The personality tests are created to help you get to know your own personality, build a harmonious team , and develop both professionally and personally. Small businesses often utilize personality tests in a certain way and I’m always awed with the outcomes. Financial planners, specifically will benefit from these tests.
If you’re a solo practitioner, various test results can help you develop your skills with clients and identify your preferred work habits or areas where you may be able to delegate tasks to someone more suitable for the task. If you’re managing a larger financial planning business test results will help you manage your team and make hiring decisions and more.
What are the advantages from Personality Testing?
Personality tests do much more than provide an understanding of your behavior during the day-to-day. They can help you gain an understanding of who you really are, which means you have to dig deeper into your workplace preferences, habits of work such as energy levels, social abilities, strengths, and weaknesses. These tests also aid you understand how you respond in times of stress, or determine the most suitable career path in the field of financial planning which is in line with your goals and interests.
Testing for personality has value for both solo practitioners and larger teams. However, I have found that teams generally gain more value from personality tests when they are focused on how they can work with each other, and solo practitioners are likely to gain the most insight into how they interact with their clients.
For Solo Practitioners
I am a huge fan of encouraging those who are self-employed to take a look at themselves. The more you know about your own self, the more you’ll be able to build an enterprise that inspires and fills you with joy. You’ll also be able to provide your ideal customers when you know how you can best engage with people, react to criticism or communication. You could even provide your clients with an assessment of their personality, or a value assessment which helps you identify the person is who they really are. They will also know what their needs are and how your interactions with them can best satisfy the needs of their clients.
For Teams
The task of managing an advisory team can be a challenge. When you have several personalities in the same room, you are opening your self to conflict. Conflict is normal and so long as it’s constructive , I do not have a problem with it. But, minimizing conflict that causes harm and miscommunication as well as tension in the workplace is something everyone on the financial planning team should be a part of. The tests for personality can be beneficial.
If you ask your group to take a personality test in a group, and talk about your findings, you’re starting an exchange. As a group, you’ll be able to gain knowledge:
Who are the team members?
What are their strengths?
What they should complete to replenish (and how often they have to recharge it)
Their strengths at work
How do they are able to communicate
What they prefer to communicate to
What do they expect from interactions with colleagues
What do they expect from themselves in their professional roles
What are they looking for?
How do they handle criticism and conflict
And much more.
These kinds of discussions accomplish several things. They first make sure that each member of your team is feeling about them. They also inspire every member of your team to examine their own perspective and discover more about their own personal goals, as well as what they would like to achieve and how they wish to continue to be a part of the group in an effective manner.
In the second place, personality test exercises result in better understanding among colleagues. Knowing who everyone is and what they do best and where their weaknesses are allows for greater grace in workplace conflicts or professional interactions and allows more intimate connections to be established. This results in more productivity and more positive workplace interactions.
What Personality Test Should You Test Your Personality?
It’s as if there are a million different personality tests available all over the internet, and each time I go online, there’s some new test that boasts about how amazing and unique it is. In all honesty, I’m pretty sure that the majority test are excellent. However, for the sake of certainty, let’s look through a few tests I’ve had the pleasure of taking, have seen used in the financial planning industry and have read glowing reviews of.
Insights Discovery
Insights Discovery is currently my preferred personality test which is why I recently received certification to conduct it for firms! Insights Discovery is based on a simple concept:
Applicability + Understanding = Breakthrough
The people who developed this test are convinced that encouraging self-awareness in teams and applying the knowledge you’ve gained to your workplace environment can lead to greater efficiency, productivity and positive work environment. Their test is designed to help create stronger interpersonal interactions within your organization as quickly as you can, which is something I am a huge fan of. I’m not a huge fan of personality tests that simply take them and ignore them. They’re designed to be used!
Test takers who are part of Insights Discovery will gain knowledge about:
Their enthusiasm
How do they make their decisions
How do they exchange and receive messages
The most effective way to communicate with team members is to make use of all this information
Insights Discovery provides a fantastic in-depth, deep exploration that’s perfect for teams looking to increase their efficiency and communication to achieve maximum effectiveness and impact. I enjoy it as an instrument for developing leadership skills as well as a method to create the creation of a more positive working environment for teams (even when you have contract employees!) because it’s so extensive and is designed to work.
