Perceptual Style Theory

The primary application of PST is to identify Perceptual Style and to measure the degree to which a person recognizes and uses their natural talents.

The Perceptual Style Assessment (PSA) and Talent Assessment (TA) were developed to measure the set of constructs described by Perceptual Style Theory (PST). The theory and assessments have gradually evolved over a period of 30 years, but the general methodology has always included clinical, theoretical, and empirical criteria in the process of assessment construction. 

Perceptual Style Assessment

Perceptual Style is identified by the PSA. This assessment determines Perceptual Style by measuring a person’s identification with adjectives that are descriptive of each of the six  Perceptual Styles. The PSA  delivers a single Perceptual Style result that is described in detail in the Celebrate You action guide. There is a Celebrate You  action guide for each Perceptual Style. Each Celebrate You action guide provides descriptive information in twelve key areas:

•  Perceptual Experience
•  Optimal Environments
•  Time Orientation
•  Learning Preferences
•  Communication
•  Perspective on Change
•  Keys to Motivation
•  Approach to Conflict
•  Team Participation
•  Management Tactics
•  Leadership Approach
•  Art of Persuasion

In addition to specific skills for each of the twelve areas, information is presented about how a person with the Perceptual Style that is described interacts with people who have one of the other five Perceptual Styles. Every possible paring is listed with important sources of attraction and frustration highlighted.

The function of the PSA results as presented in Celebrate You is to provide enough information to an individual about their Perceptual Style that they can understand, identify with, and claim their innate attributes, skills, and capacities. 

Talent Assessment

Measuring the degree to which a person recognizes and uses the natural potential associated with their Perceptual Style is the purpose of the TA. The TA builds on the PSA results by measuring a person’s preference/attraction to groups of skills known as Natural Action Capacities.

A natural capacity is the innate potential a person possesses to excel at specific skills and abilities because of their Perceptual Style. In other words, because of Perceptual Style people are naturally gifted at many complex groupings of skills and abilities that they perform and can be observed as they take action…..Natural Action Capacities.

The difference between natural and acquired skills is key to understanding the power of Perceptual Style. Everyone has natural capacities, skills, and abilities. They also have acquired capacities, skills, and abilities. So what’s the difference?

•  Natural refers to innate potential. People may or may not be aware of all the natural capacities, skills, and abilities they have. Often these skills come so easily to them that they assume everyone can do them with the same ease. Natural capacities, skills, and abilities are a person’s unique gifts – the things they are destined to excel at if they choose. 

• Acquired refers to capacities, skills, and abilities that are foreign to a person’s natural repertoire and that they have consciously developed over time. While a person may be very proficient in these acquired skills, they pay a price for their development and consistent use. Using acquired capacities, skills, and abilities represent the classic definition of WORK – they require more focus, more concentration, more energy, and more effort than things that are natural.

PST defines 18 Natural Action Capacities (NACs). Each NAC is supported by literally hundreds of skills and abilities. The Talent Assessment measures current (point in time) preference for each of the NACs and how they fit with the person’s Perceptual Style. The results of the Talent Assessment provide a roadmap for personal awareness and growth by identifying which NACs are currently: 

• Talents – NACs that are strongly supported by skills and abilities that are aligned with an individual's Perceptual Style, and they are recognized as skills and used often,
• Opportunities – NACs that are supported by skills and abilities that are aligned with an individual's Perceptual Style, but they are not yet recognized and used intentionally,
• Endeavors – NACs that are supported by skills and abilities that are recognized and used often but are foreign to a person's Perceptual Style, and
• Distractions - NACs that are supported by skills and abilities a person has little interest in performing and that are totally foreign to their Perceptual Style.

Want to discover your Talents and Opportunities? Click HERE to find out more about how!

The 18 NACs described within PST are:

• Advisor – people acting in the capacity of an Advisor resource others with opinions, judgments, and evaluations in order to direct them toward actions, decisions, and goals.
• Arranger – people acting in the capacity of an Arranger create a general framework by linking a vast range of people, activities, and relationships from which unexpected and original results emerge.
• Connector – people acting in the capacity of a Connector resource others by providing access to their networks in order to provide others with collaborative solutions and opportunities for new creative activity.
• Delegator – people acting in the capacity of a Delegator accomplish goals through determined effort, assigning work to those they have conscripted, setting high expectations for productivity, and constantly raising standards.
• Director – people acting in the capacity of a Director transact to provide clear priorities and direction to others in exchange for loyalty, obedience, and commitment
• Enroller – people acting in the capacity of an Enroller resource others with subtle interpersonal insight and contextual understanding in order to allow others to integrate smoothly into a community.
• Expert – people acting in the capacity of an Expert resource others with specialized, difficult, hard to find, or obscure information in order to broaden others’ comprehension of the order and structure of the complete subject matter.
• Implementer – people acting in the capacity of an Implementer design and create methods that function efficiently and repetitively to produce effective results over and over again.
• Initiator– people acting in the capacity of an Initiator transact to provide others with a vision of the future and a promise the vision is achievable in exchange for belief and a willingness to follow.
• Liaison – people acting in the capacity of a Liaison transact to provide an experience of belonging and appreciation to others in exchange for involvement and a willingness to join with them.
• Maintainer – people acting in the capacity of a Maintainer keep the behavior and relationships of others in harmony with the natural flow of events within the environment.
• Mediator– people acting in the capacity of a Mediator transact to provide knowledge and information to others in exchange for a willingness to learn and discover the natural order of things.
• Negotiator – people acting in the capacity of a Negotiator transact to provide structure and stability to others in exchange for consistent effort and productivity.
• Orchestrator– people acting in the capacity of an Orchestrator use multiple strategies that they test, change, and abandon as they look for the shortest and fastest path that leads to the realization of their vision.
• Proceduralist – people acting in the capacity of a Proceduralist adjust existing processes and systems in order to make them run smoothly and correctly.
• Representative– people acting in the capacity of a Representative transact to provide attention and an experience of being important to others in exchange for appreciation and a willingness to be an audience.
• Researcher – people acting in the capacity of a Researcher resource others with sophisticated, complex information systems that provide thorough knowledge on individual subjects, and their inter-relationships, in order to bestow insight to others about the external world.
• Strategist – people acting in the capacity of a Strategist resource others with new compelling ideas, theories, and concepts in order to influence their beliefs, values, and immediate experience.

TA results are presented in the Live Your Talents action guide. This guide provides a step-by-step plan designed to help people claim those NACs that are their Talents and Opportunities and do less of or totally let go of those they have developed as Endeavors.

Which of the eighteen NACs do you prefer? Click HERE to find out more about Your Talent Advantage!