Reflecting (Northwest Heading)

People who favor a NW Heading may seem quiet, especially in large groups; yet their inner life is not quiet at all. Rather, it is a richly passionate experience with deeply felt meanings, values, images. They have a deeply imbedded sense of values and may serve as the moral or ethical backbone to groups—quiet but resolutely loyal to their values. They tend to thrive on creative and focused work where they feel connected to enduring and important qualities of life. They will likely quickly feel drained if burdened with too much commonplace administrative detail.

Formulating (Northeast Heading)

People who favor a NE Heading enjoy the creative and purposeful work of formulating something new. Systems thinking, theories, concepts, plans, strategies, invention, innovation—these are the stock and trade of people whose energy for work moves in this direction. Work that requires complex problem-solving, creating order out of chaos, research, and discerning underlying or unifying patterns and systems will typically be invigorating. Routine, practical, detailed tasks will often wear them down.

Associating (Southwest Heading)

People who favor the SW Heading enjoy creating social harmony. They thrive on associating with others in every form that may take—meetings, conferences, seminars, conventions, events or daily work groups. They are highly attuned to the feelings, moods, behaviors and temperaments of the people around them. They readily champion the efforts of others. They do well at establishing and sustaining organizational norms, being quite attuned to social convention and standards. They thrive wherever empathy and social skills are needed. Solitary work with data will tend to drain them of the enthusiasm for people they are so eager to share.

Producing (Southeast Heading)

People who favor the SE heading must be producing something new. They must make progress, reach goals, organize procedures, direct, make decisions and respond to changing circumstances. They thrive on action—getting things organized and accomplished. Just conceptually formulating order out of chaos will never be enough. Once a solution is at hand, they must take action. They typically thrive wherever work requires decisive action regarding concrete problems. Passive, contemplative, conceptual work will tend to frustrate them and wear them down.