Every November, I pull out my personality assessments and reread them. I collect them the way some people collect wine: enthusiastically, and with strong opinions about each one. Blame my Enneagram 7 for signing me up for every one, and my ENTJ for arguing with every report.
The results are revealing. PCM gave me a clean zero in Imaginer, the type that waits quietly for direction. (Waiting quietly? Never heard of it.) Hogan puts my composure under pressure at the 99th percentile, yet DISC says my Steadiness barely registers. I don’t get flustered; I just don’t sit still. My favorite is a Hogan Commerce score in the 1st percentile, which is awkward for a business developer. Luckily, my top motive is Altruism. It turns out people like doing business with someone who cares about them.
I don’t take any of them too seriously. None of them is the whole truth, and a few contradict each other. But each one has taught me something useful, and together they’ve made me a better colleague, leader and person. Only one has ever caught me in the act, though, and this time of year it’s the one I reread first.
Why this matters now
November and December put pressure on almost everyone at once. I am no exception. Year-end deliverables, budgets and performance reviews pile up just as the holidays bring travel, family logistics and expectations of their own. The days get shorter, and energy dips. Add the general uncertainty most of us carry into work, and our stress behaviors surface more often and with less warning.
For leaders, the stakes are higher. Teams watch us most closely when pressure peaks, and our stress behaviors spread to them. A leader who gets sharp or goes quiet in December sets the tone for everyone heading into January. So at the end of the year, for my Borderless team and everyone I work with, I want to get this right.
What I look like under pressure
Read together, my assessments paint a remarkably consistent picture.
Hogan: Being hard to rattle isn’t the same as being easy to work with. My report warned that I can underestimate the pressure the people around me are under, simply because I’m not feeling it myself.
DISC: Under pressure, my C (the detail-and-accuracy style) flips up. When I start fixating on details and correcting other people’s work, that tells me I’m stressed. Used well, it’s also a valuable quality check.
Thomas: I overcommit and make quick decisions under time pressure. Slowing down is a discipline I’ve had to learn.
PCM: My base is Thinker, so I lead with logic and structure. Under pressure, that tips into overcontrol. Of all my assessments, PCM gave me the clearest picture of my stress behavior. More on that below.
The day PCM caught me
Several years ago, I was under considerable pressure on my projects while trying to create the perfect holiday for my family. I was completely overwhelmed and just as completely unable to delegate or ask for help. As I banged around the house, a story started looping in my head. I was the only one who did anything. No one else was even capable of doing it.
Fueled by that story, I boiled over and lashed out at my family. (My poor INTP husband.)
Then it hit me: what I was doing matched the stress warnings in my PCM profile almost word for word. I sat down on the floor and started laughing at myself. It was textbook Thinker distress: overcontrol, frustration that no one else was carrying their share, and refusing the help I needed.
Every assessment I’d taken had described my stress behavior. PCM was the first one that let me see it while it was happening. It has been the gift that keeps on giving, because a pattern you can recognize is a pattern you can interrupt.
Five ways to get ahead of Q4 stress
Know your pattern. Whatever instrument you’ve taken, find the section on stress or derailers and reread it now. If you haven’t taken one, ask someone who knows you well what you’re like under pressure. They already know.
Catch the early signals. Stress behavior starts small: an extra round of edits, a shorter email, a canceled meeting. These are much easier to correct than the outburst they lead to.
Listen for the story. My most reliable warning sign is the narrative in my head. “No one else can do this” tells me I’m already in trouble. Watch for “should” language too: They should know this by now. I should be able to handle it.
Meet the need underneath. Each of us is fueled by something different, whether recognition, structure, time alone, connection or fun. Stress is often a sign that the need isn’t being met. For a Thinker like me, it’s recognition for my work and a clear structure for my time.
Lead with it. Your team often feels your stress before you notice it. Watch for the colleague who goes quiet, the one who gets sharp and the one who suddenly needs reassurance. They may all be under the same pressure, just showing it differently. A quick check-in, a shifted deadline or a sincere thank-you can do more than any year-end speech.
The goal isn’t to eliminate stress before the year ends. That won’t happen. The goal is to notice it sooner, respond with more kindness, and every now and then, find yourself on the floor laughing.
Tell me in the comments: what’s your stress tell?
By Rosalie Harrison
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