Note: This one is going to be a lot shorter. Dealing with an illness this week (plus Thanksgiving), but hope you enjoy regardless!

The thought of psychoanalysis can be nauseating to a lot of people. So even considering using personality tests in business can be met with plenty of resistance. You can almost hear the grumbling when HR or leadership pushes out a personality test. Time being finite, most of us have a need to prioritize our time and focus on things that matter or generate value and without a contextual understanding of these tests, they don’t generate much interest. From my experience, as someone in the “please don’t psychoanalyze me” category, I actually do see some value in personality tests in the business environment and it goes beyond testing potential candidates. 

There are numerous types of personality tests that employers use. A few popular ones are Meyer-Briggs, the Caliper Profile, the SHL Occupational Personality Questionnaire, the Hogan test, the DiSC Behavior Inventory, the PI Behavioral Assessment, and some Situational Judgement Tests. According to Myers-Briggs website, www.themyersbriggs.com, 88% of Fortune 500 companies in over 100 countries utilize the test. And on the Society of Human Resource Management (SHRM) website in an article called “What do Personality Tests Really Reveal,” nearly 60 percent of workers are now asked to take workplace assessments. Today, the industry is over $500M/year and continues to grow. My hypothesis is with the increase in telework due to the pandemic, the use of personality tests will only increase as we will need to find more ways to learn about our candidates and team members. 

A lesser known test is called the Enneagram Test. It doesn’t make the list as one of the most widely used test win the Fortune 500 community, but it is a test I found to be helpful and useful. The Enneagram is interesting because its origin is from a blend of science, religion, mystics, philosophers, and stoics. Go https://www.enneagraminstitute.com/the-traditional-enneagram for a more complete history and explanation. When I was first introduced to the test, I had no idea of some of its origins. Just thought it was another test like the ones I’d heard about before. But for some reason, I decided to take it at home – in fact, my wife and kids all took it as well. We found it thought provoking, helpful, and very insightful. As we were reading the results, most of us had similar “oh, that sort of makes sense” type of moments. It provided a level of insight into why we behave or communicate in various situations.

There are nine personality types each with a wing and each has explanations of healthy behaviors within that personality trait and unhealthy behaviors with the specific type. I’m generalizing quite a bit, but ultimately, our goal is to exhibit healthy behaviors and position ourselves to do so. This is good for the individual and for the organization’s culture. 

What did I learn about myself? I learned I was a Type 3. In fact, I took the test a few different times and each time I came back as a Type 3 – The Successful Achiever. What does that even mean? Here’s an excerpt from a book by Beth McCord, called “Enneagram Type 3:”

Core Desire: Having a status of respect; being admired, successful, and valuable.

Core Fear: Being exposed as or thought incompetent, inefficient, or worthless; failing to appear successful.

Core Weakness: Deceit: Deceiving yourself into believing that you are only the image you present to others; embellishing the truth by putting on polished persona for everyone (including yourself) to see and admire.

Core Longing: You are loved simply for being you.

My total scoring is as follows using the Riso-Hudson Enneagram Type Indicator (Riso-Hudson) from The Enneagram Institute:

Enneagram Type Score

Type 3, The Achiever 26

Type 7, The Enthusiast 20

Type 4, The Individualist 17

Type 9, The Peacemaker 15

Type 1, The Reformer 15

Type 6, The Loyalist 14

Type 8, The Challenger 14

Type 5, The Investigator 13

Type 2, The Helper 10

As a reminder, this is just my Enneagram result and used as an example for you. As you can see, when you need help, call someone else! I ended up a Type 3 in numerous attempts. I learned that 3s are generally effective, competent, adaptable, goal-orientated, ambitious, charming, focused on performance, and image conscious. We 3s get into some trouble by being expedient, too driven, competitive, self promoting, less than sincere and more “appropriate,” and grandiose. And at our best, 3s are inner-directed, authentic, modest, admirable, well-adjusted, gracious, interested in others, etc. But with any personality test, there is a “at their worst,” list of characteristics. In fact, those 3s at their worst are folks like, O.J. Simpson, Lance Armstrong (😊, post scandal), Bernie Madoff, all of which are projected 3s who went off course. Other positive examples of 3s would be Arnold Schwarzenegger, Michael Jordan, Will Smith, and Mad Men’s character “Don Draper.” The goal is to work on your inner self to drive towards the healthy, “at your best” area and avoid the “at your worst” zone.

For me, by utilizing this tool in leadership, it provides us some insight into what and why certain circumstances stress some out but not others. It ties into how you manage people, because form my experience, you can’t and shouldn’t manage everyone the same. Consistent policies are excellent. Consistent and clear procedures are very beneficial. But leading individuals requires flexibility and leading each according to what gets the best out of them individually. Utilizing a tool like this can be very helpful when setting goals, dealing with conflict, and understanding the foundation of action from your personnel. It’s also a useful tool to use when selecting new candidates and finding a good balance in your organization. You might not want a bunch of Type 8s (Challengers). And in that same logic, when building cross functional project teams, pairing a “Helper” with an “Achiever” could be good, but maybe an “Achiever” with a “Investigator” might be interesting. The idea is to match up traits that compliment each other and get the best out of each. A tool like this could be helpful.

In my mind, you don’t have to use the Enneagram. You can research and use any type of test you feel is good for your organization. Regardless of which test you use, remember, it is just a tool in your tool chest. One tool is rarely ever enough to get the job done. I’d encourage you to maintain that perspective. No personality test is 100% accurate. In fact, one knock on Meyer-Briggs has been the lack of consistency when a single person takes the test a variety of times. From my experience with Enneagram, you are likely within the top three of your scores and if you take the test numerous times, you’re like to score highest in one of these three categories. For me, personally, I typically land on “The Achiever” almost every time, which suggests a level of consistency in the test. There are other ways the tests can be screwed. If your business celebrates a certain type of individuals, people may be inclined to answer questions in a way they think your organization wants to them to answer. This could skew the results for some. Keep some of these limitations in mind and avoid putting full confidence in any personality test. It is one tool in a tool chest.

Overall, I’m not a very self-reflective type of person by nature. Like, “Common, let’s just get the job done and not talk about our feelers.” Hence, maybe the “achiever” in me. We sometimes don’t have time for softer stuff and more interested in driving to the finish line. When I realized that this could be a tool to get us to the finish line a little more efficiently, I became a lot more interested. As I learned more and experienced using the test, I would recommend to any leader to take an interest in what makes the people on your team tick and learn as much about it as possible. Personality tests are tools that can help with that. I recommend using them and not shy away. When you get resistance from certain folks, it’s fine to acknowledge the resistance, but don’t let it sway your decision. I found that those in the most resistance to it, enjoyed it the most….Irony.