Know Thyself Exercise 2: Daniel Offman's Core Quadrants

Summary: understand, clarify and be kind to one’s own imperfections & those of others.

A personal example:

• Core quality: One of my core qualities is to give of myself to others. Every conversation is an opportunity to understand how the other is doing and incentivize self reflection & insight. It comes naturally to me to coach, develop and facilitate for others.

• Pitfall: Too much of “giving to others'' results in me not putting myself first, nor asking for help when I need it. I can communicate “how are we doing as a business”, but I cannot tell you what a great human being I am: I can self-sacrifice.

• Challenge: The opposite of self-sacrificing is self-confidence; focusing on helping myself before I help others. My development lies in standing up for myself, in putting my needs before others: I admire leaders who do this effectively.

• Allergy: Too much of my challenge, self confidence, results in my allergy: arrogance. I get an allergic reaction from egocentric people. I have an attuned radar to spot self-centered people who only take, but dont give. If I'm interviewing someone, I will pay attention to how she/he speaks about her/himself, for example. I have an unfair negative bias towards it: they are exhibiting too much of something I lack.
  

  
  Exercise Instructions:
  

• Core Quality: Gifts of life you are born with, through which you express your true, authentic self. They are effortless and easy for you vs. others: it’s even difficult not to do it. It colors how you see the world and how you behave. If you can express them in your work & daily life, you will feel good, be in the right place and you will inspire others. What are your core qualities?

• Pitfall: “Too much” of your core quality. The feedback you get when people say “dont be so…”. It also helps you reflect on others: what you dont like in them is too much of their core qualities. What would be “too much” of your core qualities?

• Challenge: The opposite of your pitfall. It’s what you need to develop to balance your core quality. You admire this in others, but you find it hard to do it yourself. This challenge is what completes you, what balances your own core quality. What would be the opposite of your pitfall?

• Allergy: “Too much” of your challenge. It’s the opposite of your core quality. If your colleague’s pitfall (too much of their core quality) is your allergy, you will end up in conflict. Yet it’s the people you dislike the ones you can learn from the most (their core qualities being your challenge). What would be “too much” of your challenges?

Daniel Offman puts it, “there is no light without shadow”. As much as the model helps rationally, it’s important that the adjectives and descriptors you write down “feel right”. Are those the core qualities that really characterize you? /pitfalls/ are those the challenges you really face? Are you really allergic to that? Write down what most resonates with you.

I have mapped out 10 core quadrants for myself, 2 of which I have committed to myself to work on, including the example above.

Resources:

The model as explained by Daniel Offman himself: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gFxr8GBiEoI&ab_channel=DanielOfman
Infographic visual version of the model: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mtRgHQjun0Q&ab_channel=DanielOfman
Vocabulary aid of pitfalls and qualities: https://mindbrouwerij.nl/qualitiespitfalls/