Personality assessments can be fun to take, but they can also be valuable tools when used appropriately. They have the potential to be revelatory, but they also have the potential to cause more harm than good when used poorly.

Here are some guidelines on how personality assessments should be used.

1. Ask yourself why you want to take an assessment 

Before taking an assessment, you should be clear about why. 

Self-awareness and personal growth 

Assessments can help you gain insight into your behaviors, strengths, weaknesses, motivators, affinities, aversions, tendencies, preferences, emotional intelligence, and more. Your assessment results can be used for self-reflection, which can support personal growth and development. 

Career development

Assessment results can help you understand your aptitudes, interests, and values, which can help inform your career choices. They can also provide insights into what types of work environments or job roles may be a good fit for an individual’s Personal Brilliance and help guide career planning and decision-making. 

Professional development and training

Assessments can be used in professional development and training programs to help individuals enhance their self-awareness, communication skills, leadership styles, and other aspects of their professional performance. They can also be used to identify areas for improvement, set development goals, and track progress over time. 

Team building and interpersonal relationships

Assessments can enhance team dynamics, communication, and collaboration in an organizational setting. By understanding aspects such as strengths, behavior styles, motivators, and emotional intelligence of team members, team leaders can create diverse and balanced teams and assign roles and responsibilities more effectively. 

Assessments can also improve interpersonal relationships, such as between family, friends, and romantic relationships, by providing insights into each individual’s strengths and blind spots.

Beware of taking assessments without a personal reason

There are many nuanced reasons for taking assessments, but if the reason is, “My friend took this assessment, and her results changed her life. I feel stuck and want this assessment to ‘fix’ me,” there’s a chance the results could be misinterpreted and misused. When you take an assessment with unrealistic expectations, you may set yourself up for more frustration. Assessments should not be used to box you in but as a tool to gain awareness.

2. Use assessments based on science

There is no shortage of personality assessments out there, but not all of them are based on science. Science-backed assessments can offer enhanced validity, objectivity, precision, and integration with other approaches. I use DISC, the 6 Motivators, the 12 Driving Forces, Acumen Capacity Index, CliftonStrengths, the Four Tendencies, and EQ because they are based on science. 

The TTI assessments (DISC, The 6 Motivators, the 12 Drivings Forces, ACI, and EQ) are based on neuroscience. Brain mapping technology is used to research and improve the value of their assessments. 

There are a lot of personality assessments out there based on pseudosciences, and while these assessments can be fun to take, they do not offer the same value as science-based assessments. In fact, they can actually lead to more confusion and less clarity. 

Before you take an assessment, ask: is there a good explanation of the specific thing being measured?

3. Do not let assessments answer questions outside the scope of the assessment

If you are taking assessments for deeper understanding (emotional intelligence), you have to be clear about what the assessment is measuring. Many people who take assessments, and EVEN assessment experts themselves, fall into the trap of overusing the results – allowing results to bleed out of the scope within which they should be used.

Some people, for example, end up confusing behaviors from DISC profiles with motivators. If a person is high in “S” on DISC, they are warm, steady, and dependable – more people-oriented but preferring routine. This often causes people to assume people high in S – particularly women high in S – should be placed in friendly, nurturing jobs like childcare or support roles like administrative positions. However, this is an overapplication of DISC: it is assigning an assumed motivation (which is measured with the 6 Motivators) to a behavior. Just because someone is high in “S” does not mean they are motivated in nurturing roles like childcare or supporting roles like an administrative assistant. 

4. There is no “single” assessment you should take 

No “magic bullet” assessment tells you everything you need to know about yourself. Each assessment has limitations in its measures and thus has its own individual merit. 

If you want the complete picture, you need all pieces of the puzzle, see yourself from different angles, and understand the limitations of each assessment.

5. Use a guide for optimal results

Having a certified assessment expert do a debrief helps you better understand your results. They can also help you meaningfully integrate the results into your life. 

Look for experts who are certified by the assessment provider they use, can tell you what the assessment measures and what it doesn’t measure, and have an appreciation for various assessments based on neuroscience. But be aware that not all assessment-certified people understand the limitations of their assessment and its measures. They may be able to tell you your results but may lead you to misinterpret or misuse them. 

Summary

• Ask yourself why you want to take an assessment

• Use assessments based in science

• Do not let assessment answer questions outside the scope

• There is no single assessment you should take

• Use a guide for optimal results