Personality Assessment

If I could go back in time and change one thing, I think it would be my college major.  Finance was a great choice, but if I could do it all over again, I think I would’ve double majored and included Psychology.  I absolutely love learning about the human mind and why we behave the way we do.  And while we’re on this topic, I’ll let y’all in on a little secret – sometimes, before bed, I’ll read a chapter of my sister’s Psychological Science textbook for the hell of it.  Sigh…I wish I could go back in time!

Since I can’t quite do that, I take every opportunity I can to learn more about the science.  Luckily for me, working in human resources has proven to be very beneficial in this regard.  I feel like I study human behavior on a daily basis! 

I often also have the opportunity to learn more about myself through various trainings, workshops, and assessments.  You can’t imagine how excited I get when asked to take a personality assessment.  It’s actually kind of ridiculous.  So far I’ve taken the DiSC assessment, Myers Briggs, StrengthsFinder, Conflict Mode Instrument, etc. 

I know lots of people who are super skeptical when it comes to these kinds of “tests.”  However, I really believe that if you follow the instructions and answer honestly and to the best of your ability, you’ll find that the results reveal a lot. 

For example, when I took the MBTI (Myers Briggs) Assessment, I learned that I’m an ENTJ.  Each letter stands for a “type preference.”

E vs. I: How you direct your energy and attention.
S vs. N: How you prefer to take in information.
T vs. F: How you prefer to make decisions.
J vs. P: How you orient the outer world.

According to my results, I’m Extroverted, Intuitive, Thinking, and Judging. 

Key words used to describe this type are: driving organizer, planner, vision focused, decisive, initiating, conceptual, strategic, systematic, assertive, critical, logical, organized, pursues improvement and achievement.

No one type is better than another.  Each one has its own strengths and areas of improvement.  For example, an area of improvement for my type is patience level.  We ENTJs tend to be impatient and critical when under pressure.  No one is perfect!

After recently learning more about my Myers Briggs type, I took the StrengthsFinder assessment to see if the results correlated.

This book talks about how we spend more time focusing on our so called weaknesses versus our innate strengths.  The researchers behind this book think that this way of thinking is backwards.  By simply understanding our weaknesses and growing our strengths, we can be more of who we are instead of constantly fixing who we are. 

Anyway, after taking the assessment, I learned that my top five themes out of 34 are: Input, Intellection, Activator, Connectedness, and Learner. 

Input: Crave to know more and collect and archive all kinds of information.
Intellection: Appreciate introspection and intellectual discussions.
Activator: Turn thoughts into actions and are often impatient.
Connectedness: Believe there are few coincidences and that every event has a reason.
Learner: Have a great desire to learn and continuously improve. 

Again, no theme is better than another.  The point of the assessment is to figure out what things you’re good at and develop in those areas.  Interesting concept for sure.

And as I read my results and the descriptions, I did in fact notice a strong correlation between both sets of findings.  Everything was pretty much in parallel. 

If you ever have the opportunity to take these or any other personality assessment, I highly recommend it.  If nothing else, you’ll learn something new and have a little bit of fun reading your results.  I had so many “aha” moments reading about my tendencies! 

And if you can get your significant other to humor you and take the same assessment, imagine how much fun you’d have then! 

What’s your take on personality assessments?  If you’ve taken the MBTI, what’s your type?