How the Hogan HDS works
The HDS measures qualities that emerge in times of increased strain and can get in the way of good performance. Each of its 11 scales is a trait that often helps at work but can be overdone under pressure: caution, for example, can turn into indecision and delay.
The scales fall into three clusters. Moving Away covers Excitable, Skeptical, Cautious, Reserved and Leisurely: styles that pull back from people and problems. Moving Against covers Bold, Mischievous, Colorful and Imaginative: often charismatic risk-takers. Moving Toward covers Diligent and Dutiful: people who work harder to fix problems and avoid conflict, sometimes at the cost of speaking up.
Since September 2018 the HDS has used a four-point scale, strongly agree to strongly disagree, in place of the original true or false. Hogan says it takes 15 to 20 minutes, and results describe how colleagues may see you when a trait is overused.
How to answer the HDS
The HDS is easy to answer and easy to overthink. Keep to a few rules:
- Read each statement as a description of a habit, not a confession. Many describe things capable people agree with.
- Answer for how you act at work under pressure, when you are tired or busy, not on your best day.
- Choose one level of honesty at the start and hold it to the end. Answering openly and then guarding later answers gives a mixed profile.
- Use agree and strongly agree for different strengths of feeling, rather than answering everything at the ends.
Tips for the real HDS
- Treat a high score as something to talk about, not a fail. It marks a behaviour to watch under strain.
- Think in advance of an example for any derailer you suspect you have, and how you keep it in check. That is the conversation a high score leads to.
- Do not refuse to agree with anything. A profile with no elevations hides information rather than making you look stronger.
- Take it in your strongest language. The HDS is available in more than 40.
Practise the HDS on CogniPrep
Our HDS practice has 77 statements of our own across the 11 scales, on the same four-point scale, one at a time, with no clock and no going back. That is shorter than the real 168. At the end you see a 0 to 100 score for each scale, your most elevated scales and the cluster they fall in, and how often you used the ends of the scale. There is no pass mark and no Hogan report.