To: Kimberly Marchesseault

From: Diego Marquez

Date: March 19, 2020
Subject: Professional Brand Narrative

Introduction
Since the beginning of the semester, I have completed a self-assessment and have asked my
peers to complete an assessment based on my personality and work ethic in order for me to fully
understand my communication style and abilities. Once I interpreted the results, I discovered
similar and differing opinions from how I view my own professional brand and how my peers
view it. I have sent this memorandum in order to help you gain a more thorough understanding
of the personality traits shown in my PeopleStyles, Culture Map, and OLCE results. After doing
so, you will have gained concise knowledge on how improvements and suggestion can be made.

PeopleStyles
After conducting the PepopleStyles self-assessment, the results showed that I was an Expressive.
My results varied, with the majority of my peers identifying me as an Expressive, two for
Analytical, and one for Amiable. I believe these results are similar because I scored myself high
in assertiveness as well as high in responsiveness. I scored myself like this because I put my
ideas out there to be known and I also like to socialize and interact while I work with others. I
think the others who identified me as an Analytical may have done so because I turn to facts and
data to prove my points often. While the respondent who identified me as an Amiable may have
done so because I work well with all types of individuals and at times, I can be less responsive.

Culture Map
These results will provide deeper insight into the ways how I prefer to communicate with others.
The biggest difference between how I scored myself and how others did was for the Deciding
scale, where there was a full three-point difference where my peers gave me a higher score. This
is because my peers think I prefer to let leaders make decisions for the group. I identified another
key difference in the Persuading scale where I saw a two-point difference with my peers giving
me a higher score. This would mean others believe I would offer tangible examples first.

Personal Core Values

The scores on the Culture Map scales received from my peers compared to my own core values
are different in some ways, but are similar for the most part. My peers described me often as
being direct, passionate, and laid back. I believe that does describe me well because I can be
sometimes too direct. I am passionate about the values that I believe in and I will stand by them
but I am also very laid back and open-minded. Family and friends were identified to be part of
my core values and I agree with that because I am passionate about those areas of my life.

Areas to Improve
Some of the respondents had given me some constructive criticism that I felt was important. One
piece of information I had not considered before was that someone mentioned I worked much
better in a group setting rather than working alone. Personally, most of the time I prefer working
alone because I can be distracted in groups but I do believe I have a lot more to offer when I am
working with a team. Another respondent mentioned again that family was important to me,
which I agree with and didn’t find that surprising. Although, probably the biggest takeaway from
this for me is that someone had mentioned I can be defensive and stand my ground regardless of
what others tell me. This is something that I had never really thought of before but I completely
agree and I can improve on that by listening to others more.

Surprises
Even though the majority of the responses from my peers were similar to mine, I did find that a
few results from the Culture Map a bit surprising. No additional comments were written for that
section but most of the scales had at least either a half point or full point difference. Particularly
in the deciding scale, I personally think that whenever possible large decisions should be made in
a group census but others viewed me as preferring to have a leader make the decision. Now, this
can be viewed as true on their part because most of them have viewed me in a work setting
where we did have a boss or leader that made all important decisions. I am very passionate about
the idea of everyone’s voice being heard so I was a bit surprised to see that.

Lessons
I have learned a few lessons that I wasn’t completely aware of before that came from the results
of these assessments and comments left by my peers. First, I was made aware that my work drive
and the quality of my work increases when I work with others. Previously, I had preferred to
work alone either for convenience or to stop possible distractions. I now know that I should take
advantage of my strength of being able to work with others and continue to strive to do well in
those situations moving forward. Another valuable lesson I learned was to understand what
others are saying, even if I am defensive. I tend to shut others out when they’re stating their
opinion if it is something I disagree with. I will improve on that by listening to others fully and
attempt to understand their perspective.

Conclusion
I have learned a great deal from the PeopleStyle, Culture Map, and OLCE results. It has provided
much deeper insight into my strengths and weaknesses in working with others and my work ethic
overall. There is always room for improvement and it is important to understand the feedback
given to me from my peers. I will use this newly found information to better my leadership and
communication skills moving forward. If there are any questions or concerns about this
professional brand narrative, feel free to email me anytime at dmarquez3@email.arizona.edu.