For many employees, seeking higher rungs on the corporate ladder is a strong goal. The perceived control of being a manager and a leader however is often not well thought through.

Today I interviewed a young woman who was in hot pursuit of her bosses job. However, upon using a personality test and carefully interviewing her, it was clear that the 47% fit of her personality for an executive level job was pretty accurate.

She tended to see herself as liking to work alone, was edgy and impatient with people, did not handle stress very well, and was more subjective in her thinking than objective. Some of these areas can be worked on in development but some are very very unlikely to change.

We all have talents and traits that, for the most part, we are stuck with. The best fit for us is the one that uses our natural talents and traits rather than some aspirational goal that fits neither us nor the organization we belong to.