Personality tests build an understanding of the people that you rely on to perform for your company or your team.
What if the application of them for performance is fundamentally flawed?
What if you’re actually getting little actionable insight into getting better?
We explore how personality tests are being used and how to be better.
What Personality Tests Are Out There?
There’s a lot of different options for personality tests, from Big 5, to Enneagram, DISC, and more. You can check out some of them from our friends at Workstyle here. They all give us more insight than we could ever have by just looking at someone, or talking to them for a few minutes. Without them learning about someone is essentially like saying,
“Look over there, that thing with wings? That’s a bird”.
Most of these tests give great insight into the traits of the individuals who use them.
Most will give you an idea of where someone falls in these areas and more:
- Openness
- Honesty
- Extraversion
- Emotional Stability
- Extroversion
The great part about this is that the insight into traits that are often unknown until a situation arises that it is applicable. It’s the equivalent of looking at a bird
The problem about this is that we’ve really just gone from being able to say “That’s a bird”, to “That bird is a blue jay”.
How To Go Further Than Personality Tests Alone
The reality is that, if we want performance, we need to go further than to just identify what something is in a a specific way. What we need to do is go deeper to specific traits that will help that person when they are in performance situations, ways to build those traits, and how well they understand the environment that they will apply them.
We need to get to the moment where we aren’t just saying “That’s a bird”, or “That bird is a blue jay” and go all the way to this:
“That bird is a blue jay. It’s scientific name is Cyanocitta cristata and it’s main habitat is in the edges of forests. The oldest recorded blue jay was 26 years old. They generally are between 25-30cm long and weight about 70-100g at full size. It is a songbird and they rub ants on their feathers to get the acid out before they eat them. Blue jays collect paint chips, mimic hawks, and get more loud in the Fall than in Spring or Summer. Blue jays are also the coolest team in the MLB. “
NOW THAT IS INSIGHT
Our goal with work like our FLW Software for sport culture building or our GRW Project for workplace culture building flat our give that insight that matters.
We provide insight far beyond just identify who someone is, and what strength’s and weaknesses their personality has.
By going further in order to identify the way those traits relate to each other in order to create performance in various settings based on deeper insight.
We give insight into performance such as:
- How well someone collaborates in a team.
- Is someone capable of pursuing high performance goals?
- How likely someone is to resist distractions while trying to perform.
- Is that same person likely to think of their teammates while under pressure?
- And more!
This makes a difference because now we know strengths, weaknesses, performance capacity, tactical knowledge, and growth tools.
Ask Yourself
Do you only want to be able to identify those you lead without using any kind of advanced tool?
“That’s a bird.”
Do you want to be able to specifically identify those you lead with personality tests?
“That’s a blue jay.”
Or do you want to be able to measure and build those you lead using advanced insight into their mindset, approach to performance, background, and knowledge?
“That bird is a blue jay. It’s scientific name is Cyanocitta cristata and it’s main habitat is in the edges of forests. The oldest recorded blue jay was 26 years old. They generally are between 25-30cm long and weight about 70-100g at full size. It is a songbird and they rub ants on their feathers to get the acid out before they eat them. Blue jays collect paint chips, mimic hawks, and get more loud in the Fall than in Spring or Summer. Blue jays are also the coolest team in the MLB. “
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