A chronotype quiz helps you understand the biological clock that controls your body’s rhythms. Your Chronotype may be why you feel grumpy in the morning or at your best at 5 am. It may be why you feel exhausted in the evening or focused by 8 pm. This genetic, biological clock affects more than your sleep pattern. It affects when your optimal times to work, perform, eat, plan, exercise, and more.
Are you a Starter, Pacer, or Anchor? Take this quiz to find out. Discover your Chronotype today by taking the Energy Rhythm Assessment.
What Does Chronotype Mean?
Unlike a standard clock, not every person’s biological clock keeps the same time or pace. Of course, there’s a reason why people say they’re not a ‘morning person.’
Some individuals are more productive in the morning than others, while some function better in the evening. Everyone has an individual sleep schedule that affects their day-to-day performance.
Your body is programmed to wake, sleep, and function much better at certain times of the day than others. People fall into different ‘Chronotypes’ based on general awake and sleep preferences or needs. Your Chronotype reveals what rhythms are optimal for you to work positively with your body, not against it.
A chronotype quiz can help you understand your biological programming better and discover which Chronotype you relate to the most.
What Are The Three Chronotypes?
There are three primary Chronotypes – Starter, Pacer, and Anchor. These Chronotypes correspond with your unique biological clock.
In the workplace, Chronotype matters because it affects the times of day an individual will feel most alert, focus on tasks the best, and what jobs they do best during certain times of the day.
Having varied chronotypes on a team can benefit the team’s productivity and creativity if every team member knows their differences. Teams can get knowledge of their differences, use it to their advantage, and understand how they will feel through healthy collaboration.
The Cloverleaf Chronotype quiz can reveal a lot about a person concerning their energy patterns over a typical 9-5 workday, what tasks are most manageable for them to excel at during specific times of the day, and what their team’s flow may look like daily.
Using the Cloverleaf Chronotype Quiz, you can discover your Chronotype in just 90 seconds. The quiz includes questions to better understand your biological programming to reveal your Chronotype.
Cloverleaf’s Energy Rhythm Assessment draws from research about circadian rhythm and circadian typology. Circadian rhythm refers to the internal processes which regulate the sleep/wake cycle and affect people’s biological and psychological functioning in everyday life, health, and disease (Adan et al., 2012).
Your chronotype is one of three types:
- Morning type (the Starter)
- Midday type (the Pacer)
- Evening type (the Anchor)
The Starter Chronotype is about 15-25 percent of the population.
Starters are morning-type people. The Starter is an individual who enjoys an early sleep schedule and early wake time. Their peak happens in the early morning, and they experience their trough in the middle of the afternoon. This is around 12-1 pm time (lunch hours). Their recovery tends to occur in the late afternoon to early evening, around the end of their 9-5 workday.
The Pacer Chronotype is about 50 percent of the population.
Pacers are most productive during mid-morning. Pacers have a similar energy rhythm to Starters, but their peak happens in the mid-morning portion of the day. Pacers get up early and have their trough mid-afternoon, with a recovery period from late afternoon to early evening towards the end of their 9-5 workday.
The Anchor Chronotype is about 15-25 percent of the population.
Anchors are commonly known as the ‘Night Owl.’ The Anchor will often sleep in and be ready to sleep late in the evening. Their energy rhythm is similar to those that are considered Starters. Anchors experience their peak in the late afternoon to early evening at the end of a typical 9-5 day.
Anchors may have more variability during their trough than Starters or Pacers, but that trough may also be longer. Their trough happens early to mid-afternoon, with a recovery period in the morning (beginning of a typical 9-5 workday). The Anchor will often go to bed late into the night.
Pacers are the most common type among adults. And it’s important to remember that all Starters, Pacers, and Anchors experience a peak, trough, and recovery period in their day.
Understanding Your Chronotype Quiz Results
Knowing your Energy Rhythm can help you determine the amount of sleep and energy you need to excel. Learning more about your team member’s assessment results can help improve collaborative efforts.
Peak time is best for analyzing tasks, requiring lots of analytical and strategic brainpower.
A Trough is best for maintenance tasks – those low-brainpower, straightforward tasks like adding to your calendar or answering emails.
Recovery is best for Creating Tasks.
People experience a rise in energy, mood, and vigilance during their peak. People typically experience a dip in energy, mood, sleep performance, and care during their trough. During recovery, energy and mood take a sharp rise. The peak, trough, and recovery periods occur at different times for people, depending on their Chronotype.
Discover your Chronotype today with Cloverleaf. Take the Chronotype quiz to find out which Chronotype you are to start maximizing your effort and better utilizing your energy.
