The big idea: An assessment tells you what you said about yourself; it becomes useful when you check it against what you actually do and turn it into one behavior you will practice.
In 60 seconds
- An assessment reports what you said about yourself. It is a starting point, not a label.
- Check each result against real moments from your Good Time Journal.
- Turn the strongest pattern into one leadership behavior you will practice.
Do this: bring one honest pattern and one behavior to practice from your assessment results.
How to read a self-assessment well
During the semester you complete a battery of leadership self-assessments in class. They might look at your strengths, your behavioral style or your personality preferences. Each one hands you a report. The skill this topic teaches is reading those reports well: as useful hypotheses about you, checked against real evidence, and turned into one thing you will practice.
Read it as a hypothesis
The report says what you told it, sorted into a model. It is a starting guess about your preferences, not a verdict on your ability.
Ask: where does this sound like me, and where does it not?
Find patterns across tools
One report is one lens. When a strengths result, a style result and a personality result point the same way, you have a pattern.
Ask: what keeps showing up?
Check it against your journal
Your Good Time Journal shows what you actually did and when you felt engaged and energized. That is behavior, not self-description.
Ask: when did I see this in real life?
Set one development goal
Pick one theme. Write one visible behavior you will practice, where, with whom watching and when you will check in.
Ask: could a teammate see me do it?
Using results as labels
- “I’m an introvert, so I can’t lead the meeting.” A preference turned into a limit.
- “My style is steady, so I’m bad at change.” One word becomes the whole person.
- “Analytical is my top strength, so I’ll leave people to others.” A strength used as an excuse.
Using results as insight
- “Big groups drain me, so I prepare two questions before I lead a meeting.” A preference plus a plan.
- “I like a steady pace, so I ask early what is changing and why.” Knowing what you need.
- “I lead with analysis, and I practice asking for others’ views first.” A strength with a growth edge.
Coaching, not diagnosis
This course is coaching for leadership development, not therapy or counseling. Self-assessments describe preferences and patterns at work. They do not diagnose anything. If a result stirs up something heavy, talk with someone you trust or the UT Student Counseling Center.
Your results are yours
What you share in class is your choice. Private journaling is encouraged and never collected. Write your honest reactions there, including the results you did not like.
Three kinds of assessments and what each one is good forStrengths, behavioral style and personality
Strengths
Names what you tend to do well and naturally. Useful for choosing roles and explaining your value in an interview.
Watch out: a strength used too much becomes a weakness. Careful analysis can turn into slow decisions.
Behavioral style
Describes how you tend to act with others: pace, directness, need for structure. Useful for teamwork and communication.
Watch out: style shifts with the setting. You may act differently at work, in class and at home.
Personality
Describes broad, fairly stable preferences, like where you get energy or how you like to plan. Useful for self-awareness.
Watch out: preferences are not skills. You can learn behaviors outside your preference.
Every instrument has its own model and its own vocabulary. Use the words the report gives you in class, and translate them into plain words for yourself, like “careful analysis” or “recharges alone.”
How to read a report in 20 minutesA simple routine for every assessment
- Read it once without a pen. Notice your gut reaction.
- Mark three lines. One that clearly sounds like you, one that surprised you and one you disagree with.
- Find a real example for the line that sounds like you. If you cannot find one, hold that result loosely.
- Ask someone who knows you about the line you disagree with. Self-report tools have blind spots, and so do you.
- Write the result in plain words and tag it with a theme (connecting with people, analyzing, getting things done, influencing, creating, planning).
- Note the watch-out: how could this strength be overused?
Why self-awareness needs other peopleImposter syndrome, overconfidence and feedback
Self-assessments are self-report: they can only reflect how you see yourself. High-potential people often fall into one of two traps. Some doubt real strengths that the evidence shows (imposter syndrome). Others rate themselves higher than their actual skill (the Dunning-Kruger effect). Both get in the way of growth.
The fix is the same for both: compare what the report says with what you did (your Good Time Journal) and with what others see (feedback). This course covers that feedback message in more depth in the BUAD 497 topic Feedback, Imposter Syndrome and Blind Spots.
Writing one good development goalBehavior, setting, feedback partner, check-in
One goal you practice beats five you forget. A strong goal has four parts:
- A visible behavior, starting with a verb: “Ask one quieter teammate for their view before I share my analysis.”
- A real setting: “In our Thursday case team meetings for the next four weeks.”
- A feedback partner: someone who sees you in that setting and will tell you the truth.
- A check-in point: “After four meetings.” Then decide: keep it, adjust it or pick a new one.
Weak goals sound like wishes: “Be a better listener.” “Work on confidence.” If nobody could see you doing it, rewrite it.
Ideas from Designing Your Life and The Designing Your Life Workbook by Bill Burnett and Dave Evans (Stanford Life Design Lab), explained here in our own words. BUAD 427 is taught by Lane Morris, PhD.