The test also is focused on the awareness that self-awareness and development aren’t just a one-time thing This is the reason I believe that a lot of other personality tests are lacking. Insights Discovery promotes continual changes and applications to encourage your business (and the team) to achieve their maximum potential. They assist you as a leader in your business simplify your programs and adjust your procedures to better match the needs and capabilities of the team They also encourage team members to propose modifications and create the work environment that supports their growth. In the end it’s an awesome program.
Did you know? You canbook your next team workshop personality test with testgroupassessments.com
DISC
The DISC assessment is based upon getting a better understanding of the personality of people. It works well when working in teams since it focuses on the ways to improve your abilities to work with other people, as well as how to manage your behavior in the workplace.
A few of the items DISC is able to cover include:
What do you do when you encounter conflict?
What is it that motivates you?
What is it that causes you to stress?
How do you tackle the problems
How do we improve communication?
How do you recognize the behavior needs of others to enhance the team’s environment
DISC is highly focused on teams. However I believe it can be used by the solo practitioner. Instead of looking at how you interact with other members of your team rather, you’ll be focused on the impact of your actions on the freelance or contract employees and clients. It’s still a valuable information however, the evaluation is certainly more targeted at larger teams in the workplace.
The assessment consists of four main personality types: dominant, Supportive, Inspiring and cautious. Some assessment companies alter these names in a slight way. For instance, “dominant” might be “directing.” In any case the behavior patterns that fit the personality type are usually identical across all. Every personality kind is assigned a variety of descriptive words, such as people-oriented, outgoing, reserved or focus-oriented. This is among the reasons why it is useful to financial planning firms that have a large team. Understanding how each member of the team behaves can be a huge help in any circumstance.
Kolbe A Index
Kolbe A Index Kolbe A Index is a little more thorough than many test for personality you could take, but it’s extremely geared towards working environments, which can prove useful. Kolbe Corp believes that once you’ve taken the test, the results won’t alter because, at the core your identity is who you are.
If you’re taking the Kolbe A Index, you’ll discover:
What you do to make choices
Your natural strengths and your instincts are
How to lessen stress
What is your “action manner” is
How do you best solve problems?
The actions modes are what attract the majority of users into The Kolbe A Index, and with good reason. The four modes for action include Fact Finder and follow Through, Quick Start, and Implementer. The index shows you at what stage you are at in each mode, which allows you to determine whether you are able to are reacting, counteracting or take an action. The advantages associated with every action mode are to explain the mode, keep it in mind, and then innovate and restore.
The appeal the appeal of The Kolbe A Index is that it is a perfect balance between self-reflection as well as an external team-focused approach. Being aware of how you should behave in any particular scenario is beneficial, as well as knowing how your colleagues behave in similar situations is also helpful.
If, for instance, you have a member of your team who has a high score in the area of implementing tasks and ideas effectively as well as a team member that scores high for their ability to innovate both of them could work well together. However If your entire team consists of individuals who are constantly innovating and aren’t keen to keep or implement, you could be in trouble in your hands.
It’s also worth considering The Kolbe B Index and The Kolbe C Index. These two programs are offered for teams that want to move things beyond the current level. Kolbe B Index: Kolbe B Index can be utilized by teams to determine their views of their responsibilities as a team. It can help identify the areas of conflict and confusion within the workplace.
Kolbe C Index Kolbe C Index was created specifically for business leaders and supervisors to determine what they believe a certain job involves. This could be useful when writing job descriptions, or when comparing your own personal tendencies to what you expect from your position as their supervisor.
The StrengthFinders (Now CliftonStrengths)
CliftonStrengths is an Gallup test that is designed to be a complete personality test. It’s built on a set of 34 themes. It will highlight the top five. Each theme is focused on a characteristic that is natural to you such as accountability and strategic thinking, getting outcomes, or even the ability to learn.
