Five Reasons to Use Personality Assessments with Your Team and Three Cautions

As you probably can tell by now, I love using personality assessments, especially with teams. I think that personality assessments are a useful tool for understanding yourself and others better. They can be particularly helpful for team building, communication, and conflict resolution. Here are five reasons why you should consider using personality assessments with your team, as well as two cautions to keep in mind.

• Improved Communication

  • Personality assessments can provide valuable insights into communication styles, preferences, and strengths. By understanding how team members communicate, leaders can tailor their communication styles to fit each individual. This can lead to more effective communication and a stronger team dynamic.

• Enhanced Team Building

  • Personality assessments can help team members better understand each other's strengths and weaknesses, allowing them to work more collaboratively. When team members have a greater appreciation for each other's unique strengths, they are better equipped to support each other and work towards common goals.

• Increased Self-Awareness

  • By taking a personality assessment, team members gain a deeper understanding of their own personality traits, strengths, and weaknesses. This self-awareness can lead to personal growth and development, as team members become more conscious of their behaviors and how they affect those around them as well as a greater level of appreciation for the uniqueness of those around them.

• Better Conflict Resolution

  • Personality assessments can help managers identify potential sources of conflict within the team. When team members understand each other's communication styles, work habits, and personality traits, they are better equipped to resolve conflicts in a constructive manner.

• Improved Hiring Decisions

  • Personality assessments can also be useful (but should not be a direct determinant) in the hiring process. By using assessments to evaluate job candidates, managers can gain insight into their personality traits and determine whether they are a good fit for the team and the role.

While there are many benefits to using personality assessments with your team, there are also a few cautions to keep in mind.

• Avoid Stereotyping

  • It's important to remember that personality assessments are just one tool for understanding someone's personality. Avoid making assumptions or stereotypes based solely on a personality assessment, and always take other factors into account when making decisions. Personality assessments are a window into a person but do not encompass their entirety.

• Requires Well-Developed Self-Awareness

  • Personality assessments are fallible because they are dependent upon the subject taking the assessment. Often in taking an assessment we don’t take into account our current mood and can answer the responses in how we WANT to be perceived and not how we actually are. When completing an assessment, it requires honesty and a willingness to explore beyond the initial assessment result, especially when using deep assessments like the Enneagram.

• Be Mindful of Bias

  • Like any assessment tool, personality assessments can be subject to bias. Be mindful of any biases that may exist in the assessment tool or the interpretation of the results, and always strive for objectivity in your assessments.

In conclusion, personality assessments can be a valuable tool and provide many benefits for individuals, teams, and organizations when used correctly. However, it's important to use them responsibly and with caution, because, when used carelessly, they can cause more harm than good.