Mesh Peer Review 2021

I did a post last December on a MESH assessment, comparing how I'd rated myself between 2019 and 2021. At that time, I only had my own data, so I could only compare how my own self-perception had evolved over the past two years. Now I have the data from my peers, so I am able to compare how I perceived myself in 2021 vs how others perceived me.

When I was scored in 2019 I had four people assess me and their results were combined. This time around I also had four people, but two of them are different.

If you don't know, MESH is a system to determine your emotional intelligence, which is judged based on how congruent your self-perception is to how others perceive you.  This is determined by filling out a questionnaire where you are asked to imagine yourself in a number of different scenarios and you rank examples of how you might react to them. Then you have three or more people answer the same questionnaire from the perspective of how they think you might act. The questions are stated in a way that makes it seem like there isn't a straightforward right and wrong, but there definitely is because in the end you are graded from 1-10 over 36 categories. They don't let you score lower than 5, though.

This time the total average I gave myself was 4% higher than what I gave myself in 2019, meaning that my self-esteem improved by that much in two years. My peer assessment this time around matched what I gave myself in 2019, which means that in 2021 I scored myself a bit better than other people did, but I think that's natural. I don't have my 2019 peer assessment, but I remember that I scored myself higher than what other people gave me that time as well. If my 2021 peer assessment matches my 2019 self assessment, and my 2019 peer assessment was lower than that year's self-assessment, then that means my peer assessment scores must also have increased over the past two years. So overall improvement in both metrics.

I won't state my numerical scores for each one, but I'll go over the categories where the results were of note, such as if there was a disparity between how I view myself and how others see me, or if I was especially strong or weak in an area.

The places where I scored myself weakest were Growth Focus and Empathic Accuracy. For the latter, my reviewers generally agreed that it was an area for improvement, but gave me a slightly better score than I gave myself. Empathic Accuracy is the ability to accurately assess other peoples emotions through verbal and non-verbal cues. If I recall, this is an area that I've grown weaker at since my last assessment. Maybe it's due to the lack of in-person interaction over the course of the pandemic.

For Growth Focus there was a huge discrepancy. I saw it as an area of weakness while others saw it as an area of strength. Growth Focus is the ability to improve oneself through seeking support, which means that I think I behave as a lone wolf type, but other people don't see me that way. Maybe this means that I ask for support regularly, but secretly need more than I let on.

The places where I scored myself highest were Motivation Style, Curiosity, Collaboration, Openness, and Influence. Gave myself perfect 10s for all of these. My reviewers agreed that these were areas of strength for everything except for Motivation Style.

Motivation Style is the ability to work hard toward achieving a goal without the need for external encouragement. Apparently I find myself very self-motivated whereas other people think I'm only okay.

The areas that my peers scored me weakest were Ambition and Intuition. Huge disparity for both of these, as I viewed them both as areas of strength.

Ambition is the drive to set and achieve challenging goals. I believe that I have drive, whereas other people see me as more relaxed. Makes sense, I think I project an image of being "chill" and don't like to let people know when I'm under strain.

Intuition is the ability to come to conclusions with little information. The description says it has to do with integrated thought and emotional processing. It says that while I view this as a strength of mine, other people don't see me as the type to "follow my gut". I probably don't act on or express the conclusions that I develop.

My peers thought that my greatest strength was Civility, which they gave me a perfect 10 for, and which I agreed was an area of strength. Civility is the ability to "disagree without being disagreeable", to speak in a way that invites dialogue despite the presence of heightened emotions.

Here's a rundown of how I scored in all 36 categories:

Self-perceived strength, viewed by peers as area for improvement: Motivation Style, Ambition, Intuition, Enthusiasm, Agency, Versatility, Metaperception, Clarity, Follow Through, Principle, Consideration (11)

Self-perceived weakness, viewed as strength by others: Growth Focus, Introspection, Receptivity, Appreciation (4)

Mutually agreed areas to improve: Boundary Setting, Empathic Accuracy (2)

Mutually agreed as average: Composure, Optimism, Compassion, Attentiveness (4)

Mutually agreed as strengths: Curiosity, Collaboration, Openness, Influence, Civility, Emotional Awareness, Mindfulness, Self Assurance, Confidence, Objectivity, Divergent Thinking, Determination, Validation, Candor, Approachability (15)

These categories can be divided into four quadrants: Personal Baseline, Performance Keys, Communication Baseline, and Leadership Keys. Back in 2019, I was strongest in Leadership Keys. In 2021, it's a tie between Leadership Keys and Personal Baseline.

Overall, I feel positive about my results. I'm in the green (over 80%) for both my self and peer reviews, and both perceptions have increased by about 4% over the past two years.