Discover
where YOUR excellence, success, and happiness is!
The Highlands
Ability BatteryTM (part of our Premier program) is the gold standard among tools assessing human abilities
or aptitudes, which is the cornerstone of the Oxford
ProgramTM.
When
we did our review of career
tests, it came out on top.
More than any
other test, it helps you understand the type(s) of work you should pursue and
the types you should definitely not pursue.
What can you expect from taking it?
-
Understand where
you are naturally talented and which work roles would
make you most happy and successful.
-
Know the
careers and roles you are best "built for."
-
Understand in black-and-white why you would be happy in some fields and not happy in others.
-
Be able to
accurately choose the best option from a group of career/job/business
choices.
-
Make the most accurate career decision possible.
-
Understand what specialization is best in your field or organization.
-
Know what other jobs within your organization
you would be better at (and more fulfilled with).
-
Learn of new career ideas.
| In October, 2002, 32
graduate students at Colorado State University were asked to compare a
number of assessments which they had completed as part of their course. |
The group was asked to rate 4 different
well-known assessments in terms of effectiveness in measuring their
abilities and talents, as well as in guiding them in future career
decisions. The assessments were the Highlands Ability Battery, the
Myers-Briggs Type Indicator, the Strong Interest and Skills Confidence
Inventory, and True Colors.
Percentage of
Students that ranked it #1 in measuring abilities and talents
 Percentage of
Students that ranked it #1 in effectiveness in guiding them in
career decisions
|
Why is measuring abilities/aptitudes so
important?
At the core of discovering your "natural vocation"
is understanding your natural, driving abilities. Most sources of job unhappiness stem from natural abilities not being used, or being forced to perform tasks for which you do
not have the natural abilities.
Research over 40-50 years shows that if a person has a strong
aptitude and doesn't use it, it begins to bug him or her. In fact, that
situation may be at the core of most cases of mid-life career crises, since
people who do not use their best skills often become bored and restless.
If you choose a new career without a knowledge of your innate
abilities, you have a relatively high probability of winding up back in a
career that you find boring, frustrating, or unfulfilling.
What happens when
there is a mismatch between your aptitudes and your job? For anyone other than humans, the
answer to this question is: extinction. But because we humans are so
adaptable, we survive, but at a terrible cost. What gets extinguished is the
pure joy of life spent doing something that comes absolutely naturally. We
spend our days in our job feeling either bored, frustrated, and/or sense that
"something is missing". Sometimes having only one thing out of
whack can ruin your chance for career satisfaction. They key is to find out
what needs to be changed for you.
-
Very
few people know their natural abilities -- that is,
what they are good at without having developed a skill
for something.
-
Just because you're "good
at" your job doesn't mean it fits your natural
abilities.
About Abilities
Each of us is born with the talent to
excel at something. The secret is to identify those
talents, then to use them. Knowing your natural abilities
may be the most powerful piece of self-knowledge available
to you. Your natural talents can help you succeed at
whatever you do. They show you the tasks and environments
that are most conductive to your complete happiness and
success.
Your innate aptitudes
remain with you, unchanging, for your entire life. They are the hand you have
been dealt by mother nature. You can't alter them. You can, however, learn to
play the hand you have been dealt wonderfully and to your best advantage.
One
combination of aptitudes makes the consummate salesperson. Another combination
describes a person that enjoys computer network administration. Another
combination explains why a person enjoys one part of management, but not the
rest.
If you
ignore what we call your "driving abilities", you run the
significant risk of getting into a role that doesn't use your strongest
talents or that loads on a talent you don't have.
"Our
experience has been that a great deal of dissatisfaction at work can be
traced to having strong talents that you never use."
- Bob
Donald, Ph.D. |
|
"Most
people think they know what they are good at. They are usually wrong."
-
Peter F. Drucker,
Renowned author and speaker on management and
leadership |
You get...
-
Highlands Ability BatteryTesting. The test is completed online.
-
Your
Highlands Ability Battery Report. You will receive a personalized thirty-page report explaining the results.
-
Your "Natural Vocation" Report: We use our proprietary matching system to write up a diagnostic report which interprets your scores and recommends everything
from tasks, to careers, to perfect work environment. We combine your HAB scores with Myers-Briggs and CareerFitNow scores to obtain the most accurate results.
 The Results:
Using the insights
learned from the Highlands Ability Battery in combination with
follow-up guidance or coaching achieves a remarkably consistent result: people
experience an exceptionally high degree of satisfaction, meaning,
connectedness, productivity and success in their work and in their lives. |
How accurate is it?
This is not like the
aptitude testing from years ago, or the tests available in certain books out
there. The information and
suggestions that it makes are HIGHLY ACCURATE. Many medical, technology,
business, and science students use this aptitude testing to choose an area of
specialization. Businesses use it to choose the top candidates for important
positions. Entrepreneurs use it to determine the type of business they're
most likely to be successful in. The testing is psychometrically valid and reliable. The minimum reliability standard for the 19 tests that
make up The Highlands Ability Battery™ is r = . 80. It is like getting an MRI for a painful injury instead of a
traditional X-Ray. |
