What is the Best Personality Test?

DISC Personality Types and Profiles

The DISC Model describes the four basic temperament types of human behaviour as first introduced by Hippocrates 400 years before Christ: (Choleric) D-type, (Sanguine) I-type, (Phlegmatic) S-type, and (Melancholy) C-type.

The DISC model measures only two dimensions of personality.

1. A preference towards working with a task versus working with people.
2. An orientation towards being passive or being active.

Using only 4 letters, the DISC model is simpler than the Myers Briggs and Kiersey Temperament Sorter which use 8 letters to define 16 types. When you take the Myers Briggs or Kiersey Temperament sorter you may find that depending upon the context you may match a number of types. The DISC model makes things a lot simpler.

INSIGHT Inventory Personality Profile Test

As the developers put it, "The INSIGHT Inventory is an easy-to-use, self-scoring personality profile test that helps people gain in-depth knowledge about their personality strengths, understand others better, and improve communication skills." It has been designed as a "training self-discovery instrument to get participants actively involved in leadership and teamwork courses."

It is practical and behavioural based and takes into account that your personality and behaviour may vary depending upon the context. That is, whether you are at work, home, on holidays, on the sports field, or whether you feel stressed or under pressure to perform. Taking these variables into account the INSIGHT Inventory provides two profiles - one that measures personality at work and the other at home. It measures behavioral preferences on four traits:

A) Getting Your Way (Indirect or Direct)
How you express your thoughts and opinions.

B) Responding to Others (Reserved or Outgoing)
How you approach and respond to others.

C) Pacing Activity (Urgent or Steady)
The speed at which you make decisions and take action.

D) Dealing with Details (Unstructured or Precise)
How you structure time and organize tasks.

The INSIGHT Inventory integrates with other assessment profiles and expands on what you may have learned using DiSC, MBTI, and Big 5. Learn more about your INSIGHT Inventory Personality Profile.

Holland's Theory of Career Choice

In Holland's Theory people and work environments are one of six personality types either, Realistic, Investigative, Artistic, Social, Enterprising or Conventional. (RIASEC). Holland's theory is that people are more likely to be successful in a workplace which matches their personality type and which therefor gives them the freedom to express themselves and best use their skills and abilities.

In theory when people of the same personality type work together they create an environment that fits their type. In reality their needs to be a balance of personality types for a business to be successful. For example, in a successful Real Estate business you need a receptionist to handle incoming calls, a sales person to prospect for new business and make cold calls, a sales person to close the sales, a showman to auction the properties and someone to manage rental properties. Each of these job titles may require a different personality type. The person who manages incoming calls would probably be a very different personality to the auctioneer. Holland's six personality types can be expressed in a hexagon as follows:

The personality types closest to each other are more alike than those further away.

Introducing NLP Meta Programs

At this point you might have noticed that some of the temperaments / types / profiles etc., seem to be measuring more than one variable, which makes it difficult to compare personality typing models. In NLP these variables are known as Meta Programs. Meta Programs are perceptual filters which operate at the level of the unconscious mind. They are defined in such an explicit manner as to leave little ambiguity of meaning. Some of the meta programs are listed below:

1. Towards - Away From. (Move towards positive or away-from negative.)
2. Pessimist - Optimist. (Negative thinking versus positive thinking.)
3. Sameness - Difference. (Sorting for sameness versus differences.)
4. Reflective - Active. (Thinking about something versus taking action.)
5. Internal — External. (Attention on self or other.)
6. Details - Global. (Details versus the big picture.)
7. Intuition - Sensing. (Exploring the patterned relationship between things at a conceptual level versus paying attention to sensory based information. Sensors tend to be more present and past oriented while Intuitors tend to be more future oriented.)
8. Necessity - Possibility. (Acting out of need versus out of what could be.)
9. Procedures - Options. (Preferring clear steps and stages versus considering choices.)
10. Match — Mismatch. (Agreeing with others versus thinking of the opposite.)
11. In-time - Through Time - Between Time. (How you sort for time.)
12. Past - Present - Future. (Focus on past, present or future.)
13. People - Systems - Things. (Preference for working with people, systems or things.)
14. Logic - Feeling. (Making decisions in objective manner versus subjective manner.)
15. Visual - Auditory - Kinesthetic - Digital. (Representational system preference.)
16. Convincer Filter: Once, Three Times, All the Time. (How you become convinced.)
17. Foreground - Background. (Focus on foreground or background.)
18. Black and white thinking (A or B) versus shades of grey thinking as in (A and B).
    

