I am a big fan of personality assessments used in the workplace or for any type of teambuilding. We use this tool often in our work. Besides being plain ol’ fun, it provides individuals, teammates, and supervisors insight they would not otherwise have.
Who?
The assessment can be used for individual employees, teams, boards, groups or even families.
What?
A personality profile describes who you are as a unique person. The assessment we have chosen to use is the Workplace Big Five. It provides general information (see two sample assessments below) about each person who completes the assessment questionnaire based on 5 essential personality characteristics. Each individual will get scores in the following categories:
- Need for Stability
- Extraversion
- Originality
- Accommodation
- Consolidation
The assessment only takes 15 minutes, but, if the individual doesn’t overthink their responses and goes with their first response, reveals much. We learn, among many other things:
- How they respond to stress.
- Whether they are stimulated by people and activity or not.
- Whether they are open to change or prefer the status quo.
- How they respond to authority.
- How much they plan.
- How each of these characteristics interacts with the other.
Why?
The purpose of completing the assessment can be multi-fold or for one aim:
- Selection
- Promotion
- Validation
- Development
- Conflict resolution
- Collaboration
It is always helpful for each individual who participates to become more self-aware of his/her personality, individuality, competencies and motivations. There are no good or bad scores. The results help the individual explore their unique personality styles, how their personality exhibits itself in the workplace, and how it helps them relate to team members.
In a group setting, it is so freeing to see how you are alike and different from your teammates. If someone discovers she has a low ‘warmth’ score, she might become more conscious of how this effects her encounters with others. Conversely, there are ah-ha moments such as “Oh, ______ is not acting like that to get under my skin, that is just who she is.”
The estimate is that 60% of your personality is based on who you were at birth (nature), while 40% is based on what has occurred since then (nurture). The old adage, “A tiger can’t change its stripes” comes to mind. Did you know that under the tiger’s fur, the skin is also striped? The interpretation is that we can’t change our essential nature. We are who we are down to the skin. Nonetheless, being self-aware can make all the difference in the world.
How?
If you would like to learn more about assessments and how they can be used with coaching or teaching, we would love to hear from you anytime!
BRH
Powers & Associates is certified to assess the The WorkPlace Big Five by:
WorkPlace Big Five Assessment Samples
See a sample trait report here: Trait Report
See a sample narrator report here: Narrator Report
powersassoc.wordpress.com 