Basics

There are many ways to start learning about how to brand yourself, but I recommend knowing about yourself first.  Self-awareness and self-examination are pillars of personal branding.  To present an authentic, trustworthy, and articulate brand you MUST know yourself.  This is my

One way is to examine yourself through the lens of tests, assessments, workbooks, and the like.  Below you’ll find my often updated list of resources for personal and professional greatness.

Workbooks – Worksheets – Plans – Templates – Guides

Personal Development

• 4th Step Moral Inventory
• Individual Development Plan | UC Berkley

Career Development

• Creating a Professional Development Plan | Educause
• Career Planning Notebook | British Columbia Public Services
• Career Distinction Workbook | Reach Personal Branding
• The MAPP Test

Branding

• Personal Brand Workbook | PwC
• Personal Brand eBook | Pace

Personality – Career – Assessments – tests

There are three main types of tests used by professionals and hiring managers.  I recommend taking tests and evaluating the results so that you get a better picture of how you look as an individual – your talents, skills, and innate abilities – and as a possible job candidate.

The Myers Briggs Assessment is one of the tests designed to tell you what type of person you are.  There are 16 personality types with in-depth information on how to interpret the results.  The essence of the theory is that seemingly random variations in behavior is actually quite orderly and consistent, being due to basic differences in the ways individuals prefer to use their perception and judgment.

The DiSC is a behavior assessment tool based on the DISC theory of psychologist William Moulton Marston, which centers on four different behavioral traits: Dominance, inducement, submission, and compliance. This theory was then developed into a behavioral assessment tool by industrial psychologist Walter Vernon Clarke. It is not a personality assessment. DiSC shows your behavior when the person is in a particular environment. For example, most people would say they do not behave the same at home and at work – but they are the same single personality.

The IPIP-NEO, or Personality Assessor is used to gain a more precise score and understanding than the standard Big-5 Personality Test.  The IPIP-NEO in an acronym for ‘International Personality Item Pool – Neuroticism, Extroversion & Openness’ and is a personality questionnaire that assesses people on the Big Five model (Created by Costa et al.) of Openness, Conscientiousness, Extroversion, Agreeableness & Neuroticism. It is a scientifically based test of personality traits, and is generally accepted worldwide as one of the more highly regarded, and accurate, personality questionnaires. Individuals’ answers to the test are compared with others’ results, giving a standardized way to test personality, and without the comparison to others results the test becomes less meaningful.

The Kolbe Index is something rather new to me.  While this test isn’t free, it is affordable to those who want it and priceless to those who need it.  Kolbe measures a person’s instinctive method of operation (M.O.), and identifies the ways they will be most productive.