CliftonStrengths concentrates on:
Finding out who you are
Finding your strengths
Helping you gain a better understanding of your weak points
Learn how to increase your potential
Concentrating on what makes you special
Take action to increase your performance
CliftonStrengths exceeds expectations by providing an action plan for the test takers to take action on. The test is designed to provide more than just information, but also encourage people to make improvements and do something about it. In the end, this is what you’re looking for from an assessment of your personality to take taking action. Personal growth and reflection are both essential however, they’re not as beneficial if you simply rest on the information you’ve learned about yourself, and not take the next steps to grow!
I am pretty sure that solo practitioners as well as team-based practices could profit from using CliftonStrengths. While it might appear that it’s designed to assist team members improve their communications skills and be more aware of its strengths, the program gives the most thorough assessment of each person that it can still be beneficial as a single advisor.
Myers-Briggs
It is the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI) personality test is among the first psychometric tests. With 16 tests of personality, the test’s focused on the things that make you who you are. It’s not as fervently targeted at corporate teams or even workplace teams However, that doesn’t make it any less important.
The MBTI analyzes:
Your actions
What are you most likely to focus upon (outer world or your inner)
How do you handle the information
What you do to make your decision
How do you handle the world outside and how you your interactions with others
Although the MBTI is a great tool however, it has certain disadvantages. It is based entirely on self-reports that are honest and also how people see themselves, which could affect the results. It’s not the 100% accurate tool, which means you may get an assessment of your personality that isn’t quite the person you really are. However, if you’re just dipping your toe into the realm of personality tests to help you or your group, this test is certainly worth taking a look.
Then, Pick Your Test
There are several personality tests available that it could cause your brain to spin. There are pros and cons to each and you’ll gain some value out of it regardless of which test you choose. In order to get the most value from your experience, it’s a good idea to understand what you’re looking for in the test to begin with. If you’re an individual seeking to better understand your stresses and your communication style You’re seeking something different from a large financial planning team that’s working to improve their communication and make the most of their strengths.
As an owner of a business you could take a personality test various ways, and may be seeking different results every time. If you’re taking a personality test in your current team, you’re probably looking to boost communication and improve performance. If you’re employing it as a recruitment instrument, you’re likely trying to understand the candidates you’re considering and how they’ll work with your current team.
When you’ve specific reason why you’d like to utilize an assessment of your personality for your company and you’ll be in deciding on the test that will give you the data you’re looking for as well as the depth of investigation that you want.
Choose When to use them
You’ve decided to go with the idea of a personality test. That’s great! Self-discovery is an effective way to increase your efficiency of work as well as your living quality. A lot of financial planners I speak to are aware of the benefits of self-reflection and employing personality type tests to help improve their team’s communication and create more intimate relationships with their colleagues. However, there are many different ways to utilize tests for personality to help your financial planning process I’d like to ensure that you’re not leaving anything out! If you have the resources to work with, you might be able to get the best amount of value.
When You’re Looking for a Job
Personality tests play a crucial part in the hiring process. Being aware of a candidate’s strengths and weaknesses, and work preferences from the beginning will allow you to make the right decision for your staff.
On the other hand of the side, personality tests can assist you in determining whether or not the job is suitable for the applicant. If you are aware that the duties that are required will make your candidate unhappy and unhappy, it could be beneficial to guide to a different path (within the confines of your work or not) which could be more suitable and result in a happier employee.
A note of caution: If you choose the personality test that’s longer than you’d like, perhaps not send it out to candidates until they’re further along in the interview process. You don’t want to turn away applicants with good qualities by having them have to jump through hurdles before they’ve seen the job advertisement. It’s also essential to determine whether or not the selection of personality test is suitable to be used in the hiring process. Insights Discovery, for example it states that workplace preferences don’t necessarily correlate with workplace performance They don’t intend to be used for hiring purposes.
When Building Teams Building
Group building exercises that focus around personality tests are from my experience extremely enjoyable. In addition to the fact that your employees gain knowledge about themselves, but they also gain insight into the people they interact with every day. Together, they’re able come up with unique solutions, figure processes that showcase each person’s strengths and work together with one another to push everyone toward the same goal, which is to ensure the effectiveness of the method. It’s quite exciting to watch the team members respond to each other in a way that respects their individual needs, altering their communication patterns or even taking care of themselves in a way that allows them to be present and be their best each day.