There’s a lot of conversation happening in the business community around burnout and the impact on the well-being of employees. So, what is burnout and how can we recognize it in ourselves and in our team members? The World Health Organization defines burnout as “a syndrome conceptualized as resulting from chronic workplace stress that has not been successfully managed.” It can also be described as a prolonged response to chronic emotional and interpersonal stressors on the job. Burnout can be broken down into three dimensions: exhaustion, cynicism, and inefficacy.
Exhaustion: Most of the time when we talk about job burnout, we are actually thinking about emotional exhaustion. This is that sense of fatigue, lack of energy, and “I don’t want to do this I really just want to take a nap”.
Cynicism: Cynicism adds to emotional exhaustion. It is recognizing that you are mad at the source of emotional exhaustion. It’s a sense of depersonalization where you become cynical about the source of that extreme work-related stress where you think “ I do not want to even be a part of this anymore.”
Inefficacy: The third dimension is a sense of inefficacy. You just don’t feel capable, you do not feel confident to do this. So, it is not just the feeling of fatigue- it is actually where you start to engage in cognitive processes that are fighting against the source of that emotional exhaustion.
The key question that a lot of people ask is feeling burnout normal? Should I just suck it up and fight through it? And the answer is absolutely not. It is important to pay attention to your mental health and think about why you are feeling burned out. I like to explain the importance of this with a story.
Peter McLeod was an acrobatic pilot for Red Bull for years. When I was growing up I used to go fishing in northern Ontario, Canada every year. Peter is the son of the outfitter where we stayed ever since I was little. When Peter was seventeen he was doing a practice run. His dad, the owner of the outfitter shop, invited us to watch Peter’s trial run. It was insane to watch, he was doing upside-down flyovers and it was absolutely unreal. After the experience, Peter landed and came back to talk with his dad. They went over every single detail of how the plane operated, from whether the noises sounded differently, to the seat adjustment, to reaching the top speed 0.1 seconds faster. It was incredible to hear the conversation. We jokingly asked, “What’s next? Can you come back and do this tomorrow”. Peter’s response was very clinical, “After doing that type of work with this machine, it’s going to take at least a week’s worth of maintenance.”
The point is that the real work is not all the acrobatic flying, the real work is taking care of the machine. Your mind and body are a machine. Like this airplane, it has to handle a lot of stress and crazy events. If you don’t take care of the machine, it’s going to fall apart and you’re going to have a dangerous crash.
Think about what we put ourselves through on a daily basis and then reflect and ask yourself, “How am I doing right now?” which is the equivalent of being able to think, “This feels off…I feel a little bit more tired than usual… I didn’t feel like my best self in this specific circumstance.”
All of those are signals that are trying to tell you that something is a little bit off. And these are to some degree signals of burnout. Do you need to be paying attention to your work-life balance? How much is self-care a part of your normal weekly and daily rhythms? Are you currently under a heavy workload or in a new job or work environment?
After recognizing some of the symptoms of burnout, we will cover the causes and impact of burnout in the next article.
Click here for Part Two: The Causes And Impact Of Burnout
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There are so many unknowns in an interview process. While you research the company and role, there’s no way of knowing exactly how the team at the company works together, exactly what they do, etc. However, one thing you can absolutely prepare for is understanding yourself as best as possible when you step into a job interview.
After you do your research on the company, role, and team, and know exactly where to go for the interview – take some time to dive into what makes you … you. Below are some Cloverleaf features you can dive into to understand yourself better and blow through the interview without having to pause on interview questions like “What are your strengths?” and “How do you work best?” types of questions:
Strengths
During your time with the hiring manager, don’t be afraid to dive into your strengths. By understanding your top strengths from StrengthsFinder and/or VIA you’ll be able to speak to what you bring not only to the workplace but what guides you in your everyday life. Think of an example of how your strengths have awesomely contributed to a past company or role.
For example, if maximizer is in your top strengths, you are likely strong in producing high-quality work.
personality
Think through how you would describe your personality and how this affects your day-to-day preferences and habits in a work setting. Read through your 16 Types results, and come up with examples of how your personality has best fit past jobs.
For example, if you are an ISTJ, you are likely focused more on reality than ideation, so meetings filled with concrete tasks that will contribute to the business are likely a good suit for you.
Team Player
Jot down some of the projects you are most proud of. Were those with a team or more heads down as an individual? Know what type of “team player” you are by reading through your DISC score.
For example, if you are a DC, you likely provide some future view to a group so that you can all prepare for what is to come.
values
Read through your Motivating Values results. Formulate exactly how you will describe how your values align with the job description and role.
Culture
Think about what company culture means to you. What questions do you have about the current company to ask during the job interview? How would you describe your ideal culture? Read through your Culture Pulse results. Be confident on your end and remember you are interviewing them, too!
For example, if you prefer loose organizational control, you likely would enjoy being in a company that does not have many strict, traditional processes or requirements.
