By now you should have been able to take a psychometric test and hopefully a reputable one not the sort of thing that you find in your Sunday media or in magazines or from fliers handed out at your local MTR, subway, or underground station depending on which part of the world you are living in and listening and viewing this material. What we're looking to do is to help you make sense of the feedback that you've got, and for those of you who've never done one of these tests before it's the first time for you, it can seem a little bit overwhelming, a little bit daunting in terms of what you are being told. Let's just start by offering a few pointers to understand the psychometric test and some of the messages within it that has been given to you. Firstly, make sure it was a reputable test that you took; and I know we've stressed this but there are so many out there that purport to be reputable and people in your human resources function or similar functions in your organization will be able to help you identify the good ones. Typically they're recognized by a psychological society, so that's the American Psychological Association the Australian, the British, and so on Canadian. All of those will have their own standards for tests. That's the first point. Make sure you've actually done one that's reputable. Secondly, recognize that what you're being offered is a set of data and it's valid. You may not like it, it may just sit with you a little awkwardly but it is a source of data and it's people sharing with you they've taken time to share with you a perspective here on how you are coming over. Now that may be directly if it's a 360 instrument or if it's just one that you have filled out yourself, what's called a self report instrument, then the reports that has been generated on the back of your scoring means time and attention has been put into that to give you some data. So there is some validity to that. Third point, recognize that as humans we are hard wired to look for threats. We've been doing it for a long, long while, and it's a very human tendency when you get these sort of reports, is to start looking for the negative. What's wrong with me? What have I got to fix in here? Please try and come away from that a little bit, treat it as data, and start looking for the positive because there will be some in there. What are the positive messages you can take from it? The final piece is a thing that we call "fragile strengths", and fragile strengths are things that maybe others have seen that glimmering off, something you're not wholly aware of but others are saying, do you know when you do that or when we see that, it makes us feel really good around you. That's a really positive thing we're seeing, the beginnings of it - even if it's not fully developed at the moment. With that as a piece of background and an introduction, what we're going to move on to now is to have a look at a little mnemonic that we hope you'll find useful in terms of understanding and your reactions to the test. We'd like to use this part of this short video to introduce you to "SARA". SARA is not actually a person. SARA is an acronym that has use beyond just what we'd like to talk about today. We'd urge you to reflect on it as we're sharing it and explaining with you, so that you really can then take it away as a another tool in your leadership toolkit for when you've got to give feedback to people as well. So SARA is an acronym and it stands for four things, typically reactions when people get news that they maybe weren't expecting, or things that have actually come to them that are suddenly a bit out of the ordinary. The "S" of SARA, the first letter, stands for shock, and sometimes we just get a piece of information or some feedback or some data and we look at it, and we just think. What does that mean? Where does that come from? What have I said or done that could possibly have triggered that? It is a real shock that we are confronted with this piece of information; and there's nothing wrong with that. Recognize it, recognize your own reaction if it's you, and just say okay, and maybe it's the question, why am I feeling shocked by this? That's a great place to start. The first letter of SARA is "S", shock, is sometimes an initial reaction. The second letter of SARA, "A" stands for anger and again this is a very human reaction. Typically you'll have words going through your head saying things like: how dare they have said that? Why on earth are they persecuting me like this? Where has that come from? These are all signs of anger possibly even irritation that somebody has picked up on something maybe you are unaware of. It could be something that you thought you'd hidden, something that you know you do but you didn't realize it was quite as visible to others as well. The second letter then is "A" for anger. The third reaction that you sometimes get, and this is the "R" of the SARA acronym, is rejection. When we're presented with information we don't like, it sits uncomfortably with us. It's something that we just try to push off, or we look to discount, we reject it, or we just push it away and say, that can't possibly be or I'm not really like that, I'm different at home, at work wherever. But there is a rejection of the data. If you see yourself doing that is worth asking "Why?". Similarly if you've had to share feedback with other people that they found unpalatable, you may be experiencing them rejecting the messages you're trying to deliver to them as well. We've got "S" for shock, "A" for anger, "R" for rejection and the final letter in SARA, the final "A" stands for acceptance. Having worked through the emotions that we've just talked about: the shock, anger, rejection - to whatever extent - people finally come to an acceptance, an accommodation that what they've been presented with is some information, some data that has some utility. The question then becomes: 155
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"What do I do with that? I accept it and how do I use that in my day to day practice going forward?" In reviewing the feedback that you've got from your psychometric test, we just like to leave you with four pointers, four things to consider as we close this video. The first is, look at the data you've been provided with and take a helicopter view, lift yourself out of the detail, out of the minutiae of it, and think what is this telling me about where I'm strong? Where am I good? What am I good at in here? Then pay some attention to the things that you might want to develop. That's the first point. The second point. Look for consistency and patterns. Your work colleagues react very strongly to how consistent you are at work in your behavior. So it's worth seeing if there are some patterns in the data in your psychometric that give you indications of where you are consistent, or are there consistent groups of people giving you a set message about behavior, the way you approach things, the way you make decisions, the way you deal with people? Third point, if you've been fortunate enough to take a 360 instrument, do have a look at the spread. How representative is the group of people who've completed the instrument been, in terms of their visibility and access to you? That's not to invalidate any of their views but it's worth recognizing that they may take a different perspective. Similarly this leads me to the next point which is, look for the outliers. Maybe somebody who has completed a 360 instrument on you who's only seen you once or twice. That's a very limited data set as opposed to somebody who works with you all day, every day. Not saying either is bad, I'm just saying it's a different perspective and they will see things differently, so it's worth bearing that in mind. Then finally, use the psychometric as a starting point. There are plenty of other sources of feedback and we would urge you to seek those out. The corridor conversations when you've just left a meeting, or you've had a conversation with somebody or you've been party to a group having a conversation with a trusted colleague and you say, "How did that land? Did I make sense? Was I clear enough? Was I too hard, too pushy, not pushy enough?" Ask your colleagues - and get used to asking them. You will also presumably be having some form of performance review with your leaders, the people you work with. Again those are places where you can and should be pushing for maximum openness and constructive dialogue. Then the final part really is: ask your colleagues. I know I've already said that, but it is worth just trying again and again because that breeds a culture of openness about performance in the organization
