By Mike Bossy

A Kolbe ‘A’™ Index is not like other personality tests in that its results do not depend on your mood or the circumstances in which you may find yourself. This is why it is referred to as an Index. Ninety percent of the time you only need to take the Index one time. The other ten percent may not get an accurate score because they are in transition. The Kolbe Index results are confirmed ninety eight percent of the time.

I was thinking about my experience with the education system. The average Canadian will now likely spend twenty years in the system. In looking back, I was always bored with the schooling part. It wasn’t until I took my Kolbe ‘A’™ Index when I was in my mid-thirties that I had the “AHA moment” and determined why.

My efforts were unfocused, and I always felt I did not have a Natural Advantage to learn (memorize) the way the teachers required. Everything, and anything, was more interesting than what I was being taught. I was like our family pet; someone would yell “Squirrel” and I would look up. If you waited five minutes, I would change my mind.

In school, it wasn’t that I wasn’t smart, but rather my own “Unique Ability™” was a combination of my cognitive (intelligence), my affective (willpower) and my conative parts of my mind. It was also a combination of my Action Modes®, and although in a given situation I may have lead with one Action Mode over another, at the time this was deceiving.

Do yourself a favour. Have your children take a Kolbe Index. The conative parts of their mind will rule instinctive behaviour. It is not a learned behaviour, it is instinctive. Both the cognitive and affective parts of your mind are learned behaviours. One’s environment impacts acquired behaviours and are therefore subject to change.