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 Executive Expos? You can fool some of the people? The buzz on the street is all about branding. You, not the position you hold, are the new star of the show. Executives who formerly schmoozed headhunters when their careers skidded off track now hire PR pundits to polish the image, tweak the strategy, beef up the web presence. Everyone from Fast Company to Fortune concedes that packaging the product is big business. An executive who slips away on an extended weekend for an eye tuck or chin lipo can be seen recuperating poolside reading about the Free Agent Nation. CEO camps and power speaking seminars charging $7,000+ have added classes in "web wizardry" to the standard weekend curriculum of golf, body language (steadfast eye contact, confident stride) and acing the interview. Yes, you can learn how to deduce desirable answers to psychological tests, and make the content of your correspondence ring true, but the handwriting itself has proven to be many an executive's downfall. There's now snowing a graphologist with a glib manner, and easy smile, a firm handshake. The handwriting analyst never meets the potential recruit, thus his/her judgment cannot be swayed by Ivy League credentials or professionally crafted resumes peppered with stints in the dot.com jungle. Long after a candidate's charisma has faded, his handwriting remains, to be studied and interpreted - stripped of the hype. Graphology precludes the margin of error so frequent with other hiring systems where the subject has advance knowledge of the testing methods. Keep in mind that the spoken word originates in conscious thought, and that it is calculated to serve a purpose. Handwriting is an action performed without awareness or conscious control of the speaker and springs from the unconscious. Once we've mastered the basics, we no longer think about how to write an "h" or "g" and we put our thoughts on paper. In all fairness, handwriting should be called "brain writing", as it is a motor response from the brain. Temperament submerged in the subconscious won't always surface in spoken or written words, but it will be revealed in the slant, pressure, curvature, swell, speed, spacing, rhythm, etc. of handwriting style. It has been argued that since writing is executed by the muscles, it is dependent on physical characteristics of the writer, i.e. a strong man will have strong handwriting. Thousands of experiments have proven this assumption wrong. Amputees, paraplegics, and others who have been forced to write with the opposite hand, mouth or foot, exhibit the same energy patterns as when they were able to write with their hand. Visually, it may not look the same, but psychologically, it "reads" the same, as all of the same personality characteristics are still present. From a graphological standpoint, the features which govern the analysis remain the same. Why? Because writing is not purely a physical process, but one which originates in the brain. Writing style is created by our own temperament and personality (rushed, languid, depressed, easy going, stressed, etc.) thus it will carry the imprint of our character. What does an employer or executive recruiter look for in this projection of the subconscious on paper? Methods of thinking, whether comprehensive, logical, investigative, exploratory, analytical or intuitive are revealed. Desire for responsibility, ambition, self-reliance, creativity, enthusiasm, optimism, objectivity, honesty, will power and goal orientation can be discerned. Fears, defenses, sensitivity to criticism, stubbornness, dependency on others, greed, procrastination, and resentment are reflected as well. What will motivate this applicant to high productivity? How ambitious is he? How does he respond to business pressure? Authority? How energetically will he pursue new ideas? New customers? Does he make decisions with ease? With difficulty? Does he work better with groups? Alone? In the field? How do clients perceive this applicant? How often has a corporation spent tens of thousands with executive search firms or weeks courting the favored prospect only to learn too late that the best selling job he ever did in his life - was on them. The successful selection of candidates through handwriting analysis, whose intelligence, temperament and talent predispose them to a particular field of business or industry is not really new. Squibb International, Stauffer Chemical, Bendix Corporation U. S. Steel, Firestone, Equitable Life Insurance, Prudential Life Insurance, and S. G. Warburg & Co., London, to name a few, have recognized this fact for years. The movers and shakers in business and industry are quietly joining the graphological ranks with those who have discovered that handwriting analysis may be the quickest, easiest, most reliable, cost effective personnel selection method available today. With thousands of web resumes being scrutinized by hundreds of screeners, how will you find that one in a million, that jewel in the crown? Go behind the resume to the gut level energy that can't be forced or faked. Get it in writing. About Ann Mahony We offer this article on a non-exclusive basis. You may reprint or repost this material as long as Ann Mahony's name and contact information is included: [Home]
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