I’ll try not to belabor this intro — I was a corps member with Teach for America from 2003 to 2005, in Houston. I trained in Houston in the summer of 2003, as did about 9-10 other TFA regions. One of them was New Mexico. I became friends with a young woman named Diana, who was training with me in Houston but ended up going and teaching in New Mexico. We taught at the same place in the summer of 2003 (Lantrip Elementary in Houston). We used to ride these janky school buses together every day. We were 22 and had no idea what was even happening. Teaching kids is very hard. Teachers should be paid more. (Holler.)
Well, that was also 17 years ago, and lots of stuff changes in that time span. Diana now does assessments and coaching with her company, Hawthorne Union. (You can contact them here.)
So, for this episode, what we did was … she sent me some Predictive Index assessments, and I took them. So we had a convo and analyzed pros and cons of me as an employable human being. I knew a lot of this stuff, but it was still interesting to talk to someone about it 17 years later.
Pick your preferred audio player here.
I’ll embed the audio right below, and then I will cut and paste a summary of my assessment — which is mostly accurate, I’d say.
First, the audio:
Now, the assessment:
Friendly, congenial and outgoing, Ted can get along well with just about anybody. They meet people easily, and enjoy doing so, and they’re just as comfortable in group activities as they are one-on-one.
Able to reach and stimulate others while being aware of and responsive to their needs and interests. An unselfish person who derives satisfaction from doing things for other people; they’re most comfortable when feeling accepted by others and respected for their helpful nature.
Patient and understanding, they’re a particularly good listener; people nd them easy to talk to, and feel little pressure from this rather easy going individual. An unselfish and uncritical interest in others is helpful in developing and maintaining personal relationships, as is the ability to recognize and accommodate widely differing points of view. Ted “wears well” in repeated contacts, and will generally put the interests of others, including company management, customers, or team members, rst.
This unassuming person is an open communicator of ideas, programs, or decisions, and readily accepts the ideas or decisions of others. When facing risk in their decisions, they’ll work closely with others, such as the team, trusted advisors, management, or subject matter experts to ensure inclusion and representation of others’ interests. The same holds true when they need to deviate from agreed-upon processes.
Informal in style, Ted is fairly casual about strict adherence to company policy, or the precise accuracy of the details of their work, preferring to delegate details to others. Working steadily, at an unhurried pace, they have the kind of patience required to do consistent, and/or repetitive work over long periods of time.
Work which, in this case, should involve considerable contact with people. This is a very stable person who functions best working in a familiar environment among familiar people and would be less effective if required to work in frequently changing, highly technical, or very detail-oriented positions. This modest person has high levels of team orientation and collaboration; understanding of others, and ability to get along well with them, are strong qualities.
