To: Mr.

Mendel
From: Michael Plant
Date: March 27, 2020
Subject: Personal Brand Narrative

Introduction
The following paper was written to evaluate myself in terms of my professional ability and
personality, by taking a self-assessment survey, as well as surveying 5 personal respondents.
Included is the differences between how I rated myself and the respondents, common themes
within respondents’ feedback, and ways I can improve myself in the future.
PeopleStyle
My respondents identified me as a Driver which is different than what I assessed myself as
which is Amiable. This might be because when I don’t know something I will ask for
clarification or logic when talking with people, both professionally and socially. This might
come across as being more assertive when stating something I don’t know and asking for
clarification so that I might be able to fully understand the topic or idea. My respondents rated
me as being more assertive and less responsive because I’m perceived as being more dominant
or intimidating during conversation due to my loud and talkative nature when I zero in on a topic
I’m passionate about. I believe this has to do with me not being very talkative naturally so when
I get to open up and talk about something I know a great deal about, I express myself with
excited energetic conversation.
Culture Map
For the most part my self-assessment results were on par with how my respondents assessed me,
except for little variations. The biggest differences can be seen when looking at my self-assessed
culture map under Deciding and Trusting. My self-assessed score for the Deciding category
taken at the beginning of the semester was 2.6 and my respondents’ average scored was 0.83.
This is a huge margin when a significant difference is no more than 1 point higher, according to
the directions on D2L. I believe this difference comes from my subconscious desire to allow
people the freedom of choosing between options. What I mean by this is that I don’t know if my
choice is what other people want, so I’ll give out options of what I want and have the other
person compromise by settling with an option that’ll suit both of our needs. The disconnect
comes when I perceive myself giving out these options as being decisive, rather than pleasing.
The other category in which there was a difference in variation was under Trusting. My self-
assessed score for Trusting was 3 and my respondents’ average score was 1.3. This is another
significant variation because the difference is higher than 1 point. The reason why I believe this
disconnect happened is because I might say something without realizing I should be keeping it a
secret. Another reason why this might’ve occurred is because I am a very straight-forward
person and try to help remedy situations by talking.
Common Themes
The common themes in the respondents’ messages describing me and my core values are;
passionate, honesty, integrity, and hardworking. These themes were common in my self-
assessment and I believe it is because these themes are interconnected. For example, earlier I
talked about how the disconnect between seeing myself as Amiable and those in which see me as
a Driver. When I am passionate about a subject, I cannot stop mentioning it to people and get
overly-excited. This brings out my honesty on the topic and what I know or do not know, which
bleeds into other areas of my life including my professional work ethic. I will be completely
honest, give the job my-all, and expect the same in return.
Feedback
Based on the respondents’ feedback, they perceive me, similar to the way I perceive myself. This
is either by cause-and-effect, in which I want these characteristics so I take actions that will lead
others to perceive these about me, as I stated in the self-assessment. Or the reason might be
because I am who I am as a result of my life circumstances and I am. I take action either by
expressing via verbal instructions or through some other action taken. However, there is always
room for improvement and I received feedback to improve other areas of myself. For instance,
one of the respondents said that my respect for people sometimes leads me to not speak up for
my own actions, rather than going with what they say. I will adjust this by speaking up for my
opinion and ideas more by being more assertive. Sometimes I feel like I tower over a room and I
rectify the situation by being quieter since I perceive myself as being louder than I am.
Conclusion
This paper sought to evaluate my perceived-self from my ideal-self based on a self-assessment
survey and five peer respondents. Using this feedback, the most important lesson I learned from
this assignment is that I am biased about how I perceive myself. While none of the responses
were too surprising to me, it’s because I have a very honest relationship with everyone I meet.
Even though others perceive me somewhat differently than how I perceive myself, I am
cognizant of that fact which means I am aware of my own actions and how they impact those
around me, professionally and nonprofessionally.