Fun with Personality Types and Preferences

[Jodi LeBlanc]

Happy Friday and last day of August! In case "Beach Reads and Productivity Fun" wasn't fun enough for you I decided to a double the fun and write a post on personality types and psychometrics. There was an interesting thread on introverts and extroverts in the Atlassian Authors group a few months ago, and I thought it would be fun to post here to get your views on the various psychometric tools and assessments that evaluate your preferences and personalities. 

I am certified in these Psychometric tools and I find them fascinating:

Insights Discovery: I am Green, Yellow, Red, Blue (in that order) - The Helper

Myers Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI): I am ENFJ - The Giver

Everything DiSC:  I am an i type - Influencer

As well as a few "fun" ones you can do online within a few minutes:

The Four Tendencies (Gretchen Rubin) I am an "Upholder"

16 personalities  I am a "Protagonist"

~~~~~~~~~

-Do you take stock in personality and preference assessments or take them with a grain of salt?

-Which one is your favourite or least favourite?

-Does your workplace use any from the list, or do you know of others not listed that are useful and effective?

Looking forward to your responses :)

[Kat Warner]

I was very disappointed that I was unable to take the paper on psychometric testing during my degree due to timetable clashes. 

Assessments like these can help people work together when they are used to help facilitate a shared vocabulary.

They can be mis-used though especially during the recruitment process.

[Jodi LeBlanc]

Sorry to hear that your timetable clashed, you may be interested in doing a certification online or in-person on one of the psychometrics sometime. I agree they are very useful for teams, in getting to know individuals various preferences and communication styles.

For example in Insights Discovery the Red energy means "Be brief, be bright, be gone" and the Green energy is "Show me you care". I had a colleague that would send me an email "Send me the strategic plan", when I had not talked to this individual for two weeks. But that is their personality preference "red energy". Where my style would be: Hi there, I hope all is well with you and you are having a great summer. I am working on Strategic Plan updates, could you please send me the most recent version? Thanks so much and have a fantastic day!"

Once we understand the preferences, we can adapt our styles when working together, it also helps avoid conflict when we know where the other person is coming from.

I agree about these tools sometimes being mis-used, or some saying I am "Yellow energy, I can't do Blue energy". Where in fact we can do all four colour energies, it just takes more effort to do things outside our preference.

[Kat Warner]

At my last workplace we focused on our preference over our behaviour. I ended up with ISFJ - the Practical Helper.

When I read out my results one of my teammates said "But Kat doesn't have feelings!"

The look on the facilitator's face was priceless. I found the reaction funny but she expected me to be upset.

[Jodi LeBlanc]

Your teammate must have not have realized that extroverts and introverts express "feelings' in different ways. My grandmother never told her family that she loved them, when I was young I asked her why. And she said I love my family but I don't need to tell them, they already know by my actions. You may not wear your feelings on your sleeve but you show how you care in other ways.

[Scott Theus]

I love taking these types of tests, they give me insight into why I think and act the way I do. So I guess there should be no surprise that I just did the "16 personalities" and got "Logician (INTP-A)" as my type. 

Now I want to take the rest and see if they match up. 

[Jodi LeBlanc]

Nice, Scott! Love that you came out the Logician as your type. Let me know if you have other psychometrics that you are particularly fond of.

[Monique vdB]

I think I'm INFP but does that make me the Helper, the Mediator, or the Idealist? Google can't decide!

[Jodi LeBlanc]

Great question Mo, let me go back to my MBTI Certification material and have a look. There are type and temperaments but I will do some screen shots for your personality type :)

[Jodi LeBlanc]

Hi @Monique vdB here is a link to the description of your profile, on page 2 at the top it says you are an Idealist. I will also add a few more screen shots. There are different names depending on how it is being applied.

[Jodi LeBlanc]

Here are a few MBTI pages, you will need to read them sideways, not sure why they flipped.

[Matt Doar]

I'm open to telling people what kind of person I am, what works well for me and so on. But I'm also difficult enough not to want to put myself in boxes defined by other people. I'll put myself in my own boxes, thank you. 

But there's probably a test out there with a prepared box for that kind of person - Bloody Minded

[Jodi LeBlanc]

So true @Matt Doar I agree with not putting ourselves in boxes (or having other people put us into them). I like doing the assessment as I tend to find out more about myself through the process. The great part about the assessment is there is no right or wrong personality type, it is just about preference. An introvert can be extroverted but it just takes more energy and vice versa etc.

[Brittany Wispell]

I have taken the Myers Briggs every 2 years and once I got INTP when I was early 20's and recently (last year) got INTJ-T.

