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Unless you have been hiding under a rock for the last century then you will have heard about personality assessments. Testing was formally developed in the 1920s with the main objective to support recruitment and selection of personnel, particularly in the armed forces, however, personality evaluation dates back as far as the 18th century.
Why do we care?
Understanding your personality type, communication style or business architype boosts confidence, performance and is an opportunity for self awareness. It can also help you read other people by learning about the different personalities and conduct of those around us, even just the acknowledgement of variety can assist with better interactions.
Need to know!!
Introspective vs Extrospective
There are two types of personality and behaviour assessments; introspective which is based on your internal thoughts through a self assessment, and extrospective which is the observation of another person.
Both are very powerful but the accessibility of extrospective for personal means makes them less popular and more often used inside large companies and institutions for recruitment and development purposes as they can supply trained observers.
Accuracy
Some of you will have disregarded these types of tests to date for lack of faith in accuracy, however, they are usually more accurate than you like to believe. It is important to note though that not all tests are equal, I have done a lot of research with online self assessments, paid and unpaid and the quality of the questions and results can vary vastly.
Accuracy is also based on how honest you are at assessing yourself, there are no right or wrong answers, no best or worst personality, so please if you complete these try to answer them truthfully not the way you THINK you should as this will only skew your output.
Labels
We are multifaceted beings, we are not 1 of 16 personality types or one of 7 communicators, we are unique and have a personal construct and percentage of many if not all of each archetype.
What many of the tests do today and ALL of those I share with you below is provide you with a breakdown of your dominant personality type as well as the percentage or order in which others appear in your make up (based on your answers).
I tell you this because I want you to exercise a reasonable amount of caution, as labels can have a powerful impact on us, and whilst I love doing tests and learning about myself and others, no one is the outcome of a report and we should not let it upset or dictate us. It is simply knowledge we can use to build our confidence, competence and character.
The Tests
As the self development boom continues to grow, so has the popularity of self assessments and the craving for a deeper understanding of self. There are so many now on the market and it can become a little confusing, “which one should I choose”?? “Should I pay to get the best?”
Below are my four favourite FREE (except 1) assessments based on my experience, relatability, client feedback and comparison at the time of publishing, all of them will offer a more detailed report or assessment for a fee which you can choose to invest in or not.
Click on the headings and it will take you straight to the assessments!
Hands down my favourite, and for free you get a huge amount of detailed information about your strengths and weaknesses, relationships, career choice and habits. Myers Briggs personality tests are very well established after 70 years of development, it is a extremely popular and trusted personality assessment.
What I also like about the website is you can explore all of the personality types which makes it a valuable resource for teams and individuals looking to improve their understanding and interaction with others.
Communication is essential for success, whatever it is in life; a personal matter, a business project, a team or sporting objective, we need to be able to communicate effectively to succeed.
When you understand your personal profile of the seven life languages, you can better understand your own internal dialogue and how you operate externally, you can use this to your advantage when you play to your strengths and manage your weaknesses.
Life Languages Assessment is not free, but I think it is absolutely brilliant so couldn’t not share it. Prices start at $49 but if you find a coach, you may be able to get a discounted assessment, or even an evaluation.
This is a fantastic test to understand how you score across 5 key categories; neuroticism, extraversion, openness, agreeableness and conscientiousness. It is commonly used by businesses now in personal assessments.
I love the report you get which provides you with a detailed breakdown in charts and text of traits and your score of each of these and what it might mean for example anxiety, anger, depression, under neuroticism.
Like any of these tests you can use the information to focus your attention or be mindful where your scores are higher or lower than where you might like them to be.
Based on the international best selling book Love Languages by Dr Gary Chapman, which teaches how different people with different personalities give and receive love in different ways.
The quiz helps you understand your preferences and if you do it with your loved ones, partner, family and friends you can learn how to avoid conflicts and connect more deeply. Do it together and have some fun with it. You will also see on this page Apology and Anger Assessments which are interesting.
BONUS! Success Archetypes
Yes this one's self serving, understanding your success archetype is important to consistently achieving your goals. We will all have different modes of operating when it comes to working towards our dreams.
Understanding your primary archetypes and the top strengths and weaknesses can help you avoid self sabotage and increase your power to achieve. Unfortunately I have yet to create a comprehensive report but you will get a high level summary and tips to your inbox when you request it.
If you would like to make improvements and obtain an edge in your professional work or personal life, book a consultation to discuss how we can form an alliance and forge your future together.
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