If you have decided to use personality assessment within your workplace, there are several options available to you. Sifting through all the available options at your disposal can be overwhelming. To make it easier, we at XQ Innovation broke it down for you.
The Top Two Options
The Myer-Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI) is the most well-known personality assessment. Its popularity has propelled it into pop culture with some people featuring their Myer-Briggs type in their social media profiles. Based on the psychological principles espoused by Carl Jung, it evaluates how people perceive the world and make decisions based on their differing psychological preferences.
Another personality assessment that is quickly gaining popularity is DISC. DISC is an acronym that stands for the styles that it measures:
- Dominance
- Influence
- Steadiness
- Conscientiousness
It is based on William Moulton Marston’s research and looks less at personality to focus instead on observable behavior and develop a holistic understanding of the person.
The Benefits MBTI Brings to the Workplace
The popularity of MBTI is one of the first benefits it brings to the workplace. Team members and potential employees are likely to already be familiar with Myer-Briggs in some way, and that recognition can help them adapt to their results more quickly. This popularity has also led to a plethora of available content – both in print and online – to support the understanding of these results.
Another benefit is the simplicity of the MBTI results. Unlike DISC, which has more than 20,000 possible combinations between its four dimensions, Myer-Briggs has 16 types that reveal how the individual thinks about the world around them.
Although there is little scientific backing to the MBTI, it provides you with a snapshot of the internal processes of your team members by measuring their natural behavior based on personality.
The Benefits DISC Brings to the Workplace
Designed specifically for the workplace, DISC assessments bring insight into observable behavior that helps leaders and workers alike better understand themselves and others. By utilizing a horizontal behavioral continuum, DiSC is easy to understand despite its lack of instant brand recognition.
Based on observable behavior, once you have learned about the system and how behavior fits into that system, you are able to see it in others. This ability to recognize how others will act in certain situations provides a shared understanding and language within the workplace that can be extremely helpful. When workers understand themselves and their teammates better, efficiency and productivity increase, as does the overall effectiveness of the workplace.
What’s Your Next Step?
The choice between these two primary options depends largely on what you hope to accomplish with personality assessments. If you want a fun exercise in team building, MBTI could very well be the choice for you. On the other hand, DiSC is the best choice if you are looking for something to use in leadership development and when hiring.
Whichever way you are leaning, XQ Innovation can help you make that final decision and get the ball rolling.
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