# The 11 scales of the HDS explained - **Episode:** [14](https://agents.truthliesandwork.com/episodes/14.md) (2022-11-29) - **Type:** interview - **Tags:** hds, scales, psychometrics - **Time:** 22:47–26:02 (start 1367s) - **Listen:** [https://truthliesandwork.com/14?t=1367](https://truthliesandwork.com/14?t=1367) --- [22:47] Sandy McKenzie: The HDS is basically made up of 11 scales, each of those scales giving us insight into the personality of the individual that we're looking for, and it's scored on a scale of 0 to 100. And effectively, anything that is above 90 in that score is a high-risk derailleur. So it's a high risk, it's a strength, but it's a high-risk derailleur. Anything between 70 and 90 is a medium-risk derailleur. And in the main, what we're really looking for and talking about are the high-risk [23:22] Al Elliott: So you're mentioning that, or Sandy's mentioning there, this high-risk I wonder if you could just clarify that a little bit for us and just say, what does high risk actually mean? [23:31] Leanne Elliott: So leaders are classified as high risk because they're prone to these frequent and quite intense maladaptive behaviours. So for highly visible leaders that have lots of responsibility, job stress may become more frequent, and therefore this self-monitoring of these less effective behaviors, um, not, not kept in check. So that's what it means to, to be high risk [23:57] Al Elliott: And a lot of what Sandy and you are both saying is this derail. So can you give us an example of, or what derailing actually means in practical terms? [24:06] Leanne Elliott: Um, so in this context, derail means to behave in a way that is basically counterproductive or destructive to our reputation, um, and could ultimately Do significant damage. So to give you a very current real-world example and our case study for today, Elon Musk. Yes, all of his recent questionable actions around the layoffs have been directed at Twitter, but that has also damaged his reputation, which is reflected in the massive drops in stock prices we've seen at Tesla [24:38] Al Elliott: So if I've got this right then, so if we talk about someone who already is showing dark side personality traits, Um, and they start— they don't have the EQ necessarily to rein it back in, and something happens that starts to take— they get excited and, and they come off the rails. Then would that be like Trump when he incited those riots, in that he's got such an ability to lead a group of people, whether he's right or wrong or whatever you believe in, but he's got a great way to lead people, but that just went too far? [25:07] Leanne Elliott: Yeah, absolutely. It's a really good example, and it is this This risk-taking behavior, this testing of the limits, and just this whole snowball that we saw with Trump. He didn't start his presidency by supposedly inciting riots, but that is how he ended it. I think that's where I found the conversations around Boris Johnson at the time, the whole Partygate scandal. It's like, what's the big deal? He had a glass of wine with somebody [25:36] Sandy McKenzie: Yeah [25:37] Leanne Elliott: And it's like, yes, but what we're starting to see is somebody who is starting to take more risk-taking behaviors, starting to engage in lawbreaking, start to see themselves as above the law. So yeah, having a drink against COVID regulations is perhaps just the kind of the first, you know, the first tip, um, that, that could happen for it to be much more destructive, which is why quite rightly his behavior was taken very, very seriously [26:02] Sandy McKenzie: Yeah [26:02] Leanne Elliott: Obviously. So as I've said, if you score above 90 on the HDS, this is seen as a high risk. Typically, as Sandy said, great leaders are peppered in high-risk scores, typically between 1 and 3. What's interesting, as you would have seen, Sandy estimates that Elon has 7 high-risk scores. Let's find out more