The Hogan Development Survey

Your relationships at work are critical to your career success, whether you're a leader trying to build an effective team, or a team member who wants to produce great results.

Some of our behaviors help us to get along with people, while others can damage relationships and undermine our careers – but we might not be aware of what's happening and why.

Harmful behaviors tend to appear when we're not "self-monitoring" or when we let our guard down. This can happen when we're stressed, bored, tired, or distracted. Further, a trait that's usually acceptable – even creditable – can become negative in more extreme situations.

For instance, a person who is naturally cautious can be an asset to the team when there's time to consider options carefully before making a decision. Under pressure, however, that caution can quickly turn into indecisiveness and delay, allowing problems to escalate that could otherwise be "nipped in the bud."

So, how can we uncover and neutralize the potentially harmful elements of our personality? The Hogan Development Survey (HDS) was designed to do this.

It helps people to understand how their behaviors and preferences can potentially damage their workplace relationships with co-workers, customers and team members. This self-awareness can then lead to positive change.

Hogan Development Survey Basics

The HDS is designed to predict possible barriers to career success. The survey is easy to take and to administer – Hogan estimate that it takes about 10 minutes to complete. As of September 2018, the survey uses a four-point response scale, ranging from "strongly disagree" to "strongly agree."

A useful and unique feature of the HDS is that it presents the results from the perspective of your colleagues. For example, if you're the cautious person we mentioned earlier, your results would identify what it means to be "cautious" (careful, conservative, afraid of mistakes) and how others would describe you (a slow decision maker, and resistant to change).

The HDS assessment helps people to see the positive and negative sides of their preferred behavior and style. This is why it's particularly useful for coaches who work with people who don't understand why their careers haven't progressed (despite, for example, having great technical skills).

It's also a helpful and commonly used tool in recruitment and career planning, as it allows managers to predict how people will behave when stressed, and to coach and train people to avoid negative behaviors.

Hogan's 11 Personality Dimensions

The Hogan Development Survey measures 11 personality "dimensions," split across three clusters. If you score at or above the 70th percentile on any of these dimensions, then you may be at risk of displaying the negative characteristics associated with that dimension.

Below, we explore each dimension within its specific cluster, and look at how to interpret the risk score.

Cluster A or "Moving Away"

People with high scores across these five areas tend to distance themselves from problems or stress. They try to avoid risk, and frequently look at things from a negative point of view. They anticipate the worst, and may avoid action and slow down decision making. The Moving Away dimensions are:

• Excitable. This measures people's ability to work under pressure, as well as their teamwork and interpersonal skills.
  People strong on excitability typically show lots of enthusiasm for ideas, people, and projects, but then something happens to cause disappointment. Under pressure, they can become annoyed easily, and they can be moody and unpredictable. It can be hard to work with excitable people because you never know what to expect, and they're often very difficult to please.
  
• Skeptical. This measures the degree to which someone is argumentative, and also their critical thinking and interpersonal skills.
  People who score highly on this dimension are often perceptive and smart, but they can tend to doubt things and look for deceit or betrayal. They're often easily hurt by criticism, and they can become argumentative when under stress. They may seem to enjoy conflict, and will often strongly defend themselves and their ideas when they perceive any insult or discourtesy. Other people can find them aggressive, and are often afraid of retaliation if they do or say something "wrong."
  
• Cautious. This measures people's ability to make decisions, their adaptability, and their ability to take control.
  Cautious people are often overly concerned about making mistakes. They tend to avoid taking initiative, because they fear criticism. They can also be very resistant to change and risk, and others may see them as unassertive, slow and pessimistic.
  
• Reserved. This measures people's interpersonal skills, teamworking skills, and communication skills.
  These people are often poor listeners who prefer to work alone rather than in a team. They often don't recognize social cues, and they can become more and more uncommunicative as stress develops. They often prefer to work independently and expect others to feel the same. People who work with them often perceive them as unfriendly, uncaring, inconsiderate, and self-centered.
  
• Leisurely. This measures people's assertiveness, adaptability, and work ethic.
  High scorers here are usually easy to get along with on the surface, and they're good at making it appear that they're working cooperatively and productively. However, they're often willing to cooperate only as long as things go their way. They can want things done on their terms, they can procrastinate, and they can build up resentment toward others. People who work with them often find that they're stubborn, irritable and bad-tempered, and may believe that they want to be left alone to do things their own way.
  

Cluster B or "Moving Against"

People with high scores in these four dimensions are risk takers, and are often charismatic and well liked.

However, these people can be very focused on themselves, and they may be more interested in what's best for themselves in the short term, rather than what's best for the team or organization in the long term. They can lash out against the target of their problems or their stessors. The Moving Against dimensions are:

• Bold. This measures people's self-confidence and willingness to take responsibility.
  Bold people have lots of confidence in their abilities, but they can make risky decisions because they tend toward overconfidence. In personal assessments, they often focus on the positives and ignore the negatives, and they may blame others for their own failings. People who work with them see people like this as arrogant, opinionated, self-centered, and demanding.
  
• Mischievous. This measures people's tendency to take risks and to "test" rules. It also measures their intuitiveness, and how impulsive they are.
  These people like to cause trouble. They frequently ignore rules, and prefer to work outside of accepted guidelines. They're very charming, and seek excitement. As a result, most of their focus is on short-term gains, despite long-term pain. Mischievous people are perceived as impulsive nonconformists, who rarely commit to any one thing.
  
• Colorful. This measures how much people seek attention, their listening skills, and their productivity.
  People who score highly on this dimension are dramatic and like to be the center of attention. They may interrupt others, they can be easily distracted, and their work is often disorganized. Colorful people are often well liked at work because they're entertaining, but others often don't want to work with them, because they aren't particularly productive, they're unfocused, and they don't listen very well.
  
• Imaginative. This measures people's creativity, foresight, and ability to influence others.
  High scores here reflect the ability to think creatively, and adopt unique perspectives on issues and problems. While some of their ideas are brilliant, their unpredictable actions can often be distracting. Imaginative people frequently don't realize that their unconventional ways are disruptive to the team. The people around them may see them as odd, eccentric, and lacking in common sense.
  

Cluster C or "Moving Toward"

People who score highly on these last two dimensions tend to move closer to problems or stressors by working harder to fix them. They cause little conflict, but they may lack the ability to express their opinions, and this is not helpful over the longer term. The Moving Toward dimensions are:

• Diligent. This measures people's attention to detail, their productivity, and their ability to delegate.
  Conscientiousness, reliability, carefulness, order, and attention to detail are key characteristics of diligent people. They plan, organize and take responsibility. However, they tend to expect everyone to be as hardworking as they are, and often others don't meet their expectations. They can fail to delegate and often overwork, and people who work beside them feel inadequate and distrusted because their work is always being criticized or being redone.
  
• Dutiful. This measures how compliant people are, their ability to conform, and their decision-making skills.
  High scorers in this last dimension are the "pleasers." They work for approval, and they hold back on expressing their opinions for fear of contradicting others. They are polite, easy to deal with, and very agreeable. It's hard to dislike working with dutiful people, but you soon realize that you can't depend on them for critical thinking, because they may just accept bad ideas.
  

Terms reproduced from "Hogan Development Survey (HDS): The Dark Side of Personality." We are grateful to Hogan Assessments for its help and guidance in producing this article.