Handwriting: The Baseline - How are you motivated?

When you interview that potential candidate and have decided to ask them for a Handwriting sample, be sure to hand your candidate blank paper as opposed to lined paper. Blank paper will allow your candidate’s writing to find its own direction and size without the restriction of lines and margins.

Should your candidate request lined paper because they don’t feel comfortable with blank paper, you’ll know your candidate prefers structure to being more free-flowing/creative. Should you see your candidate use some sort of edge (whether it be a ruler edge or the edge of another piece of paper) as a baseline for their writing, it suggests your candidate has a strong need to feel in control.

Baselines can move in a multitude of directions; the line direction itself indicates whether your candidate is motivated from within or allows outside circumstances to influence them. Those candidates who have a steady baseline when writing on blank paper are self-motivated. This is a person who is reliable, dependable and sincere with others. They will be a person who can maintain productivity and who can keep things in perspective and under control. This type of person will likely be quite goal oriented.

People with a fluctuating or vacillating baseline are more other-motivated, affected by reactions to their environment. They will be more susceptible to being influenced by outside circumstances or the expectations of others. Long-range projects may be challenging for this person because they prefer to wait and see what the immediate holds.

The person whose baseline ascends the page is optimistic and has an upbeat personality. A gently ascending baseline indicates the individual will be enthusiastic and buoyant. A baseline that resembles a steep hill suggests someone who is overly optimistic or who has aspirations that are unrealistic.

The baseline that moves ‘downhill’ could be broadcasting a period of discouragement or pessimism. It will be important to know whether this is something that happens in their writing all the time, for if someone is used to writing on lined paper, it is possible that their baseline will pull downward toward their body naturally without any discouragement evident.

A writing that begins the line steadily or in an upward direction and then falls downhill at the end of the line suggests someone who starts off with determination and a good attitude, but somehow loses energy as time goes on. Such a person may lose energy throughout a task or become discouraged or pessimistic as they move through tasks. Conversely, a baseline that begins well and then droops down like a sagging mattress and then moves upward toward the end of the line is someone who may become discouraged, but pulls themselves out of it to ‘win the game’ in the end.

Be sure to view my 5-minute “Power of the Pen” DVD on my Home Page at www.elainecharal.com!