Why Career Interview Coach uses Harrison Assessments
Through extensive research, Harrison Assessments has developed a unique assessment instrument that produces reliable and valid results with high test/retest scores. The assessment instrument incorporates performance research and in particular focuses on the relationship between job performance and behavioural traits. Rather than abstract concepts in psychology, Harrison Assessments measures the things that people like doing and the behavioural traits related to those things, since when an individual’s personal traits match with his/her job description and job requirements, that individual tends to perform exceptionally well.
This makes Harrison Assessments an excellent tool for accelerating and deepening self-awareness in relation to career and leadership development. The Assessments provide detailed information on personal traits, strengths, preferences, paradoxes and inconsistencies.
Enjoyment Performance Theory
The general theory that has driven the development and effectiveness of Dr. Harrison’s instrument is rather simple and quite intuitive: people who enjoy their jobs are more responsive to their work situations, perform better, and possess the drive and motivation to succeed. Dr. Harrison calls this the “Enjoyment Performance Theory.”
“It is counterproductive for an individual to perform in a role that does not match his or her behavioural preferences because not only the individual’s level of enjoyment and job satisfaction decreases, but so does job performance.”
Dr. Harrison added that when mandatory tasks make up more than 25 percent of a position’s responsibilities for which there is a poor fit, job satisfaction and performance will often suffer. He emphasized that organizations should consider behavioural fit when they evaluate for hires and promotions and not focus exclusively on skills and eligibility.
According to Dr. Harrison, for optimal success, a job needs to be mostly about what you enjoy doing. Every job comprises tasks and responsibilities that can be mundane, and most positions will require us to try on different hats based on the circumstances. However, in general these conditions last for brief periods of time, and then we return to what we enjoy doing… or performance suffers.
Paradox Theory
In its simplest form the paradox theory suggests that an individual can possess and demonstrate seemingly contradictory traits simultaneously. Dr. Harrison illustrates this fascinating reality of the human psyche’s polarity with the following example:
“An individual possesses the qualities of frankness and diplomacy, two apparently antithetical behavioural traits. Most behavioural assessment instruments would score these traits on a linear scale, and eventually produce results that would reveal the individual as either a frank or a diplomatic person. In contrast, Harrison Assessments investigates just how frank an individual is compared to how diplomatic, since a person can possess both traits, or neither. The instrument compares the individual’s frankness to his/her diplomacy by measuring each trait independently and then analyzing the results together. The relationships between complementary behavioural traits are identified as part of an interconnected system, and therefore the tool reveals the complexities of the human behaviour and performance to produce results of enormous value.”
Your Paradox Traits – It’s a Balancing Act
By understanding the complex relationship between two antithetical traits, Harrison Assessments measures the potential for stress responses. An imbalance between paradoxical traits in individuals provides a clear insight into how they will respond under stress. Dr. Harrison again employs the example of the diplomatic and frank individual to illustrate how this works:
“If an individual tends to be much more diplomatic than frank and he/she encounters a situation that requires directness or frankness, the individual will immediately withdraw or become evasive in response to what he/she perceives to be a stressful situation. Tension and stress will build so that the individual eventually flips in the opposite direction and becomes overly blunt.”
This insight allows us to see where and how our natural tendencies can benefit us and also where they may hinder us in stressful situations.
Know Your Weaknesses and Give Power to Your Strengths
The paradox concept demonstrates how our strengths and weaknesses influence each other. Dr. Harrison emphasized that when it comes to the relationship between contradictory traits, it’s really all about understanding and balancing the two.
For example, if you have a strong sense of empathy, then you know that this quality’s corollary trait is permissiveness and less willingness to enforce rules. However, when you understand your weakness, you can work on developing it: in this case if enforcement is important to the performance of your job, you can develop your ability to enforce. By doing this you can actually give more strength, power, and depth to the empathy you naturally possess. How fascinating that we can actually add more value to a strength by developing and improving our weakness in a particular paradox!
