Foundational Premises

Truth In Alignment

At the core of CarnegieChem®'s philosophy is a belief that alignment fuels authenticity. Now that you've completed the CarnegieChem® assessment, you can begin to understand yourself and your teammates in an intricate and intimate way. Your personalized results identify who you are, what motivates you, what your weaknesses may be, and what personality types you are naturally drawn to.

However, as with any personality assessment, it is one thing to quickly and simply read your results and quite another to reflect on their meaning and then use the insights you arrive at to inform the way you navigate the complexity of human to human interaction within this world. CarnegieChem® empowers you to do the latter because knowledge is one thing, but informed action is quite another.

In order to realize the benefits of truth in alignment, you must accept that authentic expression is only possible through intentional and repeated actions and behaviors that are tethered to your unique personality.

Let's use one aspect of your personality profile, your Persona, as a real-world example of how the actions you take may either align with or branch away from who you intrinsically are. CarnegieChem® has classified you as one of many possible Personas (check out the Personas tab to learn about Persona theory and CarnegieChem®'s unique Personas).

The Power Of Persona

Established psychological principles suggest that people may choose to portray different Personas to make themselves appear more desirable in different situations. Indeed, even without realizing it, you may act one way at work, one way with friends, and another way at home with family.

At a base level, there is nothing intuitively wrong with such practices. Maybe on the basketball court or in a fierce game of Scrabble, you want to express yourself more competitively. Indeed, some might even contend that it is simply human nature to adapt to those situations in which you find yourself. However, at your core, there is a single Persona that most closely represents your true sense of self, and that has been identified within your CarnegieChem® profile.

Cognitive Dissonance And Core Self

Diverging too far or too frequently from your authentic Persona can result in you feeling the effects of what is known as cognitive dissonance. These effects come from the subconscious discomfort people feel when the actions they take contradict their beliefs, values, or, as CarnegieChem® contends, their true personality. Such discomfort may be felt through a sense of dread each Sunday night as you anticipate going into an office the next morning where you are expected to act a certain way. It might be the annoyance of having to claim that it's "not a problem" to attend an extended family dinner at a steakhouse despite you being a vegan. These effects, whether solely emotional or even physical symptoms such as back pain, stomach aches, or headaches, are only amplified within those people who lack a firm grasp of who they are and what motivates them.

The good news is that thanks to your commitment to learning more about yourself and what makes you tick through CarnegieChem®, you have now joined those who have identified their core sense of self and discovered their core Persona. Choosing to act in ways that are truly, fully you, and connecting with others in a more honest and genuine way will help you ensure that any negative effects of cognitive dissonance become a thing of your past.

Consistency & Endurance Of Personality Expression

Understanding your core sense of self yields many daily benefits; it helps you to walk through life with greater confidence; it guides your decision-making and the paths you choose to explore; it helps you to connect with others more meaningfully; it allows you to remain true to your sense of purpose and pursue your goals with fewer challenges and with a greater chance of meeting them.

Decision fatigue

Decision fatigue is a well known psychological principle that claims that everyone has a unique capacity to make decisions based on their traits and characteristics. When someone's threshold for decision making is exceeded, it can result in the inability to make any decisions (cleverly known as analysis paralysis) and certainly the inability to make those choices that are true to who they are. Every day presents you with thousands of choices, some large, some seemingly small. From what you choose to have for breakfast to what time you leave the house — each decision reduces the balance of what can be termed your "willpower bank."

It is important to preserve your willpower bank for the most important decisions you'll encounter each day, which you can do through making similar decisions in consistent ways. Introducing structures, rules, or guidelines into your life that align with your truest self will help you to maximize consistency.

Authentic Self and Decision-making

To arrive at such guidelines, it is worth taking the time to consider how your Persona — in combination with your unique values and beliefs — should show up in this world. Then make the types of decisions that, when made once, will not require you to reconsider them, unless your values and beliefs change.

When you consistently embody your authentic self through making decisions that don't deplete your willpower and instead conserve it for the most consequential choices, you will travel through life with a certain comfort, assured of yourself and your actions. Tapping into a greater alignment, consistency, and endurance of your expression of personality that rings true with those you encounter will position you to better realize the potential in human connections and relations at the place where authenticity and opportunity meet.