Personality assessments

- Before even the kind of the big HR movement, it was, "You're an employee here, you know, if you're not happy with the way I manage, go somewhere else." To this idea then that instead it's a matter of, "Oh, there's individual differences in people. We need to manage them differently." And this is really where the idea of kind of personality assessments kind of really became popular is if I can figure out what this person is, if I can define this person, then I know how to manage and lead them. When you look at things like StrengthsFinder, et cetera, being aware that kind of, if this is what it says I would, you know, would be happy with or good with et cetera. Also reflecting on, is this a situational thing? Is this something that is just kind of where I'm coming from? So, again, it's that reflection and making sure you're working with somebody else to kind of find out where you are. And then there's other assessments like, you know, Interpersonal Dynamics Inventory and other 360 degree ones that get at actual behavior. But even there, it's a matter of, what is my behavior in this team, in this organization? So that you know when to adapt and how to adapt and recognizing kind of the power of those is thinking, so what is kind of my natural tendency? What is somebody else's natural tendency? And then how can I bring those together to be most effective? The idea of using it as a tool, not as a definition, I think is the key thing, right? That if you're like, I'm a blank, right? That you're likely to act like that. And that's not really the power of it. The power of it is, this is my natural tendency, so how do I use that knowledge to more effectively kind of communicate and lead and manage other people? You know, I know of a major US corporation that has on their door, "Here's what my DISC is," you know, assessment. And so that when you walk up, the expectation is if I see what's on your door, I know who you are, right? But again, there you're thinking, you know, such a broad brush stroke, and it ignores the fact that we have idiosyncrasies with each other. We have different personality traits. We're human, we can adapt. So what's more important, I think, and that's really where we're getting now is realizing that we're individuals and that these tools are useful to help understand but recognizing that it is more about kind of the kind of the interaction with each other and understanding, what can I bring to the table? What am I doing and how can I adapt more effectively with the conscious knowledge of kind of where I'm coming from and where they're coming from? I think being really aware and careful with any of those self-assessments, again, that measure personality is two things. One, make sure you're separating out personality and role, right? That regardless of your personality if you are an adept manager, adept leader or an adept coworker, you're able to adapt to what the team needs and that may be your role. And it may be outside kind of your natural kind of behavioral style or personality. And so not just checking what your general personality is or finding out what someone's personality is, but also assessing the role is important.