Know thyself

Recent involvement in a psychometrics project made me reflect. Although most of us have taken part in testing at some point in our careers (usually as part of a selection process) we typically receive no feedback. The results are used by potential employers as an aid to decision making - and remain confidential. In a recent study over 80% of HR departments said they employed some sort of testing but I have to conclude that psychometrics isn’t being used to its full potential when most findings remain under lock and key.

Over the past 80 years psychologists have developed many models to describe personality and thousands of research studies have been conducted. Every one of these models has probably contributed something to the general understanding of personality, defining it in terms of: role (as an actor might play a part), the self (a permanent entity at the heart of our experience), preferences for behaving in given ways, adapting to the environment; and probability that an individual will act in certain ways.

Understanding what drives us and people around us can help us to become better communicators and ultimately raise performance and job satisfaction. I’m looking at this as much from the point of view of the employee as the business. For starters, perhaps it’s a way out of the appraisal impasse; the manager wants his or her team member to be more something or less something else, but the person in question has no practical way of achieving this. We’re not talking huge personality shifts, but subtle changes that are realistically achievable if people are given the tools.