Free Journal: Personality Type in Depth

Posted on April 26, 2011 by robertahill

Image by UggBoy♥UggGirl [ PHOTO // WORLD // SENSE ] via Flickr

The idea for Personality Type in Depth grew out of an online conversation in the spring of 2010. PTD editors Carol Shumate and Mark Hunziker, who had never met, were discussing the need for an information- and idea-sharing forum that bridges the gap between personality type and depth psychology.

So far there are four issues and the next one comes out in May. For the “serious” Jungian practitioner this is a terrific resource.

Example:

Do you think America has an ESTJ culture? Do you think Hamlet had ENTJ preferences? These are some topics of the January 2011 issue of Personality Type in Depth.

Check Out People Maps

Posted on September 15, 2010 by robertahill

I have been meaning to let you know about this site for sometime now. People Maps is a site for customised personality profiling. I like their philosophy as can be seen in some of their videos and downloads. Their particular tools are based on the work of Carl Jung. The site is friendly, accessible and slick. It has some great resources as well.

Another very nice feature if you like this sort of thing is that if you subscribe to their newsletter you will receive from PeopleMaps a free psychometric profile report to you courtesy of a wide range of sponsors. They assure us that these will be absolutely free reports on everything from your personality and careers to dating, sports and even superheroes. There will be exclusive special offers and a range of articles digging deeper into the topics that have a direct impact on how you lead your life. You don't have to do anything except subscribe.

One of their divisions is Career Psychometrics and they provided quick short and free aseessments also based on the work of Carl Jung specifically geared to career development. They argue that career development planning begins with discovering what you were born to do. You need to know what you have a natural career aptitude for which is why you should complete this free personality test, sometimes referred to as a career aptitude test.

Here is the free widget that you too can put up on your own site or blog. Check it out.

Career Personality Test

What is the relationship of the Enneagram to MBTI?

Posted on June 22, 2010 by robertahill

As I have previously announced, Last month, I set up a more generic network for consultants, coaches. Membership is now over 200. If you haven't checked it out I encourage you to do so.

I posted this question on the Forum to my "experts": What
is the relationship of the Enneagram to MBTI as well as shared my own views. Here is part of my own observations:

Speaking for myself, I found working with the MBTI very enlightening
about how I tend to show up in the world. It also was very helpful in
learning more about the dynamics of my personal relationships. The
shadow side was particularly eye opening.

The Enneagram took it a step further for me. Besides being
deeper in my opinion, the key distinction between this and many other
self awareness models is that the Enneagram is transformational.

I am not sure if the link will work but Sandy McMullen did a great job of responding. While I did get Sandy's permission to reprint it, she has also posted it on her blog. If you are interested in this question OR the MBTI in general – please visit her site and the article at Personality Plus in Business.

Common mistakes in pre-employment testing

Posted on April 12, 2010 by robertahill

Image by Getty Images via Daylife

If you have read any of my articles (here or in other publications), you will know that I am not a advocate of the use of employment tests by coaches and trainers. Personally, I don't think that is our area of experts; nor should it be. Consequently I don't write about them here. However, I do reorganize that there may be a place of this kind of testing and since I get asked questions about hem, I do occasionally refer to this category of assessments. And if I come across an article that I find enlightening and worthwhile I like to share it. Below is one such article. It is short. It is simple. It is good. I want to thank Shawn, the author , for allowing me to post it here.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Common mistakes in
pre-employment testing

By Shawn Bakker

Using assessments to evaluate job candidates is very different from using assessments for developmental purposes. Avoiding the following common mistakes will help
you get the greatest benefit from pre-employment testing.

Mistake
1 – Using the wrong assessments

There are
assessments designed for selection, assessments designed for
development, and some assessments that can be used in both arenas. When
evaluating your assessment options, make sure the tool has been
validated for selection.

Mistake 2 – Choosing
an assessment before carefully analyzing the job

To choose
an assessment that will be useful for evaluating candidates you need to
know what is important to measure. If you are considering a
pre-employment assessment, start by carefully analyzing the job. When
you have determined what an employee needs in order to be successful you
can then look for assessments that measure those needs.

Mistake
3 – Making hiring decisions based on what seems good,
rather than what is needed.

There can be a significant
difference between what you like and what is needed to do a job
effectively. It is the later that you need to focus on if you are to use
assessments effectively. While a sociable candidate might seem more
attractive, he/she might struggle with a job that does not involve
interpersonal contact. In a similar vein, someone with a high level of
flexibility might sound great, but if their job involves a lot of
standard procedures that must be followed he/she will be less effective.

Mistake
4 – Exclusively relying on assessments

Assessments
can provide useful information about a job candidate’s skills and
potential. However, they are only one source of information and should
be used in conjunction with other evaluation techniques including
interviews, reference checks, and work samples.

Reprinted with permission.

Psychometrics Canada provides assessment tools and consulting for the selection
and development of people. They are the Canadian distributor/trainer of Myers-Briggs
Tool. Follow them on Twitter – @PsychometricsCA

Different takes on some old subjects: MBTI, DISC, EQ

Posted on March 15, 2010 by robertahill

This is probably the best introduction to the MBTI I have seen and it comes in at under 2 minutes. While it probably takes at least a few viewings to grasp all the content, I found it to be a nice overview to the MBTI. I am quite surprised at how few views it has received:

Blog Radio is another interesting place to find some resources – especially if you are an auditory learner. Here is an interesting show from Career Success Radio with Cynthia Kivland (a LinkedIn connection of mine) Cynthia is President and author at Coaching Smart
People and discusses EQ:

Creating High Performing Teams using MBTI, DISC & EQ

In the above hour long broadcast, hosts Annemarie Cross and Keith Keller interview 3 guests on how to
build a high performing team through using key personality type and
behaviourial profiling tools MBTI and DISC. They’ll also be discussing
emotional intelligence/quotient (EQ ) and the impact that both high and
low levels of EQ of a leader can either support or derail their own and
their team’s career.

