Personally Speaking

Who doesn’t love a personality test? I for one have always found them fascinating, from the quiz in the magazine – are you mostly As, Bs or Cs? – through to the profiling that has been carried out at different points in my professional life.

By CLARA HUGHES

I REMEMBER WHEN I UNDERTOOK some leadership training about 18 years ago, the coach had identified where my personality profile would fall even before I did the test – and certainly before I recognised these characteristics in myself.

But what are they and how are they used in a business environment? Can a person’s personality truly be identified and categorised into such distinct ‘types’, when everyone is an individual, and what benefits do they bring?

What are personality tests and what are they used for?

There are as many different types of personality tests out there – usually referred to as psychometric tests in the business environment – as there are different types of people. However, if the right test is selected, it can provide a standardised method for assessing individuals or teams.

In business, psychometric tests are often used as an aid to employee selection and development, as they can add some objective measure of performance.

However, a test is only as good as the person reviewing the results and it is important that tests should not be the sole form of judging a person’s suitability for a role or team. They should only ever be used as one of a selection of assessment methods, such as a formal or informal interview.

Benefits to business

Although psychometric tests in the business environment are often associated with recruitment, there are many other ways these tests can be deployed to benefit the company.

• Recruitment and selection: Possibly the most recognised use of this type of testing. Used alongside other assessment methods, psychometric testing is often used as part of the recruitment and selection process, to explore the match between candidate and role. While it can never replace the interview, it does help to develop a clearer picture of the individual in a short time.

• Coaching and career guidance: Many coaches use psychometric instruments to help individuals in their personal development. It helps by enabling them to understand their own strengths and development areas, which in turn helps to facilitate personal learning and growth. Some psychometric tests explore areas such as interests and values inventories, and these can be used to help an individual consider their preferences for future career decisions.

• Team development: Using psychometric testing in team development is where it can really come into its own. It can be used to identify the main characteristics of each team member, which will not only help them with their own personal development and selfawareness, but will enable a greater level of understanding of what makes each team member ‘tick’ to be established, which will then help the team communicate and work together better.

• Succession planning: Identifying future leaders can be difficult and it is not always the ones that project the most confidence and assurance that are the right fit for the role. Data from tests can be used as part of the assessment and development of future talent and leaders.

Benefits to you

There are lots of websites offering free personality tests and they are great, but only up to a point. However, the real benefits of undertaking these tests are the insights you can go on to explore with a trained coach, who understands what it all means. Over the years, I have found it beneficial to my personal development. It has provided me with a greater insight into my own personality, which has led to greater self-awareness and self-confidence, and it also helped arm me with the tools to understand my colleagues’ drivers too.

Just for fun

If you fancy finding out a bit more about yourself or your team, why not try some of these online tests in the first instance?

You might then decide you want to delve a bit deeper and work with a coach or a trainer, to investigate things further: www.16personalities.com www.personalityperfect.com/test www.my-personality-test.com/big-5