwavering conviction
• Confronts potential problems or obstacles immediately and decisively
• Leads naturally
• Ambitious
• Results-Oriented
• Respected

But that moment of walking on sunshine didn’t last too long. You see, not far behind Sally’s “Fascinate” book came “How the World Sees You.” In this next-step (of sorts) I discovered that not everything in the land of superpowers is rosy. Yes, I can be seen as all the things listed above. However, the combination of prestige and power (an archetype called “The Victor”) also possesses some not-so-desirable qualities that can cause me to be viewed in a negative light. That was something I wanted to keep a check on.

It was after I took the Fascinate Advantage Assessment & Report (which took about 5 minutes — see link at top of page for Free Personality Test) that I found out:

• what my “superpowers” are
• positive ways others view me
• negative ways others view me
• how to harness the most of both qualities

In addition to the bullets listed above, the results from my assessment also came with the following warnings:

“Be careful that you don’t get too wrapped up in your goals and successes. Remain aware of how others perceive you. Remember to spend more time listening than talking. Bring in the Passion Advantage to build devotion among your team. Share your excitement about team performance or plan an evening out with the team to nurture a team spirit.”

“Also be careful that you don’t intimidate people to the point that you alienate them.”

Hmm… sounds like I can be rather overbearing at times. It wasn’t something I knew about myself so I was very grateful to know that I needed to watch out for this type of behavior. I would never purposely want to alienate someone.

What was my lowest advantage? Passion. It was really a relief to find out I didn’t have to communicate in wish-washy or hypish ways (two things I simply can’t stand) and that attempting to do so would just exhaust me. I’ve always known I didn’t care for that type of verbal or written communication, but – until now – never knew it was genetically ingrained into my DNA.

I’ve taken all sorts of tests similar to the Fascinate Advantage (DiSC, Myers Briggs, etc.) and those were very revealing. However, they showed how I viewed the world. It wasn’t until now that I was able to see how the world sees me; how my personality is uniquely hardwired to fascinate customers, co-workers, and colleagues. I also discovered how my score compares to studies of hundreds of thousands participants.

Once you understand how you and others are hardwired, it makes communication and goal accomplishment significantly easier. I thought these books, and especially the assessment, would be particularly helpful for:

• coaches (business and sports)
• department managers
• CEOs
• small business owners with employees
• team-building professionals
• headhunters/recruiters
• speakers
• professional communicators
• and many others

The whole experience was something like hearing your voice on a recording and asking, “Do I really sound like that?” We view ourselves in a certain way… it’s not the same way others view us. Understanding the difference has made a powerful impact on my business and professional life. Thank you, Sally Hogshead! I’d love to buy you lunch sometime. (And keep up the outstanding work!)