These types of tests I believe need to be taken every couple of years since people are always changing. Life events can change perspective and might even change the answers someone gives later in life. 

For the Insights discovery I got green, blue, yellow, red. I take a lot of these with a grain of salt...just like horoscopes. I do see a lot of commonalities in my personality and the tests but there are some things that are a little off or not really like me. 

Such a good topic!! Excited to see if a lot of us have some of these tests in common!

[Jodi LeBlanc]

That's awesome Brittany! It is neat to see that changing from P to J - you may have been more "fly by the seat of your pants" in your early 20s, and now more of a planner "J", and doing more of the homework up front. An example on whether you are P or J, could be when you travel do you do a packing list, or an itinerary or do some research on places to see up front, or do you go with the flow and find out when you get there?

I am ENFJ and my husband is ENFP, I read a book when we first got together MBTI for couples. We used to have disagreements when making plans (he preferred to not make plans - fly by the seat of his pants) where I am a huge planner. We now meet in the middle, it was a great book and outlines the differences and similarities in preference and personality type.

[DPKJ]

Oh! these profile tests are great fun. Sometimes they are true also.

If you are fan of Super Hero try this one http://hero-me.com/about.html

"I'm Batman"

[Jodi LeBlanc]

Thanks for sharing this @DPKJ - so fun! I am Xavier (ENFJ)

[Brittany Wispell]

Love this! I got Emma Frost. 

[Antoine Berry]

I usually tend to take these tests with a grain of salt, since they lack context and make up for it by bashing you with tons of generic questions. I took the 16 personalities test, and got INFJ-T (Turbulent Advocate) which supposedly makes me special (not sure in what way though)... right ?

Actually the follow-up read was really interesting, making me want to check their premium content.

[Jodi LeBlanc]

Thanks @Antoine Berry this is a great visual from the 16 personalities that gives a bit more detail :)

[Antoine Berry]

Nice, I feel like a RPG player now. :)

[Jodi LeBlanc]

Lol too funny! :)

[Jimmy Seddon]

Thank @Jodi LeBlanc! I love that this because it's own topic from the comments of another Friday Fun post.

Just out of curiosity I have taken two of them now and both times ended up with ISFJ (Defender).

[Jodi LeBlanc]

Oh I didn't realize it was in the comments of another Friday-Fun post too. I was referencing the topic from the Atlassian Authors group post by Bridget called are you an Introvert or Extrovert? :)

[Davin Studer]

I've taken a couple of those test myself and I think they can be helpful for a snapshot analysis of my current tendencies. However, I think it is important to realize that these tests almost always have analysis points that don't quite fit. It is important to realize that we are all individuals and sometime as test can't quite capture everything about us. It can be helpful to see how certain circumstances maybe perceived by us and how that might affect our  behavior, but sometimes our humanness asserts itself and we don;t fit into the mold. I think it is also important to realize that we change over time. I am not the person I was in college when I took the Myers Briggs and DISC test. I might not still be an SC.

[Jodi LeBlanc]

So very true @Davin Studer and we can't use the outcome of these tests as an excuse to not do things are not necessarily our preference. I love the tools, I just don't love when people box themselves in. We can all do everything, it just takes more energy to do things that don't necessarily come naturally to us. This is where the magic happens.

My preference is not to spreadsheets or analysis to data, but because I pushed myself the last few years to do these things, it now is much easier for me. I don't love it, but I can do it from all the practice I have had :)

I

[Sharon Helms]

I think personality tests can be helpful tools for reflection, but I do feel wary about assessments being used in hiring. 

My workplace did the DISC assessment as well as a test called Strengthsfinder. The Strengthfinder started some positive conversations about what we each have to contribute, while the DiSC assessment started us talking about similarities & differences in the ways we think and act.

Years ago, I took Myers Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI) and was an INFP. My DiSC profile was a DC type - Creative pattern 

[Jodi LeBlanc]

Thanks for sharing @Sharon Helms - I have not heard of the Strengthsfinder assessment but I will be sure to check it out now :)

[Fernando Bordallo]

We recently ran a group Meyers Briggs sessions in our teams and I found it to be an interesting exercise. I would say I consider myself to 'take it with a grain of salt' (maybe that's just my ENTP way), but I can see a certain pattern that can be held across the personality types that were displayed in the room.

Where I would be more cautious is in taking action based on the results of a personality test. One of my takeaways from the session is that the personality types demonstrate the strongest side of one's way of thinking and acting. But I still believe that we are all capable of molding to each situation in order to bring balance to what we are currently facing.

[Jodi LeBlanc]

That's fantastic @Fernando Bordallo :) Yes the key is not to box yourself into a type, we can all do anything, it just takes more effort. The MBTI really just outlines our preferences, and the team activity is so great for adapting and connecting with teams.