If you scan back over all the personality typing tools on this page, you should get an idea from the descriptions that each category/temperament may be measuring a number of meta programs. (No wonder people can find personality typing to be confusing?) Of all the personality typing tools so far, Holland's is the only one that offers a decent visual model.

Once you understand each type then you can see how the types next to each other relate while the ones at opposite points are almost opposites in type. This gives you something a little more concrete to work with in understanding sameness and difference between people. Roger Hamilton has made personality profiling even more practical than that.

Wealth Dynamics Personality Profile

Roger Hamilton is a Hong Kong born, Singapore-based author, educator and social entrepreneur. He is best known as the creator of the Wealth Dynamics profiling system for entrepreneurs, and as you can tell from the title, the focus is on understanding personality types for the primary purpose of building wealth.

Like the Myers Briggs, the Wealth Dynamics Profile has its origins in the I Ching but being Chinese himself, Roger Hamilton is more able to communicate what these Eastern concepts mean. To start with, I like the way that he has mapped out the two dimensions of Intuition and Sensing against Introversion and Extroversion. Most people can easily relate to these two dimensions of personality.

Introverts draw their energy from an inner world of thoughts, interests, ideas and imagination. They tend to be more process oriented whereas extroverts are more people oriented. Introverts may focus more on self rather than others. Introverts may make decisions based upon how they think and feel about something, without consulting others, whereas you will often find an extrovert thinking aloud, and asking others for their opinion. The introvert is happiest when working alone or with a few people. Introverts might work in an inbound call centre but they would never work as a telemarketer making cold calls.

Extroverts get their energy from the outer world of activities, excitement, people and things. They seek attention from others and like to be around people, manage people and lead people.

Intuitors seek understanding from the relationships between concepts and ideas. Intuitors 'have their head in the clouds', are great innovators, constantly coming up with new ideas but may find it difficult bringing those ideas into reality in the real world. Intuitors tend to be future oriented.

Sensors are more reality based in sensory details that can be experienced now. Sensors are good with timing. Martial artists, action heros, dancers, sports people, construction workers, share traders, and anyone who likes to buy low and sell high is a sensor. Sensors tend to be more past oriented.

The Wealth Dynamics Profile: Mapping out the dimension of Introversion - Extroversion and Intuition - Sensing against each other we get eight personality types which fit neatly onto a square.

This figure shows the results that I got when I took the Wealth Dynamics Profile Test. As you can see from the blue diamond shape most of my energy is in the Dynamo area which makes me a Creator. You can also see that I may have tendencies to be a Mechanic and a Star. Being more of an Introvert I tend towards working with systems and things rather than working with groups people. What you might find interesting is that I share the same Myers Briggs profile as Oprah Winfrey yet she is a Wealth Dynamics Star and I am a Creator.

Learn more about the eight Wealth Dynamics Types.

As an NLP Coach the Wealth Dynamics Profile  gives a far more accurate picture of your personality type in respect of career than the Myers Briggs or any other personality profiling instrument that I have ever used.

In addition to a profile test for individuals there is also a Talent Dynamics Profile for teams which means that you can profile an entire organisation and learn where to position the right person for the right job.

In addition the Wealth Spectrum Test gives you a clear indication of where you are at with your level of success and what to do to get to the next level.

Take the Wealth Dynamics Personality Test and then come back and read this section again.

So once you know your personality type what do you do? What are the benefits and limitations of each personality type? How do you recognise different personality types by their attitude, values and behaviour? Have you been embracing differences or have you been trying to get everyone to behave and think like you do?

Is there something that you need to change so that you can follow your energy? Do you need permission to just be yourself? Are there negative events which hold you back? What meta programs have become habitual? For example, have you become so procedural that you forget to check your options? Have you let Introversion get the better of you such that you stress when having to talk before an audience? Are you habitually referencing the past and thinking about what could go wrong. Are you so focussed on the future that you don't see what is happening right in front of your face?

What do you need to do to harness the energy of your personality type? What should you be outsourcing to others? __ © Author Abby Eagle

Watch the Wealth Dynamics video. A quick introduction that makes a lot of sense.

Click the Image to Watch on YouTube

If you are interested in NLP Coaching and Hypnotherapy then please contact Abby Eagle using the contact form on this page.