The science of Fascination
One of the things I love most about my work is that I constantly get to discover new trends and innovations, interesting studies or inspiring people. Through one of my client and after doing some online research, I discovered Sally Hogshead's Fascination Advantage Profile.
Sally is a well-known North American publicist-turned-inspirational-speaker, and the author of the bestselling book "Fascinate, Revised and Updated: How to Make Your Brand Impossible to Resist". Her work on the 'science of fascination' emphasizes the importance of understanding and leveraging your strengths to build rapport and credibility with others - something many others have also noted, but she brings a unique perspective to it.
What makes her contribution particularly interesting is that she identified a series of archetypes now used by branding specialists for both personal and corporate brand positionning. I might incorporate her tool into my own work too, especially in my leadership onboarding program ("what do you want your personal leadership to look/feel/sound like in your new role?") and in the shaping of employee communications as a straightforward way to ensure consistency with the company brand.
Building on these carefully selected archteypes, Sally has developed a profiling tool called the Fascination Advantage Profile. It's an interesting exercise, and I believe that it has added value, particularly for those looking to launch their own businesses. However, it's a bit pricey for what you get: there's quite a bit of fluff (understandable, given that she's a publicist & copywriter afterall...) and the core of the message is relatively straightforward. As of the time of writing, a standard basic profile costs 78$.
The profile highlights the two most important characteristics (what Sally calls ‘advantages’) from a set of seven, prioritizes one over the other, and then labels you as one of 42 archetypes. The idea is that when you communicate using your main advantages, you come across as more authentic and confident, making it more likely that you’ll leave a positive impression.
The 7 charateristics are:
- innovation: the language of creativity
- passion: the language of relationships
- power: the language of confidence
- prestige: the language of excellence
- trust: the language of stability
- mystique: the language of listening
- alert: the language of details
You can find the clickable format of the archetype matrix she developed here.
Which of these do you think would be your primary advantage?
What advantages would you chose for your brand, your team, or your organization?
My profile
According to Sally’s research, my profile is a combination of ‘Prestige’ as my primary advantage and ‘Passion’ as my secondary. This combination makes me a ‘Connoisseur,’ and my three adjectives are “insightful,” “distinguished,” and “in-the-know.”
While I’m not sure I would have picked ‘Prestige’ for myself initially, after some reflection and discussions with those close to me, I think it’s actually quite fitting. My profile suggests that I understand what others need, am skilled at selling ideas, creating vivid images of positive impact, making new connections, and sharing my knowledge. It also indicates that I’m less inclined to embrace change and have a tendency to carefully avoid failures...
Should you take this profile too?
I find the model with the seven advantages intriguing and see its potential in framing any type of branding effort. However, in my opinion, the profile report - especially at that price - is a bit too shallow. The document is visually appealing and uses bullet points and frames to make it more engaging, but it feels like this is compensating for content that is somewhat repetitive and could easily be condensed into a two-page report (as opposed to the 15 pages currently provided!). I appreciated seeing a ranking of all the 7 advantages in my profile, from most to least prevalent, but did not like the two pages dedicated to trying to upsell me other products...
If you already have a few years of business experience and used other profiling tools, I don’t think this profile will reveal anything new about yourself or how others perceive you. However, I do like the model and the matrix Sally has developed, and I think it offers great potential for any branding and communication efforts. I would recommend exploring it as a best practice when crafting corporate communication.
In any case, let me know what you think if you try it out too!
Good to know: Sally also sells advice on how to create your personal anthem, using your profile's adjectives. I tried it and came up with "insightful conversations" to characterize what I do. If you are attentive enough, you will find those adjectives and this anthem in a couple of places on my website now... ;)