Personal Benefit
As the premier non-clinical instrument for measuring human behavior and occupational strengths, the Birkman Method provides a wide range of personal and professional applications including:
- Self-Awareness
- Self-Management
- Individual Development
- Career Guidance
- Team Building
- Team Development
- Coaching
- Family Coaching
The Birkman Method provides an excellent “picture” of a person’s interests, usual behavior, needs and stress behavior. Along with this it gives insight into one’s perceptive filters, management style and organizational focus.
Specifically, The Birkman Method® measures and describes individual differences in four primary structures – effective behaviors (Usual), social and environmental expectations and preferences (Needs), ineffective behaviors (Stress), and occupational interests (Interests).
The first three structures measure 11 behaviors each along the three dimensions (Usual, Needs, Stress).
Usual Behavior – descriptors of an individual’s own effective style of dealing with relationships and tasks. These behaviors are typically described as positive or effective in manner, though not necessarily in result. Each of the 11 Usual behavior scales are constructed as bipolar descriptors of style so that persons with a low value are described as approaching relationships and tasks in one manner and those with a high scale value are described as approaching them in an opposite, but equally effective manner.
Needs – descriptors of an individual’s preferences or expectations of how relationships and tasks will be governed regardless of perceived social correctness. These 11 bipolar scales describe how the person wants or needs others to act toward them and what types of behaviors the person wants to be required to express for extended periods of time. Thus, the assessment draws a distinction between the “socially correct” behavior a person exhibits in formal or early contact situations and how the person wants to be treated by others. This distinction recognizes that significant numbers of people “know how to act” in a relationship or task but would rather have a life that didn’t require that particular style of action from them for extended periods of time.
Stress – descriptors of an individual’s own ineffective style of dealing with relationships or tasks. These 11 behaviors typically describe “how he/she acts when under stress”, “how he/she behaves when frustrated”, or similar terms. It is described as ineffective, negative, and non-productive (or productive but costly in terms of relationships).
The fourth structure, Interests, describe an individual’s expressed preference for job titles based on questionnaire instructions to assume equal economic reward. Interest scales describe an expressed motivational construct. Persons with high scale values tend to prefer to be engaged in activities consistent with the common responsibilities of the interest scale meaning. The scaling measures general interest, akin to job families, rather than attempting to measure interest in a specific job.
For any individual that is serious about understanding themselves and self-leadership the Birkman Method is an invaluable tool. The Birkman questionnaire is completed over the internet and is followed by a comprehensive report and personal debrief.