Finally for a little lightness on the subject, here is a short video by Richard Wiseman from Quirkology.

Color to Determine Personality Traits

Posted on February 24, 2010 by robertahill

I have known about the color quiz based in the work of Dr. Max Lascher for a number of years. This instrument is used worldwide, most notably
in Europe, by psychologists, doctors, government agencies, and universities to screen
their candidates. Since the 1950's the instrument has been given to hundreds of thousands
of people.

Now psychiatry professor Lange has come along with something that looks very similar: Color Career Counselor.
While I tried to do the interactive test online, the two browsers I used: Firefox and Safari on Mac didn't want to give me my final results – nor did it send me the results when I gave my email. It was rather disappointing but perhaps you might fair better. Apparently, according to Inc. an analysis of some 900 CEOs' results shows they like magenta — and
are less dominant and confident than the rest of the population.

Career Path claims that their Color Career Counselor
is the world's first non-language test to define occupational
interests. It uses color preference to determine successful career
paths. The test is based on the multi-patented Dewey Color System, which is the world's only scientifically validated color-based personality test – published in the North American Journal of Psychology. The Color Career Indicator 4.0, provided by Dewey Color System,
is an extensive evaluation that identifies "Your Most Fun Careers" from
among more than 1,000 occupations, with record-breaking accuracy. A
specific, ranked list of your top jobs is provided to you, along with
additional information to assist you in your career exploration.

Test color can generate over 50 million different answers, each one written by an artificial intelligence engine for every test. Our symbolical rules are in conformance with the Freudian topics and the C.G. Jung's typology. They all have been validated by a group of 800 people and by over 1 800 000 on line tests.

For those with reading or language challenges this might be an option. I have no idea how valid these assessments are or if you will find them enlightening or just entertaining. All the ones I have listed are free so there is little to loose. I would recommend trying all of them yourself and doing some comparisons. If you do not see some correlations or comparisons, I would suggest not using them.

Your experiences would be appreciated in the comments.

A One Two Punch – Good pairings for the MBTI and DISC

Posted on February 3, 2010 by robertahill

Image via Wikipedia

Normally I don't recommend giving clients more than one assessment. It is a bit like overload and you end up spending a heck of a lot of time on debriefing the data than getting on with the learning.

That said, there is in my mind an excellent match for each the MBTI® and the DISC. First, let me be VERY clear that I do not recommend using both the MBTI and DISC together. Nine times out of ten it will only confuse the client. They will ask you to correlate their results which is rather tricky since they measure different things. The MBTI is a preference assessment and the DISC is a behavioural (observed) how assessment. Second, I will assume that you are properly trained and certified in the instrument of your choice.

MBTI® and Firo-B®

Clearly, I am not the only one who thinks this is a great combination. For quite sometime the CPP in the US and Psychometrics in Canada have offered a combined MBTI® / Firo-B® Online Report. I have always liked the Firo-B^® and was glad to see it come back into vogue in the late 90's in leadership development programs. It does have a strong "psych"flavour and needs to be used properly. "The Fundamental Interpersonal Relations Orientation-Behavior ™ (FIRO-B^®)
assessment has helped people around the world unlock the mysteries of
human interaction at work and in their personal life. This instrument
quickly gathers critical insights into how an individual's needs for
inclusion, control, and affection can shape his or her interactions
with others." Here's what they say on the web site:

Leadership Report Using FIRO-B ^® and MBTI^® Instrument 17 pages

The
FIRO-B and MBTI instruments tap into key aspects of personality and
behavior in areas such as communication, problem solving, decision
making, and interpersonal relations. The instruments are also quite
distinct, each providing a view through a different window of the
client's leadership personality. Together, they complement each other
and provide rich information of use in a personal, ongoing leadership
development program.

DISC and Values (Spranger and Allport's Motivators)

I knew of two different vendors offering this combination and I am now pleased to report that their is a third one on the market. All of them are based on the research of Dr. Eduard Spranger and Gordon Allport who looked into what drives and
motivates an individual. The seven dimensions of value discovered between these two researchers help map the reasons that drive an individual to utilize their talents in the unique way they do. These assessment helps clients understand motivators and drivers and how to maximize performance by achieving better alignment and
passion for what they do.

The three that I know of are:

The PIA&V (Personal Interests, Attitudes and Values™ from TTI Performance Systems.
TTI along with Inscape is a recognized source for solid
DISC instruments in the personal and business coaching communities and is also
the distributor of PIAV which
is a nice companion tool with the DISC.
The founder of Maximum Potential co-created the PIAV with Bill
Bonnstetter of TTI. He has the rights to a similar product. Maximum Potential uses more business language but unlike the PIAV, it does
not have normative data.
My new portal Assess Yourself will be offerning the Online Assessments from Tony Alessandra. The Online Values Assessment measures seven dimensions of motivation (and similar to those above) as outlined below:

Aesthetic – a drive for balance, harmony and form.
Economic – a drive for economic or practical returns.
Individualistic – a drive to stand out as independent and unique.
Political – a drive to be in control or have influence.
Altruistic – a drive for humanitarian efforts; help others altruistically.
Regulatory – a drive to establish order, routine and structure.
Theoretical – a drive for knowledge, learning and understanding.

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