Weakness
Be transparent about how you overcome stress. Formulate how you respond to the dreaded but common interview questions like “What are your biggest faults?” You may be able to answer with wisdom from your Enneagram results.
Looking at Directions of Growth and Stress is also a great way to see how you react under pressure, and also how to improve. Answer this question honestly and demonstrate your self-awareness and how you are trying to improve. This type of approach gives you a leg up during your job search and interview preparation, and can often lead to you getting the job offer you’re after.
In the world of hiring, soft skills have recently become the holy grail of recruiting. Soft skills – emotional intelligence and interpersonal skills like communication and empathy – are among the most in-demand qualifications a candidate can bring to the table.
According to one LinkedIn survey, more than half of nearly 300 hiring managers reported that the lack of soft skills among job candidates is limiting their company’s productivity. Recruiters are getting creative in trying to find new hires with talent in communication, time management, negotiating, writing, listening, problem solving, and decision making. Soft skills – the more intuitive EQ – are seen as a better predictor of success than hard skills, which can be taught or trained.
Why are these types of skills the best predictor of success? How can hiring managers design a recruitment process that takes these skills into account?
The Case for Soft Skills
Soft skills are in-demand in nearly every company and every industry.
A Wall Street Journal survey of 900 executives found that 92% said soft skills were equally important or more important than technical skills. But 89% of those surveyed said they have a “very or somewhat difficult time finding people with the requisite attributes.”
Likewise, LinkedIn’s 2018 Workforce Report discovered that the four most in-demand soft skills are leadership, communication, collaboration, and time management.
Are soft skills a better predictor of success? According to one author, yes. Daniel Goleman, author of Emotional Intelligence at Work, found in his research of 500 executives that emotional intelligence – soft skills – was a better predictor of top performance than previous experience or IQ. CEOs at some of the world’s top companies (Amazon, Xerox, and Tesla, to name a few)that lead with emotional intelligence have designed their entire corporate structure around soft skills.
And soft skills aren’t just great for creating a fulfilling and pleasant work environment. The link between profit and leaders with high emotional intelligence is clear. In one study, CEOs whose employees rated them high in character had an average return of 9.35% over a two-year period, nearly five times as much as companies with CEOs who had low character ratings. The case for recruiting for soft skills is strong: but, there’s something to be said for balancing good leadership and communication with individuals who have honed their talent.
Don’t Ignore Hard Skills
However, have some recruiters overcorrected in their search for candidates with high EQ? Maybe, says one expert.
Cal Newport, author of So Good They Can’t Ignore You, believes that to have a successful career, you must develop hard skills that make you an expert in something. There will always be a market for those with competencies and a depth of knowledge in one thing; certain fields will always demand new hires with niche skills and technical training. Newport argues that the more mastery you have in a skill or field, the more control and satisfaction it’ll give you in your career.
While it’s true that technical masters do become top CEOs – Steve Jobs and Bill Gates come to mind – other experts note that eventually, soft skills and emotional intelligence must be learned. Many programmers, for example, have some of the basic hard skills that it takes to run a company. However, they fall short on key EQ traits like listening. The best leaders can learn soft skills over time, but start as an expert in something.
How to Hire for Hard Skills and Emotional Intelligence
Unfortunately, these skill sets can’t be found on a resume and can be hard to define in a job description, which is what makes hiring for them so difficult.
Companies who hire successfully with low turnover have learned how to construct their interview process to cover hard skills and soft skills. These recruiters ask candidates to perform tests mimicking real-world scenarios to get the best prediction of their success in the company. These skills tests then get triangulated with psychometrics and attitude testing.
Plus, the advent of AI has made it possible to weigh soft skills vs. hard skills equally. Where in the past a candidate might wow a recruiter in the interview, but have no mastery over their field, an algorithm can’t be easily biased by a resume or certifications. Smart companies have even begun to customize their interview process for certain soft skills that are applicable to each open position: so extroverts with increased people skills often become your top sales people, while personality traits like listening might lend themselves to the Human Resources team.
There’s a place for both hard skills and soft skills in the workplace: it’s up to your hiring team to find the right combination for success.
Learn how to look for and develop these skill employers value so highly to help you excel by digging deeper into our content here at Cloverleaf.
References
- Claessens, B. J., Van Eerde, W., Rutte, C. G., & Roe, R. A. (2007). A review of the time management literature. Personnel Review.
- Gaskin, J. E., & Skousen, T. (2016). Time-chunking and hyper-refocusing in a digitally-enabled workplace: six forms of knowledge workers. Frontiers in Psychology, 7, 1627.
- Macan, T. H. (1994). Time management: Test of a process model. Journal of Applied Psychology, 79(3), 381.