@RWS
Great question.
The answer is yes and no.
I think I’m generous, kind, approachable, caring, compassionate, so in short form this is where I say no, I don’t agree.
That said, I’m driven, competitive to a goal (not inside a team), I like to win, I want a mission accomplishment, so sometimes that means being direct, unambiguous, clear, which some people can read as tough, hard core, etc., so yes to the question above.
The aforementioned psychs and I got in a good argument about this years back. I was in a large professional services partnership at the time, and thought of myself as a partners partner, would do anything for one of my partners, give them my performance numbers to help them, show up to help on a client, etc., and the psychs said that wasn’t me - you can imagine I went weapons hot on them and disagreed. They laid out the data, from their vast test set, and tons of interviews. Their clarifying statement was, if that person shared my views, like objective, mission, mode, team, etc., (not religion, or any of that stuff) I’d give anything, but if they did not, I would treat them like they don’t exist - pretty good insight and likely more true than not true - a good insight. I work on that most days, recognizing not everyone is wired the same, and try to meet folks in a less intense way, without giving up my mission.
Probably more than you wanted to know about me, but that’s the unvarnished truth.
Do you agree with their impression of you?
I ask because I’ve heard this numerous times over the years from my team when they describe me and I’m always surprised by it.