Which Peanuts Character Are You?

 

You are Snoopy!
Take this quiz!

So I took this “Which Peanuts Character Are You” quiz that a friend of mine sent to me and I came out as Snoopy, but I’m not exactly sure why. Seriously, life of the party? I’m the guy at a party that always jumps up to answer the door, stays busy in the kitchen or spends his time running to the store to get more ice.

There are a multitude of personality and preference tests out there and aside from the temporary amusement they provide, I find the most practical use of these tests is to take them yourself and then ask others who know you to take the same test on your behalf. To clarify, you want them to take the test as if they were you, based on their own personal knowledge of your preferences.Try to get a few people to do this. Ask someone who knows you in your work environment - preferably both a supervisor and a subordinate, another from a social setting, perhaps a family member who’s known you all of your life, an ex-girlfriend or ex-boyfriend, and lastly the person who you would think knows you the best.

Have them all send you the results and ask them to keep a list of their responses to individual questions - let them know that they don’t have to share these with you. If you get the same results from everyone on the list, congratulations, it means you are a transparent person and remain consistent across a variety of situations.

If you get a variety of responses it doesn’t mean that you are schizophrenic. It simply may mean that you favor certain environments over others and are more natural and comfortable in those situations.

Lastly, compare your own self assessment with those of the people who evaluated you. If they are different it doesn’t necessarily mean that you should change how you behave or that you should challenge the results from these people. It may mean, however that there is a disconnect between how the world sees you and you see yourself. This can be valuable information especially in work situations when you are relying on the perception of a supervisor to give you a raise or a promotion. It’s also valuable information in a group setting when you are trying to create a high performing team by combining diverse resources.

What should you do with the results? Well if you already asked these people to take the test on your behalf and they did, they’re probably more than willing to talk to you about the results. Knowing “what” is a great first step, but knowing “why” is a whole lot more helpful. Now this is critical: when receiving feedback from someone that is personal in nature, do not treat this as a deposition or a debate, challenging their assumptions or views. If you do this, they’ll never play your game again and worse yet, they’ll see you as someone that is not genuinely interested in honest feedback or someone they should necessarily trust or invest their time on. When receiving feedback, listen intently, ask a clarifying question or two if you don’t fully understand what they are saying and then thank them. That’s it. Thank them for taking the time to give you their point of view and change the topic or leave. You can let them know that you’ve asked a small group of people to take the same test on your behalf, if you want to, but don’t tell them you posted it on your MySpace page and are in the process of collecting feedback.

By asking these people to participate, you have made yourself vulnerable and you’ve made them feel that they are an important person in your personal development and growth. Simply saying “thank you.” is a great way to demonstrate that you take them seriously. Lastly, they might be wondering - now that they feel that they are a part of your inner circle - what you are going to do with the results of your feedback. An easy and great way to provide closure is to pick one or two items that you feel you can work on and let those people know how you are committed to working on them - one or two items only. Don’t send people a laundry list of how you are planning on changing your life. It’s boring and it creates the impression that you don’t have focus. Let these people know that they can continue to help you by communicating constructively when you are displaying behaviors that are inconsistent with your goals. By doing this, you’ve just created a network of people all vested in your success. How cool is that!

Now, I’m not endorsing this particular test as one you should base your life on, but you have to admit that it isn’t a very intimidating place to start.

Time for me to go ask Henry what he thinks of me being classified as Snoopy. I’m not sure his paws can click the individual keys to take the test on his own. In fact, I’m not sure that Henry and Snoopy would even like each other.

Cheers,

-Coach Adam