Highlands Ability Battery — Coach Erin Seel

A woman in an orange top interacts with futuristic holographic digital interfaces displaying the globe, data charts, and technological icons.

Skills can be acquired over time, but you’ll experience greater fulfillment and balance in your life when you’ve identified your natural abilities and learned how to put them to use —both in your personal and professional life.

If you’re reading this, you’re probably making a decision about your life and looking for new information or support to help you. Perhaps you are:

Considering a career change
Interested in getting ahead or growing in your current career
A student considering colleges or career paths
An organization developing teams and leaders
Interested in learning more about your natural talents, gifts and abilities
At a critical turning point (stressed, anxious or unhappy in your life/role)

Did you know that you’re born with certain inherent abilities?

The Highlands Ability Battery (HAB) is a highly regarded assessment tool rooted in decades of scientific research. It’s used by well-trained HAB consultants (that’s me!) to provide you with objective confirmation of your natural talents. This experience gives you a strong foundation for choosing or changing your career, leveling-up in your current field, adjusting to new life circumstances, or simply increasing your enjoyment of daily life. For more information on exactly what the process looks like, scroll down to the FAQs.

If you’re considering coaching or skills/style assessments, you’ve probably done a lot of thinking about your options. You probably have some ideas about your strengths and weaknesses, as well as your likes and dislikes. However, you may be lacking specificity, clarity, and the language to describe your experiences and preferences. Often times, people rely on external resources as their sole source of feedback for what they “should” or “shouldn’t” do with their lives. Without new information from a credible source, they’re likely to fall back into a familiar cycle, repeating the things they’ve done before or settling when a random opportunity presents itself.

The HAB provides specific, objective feedback that can be used to make meaningful, actionable change in your life. Knowing the difference between skill-based and ability-based performance can guide how you spend your time, effort and energy. Clarity about self-descriptors such as being a “people person” or good at “sales” can focus you on taking jobs that utilize and appreciate your greatest strengths.

A colorful circular diagram illustrating the stages of career development, starting from Values, Family, Personal Style, Interests, Skills, Abilities, Career Development Cycle, Goals, and ending with achieving personal and professional growth.

Exploring abilities within the context of the whole person

My sister is one of those rare people who decided on her career at age five…and then followed through. This almost never happens! In addition to your abilities, many other factors influence the course of your life and ensure that the decisions you make are uniquely yours.

The Highlands Whole Person Model identifies eight career decision factors that interact and should be considered when making major changes in your life and career. I can help you understand the Model and how it relates to you, create a personal vision or mission statement that represents who you are, and zero in on your ultimate goals.

Learning about our Whole Person Model ensures that you take your “whole self” into account when making decisions right now…or at any future turning point throughout your life.

Take the HAB

HAB FAQs

The HAB is a unique assessment capable of uncovering your inherent, natural abilities. A comprehensive series of interactive, virtual worksamples gives you an objective, in-depth report of what you’re naturally good at. Not what you want to do or what you think you should do, but what comes naturally to you. The HAB also provides practical insights for improving performance and feeling more fulfilled using what you’ve learned about your abilities.
We’ll start by scheduling a 30-minute introductory session to discuss the assessment as well as your personal goals. Then you’ll complete the assessment online at your convenience. You’ll be asked to perform several exercises with the option to pause between them if needed. Your natural abilities will be charted and explained in several customized reports, including insights related to general performance, work and educational environments, and career fit. As your Highlands Certified Consultant, I’ll go over your results with you in a 90-minute debrief session. I’ll explain your reports and other tools available to you so you’re able to understand and utilize your results most effectively. Depending on your needs, you have the option to continue our coaching relationship after the HAB.
The HAB measures basic human abilities such as visual speed and accuracy, ability to work with numbers and designs, reasoning abilities, idea flow, verbal aptitude, structural visualization, hands-on abilities, musical aptitude, several applications of memory and more. For a complete list, click here.
The HAB is unique in that it measures your abilities based on performance rather than perception. In addition, it measures natural talents, not skills. Skills can be learned or depleted over time whereas natural talents develop by age 14 and don’t change with practice. Skills are useful, but they take more time, effort and energy to use. Knowing where your natural strengths lie gives you an advantage and helps you discover your real source of creativity and energy.

To thoroughly understand and absorb the knowledge gained from the results of the assessment and highly detailed reports, you will meet for about 2 hours with a Highlands Certified Consultant. This is a requirement when taking the HAB. HCCs have completed an extensive training program to interpret your HAB results, guide you through your reports, and answer questions. Not only does research support the importance of this interaction, it is the most frequently mentioned aspect by HAB takers. Read more about the value of the debrief here.
The HAB is for you if you want to play an active role in your personal and professional choices and development. It was created to help individuals understanding their natural abilities in order to choose best-fit roles and responsibilities. It is intended for curious people wanting to equip themselves with objective self-knowledge that is useful both on and off the job.
HAB takers recognize the power of self-awareness for purposes of making well-informed, intentional choices. The HAB has helped tens of thousands of people, many of whom refer back to their results as they make decisions over decades.