I’m a planner at heart, so I thrive on color-coded post-its flags, prioritized lists, and an organized schedule. In complete contrast to my approach is my co-worker’s; she revels in creativity yet juggles multiple tasks simultaneously with no to-do list – you can imagine how often she forgets which day the status meeting takes place! One morning I walked into work and found her sitting at MY desk because apparently, it took her ages just to remember where hers was located. I was baffled yet laughing as I queried, “How DO you manage day-to-day life this way?!” She replied confidently, “I truly think the basis of our compatibility is due to me acknowledging your Judging trait and so then accepting it. In time you’ll comprehend my Perception too.”

My colleague was mentioning the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator, an extremely popular personality evaluation that identifies behavioral tendencies. One of the criteria ascertains how someone interacts with their external world: a Judger prefers structure and organization while a Perceiver enjoys freedom and unexpectedness. There is no good or bad outcome – for this reason, it is known as an assessment instead of a test!

Personality assessments such as the Myers-Briggs provide an organized vocabulary to recognize your “type” and assist you in optimizing your strengths. Subconsciously, we all understand our individual preferences for interacting with others; however, these tests offer us a structured system of comprehending what characterizations match up well with ours, set off triggers within us, or even challenge us. Through personality assessment tools like this one, it is much easier to gain insight into how people around you may influence who you are.

The Myers-Briggs is only one of the many personality assessments you can take. Enjoy exploring yourself with a few of my recommended assessments, and I’ve provided their free links for your convenience:

Myers Briggs Type Indicator

  • Overview: The Myers-Briggs personality assessment is the most widely used of its kind, accurately measuring individual preferences along four distinct dichotomous dimensions.
  • Results: Understanding yourself is an important task, and there are four ways to do this. Sensing vs. feeling reflects how you interpret information, thinking vs. feeling specifies the way you make decisions, extraverted vs. introverted demonstrates where your vitality comes from, and judging vs perceiving reveals how you react to the outer world. Your combination of preferences will be identified by a 4-letter code (ie: ESTJ).
  • Suggested use: Utilize this tool to uncover various workstyles among your coworkers, and watch as it strengthens team-building initiatives!

Enneagram Test

  • Overview: The RHETI Enneagram precisely identifies your type among the nine points of reference in a diagram and helps you to understand yourself by uncovering your motives, fears, aspirations, and needs.
  • Results: Your result will range from 1 to 9, including the reformer, helper, achiever, individualist, investigator, loyalist enthusiast challenger, and peacemaker.
  • Suggested use: Unearth your inner intent and discern how it meshes with others through an invaluable tool.

DISC Personality Test

  • Overview: DISC is an assessment tool that evaluates four distinct personality styles: Dominance, Influence, Steadiness, and Compliance. All humans display these characteristics to different extents.
  • Results: Your profile will measure your preferences for each style, with dominance indicating how you approach issues and difficulties. Influence speaks to your capacity to persuade others toward your point of perspective. Steadiness illustrates how you adjust and manage the pace surrounding you. Compliance indicates how well you observe regulations created by other individuals.
  • Suggested use: Test yourself by taking the assessment twice—once with your work persona in mind, and once more envisioning how you act when it’s not a working day. See how much can change depending on where you are!

Uncovering your personality type through assessments can be incredibly helpful in managing difficult or varying work settings. Here’s a thought: Always make sure to read the analysis of each type, not just yours! Doing so will give you further insight into how to better handle these scenarios and sharpen your skillset even more. As you read, you’ll be able to distinguish the descriptions of people and match them with those around your life. You will come to comprehend and ponder upon behavior that stands in stark contrast from how you would approach it if given the same situation. If you’re dealing with a manager who routinely points out missing serial commas or double spaces between sentences, then they’re likely to be a Sensor-someone highly attentive to detail. If this is the case for your situation, take some extra time next time when submitting documents and review font sizes in addition to checking other details. Have you ever run into a colleague in the hallway who is always friendly to everyone he meets? Chances are, this person is an Extrovert – someone motivated by interacting with others. Take some extra time each morning for a chat at his desk; it will be well worth your while! After exploring her Myers-Briggs profile, I had to give my co-worker credit where it was due. Despite our disagreements on certain topics and my having to remind her of weekly check-ins, we still have mutual respect for one another. But I am starting to respect the merit of her spur-of-the-moment idea exchanges–and an unscheduled happy hour can surely be advantageous for everyone now and then, correct?

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