when should you do this?

• Try it after a party, when you’re replaying three things you said and one thing you probably

should not have said.

• Try it after a first date, a weird dinner, a job interview, a reunion, or any social event that leaves a little smoke in the air.
• Try it after a work meeting where you were either too quiet, too eager, too polished, or just

strange enough to wonder how it all landed.

• Try it when you’re feeling unusually confident.
• Try it when that confidence has just been dragged behind a bus.
• Try it for yourself. Then have your partner, your friend, your sibling, or some other qualified

observer fill it out too. That is often where things get interesting.

Do not fill it out like Brad, that 'motivational trainer' HR brings in every few months to get you all hyped up about the company's new logo.

You know Brad.

‘I trust my colleagues.’

‘I bring authenticity to every room.’

‘I value collaboration.’

Brad is not helping.

This works best when you answer based on what you actually do.

How you behave at a birthday party. In a tense room. Around strangers. Around friends. Around

people you want to impress. Around people you can’t stand. When you’re ignored. When you’re

admired. When your boss is irritating you. When somebody cooler than you walks into the room.

That’s the material.

Not your résumé voice.

Not your polished self-description.

Not the version of you that exists only in your own publicity department. Or on LinkedIn

The point is not to sound good.

The point is to get a real read.