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Unit 1: Self-Assessment Analysis

Aaron Dvorak

Arizona State University

OGL 482: Pro-Seminar II

Dr. Janice Lawhorn

October 24, 2021

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Unit 1: Self-Assessment Analysis

Throughout my time as a leader, there have been several various self-assessments that I

have taken over the years. And, I was exposed to even more of them once I entered the

Organizational Leadership program. I believe self-assessment can be a powerful tool for leaders

because it is important that we are “taking time to get grounded in a clear sense of who we are,

what we can and want to do, and what priorities will drive our decision making” (Harrington &

Hall, 2007, p. 15). Being put into a leadership position can make you feel powerful, but knowing

who you are as a leader is where the real power lies. Self-assessments not only give me insight

into all of the nuances that make up the leader that I am, but they also allow me to better

verbalize who I am as a leader and what my leadership philosophy is in a more confident way.

Section 1: The Kuder Career Interests Assessment

The first assessment that I completed for this assignment was the Kuder Career Interests

Assessment. I have not taken this assessment previously, so it was new to me. The closest

assessment to it that I had done in the past, was the Indigo Assessment that I took in my OGL

220: Behavioral Dynamics in Organizations class. This assessment gave me some great insight

into my skills, strengths, DISC behaviors, and my motivators. I noticed that in the section where

it discusses what my motivators are, it also lists some potential major/career ideas to accompany

that, similar to the Kuder Assessment. My top three motivators listed in the Indigo Assessment

were Aesthetic, Social, and Traditional. I recognized that these motivators were actually quite

similar concepts to the top scores for my career interests in the Kuder Assessment, so I am

starting to see some patterns emerge from different assessments.

What Particular Career Interests Stuck Out to You?

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One particular career interest that stuck out to me, was for an interest that was not even a

part of my top 3 scores. It was actually for the score of my Artistic interests, which came in at 4th

place. I noticed that, even though it did not make the top 3 scores, the ranking for my Artistic

interests was just slightly behind where I was ranked for my Conventional interests, which was a

part of my top three scores. I actually made a note of this and wrote that I should pay attention to

it since it had ranked so high up there. My “ah-ha moment” happened when I was re-reviewing

the Indigo Assessment that I had taken previously. I saw that the results listed my top motivator

as Aesthetic, which interestingly, is very similar in concept to that of the Artistic interests in the

Kuder Assessment.

With Respect to the Interest Profiler, How Did Your Interests Score in the RIASEC

Categories?

Looking at my results from the Kuder Career Interests Assessment, I noticed that a majority of

my interests (4 of them) fell into the medium-high or high areas of the graph. Those four scores

were all also very close in range, which I thought was interesting. The highest-ranking score for

me was for my Social interests. This was closely followed by my Enterprising interests and then

my Conventional interests, giving me the code SE/C. My Enterprising interests and

Conventional interests were neck and neck in the rankings, and right below them again were my

Artistic interests. My two lowest scores for this assessment were the Investigative and Realistic

interests.

How Could You Use Interests-based Assessments to Help Move Your Career and Your Life

Forward?

I feel that interest-based assessments are a great way to help move my career and my life

forward because they offer up suggestions for things that I may have a passion for. And, when I
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am feeling passionate about something that I am doing, I will enjoy it more, I will have more

successful outcomes, and I will feel like it gives me more of a sense of purpose than if I wasn’t

passionate about it. It reminds me of that old saying, “do what you love and you’ll never work

another day in your life”. To me, that is what interest-based assessments help you to do.

Section 2: The Kuder Skills Confidence Assessment

The second assessment that I completed for this assignment was the Kuder Skills

Confidence Assessment (KSCA). This was again a new assessment for me. Looking back at the

assessments that I have taken in the past, I did find a Leadership Skills Questionnaire from my

OGL 200: Introduction to Organizational Leadership class. But, this questionnaire was only

designed to measure very broad types of leadership skills. They were administrative skills,

interpersonal skills, and conceptual skills. For this assessment, I did score the highest in

interpersonal skills, which happens to fall in line with my results on the Kuder Assessment as

well. Aside from that, there was also a skills section that was part of the Indigo Assessment that

I discussed earlier. For the Indigo Assessment, these were my top 10 skills listed:

diplomacy/tact, planning/organizing, interpersonal skills, teamwork, time and priority

management, flexibility, mentoring/coaching, people advocacy, continuous learning, and

persuasion.

What Are Your Top Skills?

After completing the KSCA, the results showed my top skills as Social interests coming

in first, then Conventional interests, and finally Enterprising interests, making my code SCE.

One “ah-ha moment” that I had was when I realized these were the same top scores that I had

with the Career Interests Assessment, just in a little different order, and I am curious if it is

common for that to happen. I also realized that none of my scores fell into the high section of
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the graph. The Realistic and Investigative instincts were once again my lowest scores. And

again, I recognized that my score for Artistic interests was almost as high as my top three.

Are These Competencies What You Highlighted in Your E-portfolio (From OGL 481: Pro-

Seminar I)?

