Beyond Myers-Briggs Type-Indicator (MBTI) Assessments
According to Colossus Media Group, more than 3.5 million assessments are administered each year and nearly 90% of Fortune 100 companies use the MBTI test in the hiring process or as a team-building exercise. Why is that? Well, this test has merit in providing companies with an in-depth exploration of their employees’ personality traits.
I know that during my military and federal career, I was afforded the MBTI several times. My MBTI didn’t change, I was always ISTJ. After discussing results, I had a pretty good idea of how I ticked, how I responded to various situations. What I thought about was, how knowing my MBTI didn’t provide me with actionable strategies. Knowing, if I could remember the MBTIs of coworkers and supervisors or subordinates, the MBTIs of those around me did little to modify how I interacted with them, particularly in stressful or extremely time sensitive situation.
When we agreed to start Kellen Consulting Group (KCG), Kelli and I took the ProfileXT® or (PXT) assessment. It measures how well an individual fits specific roles in your organization utilizing 20 performance indicators to develop a view of the total person using information related to thinking and reasoning, behavioral traits and personal interests. It helps your managers interview and select people who have the highest probability of being successful in a role and provides practical recommendations for maximizing performance. It also gives your organization consistent language and metrics to support staff planning, people and performance management, and organizational structure and succession planning. The “job matching” feature of the PXT is unique, and enables you to evaluate an individual relative to the qualities required to successfully perform in a specific job. It can be used throughout the employee life cycle for selection, onboarding, managing, and strategic workforce planning.
Some are hesitant to take the PXT, because there is an actual mathematics portion of the assessment. Well, if your organization will need financial or data analysis or any types of calculations required for estimating costs, schedule or performance, you need those that do well in mathematics. If that is not your strength, not your thing, then you will need to hire those who can fill that gap.
The PXT gives you an objective, inside look at the behaviors and motives of yourself and job candidates to help you make better hiring, promotion, and organizational decisions. Giving this information to managers helps them be more effective and get the very most from their people.
For Kelli and I, one “Aha! moment” we learned was related to communication. Kelli scored a 10 and I scored a 5. Now we’ve always been competitive, and I was feeling a bit down, until we conducted our PXT debrief. The summation for us regarding communications revealed I was a better communicator. Kelli’s 10 indicates she is capable of precise communication, and she processes verbal information rapidly which allows her to draw conclusions very quickly.
She talks quickly, and at a level that leaves some feeling inadequate. Friends have said they will never argue or get in deep discussions with Kelli because she talks circles around them and can make them feel like a bit of a dullard. My scoring of a 5, indicated that I have a much better ability to communicate with just about anyone, regardless of intellect, experience, background or social status. How do we leverage this for our business? I try to engage with new clients to get to know them and understand their needs, history and challenges to best determine how KCG can best serve them. Then, I transfer them to Kelli or our other coaches or consultants to take care of the heavy lifting and help them achieve their objectives and desired outcomes.
Another way the PXT assisted us as we established our business was the results, we reviewed in the Personal Interests section. This selection assesses occupational interest in the 6 area of enterprising, people service, creative, financial/administrative, technical and mechanical interest. My results indicated an interest pattern focuses on the Enterprising, Financial and Technical themes. The main emphasis is on business management, organization and the application of technologies and ideas. Kelli’s interests on the other hand focused in the Enterprising, People Service and Technical themes. This particular combination indicates she may be drawn to situations where she can help people in an advisory capacity, She thrives in an analytically oriented work setting, which fits with the role of advisor, coach or consultant.
Using this information, we were comfortable starting our own business and divided the work according to our interests. I enjoy the financial and administrative piece, so I manage our bookkeeping, invoicing, business licenses, etc. I generally leave much of the coaching and training to Kelli and our other consultants unless it is an area where I have particular skills or experience, like logistics, supply chain or ITSM. We noticed that neither of us were particularly interested in the mechanical or creative areas and we needed to consider how to fill those gaps. The mechanical area isn’t particularly relevant to what we do, but creativity is an area we had to leverage. We determined we would have to outsource or hire someone to address the creative aspects of our business such as our website, marketing, and branding to those who have interest and skill in those areas.
The PXT was a valuable assessment for us personally and professionally and we have used the results in many ways since we debriefed the reports. Because we found it so useful, Kelli became certified to administer and debrief all the versions of the PXT, including the Sales Profile, Managerial Fit, and Checkpoint 360. These assessments can help you select the right candidates for a role or restructure your team, so your staff is happier and more successful in their role. The information on strengths in the performance areas can help you better understand and communicate with your team and better manage their performance. If you would like to learn more about any of the various Profile Assessments, please schedule a free Discovery Call to discuss how the PXT or our other psychometric assessments may benefit you or your team members.
