A More Thorough Approach to Derailment

Both tools address the idea that strengths, when overused, become liabilities. But the AGT provides a significantly more comprehensive model for predicting and preventing derailment.

The AGT's approach is rooted in Aristotle's Golden Mean—the principle that virtue lies in balance, and any strength taken to an extreme becomes a weakness. This isn't new philosophy applied to a modern tool. It's a timeless insight backed by over three decades of Tilt365 research and psychometric analysis, originally developed through the company's 360 feedback assessment and now refined into the AGT.

Where Hogan's Development Survey measures 11 dark-side derailer scales independently, the AGT measures overuse risk across every one of its 12 character strengths, organized into 6 Polarities of Generativity. This means derailment isn't treated as a set of isolated dark-side tendencies—it's understood as a systemic pattern of imbalance across the full spectrum of character.

And because the AGT identifies which polarity is out of balance, it provides a clear prescription: build 10% more strength on the opposite side. Not just a diagnosis—a development pathway.

Tilt365's validation study (N=236) demonstrated statistically significant relationships between Tilt patterns and Hogan HDS derailer scores—confirming that the two models map onto each other, while the AGT captures a broader range of derailment risk.

Going Beyond "What" to "Why"

Most assessments—including Hogan—tell leaders what their tendencies are. The AGT is designed for intelligent, curious leaders who want to know why they do what they do.

This is more than a philosophical distinction. Understanding the why behind a pattern—the identity narratives, the character imbalances, the protective strategies that drive behavior—is what makes conscious change possible. Without that insight, a leader has a description of their tendencies but no lever for transformation.

The AGT's character science framework illuminates the underlying architecture of behavior, giving leaders genuine agency over their growth. Hogan's reports are detailed and descriptive, but the deeper question of why is left for the coach or the leader to work out on their own.

This is what offers hope for change: not just a mirror, but a map.

Language That Leaders Actually Use

Here's a practical difference that matters more than you might think: the words each tool uses to describe its results.

Hogan relies on clinical and academic psychological terminology. Scale names like Hedonism, Prudence, Dutiful, Mischievous, and Leisurely come from personality research traditions that require extensive explanation before a leader can connect them to actual workplace behavior. There's a translation gap between the report and the real world.

The AGT uses elegant, timeless, and immediately relatable language: Courage, Resilience, Humanity, Wisdom, Confidence, Boldness, Integrity, Empathy, Trust. A leader who learns they need to balance Confidence with Empathy can apply that insight in their next meeting. A leader told they scored high on "Leisurely" has to first figure out what that means.

Language determines whether an assessment gets used. If leaders can't remember and relate to the terms, insights stay locked in a report instead of showing up in real behavior.

No Typing. No Self-Limiting Beliefs.

Many popular assessments—and to some degree, Hogan's percentile-based scoring against normative populations—can inadvertently create self-limiting beliefs. When a leader is told "you are a Type X" or "you scored in the 95th percentile on Bold," there's a natural human tendency to internalize that label as a fixed identity. This can actually reinforce the very patterns the assessment was meant to develop.

The AGT treats every person as a dynamic, evolving individual with a unique configuration of character strengths that can shift over time. Leaders aren't boxed into a type—they're shown a living picture of their current balance, with a clear pathway to grow.

This philosophy is foundational to the entire Tilt365 suite: assessments should expand a leader's sense of possibility, never narrow it.

Built for Ongoing Growth—Not a One-Time Snapshot

The AGT's business model is designed to match its growth philosophy. Tilt365 assessments are sold as affordable annual subscriptions at $199 per leader per year, which include unlimited free retakes. As leaders engage in intentional development, they can retake the AGT to track how their character strengths, overuse patterns, and polarity balance have shifted. The Change Monitor feature provides longitudinal evidence of real growth.

Hogan assessments are premium-priced, per-administration instruments. The full Leadership Forecast Series package with a coaching debrief runs approximately $1,650 per person—for a single administration. Retaking means repurchasing.

When you add up certification costs, per-administration fees, and the absence of retakes, the total cost of ownership for a Hogan-based leadership program can be several times higher than a comparable Tilt365 program—while delivering a one-time snapshot rather than an ongoing growth journey.

One Memorable Framework vs. 28 Scales Across Three Reports

The AGT presents results within a single integrated visual framework—a circular graph showing all 12 character strengths, 4 meta-strengths, 4 Tilt patterns, and 6 polarities. This holistic model creates a memorable mental map that leaders can recall and apply in real-time situations.

Hogan reports across three separate instruments with 28 total scales. The richness of data is valuable for deep clinical interpretation, but the fragmented presentation across multiple reports—often spanning 54 to 90 pages—can make it harder for leaders to retain and apply insights without ongoing coaching support.

The Bottom Line

Hogan brought rigor and predictive science to personality assessment in leadership. That contribution is real and significant.

The Tilt365 Agility Growth Tracker represents the next evolution: a tool designed from the ground up for how adults actually learn and grow. It's faster, more affordable, more thorough in predicting derailment, and—most importantly—it reveals the why behind behavior so that leaders can actually do something about it.

Organizations seeking a diagnostic tool for selection and deep personality profiling will find Hogan's normative rigor valuable. Organizations seeking a leadership assessment that goes beyond what leaders do to reveal why they do it—without boxing them into fixed types—will find the AGT more powerful, more memorable, and more likely to produce lasting change.

The AGT doesn't just describe a leader's patterns. It offers hope—and a clear pathway—to evolve them.