The additional advantage of developing balance in an imbalanced paradox is the elimination of the potential stress behaviour and the enhanced flexibility in responding to a given situation and in your interactions with others.
Improving Relationships by Mastering the Paradox
Understanding paradox and polarity in our own behaviour and in those around us can help quell fears of employment termination and neutralize office politics.
Tense situations arise because people with opposing personality traits polarize each other. For example, if your boss is frank and blunt and you are diplomatic, there will inevitably be tension between you because you are each other’s “disowned selves.” In other words, any antagonism you feel toward your boss stems from the reality that you have “disowned” the frank trait in yourself in favour of being diplomatic.
To counter these tense situations, Dr. Harrison suggests knowing what your natural stress behaviours are and teaching yourself to exercise the opposite behaviour in stressful situations. For example, if you tend to be more diplomatic than frank, just being a little more direct in the beginning of an interaction will significantly help that interaction to stay on track, usually avoiding the stressful situation in which the other person doesn’t respond to what you want and you need to tell them.
A Panoramic View of Career or Position Fit
While other behavioural instruments measure 10 to 20 behavioural traits, the Harrison Assessments evaluates over 150, providing a range and depth of information that is comparable to a broad picture window view of behavioural preferences vs. the limited kitchen window view of many style indicators. Any given position, job, or work situation requires more than five, 10, or even 20 qualities because there are so many situations that elicit different behaviours. For any career or position success profile, the Harrison Assessment evaluates a set of 30 to 40 traits that influence performance. Harrison Assessments provides a comprehensive evaluation of an individual’s potential fit with careers and positions making it ideal for both career evaluation and selection for hiring and promotion.
Personal Growth and Career Selection
Individuals can use the feedback from Harrison Assessments for personal growth by investigating how one of their paradox traits has the potential to help or hinder its complementary trait and their performance. In addition, the instrument adds value to job searches and career transitions because individuals can review their report and see how their behavioural traits match with over 600 careers. This allows them to determine the degree to which they fit various roles and identify what careers will give them the greatest amount of satisfaction.
Understanding your strengths is the most important variable in the career selection process, and after completing the assessment you can begin to look at how your strengths apply to various career paths. When you really know yourself you can go through the process of researching, investigating, and gaining knowledge for suitable careers. This is a very valuable way of determining and validating your career path.
Applying the Harrison Assessment to Your Job Search
We have assisted clients in targeting areas of self-improvement and workplace preferences as they sought to better understand how to advance their careers and make career changes. Additionally, the instrument’s comprehensive report has helped clients compose more detailed and powerful applications highlighting their strengths. Finally, the instrument’s Interview Report benefits our clients by helping them prepare for behavioural questions in a job interview.
Self-Knowledge Leads to Career Success
The self-knowledge that individuals in job and career transition gain from the assessment helps them better understand their strengths and learn how to apply them effectively in the right career and job situation.
Indeed, finding your ideal career begins with understanding yourself — your strengths, passions, behavioural preferences, interests and goals. Self knowledge helps set the course of your job transition and career advancement for optimal satisfaction and success.
Dr. Harrison offers these powerful words of wisdom: “In terms of careers, know what you’re good at, and stick to it. Know how that applies to different jobs and keep developing your strengths. That’s the key to job and career success.”
About Harrison Assessments
Dan Harrison, PhD., has a diverse background and over 30 years of experience in Mathematics, Personality Theory, Counselling Psychology, Human Potential Psychology, and Organizational Psychology. He used the Paradox Theory to create and develop Harrison Methodologies, and in 1990 he founded Harrison Assessments with a vision of helping companies optimize their human capital by leveraging their deep understanding of human resources and psychology.
Throughout his early career Dr. Harrison was involved in clinical and human potential psychology. He later became interested in organizational psychology, and as he consulted with companies he began investigating assessment instruments to help facilitate his team building and coaching work. As he analyzed various instruments he found that many lacked significant psychological depth, so he decided to create his own assessments. As a result, Harrison Assessments has gained international acclaim and enjoys impressive commercial success.