What are your main personality traits?
You need to find five to six key words which will describe your personality – this will set the tone for all your future communication. Every time you write or post anything you should make sure that it reflects your defined personality.
It is fairly easy to confuse Personality and Values. The simplest way to think about it is in terms of what they mean in the context of your WhyMe?. Your Values are the codes of behaviour which you believe are important – they are the way in which you are trying to live your life. Your Personality is about the qualities that you show to other people – there will be a link between them. For example, one of your Values might be that you are open to new ideas while the personality trait that reflects this might be ‘adventurous’. Or you might have a Value which is ‘always committed to finding the best’… which as a personality trait might be ‘thorough’ / ‘incisive’ etc. As with your Values you don’t want to be too one-dimensional, so avoid having all fluffy and soft personality traits, you need to strive for balance.
Again, probably the best place to start is by thinking about how people you know might describe you. Your defined Personality trait must be rooted in reality, there is no point in pretending to be outgoing if you are reserved and shy.
Write a long list of words that you think describe your Personality – eg. ‘funny’, ‘thoughtful’, ‘lively’, ‘reserved’, ‘conservative’, ‘outgoing’, ‘up for a laugh’, ‘inquisitive’ etc. We have provided a list of ideas, which you can review here to start you off but you don’t have to select any of them if they are not right.
Once you have a long list, review it weeding out anything negative, clumping similar traits together and then narrow it down. Ideally you want five or six different Personality traits which link with your Values. Think about how the people you know would describe you – you can always ask them if they think what you have said is a true and fair representation of your best characteristics.
When thinking about your selection bear in mind the following factors:
- Is this how I want to be seen?
- Is this how I want my key target audiences to see me?
- Is this true?
- Is this me at my best?
- Have I missed anything out?
Look at the Values you have defined – your Personality is the embodiment of your Values.
Once you have defined your Personality, write a short sentence explaining each personality characteristic – this will help bring clarity.