The East Coast recently experienced a blizzard that was reported on widely. Here is an example of a weather report at Forbes.com written from a Structural point of view. Note the careful attention to details (inches of snow, number of cancelled flights, cost of cleanup, etc.).

Here is an example of a weather report at CBSnews.com written from a Social point of view. Note the attention to the human interest of the storm (stranded travelers, cancelled schools, happy children sledding, etc.).

The moral of the story is that we all have innate preferences that influence everything we do. Both of these reporters provided fair and balanced articles about the blizzard, but they were influenced by their preferences. Recognize your own attributes, and know that it is always easier to go with your innate strengths. Understanding them is the key to better performance.

I love both talking and writing. If you could see my Emergenetics Profile, you would recognize right away that I have a lot of Expressiveness that has to go somewhere. This is my first blogging experience, and Im excited to find a new way to share my lifes work. Blogging forces me to sit down and compose my thoughts in writing, but happily I can anticipate your responses in return. Falling somewhere between a slow conversation and a rapid exchange of letters, blogging lets me tell you what is on my mind, and hear back from you about what is on yours.

I have been told that in this first blog I should introduce myself. My name is Geil Browning, I am the founder and president of Emergenetics International and The Browning Group International, and I do corporate consulting, leadership coaching, and one-on-one executive guidance. I come from a long line of teachers, and my teaching gene combined with the Expressiveness I just told you about makes me eager to tell you all about Emergenetics.

With my colleague Wendell Williams, Ph.D., I developed the Emergenetics questionnaire, a self-assessment instrument that reveals each individuals unique combination of Thinking Attributes (Analytical, Structural, Social, and Conceptual) and Behavioral Attributes (Expressiveness, Assertiveness, and Flexibility). Each personality attribute is given a spectrum, so your Emergenetics Profile is a picture of where you place yourself on all seven spectrums. You can access all seven traits to different degrees, but you will always return to your natural set point for each one.

Check out this page to see what an Emergenetics Profile looks like, and how we use different colors to represent the seven different attributes.

Also read the extended entry to see definitions of the different attributes.