Professional confidence is the self-assurance felt by newly assigned, enrolled, hired or newly promoted individuals regarding their readiness to handle the stress, competitiveness, vocabulary, workload, instructional or orientation methods, and related complexities associated with their new role. Individuals who strongly manifest professional confidence have a positive sense of efficacy in their professional role.

Communicative confidence measures confidence in oral and written communication and assesses attitudes about technical writing. Individuals who strongly manifest communicative confidence believe that they have the ability to lead groups through the presentation of oral arguments, to read well, and to write effectively about analyses and opinions.

Expression describes a style of interacting with peers that may be quietly observational, expressively performing, or a mix of both depending on context. Expression scores fall into three categories: The “Quiet Observer” prefers to stay in the background and observe others even in social situations with peers.  The “Expressive Performer” tends to be highly demonstrative and expressive, particularly when with their peers. The “Situational Observer or Performer” may present as a quiet observer or as an expressive performer depending on the context. They are comfortable letting others do the talking or, if the occasion demands, being the one who presents information, explanations and analyses.

Teamwork describes a style of interacting that may be collaborative, competitive or a mix of both depending on what is called for in a given situation. Teamwork scores fall into three categories: The “Consistent Collaborator” style may be well suited for professional responsibilities requiring diplomacy and compromise, such as interest based negotiation and arbitration. The “Lone Competitor” style may be well suited to highly competitive practice settings including potentially confrontational responsibilities. The “Situational Competitor or Collaborator” is comfortable with collaborative effort and with individual competition as well.  This style is most effective when working within a collaborative group charged with competing effectively against other groups.

Directness describes a style of behaving and speaking in relationship to questions or pressure from peers or superiors aimed at seeking their approval, or forthrightly declaring one’s views, or a mix of both depending on the situation.  Directness scores fall into three categories: The “Approval Seeker” tends to present to peers, supervisors and others as being highly agreeable, even if he or she must exaggerate positive characteristics and conceal weaknesses to do so. A “Forthright Declarer” prefers to describe matters exactly as he or she sees them, to speak bluntly, occasionally to the point of painful honesty, and to make decisions with little concern for whether or not others would approve or agree. “Situationally Direct” individuals may exhibit forthrightness or may withhold their true opinions depending on the situation.

Intellectual integrity is the discipline of striving to be thorough and honest to learn the truth or to reach the best decision possible in a given situation. A person with intellectual integrity has a driving desire to follow reasons and evidence courageously wherever they may lead. Individuals who strongly manifest intellectual integrity value objectivity, evidence-based decision making, and the courageous, fair-minded, and complete pursuit of the best possible knowledge in any given situation

Cognitive maturity indicates an awareness that there may be multiple potential perspectives on any given situation, problem, proposal or issue. A person who strongly manifests cognitive maturity endeavors to take this into consideration when making important decisions. This person is likely to move forward when an expeditious decision is required, to hold off making a decision if there is time to give the matter fuller consideration, or to reconsider decisions if new evidence emerges.

Mental focus is the discipline or habit of being diligent, systematic, task-oriented, organized, and clear-headed. A positive score indicates a person who endeavors to stay on task and approach problems and learning in systematic, focused, organized, and timely way. Mental focus is valuable because it directs attention to the duties and responsibilities of the task at hand.

Mental rigor is the discipline to work hard in an effort to analyze, interpret and achieve a deep understanding of complex material. Individuals who strongly manifest mental rigor are willing to engage difficult material and to work hard to analyze complicated situations and problems. They display a desire for learning, and a concern to achieve a deep understanding of events and their causes.

Foresight is the habit of approaching problems with a view toward anticipating consequences and outcomes. A foresightful person values clarity and the accurate interpretation of complex problem situations. Individuals who strongly manifest foresight value getting the problem right, understanding the reasons pro and con, and projecting the likely outcomes of various options.

The Overall Reasoning Skills metric on the INSIGHT Professional series represents the integration of thinking and reasoning skills needed to make operational decisions and to address concerns at the professional levels of an organization.

A strongly skilled problem solver at the professional level is capable of analyzing problem situations and identifying the significance of their key elements. Problem analysis is the capacity to identify the critical elements in a problem solving or decision making context. The analytical and interpretive skills used in problem analysis enable the professional to determine the issues that must be addressed and the parameters of the problem at hand.

The successful professional is capable of evaluating options accurately and establishing priorities. A strong score on this scale indicates strength in the core reasoning skills of evaluation and explanation. The capacity of the professional to differentiate the quality of different possible choices and to explain the reasons behind that evaluation are key to successful problem solving by individuals and teams.

Successful professionals have the skills necessary to anticipate outcomes and see logical consequences.  This scale measures one’s skills in drawing logical inferences in those precisely defined and tightly structured contexts where deductive reasoning plays a critical role.  The professional with strengths in this reasoning skill domain will be able to see the applications and the implications of executive directives, company policies, regulations and protocols which both shape and constrain their problem solving.

Skills in problem-solving in contexts of risk, ambiguity, and uncertainty are critical for professionals.  A strong score on this scale indicates excellence in the core reasoning skill of drawing well warranted justified inferences in situations involving probabilistic inductive reasoning, comparative this-is-like-that reasoning, and empirical facts-up-to-theories reasoning. Strengths in this reasoning skill domain lead the problem solver to find the solution that has the strongest likelihood of success, given the information at hand.

To be successful today every business professional must be able to reason well in contexts involving numerical data.  A strong score on this scale indicates skill in applying analysis, interpretation, inference and evaluation to decision contexts where critical numerical information is presented in charts, graphs, text or tables.  Successful business problem solvers demonstrate the ability to interpret and evaluate vital information presented in a variety of numerical formats in order to reach an optimal problem solution.