S.2 - E. 4 - 3 ways to use your Personality Assessment results

According to the Society for Industrial and Organizational Psychology, 13% of US employers utilize personality assessments (otherwise referred to as human development systems); and depending on the source 80-88% of the fortune 500 companies attract talent using behavioral interviews. 

There are plenty of conflicting reports out there as to whether or not personality tests are reliable. The Washington Post has done an article on the “5 myths about personality tests”, Forbes covered a story on how personality tests seem to indicate that the results are permanent, and even the New York Times shared of a woman’s story about it being mandatory to take a personality test when applying for a job only to find out she wouldn’t get the job because there wasn’t a role for her on the team per her assessment results. 

Although there are conflicting reports as to how often to take the personality test, Cleverism.com reveals that you can never be completely objective about yourself, and you’ll always answer the questions on the test in accordance with how you think about yourself “now”. It goes on to say that people change and the person you are now and your traits might alter significantly in the future.

So why all the craze with personality tests? Well, there are upsides amongst all the controversy. They can help us learn more about behaviors (how you deal with stress, are you a team player), they can educate us on how to best understand and communicate with those around us, and they can help us learn more about our strengths and weaknesses - even what may be triggers for us, so that we can grow as a person and even a leader.

Psychology Today shares that personality tests are looking for five broad domains:
Extraversion, Agreeableness, Conscientiousness, Neuroticism, and Openness to Experience. 

Now I've taken my share of personality assessments - from Myer's Briggs and Strength Finders to 5 Voices and DISC analysis, but what are we to do with the results? What really is the point? 

Well, today we are going to cover three main areas on how to actually use our personality assessment results no matter what personality assessment you take. 

1) Understanding our Voice

2) Knowing the rules of engagement

3) Learning how to control our voice

Overall taking personality assessments is one way to be open to feedback so that you can continue to grow personally and professionally. As Aristotle said “knowing yourself is the beginning of all wisdom.”

Take the Big Five personality test at www.123test.com.
Take the 5 Voices personality test at www.5voices.com

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