Exploring Strengths with Personality and Preference Inventory (PAPI) Assessment

Written by Pooja Pangoria, Software Engineering Group Director, Bangalore

“You alone are enough. You have nothing to prove to anybody.” – Maya Angelou, Poems by Maya Angelou (1978)

In today’s world of rapidly changing technology and ideas, we need to stay on our toes to keep up. During my 19 years working in the Physical Verification Industry, we’ve gone from using 180nm technology to 3nm technology. Considering this acceleration of change, should human minds and personalities change alongside these advancements? Being fixed in our approach doesn’t help innovation and creativity flow. Now, the challenges we face are much more complicated and multi-fold than when I started my career.

Since joining Cadence 10 years ago, I have moved through diverse profiles, from Product Engineering to Software Development. Now, I am a Software Engineering Group Director within the Pegasus Team. Thinking back on my journey, moving from a mid-level employee to a leadership position has presented many unique challenges to resolve along the way. Each promotion was a learning experience, and it enhanced my personality. So, when I was assigned a Personality and Preference Inventory (PAPI) assessment workshop as part of the company’s skill development program, I thought, “What more insight can it give me that I don’t already know?” Of course, I knew me. I have always prided myself on being positive; hence, I joyfully attended the two-day workshop. By the end, my mind was blown by how much we can learn about our strengths and areas of improvement from organized training.

Self-Aware Personality

The PAPI assessment report gave me insight into my strengths. They were mostly aligned with what I know, but I also received a few surprises. My career view has always been centric to self-fulfillment, and my family is the central core of my life.

Surprisingly, while I have always been open, honest, and invested in my team, it was done so subconsciously that I realized it was my strength after reading through the report. Another surprise was that I shared a strong emotional connection with my team. Was I intentional in doing that? Probably, yes, when I reflect on it now; however, this was subconscious, too.

The best surprise was that I was a “Strategic Thinker.” Early in my career, I was given strong feedback to develop this, specifically if I wanted to move up in the hierarchy. I was glad and pleasantly surprised by my journey to improve and achieve strategic thinking in our project execution.

Understanding myself through a fresh lens of the PAPI assessment helped me put everything in the right perspective instead of just innately knowing my strengths. I could articulate and showcase my strengths better. Hence, I began my journey of self-love and self-confidence six months ago.

Enriching Personality

Of course, every assessment comes with areas for improvement. There were many that I should “enhance,” but some things intrinsic to your personality are difficult to change in a short course of time. For example, being emotionally intelligent, I needed to hold back my emotions to display patience and calmness with tact, which I wasn’t comfortable changing yet.

Also, I could clearly see that I am lagging on “Making myself shine,” “Influence,” and “Networking”. These are the three qualities I most needed to hone my leadership skills.

Making Myself Shine

When anyone admired my work—maybe my manager or a customer—my typical response was to smile and say it was a team effort. I never once said, “Thank you, I really appreciate your kind words.” Reflecting on it, I realized what held me back! It was because I didn’t like to be in the limelight. So, I decided to work on this aspect. For me, everything starts at home. I started small, working with my innate group of friends and family. When they appreciated me, I said, “Thank you,” and showed my happiness instead of shyness. This helped me practice it effectively and slowly, and it became part and parcel of a normal day at work as well. I proudly accepted showcasing my talent and my hard work. I have since started communicating more effectively with my manager about my team’s achievements as well as my own (you have to start somewhere, right?).

Then came the biggest surprise of all—we wrote a paper for CIC India 2024 on a topic that my team does as part of our everyday tasks for helping time-critical tapeouts, and this paper was selected as a finalist! You never know that the things we do as part of our daily activities can be so prominent until they are showcased. A classic example!

Influence

Impactful communication is an important trait for a leader. At the mid-senior level, you always need to make sure people are on board with your decision on deadlines and execution (this starts with your manager), making sure you hear everyone’s suggestions and not leaving anyone out. As an individual contributor, I would not expend too much energy explaining my thought process and rationale behind a decision. But, as you grow, you need all stakeholders to be on board with your line of thinking. So, I started making agendas to set clear goals for every meeting, constructively decide on deadlines, and keep and pursue them. After listening to Jody Sheldon’s talk at CWC Global 2023, my key takeaway was to start meeting one-on-one with stakeholders with whom I faced a challenge in the alignment of goals. One-to-one meetings are the best way to deliver feedback and constructively conclude on such topics. I saw the effect in person when I took on a recent role of leading a product within the Pegasus team.

Networking

Networking is everyone’s devil. While I was told that women are, in general, great at networking, I hardly step out of the house and don’t have many “best” friends. I always have been good at connecting with people when I really want to make an effort, but networking was a daunting experience. However, once I connect with someone, everything else falls into place, so recently, I have started an exercise. Whenever I travel, I make it a point to talk to a stranger at the airport or person sitting next to me. Start small somewhere, right? I will let you know how it goes…

Finally, I would like to end with a quote that I feel is very apt:

“Owning our story and loving ourselves through that process is the bravest thing that we’ll ever do.” – Brené Brown, The Gifts of Imperfection (2010)

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