Dozens of psychological and personality tests provide insight, they insist, into how we think and act. They pronounce with authority that we do or don’t so this or that well.
According to one highly regarded test, I’m “gifted” as an ” attorney, ski instructor, forester, geologist, carpenter, minister, physician, writer, architect, fine artist, musician, dentist, broadcaster”….The list goes on to mention about 30 wildly diverse professions and skills. Based on this test, I could be a one-person Cirque du Soleil!
Thus, in experimenting with “tests” to better myself, understand employees, and help clients, I’ve found tests mildly useful and mostly useless.
A “test” never has accurately defined any one I know. In comparison to any live person, these tests are as plain as a dry baked potato sans butter, chives, and bacon.
What I have found to be a strong indicator of a person’s mettle and meat, is one singular aspect of ourselves: It is our physical voices and the words we choose as we express our voices.
This interplay of our physical voices and our thoughts broadcasts our strengths and our reason. Provided we hone these gifts, the broadcast is positive. When we fail to tend what God and genetics has graciously provided, we may also transmit our frailties and follies.
The good news, always, is that communication is a skill. It is within our own power to master.