As Training
I enjoy testing your personality as a way of training for leadership. Your new employees who are considering becoming partners, as well as managing members of the team, could benefit from understanding the more they know about their personality, communication style, and the way they manage. They could also take the personality test to discover how the personalities of others may interact, which could enable them to be a more effective manager over time.
to spark discussion
What is it that a new employee doesn’t like? The idea of telling you how they’d prefer to work. No matter if you have a full-time staff or work with many 1099 contractors, the new team members aren’t very vocal about what they would like their workplace to appear like. The awkward boss-employee relationship could get in the way and new employees might be concerned about voicing their opinions too often as they’re just beginning their journey. It always irks me since, in reality the more you are aware about what your team’s needs the more effective practices you can develop.
The personality test is the perfect solution. Numerous personality tests focused on the workplace allow employees to explore and share the ideal work environment that they think is like. Tests on personality can help individuals to discover their personal strengths, which jobs they do best and areas they may require improvement.
Utilizing personality tests for new employees can help close the knowledge gap and allow them to open up about the goals they’d like to achieve out of their new position in your company. It is also possible to use tests for personality to trigger conversations when you conduct performance reviews. This can help start an open discussion about what’s going well, and what’s not working well with how your employees perform.
Personality Testing: The Downsides of Personality Testing
We’d have been remiss if did not discuss some of the drawbacks to personality testing in this article. In particular, I’d like to ensure that you know the proper way to avoid using personality tests in your work. In the first place, you shouldn’t use personality tests to distinguish or discriminate in any manner. Period.
The second is to be aware of how you utilize personality tests when you practice. While they are great in helping you to understand your worth and where you’re at and aid your team in connecting and grow as a team, they can also cause polarization and even harm. Let’s look at a few situations where using personality tests did not go as planned.
Situation One: An Disgruntled coworker
It is important to conduct a team-building personality test to promote the development of your team rather than blame and blame. When your group is having trouble to work together in a coordinated manner, they may require more disciplined direction when it comes to implementing the new information obtained through personality testing. We do not want Advisor 1 to blame Advisor 2 for not being an innovator , when Advisor 1 is tasked with all the managing and the heavy lifting.
Scenario Two: Homogenizing Your Hiring
The final thing you’d like to do is reject applicants who are of high quality simply because their personality isn’t exactly a match or even a compatible match with your own. It isn’t a good idea to employ an entire room of people. Financial planning methods benefit from having a wide spectrum of thoughts and ideas. This means you should hire a wide variety of personalities for your team, and providing them with the tools they need to work effectively.
Scenario Three: Stagnation
If you’re a solo entrepreneur isn’t it important to not be pushed to the limit after discovering the details about yourself and your working manner. If you’re a business owner, you do not want your employees to begin blaming their behavior according to their personality assessments The truth is that I don’t follow the rules quite as well. Sorry, but I’m an extremely clear and direct person. I’m not trying to offend everyone working in the office.
This could be considered the use of labels, which is something you’d like to stay clear of. It is not possible to take the results of the personality test to label people or as a way to get around. Instead it is best to use them as clues that can help you make connections and adjust, not identify someone’s identity, and then not adjust your personal identity as a result. There’s more to us than the result of the personality test! Even if you’re a certain “type” of individual, you could be the only one to have those characteristics. There’s always something more under the surface.
The reason you should use personality tests as part of your financial planning practices is to promote growth and progress in your career. While it’s tempting that this is a natural outcome of learning how you think and the way you work however, this isn’t always the case.
What’s Next?
Personality tests will help teams and individuals members accomplish incredible things. They’re not the magic wand to help you solve communication issues, improve your relationships, or improve your financial planning practices. Personality tests are only one step in the process. They should become part of bigger strategy.
Spend the time to come up with an implementation plan and bring the entire team involved. Even if you’re a single practitioner working with contract workers discuss with them the results of your test as well as what you’re planning to do to shift behavior or working habits to enhance your effectiveness. A clear understanding of the way you would like to use the results of a personality test to alter an approach, alter the way you conduct yourself, or change your relationships is crucial in ensuring you make the most the most effective instrument.