Understand your inner world for a more successful outer one
If you haven’t done personality measurements on yourself, the people closest to you, and those that you lead; you could really be missing out. Personality testing can make a powerful impact in your life.
When getting my Masters in Industrial and Organizational Psychology, I wrote a number of papers on personality instruments. Here is a glimpse of the most popular tests, all designed to gather information about temperament, character traits, decision-making methods, communication styles, behavior and attitude towards life, work, education, recreation and other people. The information helps us to understand why we think, feel and behave the way that we do, and why people may behave so differently when faced with the same situation.
There is high validity related to the use of personality instruments in mental health, choosing career paths, radically more effective hiring, job performance, improving relationships, and strengthening your ability to lead. The most generally accepted personality model is the Five-Factor Model (FFM). FFM has been studied for years to show that there is an established relationship between success and personality (Barrick & Mount, 1991; Goldberg, 1993).
BUILDING AWARENESS
The good news is that you can’t “fail” a personality test. There really are not “bad” profiles. The purpose is to become aware of your natural strengths, tendencies, and weaker areas so that you can choose the best roles and goals based on these traits. Armed with your results, you can also strengthen your strengths as well as change or improve characteristics you believe could be hindering your results.
By doing a personality typing evaluation, the insights help you understand why you might be drawn to some types of work, activities, recreation and people and why we may find some undesirable. It’s not them, it’s you!
THREE POPULAR AND EFFECTIVE TESTS
Not all testing instruments measure the same thing. It’s important to understand what individual tests are actually measuring and what good they’ve been proven to offer. Common tests that measure different components of a person’s makeup and predict performance are the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI), DISC, and the Clifton StrengthsFinder. MBTI focuses on personality type, the DISC looks at behavior, and StrengthsFinder focuses on talents and style.
The MBTI, is a tool created to allow people to better understand their personality and how these preferences work in their interactions with people, careers, relationships, their approach to challenges and stresses, competition, and other areas of their lives. The MBTI looks at psychological preferences in four categories;
- Introversion (I) or Extroversion (E), where E people get energy from social interactions with others and those with the I trait, draw energy from within themselves.
- Thinking (T) or Feeling (F), it shows whether someone makes decisions as a T, based on either logic and analysis or as an F, based on personal values and priorities.
- Sensing (S) or Intuition (N), the S looks at facts and details where the N is leaning more on abstracts and possibilities.
- Judging (J) preference, look for structure and closures, while those with a Perceiving (P) preference prefer to keep options open (Briggs Myers & Myers, 1995).
Once the test is complete, a four-letter type is provided making up one of 16 different personality preferences. Both Jung and Myers and Briggs believed that personality type is something you were born with, however that once someone was aware of their type, they could develop other preferences in order to become more well-rounded and effective in areas of weakness.
Where MBTI is a personality profile, DISC is a behavioral model based on the work of Dr. William Moulton Marston. It’s designed to evaluate people’s behaviors in specific environments. There are four elements where people are scored that determine their styles and preferences for behavior. The areas that are measured are relatively high or low scores in Dominance (D), Influence (I), Steadiness (S), and Compliance (C).
As with both Jung, Myers, and Briggs; Dr. Marston designed the DISC to bring awareness to the individual not so that they feel stuck or trapped in their traits, but so that they could make the necessary modifications to improve their desired results.
Clifton Strengths is based on a study of human strengths rather than personality or behavior. The assessment created by Gallup named 34 of the most common talents. The Clifton Strengths Finder assessment is designed to help others determine their strengths and help to define them for help with management, job placement, and career decisions with a focus on what’s right rather than what is wrong. This tool allows people to strengthen their strengths rather than
falling short attempting only to overcome their weaknesses.
The 34 talents are: Achiever, Futuristic, Activator, Harmony, Adaptability, Ideation, Analytical, Includer, Arranger, Individualization, Belief, Input, Command, Intellection, Communication, Learner, Competition, Maximizer, Connectedness, Positivity, Consistency, Relator, Context, Responsibility, Deliberation, Restorative, Developer, Self-Assurance, Discipline, Significance, Empathy, Strategic, Focus, and Woo (strengths.gallup.com).
WHICH TEST IS FOR YOU?
In this regard, MBTI has been found to be helpful for communication as a leader and in team situations, DISC for working effectively with others, and Clifton Strengths for making sure strengths are being used effectively (Jakobson, 2014).
It is well documented; by having someone trained to guide you through the use of multiple tools you can gain a better grasp of who you are, leverage your strengths, create awareness of where you’re exposed, and build a better life, family, team, business, and future.
Equipping you to create a better world
Dr. Ben
References
Barrick, M. R., & Mount, M. K. (1991). The Big Five personality dimensions and job performance: A meta-analysis. Personnel Psychology, 44, 1-26.
Barrick, M. R., Mount, M. K., & Judge, T. A. (2001). Personality and performance at the beginning of the new millennium: What do we know and where do we go next? International Journal of Selection and Assessment, 9, 9-30.
Briggs Myers, I., & Myers, P.B. (1995). Gifts differing: Understanding personality type. Mountain View, CA:Davies-Black.
Goldberg, L.R., The structure of phenotypic personality traits, American Psychologist, 48, 26-34, 1993. Jakobson, L. (2014, Aug.). A MEETING OF THE MINDS. Successful Meetings Aug2014, 63(8),28.