The competencies that I highlighted in my E-portfolio were the following: project

management, dealing with ambiguity, integrity, adaptability, communication skills, emotional

intelligence, social and cross-cultural skills, and goal-oriented and results-driven. While the

words are not exactly the same as the ones used in the Kuder Assessments, I believe a lot of the

same concepts and themes are there. Social interests are listed as my top skill in the Kuder

Assessment, and that ties into the communication skills and social and cross-cultural skills that I

included in my portfolio. And, my Enterprising interests from the KSCA, can be associated with

my project management skills, along with being goal-oriented and results-driven from my

portfolio. I don’t feel that I would change any of the competencies I have listed in my E-

portfolio based on what I learned from the KSCA. I think that, overall, they still encompass who

I am as a leader.

How Could You Use Skills-based Assessments to Help Move Your Career and Your Life

Forward?

One of the ways that I can use skills-based assessments to help move my career and my

life forward, is to try to incorporate my top skills into my resume. These are the areas where I

shine, and they are the competencies that I need to use to sell myself to my next potential

employer. Understanding these strengths about myself will also help to guide me in finding a

job that will utilize the skills that I am best at. Doing this will increase the chances that I will

feel successful in my position, which will, in turn, act as a motivator.

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Section 3: The Motivation and Career Anchors Assessment

For this part of the assignment, I completed the Motivation and Career Anchors

Assessment. Unlike the two Kuder Assessments, this was an assessment that I had actually

taken before, in my OGL 220: Behavior Dynamics in Organizations class. I decided to take the

assessment again, just to see if the results were the same, and they were. I think this will be a

great assessment for me to use when I begin my job search after graduation. Aligning the

organizations that I apply to with my career anchors will be beneficial to my job satisfaction.

Discuss Your Primary and Secondary Career Anchors. Any Surprises?

When I took the Motivation and Career Anchor Assessment, my primary career anchor

was a sense of service/dedication to a cause. My secondary career anchor was a tie between

security, stability, organizational identity, and life-style integration, and they only scored one

point below my primary anchor score. After reading the descriptions of the anchors, I would

agree with those results. The first time I took this assessment, one thing I was surprised about at

the time, was how high my score for life-style integration was. This time around, that score was

even higher, but I am not as surprised by that. Since I first took the assessment, I have come to

value that anchor even more. When I took the assessment initially, I had just stepped down from

a position at work that offered me a very poor work/life balance, and I didn’t realize how much

stress and job dissatisfaction it was creating for me. Now, I am at a point in my life where I

would actually turn down a position that did not offer a good work/life balance.

What Was Your Lowest Scoring Career Anchor?

The career anchor that ended up having the lowest score for me was entrepreneurial

creativity. This anchor centered a lot around having or starting up your own business. This is

not really something that I am interested in. If the right opportunity came up for owning my own
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business, I would not be completely opposed to it, but it is not something that is of great

importance to me. I only scored a 12 for this anchor, and that is significantly lower than any

other score I had from the assessment.

Section 4: Additional Self-assessment Instruments

In this section, I will be discussing three other self-assessments that I have taken. There

have been many assessments that I have done, just over the course of my Organizational

Leadership journey alone. Everything from leadership traits, to personality assessments and

cultural awareness. There has actually been quite a range to choose from and lots of good

information. But, I have picked the three assessments that I have learned from the most.

Humanmetrics Jung Typology Test

The Humanmetrics Jung Typology Test is a self-assessment that helps you discover your

personality type. You are given the strengths and weaknesses of your personality type, along

with suggested careers that complement that type as well. For this assessment, my results came

in as Extraverted, Sensing, Thinking and Judging (ESTJ). One of the things I learned about

myself from this assessment is that ESTJ’s are joiners, and they seek like-minded companions,

both in their work life and in their personal life. I relate to this now in the world more than ever,

because I will actually be moving to a different state after graduation for this very reason.

Keirsey

The Keirsey self-assessment is also considered a personality test, but it focuses on the

four types of temperament. For this assessment, I am considered to have the Guardian

temperament. What I learned about myself is that I take pride in being someone who is seen as

dependable and trustworthy. This relates to me in the world because I consider integrity to be a
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strong value of mine. I also listed integrity as one of my core competencies in my E-portfolio, so

this directly correlates to my assessment results.

WorkStyle Patterns (WSP) Inventory

This assessment helps you to discover what your WSP Preferred Profile is compared to

what your WSP Position Actual Profile is. Basically asking, does the work you prefer to be

doing match the work that you are actually doing? What I learned about myself with this

assessment, was that I was not. My preferred profile was categorized as adaptor with

independent work, and my position actual profile was considered to be a technician. This

assessment also taught me a lot more about being an adaptor, which is how I see myself in the

world. I learned that this is a valuable trait to have because even though most people do not fall

into this category, many people are asked to do this at their place of employment.

What Have Been the Most Useful Self-assessment tools for you and your leadership growth,

and why?

As I mentioned above, I found the three assessments tools I specifically listed to be the

most beneficial to me and my leadership growth. Aside from those three, I would say that the

DISC information, which was part of the Indigo Assessment I discussed earlier, was also very

useful to me. What made them so useful for my leadership growth is that they all had many

components to the results, which gave me a deeper understanding of who I am as a leader. Some

of the other assessments I have taken did not go into as much detail, almost making it feel like

surface-level information. These assessments really gave me some of those “ah-ha moments”

that spark insight and self-reflection.

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Reference

Harrington, B., & Hall, D. T. (2007). Career Management & Work/Life Integration: Using

Self-Assessment to Navigate Contemporary Careers. Sage Publications, Inc.