The PQ Assessment is not designed to be the last word on your ability to partner. Partnering skills are complex and intertwined within one’s personal experiences and psychological makeup and are situational in nature. However, we have discovered that the higher the trust level in a relationship, the higher the PQ score. Conversely, the lower the trust level, the lower the score. Based on the feedback provided by the thousands of participants who have taken the PQ Assessment, it accurately reflects people’s self-perception of their ability to partner.More important, it frames the context of the discussion and describes what attributes make partnerships successful. It provides valuable insights into individual, team, and organizational strengths and weaknesses based on behavioral descriptions of what makes partnerships thrive.
Partnering skills are indeed counterintuitive to most of us. “Looking out for #1” is today’s mantra for society in general. In a partnership, we must shift our mind-set from looking out for ourselves to looking out for our partner and ourselves together. This takes a different set of skills—skills that many of us are uncertain about and uncomfortable using. Therefore, when you read a statement that makes you feel uncomfortable, examine why you feel uncomfortable with the statement rather than dismissing it as invalid.
Bottom line, no matter how we interpret the statistics, most of us need to learn how to be better partners. If we are good, we can get better. If our partnering skills are weak, we can improve them. Our Partnering Intelligence is a learned intelligence, which means all of us can become smarter partners.