Personality Tests Should Prompt, Not Stop, Self-Reflection
You are more than your MBTI classification. Hiring managers should know that.
There are a lot of personality sorters and categorizers out there. MBTI (Myers-Briggs Type Indicator) and Enneagram seem to have the most traction right now. I love taking those profile tests and reading what they say.
They aren’t meant to be a guide to your life.
You will find many opinion pieces questioning the accuracy of them. Those writers miss the point. They don’t have to be 100% accurate.
They aren’t meant to be a guide to your life. They should be used to illuminate bits of a person’s character and patterns of behavior.
It doesn’t matter how many times I have taken an online version of the Myers-Briggs test. The results always match the classification I fit when I took it the first time. This may be unusual.
Because type is said to be a constant characteristic, we would expect that people’s personality would not change over time. Several studies, however, show that even when the test-retest interval is short (e.g., 5 weeks), as many as 50 percent of the people will be classified into a different type. Measuring the MBTI… And Coming Up Short by David J. Pittenger, assistant professor and chair of the Department of Psychology at Marietta College.
Almost twenty years ago I was introduced to the test through my job. A professional was hired by my company and each manager, executive, and the key employees were tested. I fell under the ‘key employee’ tag.
Reading the descriptions of my profile settles into the grooves of my brain comfortably.
The results said I was an ESTJ. The Internet tests I have taken for fun over the years have agreed. Every single one.
Reading the descriptions of my profile settles into the grooves of my brain comfortably. I recognize myself. I also recognize that it doesn’t fully describe me.
Why would it? Do a few paragraphs or even a page of description fully describe you? Could you completely describe yourself in the same amount? I really hope the answer is no.
A personality profile is the sketch of your identity. If you read mine, it talks about my need to create order. It stresses my reliance on tried and true methods to achieve efficiency and my logical view of the world.
Descriptions of ESTJs make us sound like box dwellers.
All these things are true. Reading between the lines, however, it seems to say ESTJs are stuck in established patterns of behavior. Since this method worked last time, there is no need to be creative.
That is not true. Not of me, anyway. I have the troubleshooter part of the personality.
I am the friend you come to when you want practical ideas about solving problems. I may not always have the answer, but I can usually come up with some options that make sense.
Descriptions of ESTJs make us sound like box dwellers. My brain sees many options. I choose the best among many options.
These personality assessments are a way of encouraging self-reflection.
I have known people who didn’t see the variety of options. People who saw the world in rigid black and white. Those same people didn’t see their own ethics or morality in black and white. Just their options.
I am very focused on my own personal ethics. That sounds very ESTJ. As you can see, there are places where the profile fits and others where it drifts away.
These personality assessments are a way of encouraging self-reflection. When done as an employment screening, it has limited use. The effectiveness of the test results diminishes when businesses take the results literally.
It’s really prolific. So the most recent statistics indicate that 1 in every 5 Fortune 1,000 companies uses it in the hiring process. Eighty-nine of the Fortune 100 companies use it either in the hiring process or in the workplace for team-building exercises, leadership coaching, executive talent management, things like that. The marketplace for workplace personality assessments is upwards of $2 billion. How companies use the Myers-Briggs system to evaluate employees
If the test prompts questions during the hiring process, it would be less troubling. If it eliminates candidates, a very valid concern arises.
Should a potential employee be rejected due to their MBTI type? The science gives a hard no.
In spite of the popularity of the MBTI, there are many problems with its use. There is a large body of research that suggests that the claims made about the MBTI cannot be supported. In other words, although the MBTI appears to measure something, many psychologists are not convinced that any significant conclusions can be based on the test. Measuring the MBTI… And Coming Up Short by David J. Pittenger, assistant professor and Chair of the Department of Psychology at Marietta College.
Plugging people into a box not supported by science is a bad business practice.
If I were still in the corporate world, I wouldn’t use the test in my hiring process. It would be too tempting to put the applicant into a box. A box with labels like ESTJ or INFP.
I also wouldn’t use handwriting analysis. Yes, a professional analyzed my handwriting before my last job offer was official. This was the same company that later administered professional MBTI testing.
Plugging people into a box not supported by science is a bad business practice. There is no getting around that. Even if I did get the job and it was a perfect fit.
I am very curious about the results of that handwriting test. It doesn’t matter that there is no scientific proof it says anything accurately.
Study after study showed that graphology fails at predicting any personality traits. A 1982 meta-analysis of over 200 studies found that graphologists were unable to predict any kind of personality trait on any personality test. The analysis has since been quoted by over 400 other studies. Graphology is Pseudoscience
When the MBTI results and the handwriting analysis are used for self-exploration, it can prompt ideas to ask yourself. That is the attraction of them.
The questions are the point. It is a launching pad to find answers. The answers help me.
Perhaps it is the ESTJ in me.
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