Using personality testing to improve people management

There are a multitude of things to get right, approaches you can take, and laws to comply with. Personality profiling is one way to improve understanding.

One of the most famous personality tests is the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI). It uses a series of questions to measure people on scales of introvert/extrovert, thinking/feeling, sensing/intuition, and judging/perceiving.

Its output for each person is one of 16 personality types marked by a letter code such as ENTJ. These reflect answers to the questions and how the respondent may behave. Crucially, there’s no hierarchy of personality types – there are strengths and weaknesses to each one.

There are many other variations of personality testing, alongside MBTI.

To lead by example, you should include yourself in personality testing as part of a wider exercise with your team. This is important, because it can help you understand your own style, the aspects of leadership that come naturally to you, and the ones you need to work on. This is an important point because, typically, personality testing doesn’t rule that any person can or can’t do any one task. Rather, it highlights what they’re comfortable with and what takes more effort.

Take being introverted or extroverted as an example.

If you’re a quiet introvert, it doesn’t mean you’re not capable of speaking up in a meeting, networking with new faces, or holding a difficult conversation. But it may mean you need to work more on things like these, or that it takes up more energy when you do them, and that you need time to decompress.

Conversely, if you’re an exuberant extrovert, you may enjoy meeting clients or be more at ease talking tough when necessary; but you may struggle sitting down and understanding detail. It doesn’t mean you can’t do it though – same as for introverts, you need more practice or to block out some time afterwards as part of the process.

Five tips for using personality tests
So, you commission some tests, they’ve been carried out and the results are in.

What do you do next? Here are just a few ideas:

Check you have a balanced team
If your team is packed full of identikit personalities, it may lead to several problems like soft skills gaps that you may not even realise are present, personality clashes where too many similar people are in close proximity, or groupthink.

Adjust your style and reduce conflict
As well as reflecting on your own strengths and weaknesses, it gives you an opportunity to make informed adjustments as to how you treat individuals on your team, who needs to see detail to get on board with a new project, who needs an extra word of encouragement when something goes wrong, and so on. You’ll find that with better insight into people’s strengths, you can stop misunderstandings and conflict.

Identify training opportunities
Personality testing results can help you realise why someone persistently struggles with one aspect of their role and where targeted training may give them the extra capability to succeed.

Avoid labelling
There’s no way round it, personality testing does produce labels. It’s kind of the point. But these are rarely helpful to use in the wider professional context. Remember, they tend not to reflect overall capability to do something, and that each has its own strengths and weaknesses.

Encourage better interactions between team members
The impact of personality testing doesn’t have to be just vertical, between you and employees. By encouraging your team to embrace their own personalities and respect others, you can achieve a horizontal peer-to-peer benefit: getting them all working better together, reducing friction, and raising productivity.

Find out more and get support from the HR Dept.