What Is the Hogan Assessment, and what can it tell you about a leader?

What can the Hogan Assessment show that other tools might overlook? Learn how Simona uses it to better understand leadership strengths and areas for growth.

This is what caught my attention when I started working with Hogan. I wanted to understand how others see and experience a person, how their behaviour affects those around them, and what that means for a role, team, or organisation.

Hogan provides a lot of information, but the report is only the starting point. You need to know what to look at, how the results connect, and what they mean in context. Some patterns are not immediately obvious. For an organisation, seeing them now rather than three or six months into a role can make a significant difference.

If you’re new to Hogan, it’s a science-based personality assessment designed to predict how people perform at work. It goes beyond how we see ourselves and focuses on our reputation, how others are likely to experience us on the job. Hogan combines our everyday strengths, what motivates us, and behaviors that might trip us up under pressure. The assessment has been researched and validated for over 40 years based on real workplace performance.

Why I Decided to Add Hogan to My Assessment Toolkit

I already used several tools and methodologies: Saville Wave to assess professional competencies, Process Communication Model® (PCM®) to understand personality and communication, as well as individual and group profiling and 360 assessments to bring in different perspectives on how someone works and is experienced by others.

But when you continue working with someone, observe them at work, or see them take on a new role, you sometimes start to notice their blind spots. We perceive ourselves in a certain way, but we don’t always accurately assess how our behaviour affects others.

This is what Hogan brought to my toolkit: the perspective of reputation, or how others are likely to see and experience us. It offers an evidence-based way to predict behavioural patterns that might emerge only after months of observation. You can begin to see how someone’s actions or leadership style could affect those around them and what reactions it might cause in others.

What Can You Learn About Yourself from a Hogan Assessment?

So where does that information come from? Hogan looks at three different parts of your personality and, importantly, at how they connect.

First, it looks at what you desire: your values, goals, and interests, and what you are likely to pursue. Then comes the bright side of your personality: the strengths that help you achieve those goals. And finally, the dark side: potential derailers, behaviours that could get in the way of your success.

When Leadership Strengths Become Potential Derailers

For senior managers and leaders, potential derailers are particularly important. By this stage, most are already aware of their weaknesses and have worked on them. What they are often less aware of is how they might overuse their strengths.

For example, think of someone who is a great communicator, motivating, inspiring, and outgoing. These qualities can work very well when launching a new project or communicating positive news. But in tough situations, like major layoffs, communication needs to change. In those moments, listening can matter more than speaking.

I observe this in myself too. I tend to talk quickly, I’m outgoing, and I can motivate others. But during a development discussion or a performance review, I have to watch out. If I lean too heavily on these strengths, I might not listen well, miss important details, or fail to make employees feel heard and appreciated.

Or take someone great at managing crises. Making quick, tough decisions is a strength in those moments. But when the team needs inspiration, that approach may not be appropriate.

The same strength can lead to different outcomes depending on the situation. For a leader, the question is whether you recognise when to adjust that strength and understand the impact your behaviour has on others.

“But That’s Not Me”: What if you don’t recognise yourself in your Hogan results?

Sometimes people look at their Hogan results and say, “But that’s not me. I don’t behave like that.” Hogan is not only about how you see yourself. It shows how others may perceive you. So you may not recognise yourself immediately in everything.

Stress, high pressure, and new situations are particularly important. When we don’t know how to respond, we rely on our strongest behaviours because they are what we know best. This is when we may start to overuse them.

When I give feedback, I don’t say, “This is who you are.” I focus on specific situations where a strength might be overused, what that means for the people around you, and how different parts of the profile connect. Then we consider what that means in real life.

“Yes, Yes”, Then They Do It Their Way

Sometimes the pattern is subtle. I might see you as compassionate, people-focused, and adaptable. But behind a polite, responsive person who tends to agree, there could be a passive-aggressive pattern.

If someone struggles to say no or stand up for themselves, a pattern can develop: “Yes, yes,” then they do it their way.

“People Don’t See That Every Day”

Other patterns only become visible under certain conditions. My own profile is a good example. I tend to stay calm in stressful situations. I’m outgoing, communicative, persuasive, and can bring people together around a goal.

I also set high standards for results. If someone doesn’t meet them, I can lose trust. Then my communication changes. The friendly, outgoing person people usually see can become tough, direct, reserved, and cold.

People don’t see that side of me every day, so they might not expect it. But it is there in my Hogan profile. It’s one of my derailers.

“There Is a Lot of Talk, But No Result”

And sometimes the combination makes you look more closely at performance. You might meet someone ambitious and adaptable, who presents well and shares impressive experiences. This is particularly relevant in strong sales or leadership profiles, where someone can be very persuasive.

When you connect different parts of the Hogan profile, you may find something that makes you look more closely at whether the results match the talk. I sometimes call this an empty shirt: there is a lot of talk but no result.

For an organisation, this matters when you are trying to understand how someone might actually perform in a particular role and environment.

How I Read a Hogan Report

Those examples come from looking at the different parts of the profile together. I start with the overview: HPI, which shows the bright side; HDS, which highlights potential derailers; and MVPI, which covers the person’s values and motivations. Then I explore the subscales for more detail on how the person might be perceived by others.

You can’t interpret one score in isolation. I connect the strengths, potential derailers and what matters most to the person. I pay close attention to HDS. While feedback usually starts with the bright side, much of the information relevant to development and coaching is in the potential derailers. These are often blind spots and areas where a person may need more awareness or support.

Then I stop. I don’t jump to conclusions from the report. I ask questions and listen to the person’s career experience, working environment, challenges, expectations and aspirations.

A Hogan report needs context. You cannot simply send an automatically generated report to a client and say, “This person is like this” or “This person might behave like that.” I need to connect what I see with the specific situation, leadership challenge or role.

This is also where my business experience comes in. Twenty years working in international and matrix organisations give me context for both sides: the person and the position, what they are working on now, what a future role might involve and what will be expected of them.

The results tell me where to pay attention. Interpretation comes from connecting them with the person, the role and the situation around them.

Getting These Insights Now Instead of Waiting Six Months

What might you otherwise discover six months from now?

For me, one of Hogan’s biggest advantages is predictability. It provides information about how a person’s behaviour may affect others: their effectiveness, actions, and feelings toward that person.

For an organisation, this means having information now about something that might only become visible three or six months after someone joins.

In hiring, this might mean seeing a potential mismatch before you experience the cost of a wrong hire. In leadership development or coaching, it means identifying potential derailers earlier and having very concrete areas to work on from the start.

What Does Taking a Hogan Assessment Involve?

You complete three online questionnaires covering your values, motivations, strengths, and potential derailers. Each takes about 20 minutes and can be done in your preferred language.

I review your full Hogan report before we meet. Together, we go through the results, connect them to your context, and identify where to look more closely.

I'm the founder of BOC Institute, one of the renowned consulting agencies for international companies operating in Slovenia and South-East Europe.

I coach CEOs and top managers 1:1 worldwide. I'm here to save you time, energy, and money through your objectives, decision-making, and leadership development. I understand we can change the world one coaching session at a time!

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Simona Špilak www.simonaspilak.com