Try it: Assessment Synthesizer
Tool · BUAD 427
Assessment Synthesizer
Combine up to three self-assessments with your Good Time Journal and turn the overlap into one development goal.
- 1Enter results
- 2Find themes
- 3Set one goal
Your development goal
Themes across your evidence
All checks
Saved on this device only. My own answers stay in this browser and are never sent anywhere. Example edits are not saved.
Put it to work: your assessment battery
The assessment battery is part of how BUAD 427 builds self-awareness, and your reflections feed class discussion, which is graded pass/fail with your preparation and participation. The goal is not a perfect profile. It is one honest pattern and one behavior you will practice.
Complete each assessment as you are
Answer as you are, not as you wish you were or as a recruiter would want. Rushed or “ideal self” answers give you a report about someone else.
Your deliverable: a completed report for each assessment in the battery.
Read each report with the 20-minute routine
Mark one line that sounds like you, one that surprised you and one you disagree with. Write your reactions in your private journal.
Your deliverable: three marked lines per report and a short private journal entry.
Synthesize across reports and your journal
Enter your top results and three or more Good Time Journal moments in the Assessment Synthesizer. Look for confirmed themes.
Your deliverable: one or two confirmed themes, backed by an assessment and a real moment.
Set one development goal
Write one behavior, the setting, a feedback partner and a check-in point. Tell your feedback partner this week.
Your deliverable: one goal you could read aloud in class in 30 seconds.
Bring it to class
Come ready to share what you choose: a theme that surprised you, a result you disagree with or your goal. Sharing is your choice; preparation is not.
Your deliverable: one insight and one question for discussion.
How your themes connect to the rest of the courseOdyssey Plans, prototypes and your work life
- Odyssey Plans: check each of your three plans against your confirmed themes. A plan that uses none of them deserves a hard question.
- Prototype conversations: ask people in a role how much of their week uses the theme you care about.
- Designing Your Work Life: your watch-out is often the thing that drains you at work. Name it early.
- Interviews after graduation: “What is your greatest strength?” is easy to answer with a theme plus a real story.
Do this, not thatHabits that make assessments useful
Do this
- Treat results as preferences you can learn around.
- Look for the same theme in two or more places.
- Back every theme with a real moment.
- Ask someone who knows you about results you doubt.
- Pick one goal and practice it for weeks.
Not that
- Using a result as a label or an excuse.
- Trusting one report as the whole truth.
- Comparing scores with classmates to rank people.
- Throwing out every result you did not like.
- Setting five goals and practicing none.
Before classCheck your synthesis
- [ ] Every assessment in the battery is complete.
- [ ] Each report has a line that sounds like you, one that surprised you and one you disagree with.
- [ ] At least three Good Time Journal moments are tagged with themes.
- [ ] You can name one confirmed theme and the moment that backs it up.
- [ ] Your goal starts with a verb and names a setting, a feedback partner and a check-in point.
- [ ] No labels: your wording says “I prefer” or “I tend to,” not “I can’t.”
- [ ] You know what you are willing to share in class and what stays in your journal.
Go deeper
Back to all BUAD 427 topics · Next: Getting Unstuck: Mind Mapping and Reframing
Part of BUAD 427 Designing Your Life and Career, taught by Lane Morris, PhD, in the Smith GLS human-centered leadership program, toward the Human Centered Consulting Certificate.
Frequently asked questions
How should I read the results of a leadership self-assessment?
Treat the report as a hypothesis about your preferences, not a verdict on your ability. Read it once for your gut reaction, then mark one line that sounds like you, one that surprised you and one you disagree with. Find a real example for the first and ask someone who knows you about the last. Then look for the same theme across other tools.
What is the difference between strengths, behavioral style and personality assessments?
Strengths assessments name what you tend to do well naturally. Behavioral style assessments describe how you act with others, such as pace, directness and need for structure, which can shift by setting. Personality assessments describe broad, fairly stable preferences, like where you get energy. None of them measure skill, and you can learn behaviors outside your preferences.
Why should I not use assessment results as labels?
A label turns a preference into a limit, as in "I am an introvert, so I cannot lead the meeting." Results describe tendencies, not boundaries. Reword them as "I prefer" or "it costs me more energy to," then add a plan. That keeps the insight and leaves room to grow, which is the purpose of leadership development.
How do I combine several assessments into themes?
Write your top results from each tool in plain words and tag each with a theme, such as connecting with people or analyzing. Add moments from your Good Time Journal when you felt engaged and energized. A theme that appears in an assessment and in real moments is confirmed. A theme only on paper is something to test.
How do I write a leadership development goal from my assessment results?
Choose one confirmed theme or one strength you tend to overuse. Write a behavior that starts with a verb and that a teammate could see, name the meeting or setting where you will practice it, pick a feedback partner and set a check-in point. One goal practiced for weeks beats five goals you forget.