The Benefit of Psychometric Testing for your young adults
Young Adult failed his exam
Knowing your Strengths Now to create a happier and successful life
Guest blog post by Alex Webb from Flying Start XP
The hardest thing about writing a personal statement, a CV or even your Linkedin profile, it’s knowing what to write. Knowing what’s true. Knowing the best words to use so we can really understand who you are, and what you can bring rather than using words because they sound good and think it’s what people want to hear?
It’s so hard to bring the real you, the authentic you to life on paper.
We know the world of work is changing. Leadership is changing. The importance of company culture is growing and the need to know what you bring to a role, an organisation, a university or a team is more important than ever.
‘Self-awareness is no longer a luxury, it’s a necessity.’
We are all made differently, different things bring us joy, we all act and react in different ways, we have different perspectives, some of us are effortless when networking or when analysing numbers. Some of us love getting lost in problem solving or idea generation. Whatever your genius, grasp it, understand it and share it. This is what the world needs, self-aware individuals who have the confidence in who they are and what they do. If we can start to build self-aware individuals in their early years, it means they will follow a path that allows them to work with these strengths from the start.
Whether you’re preparing for an interview, writing a personal statement, choosing a university, an apprenticeship, work experiences or heading off on a gap year, having an understanding of what you do effortlessly is the foundation for building a future of happiness and success.
· Knowing your strengths and how to articulate them builds confidence
· Knowing your strengths and what they bring to a team, shows awareness
· Knowing your strengths and using them to know your next steps, brings fulfilment
· Knowing your strengths alongside your weaknesses can remove guilt and self-doubt
So how can we find out what our strengths are and what we do effortlessly?
At Flying Start XP, self-awareness is at the foundations of everything we do, and we use a psychometric tool called C-Me Colour Profiling, amongst other things. It’s colourful, memorable and is fast to understand and immediately applicable.
C-Me draws on colour to help us understand more about ourselves and our behaviour in a fun, warm, direct way. It gives us a set of tools that we won’t forget a week later and which can be applied to school, home or work life.
C-Me allows individuals to articulate their strengths, areas of development and value to a team. This language and knowledge then stays with them as they navigate higher education, their first job and their journey up the career ladder.
We use C-Me with both those in and out of work. We work with young people looking for ways to excel in high-pressure situations: sixth formers working on personal statements, graduates facing assessment centres or interviews, and early-career professionals who need to deal confidently with clients and colleagues.
From what we see, C-Me gives students and early-career professionals a level of self-awareness and therefore self-confidence that is uncommon for their age. They understand how to get the best out of those around them. They communicate in a way that can be understood by different personality types. They respond to others in a mature and professional way.
What is C-Me all about?
C-Me has a very simple set of goals:
1. Understand yourself
2. Understand others
3. Improve relationships by adapting
The system draws on the theory of Carl Jung, dating back to 1923 (as do tests such as Myers Briggs Type Indicator (MBTi), DISC and Insights). C-Me is seen as the next generation of colour profiling. It creates a colour wheel to show preferences in thinking vs feeling and levels of extroversion vs introversion/reflection.
Following the completion of a 10-minute online questionnaire, individuals are given a Young Person’s Report which includes
· Their position on the colour wheel
· Their lead colours both for their adaptive and natural behaviour states
· A broad overview of their preferred way of doing things
· Strengths
· Areas of Development
· Communication Strategies
· Team Contribution
They are also able to look at themselves on the C-Me colour wheel in relation to others they deal with in everyday life: teachers, colleagues, managers, members of their family. This is the source of many lightbulb moments. It is really powerful watching people realise why it is they’ve never got anywhere with particular people, or have conflicts that seem intractable.
Alongside the ability to understand behaviour, the C-Me reports and coaching can help you understand the environments in which you will thrive, the types of courses you would excel in, the roles that would suit you and the type of company cultures where your strengths would be appreciated the most.
So rather than following a path you believe you SHOULD follow because it’s a profession you know about or your parents are linked to, you can start to explore other options too.
Knowing the type of work you don’t want is just as helpful and important as finding a role, course or position that works for you.
Understanding your strengths and what brings you energy will support you in making the right decisions, at every step and juncture in your life.
The Benefits of knowing your Key Strengths - A recent coachee story.
A parent was concerned that her daughter, let’s call her Sarah, was not enjoying University where she was reading History of Art and Spanish. After some coaching, using C-Me to explore her strengths, Sarah realised that her strengths were around communication, people, innovation, problem solving and being in an environment which allowed her to work at a fast pace. Knowing this, we were able to explore other degree options. She is now doing Communications and Media Studies with Business. She is thriving because she is using her strengths.
If you would like to chat to us at Flying Start XP about 1:1 Coaching or running group workshops using C-Me and other tools, enabling employability, please contact Alex at hello@flyingstartxp.com
Awareness + Confidence + Resilience = Employability
Flying Start XP is run by Alex Webb and Charlie Welch, who between them have over 60 years of coaching and facilitation experience along with expertise across many sectors including the military, education, media, commercial, corporate, pharmaceutical, technology and start-ups. They focus on supporting young people in developing their self-awareness and self-belief so that they are proud to own their story, are confident in who they are, their values, their native genius and their purpose.