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Self Awareness facilitates Change - Knowledge Through Assessments | Wall Street Journal

This is a helpful excerpt from the Wall Street journal that captures assessments as a foundational part of personal development, realizing your full potential and capacity.  Assessments are key for developing an evidence based approach in a professional coaching practice.  I've taken over 20 assessments myself, sometimes the same ones respeated over decades.  See if you agree with the assessments approach.  Thanks go to John Agno for the post on LinkedIn. 

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Excerpted:

... coaches increasingly recognize that personality assessments can lead clients not only to greater self-insight but also to improved relationships.  The tests "can help get to the heart of the problem quickly," says Richard Levak, a Del Mar, Calif., psychologist, who uses them extensively in his practice.  "Too often psychologists operate on their intuition and clinical knowledge, but people are not often as they appear."

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When people take ...tests, their self-awareness goes up and they quickly figure out their strengths and weaknesses.  

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 A test might reveal that someone who appears jovial and self-effacing may actually be insecure and introverted—constantly working to play a role, he says.

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Consider what happens when an introvert comes home hoping to chill after a rough day at work—only to find his extrovert partner waiting to recap every moment of her day.  The introvert gets angry; the extrovert feels hurt.  The therapist or coach tells the extrovert that her spouse needs time alone; she tells the introvert that he needs to make an effort to come out and talk after he has decompressed. 

Introversion & extroversion are actually more complex and nuanced than described here, but the basic concepts still ring true.

What, exactly, is personality?

John D. Mayer, a psychologist and expert on personality testing at the University of New Hampshire, says it is "the system that organizes one's emotions, motives and capacities to think."  Personalities are partly innate, partly learned, he says; we can change them a bit, but it isn't easy.

The Myers-Briggs was developed in the 1940s by Isabel Briggs Myers and her mother, Katherine Cook Briggs, who despite little advanced training in psychology, immersed themselves in the work of Swiss psychiatrist Carl Jung and designed the questionnaire based on Jung's personality types.

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 Self-awareness facilitates change.

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When people take personality tests, their self-awareness goes up and they quickly figure out their strengths and weaknesses.  Self-awareness facilitates change.

Source: The Wall Street Journal, April 5, 2011   via coachingtip.com

 

After taking over 20 assessments myself, I've vetted the ones I would want to offer to my clients.  My current suite of assessments that I offer to business, leadership and change coaching clients includes, but is not limited to:

  • The iWam, the inventory for Work Attitude and Motivation
  • The MBTI, basic, Step II and more
  • The StrengthsFinder assessment
  • A new change, competence and importance assessment for being a "finisher in a world of starters) through a colleague
  • Through a colleague, the Profiles International Checkpoint 360, the PPI, a DISC personality style instrument, the Profiles XT performance & career match assessment.

and more.   What has been your experience with self-assessment and self-awareness tools?

--Deb

Unlocking the Depth of the Myers Briggs

Excerpts from a helpful website that digs into some of the depth of the MBTI. 

I'm including some excerpts here to give you a flavor of how the MBTI is a more two-dimension model, with, below the water line of the shadow, actually 8 preference results, not just four.  (Check out John Beebe's work on-line.)  Meanwhile, this is a great set of tools and a visual about what you present to the world as your dominant, auxiliary, tertiary (described below) and inferior functions.    --  Deb
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The Great Tertiary Debate?

Our convention is to draw the Mental Muscle Diagrams(TM) are usually drawn to show the tertiary function as in the same world as the dominant - but you should remember that it could be either. In fact, any function could be in either the outer or inner world, depending on the individual. The Mental Muscle Diagram(TM) simply shows the more 'typical' configuration.

Note: this mental muscle diagram accurately reflects all that is contained within the Myers Briggs dynamic model, and enables a complicated subject to be simplified in an easy to understand visual form. However, it is a new way of representing the Myers Briggs functions, so you may not come across it anywhere else.

The Mental Muscle Diagrams(TM)

Finally, here are the typical mental muscle diagrams for each of the 16 types. Mental Muscles for the 16 types
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You may have wondered why, in the diagram for an ENFP, Thinking has been shown in the outer world, and Sensing in the inner world.
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  • In the Myers Briggs model, the least preferred mental muscle (called the inferior - in this case, Sensing) is believed to operate mainly in the world opposite to the dominant.
  • There is some controversy as to the normal pattern for extroverting or introverting the third preferred (called the tertiary - in this case, Thinking).
  • Some people believe that the tertiary operates in the same world as the dominant, others believe it operates in the opposite world, and yet more others believe it can operate in either.
  • In my view, this is a dynamic model, where each function operates to some degree in both the outer and inner worlds.
  • Also, individuals do not conform to a set pattern, and everyone introverts and extroverts the mental muscles according to their own unique pattern.
Surely this means that it is not too important to resolve the issue of whether the tertiary is introverted or extraverted.

Having said that, the extroversion of Thinking in this case can explain some potential anomalies and misunderstandings. Whilst the ENFP is primarily a Feeling person, others may perceive him or her as being logical first.

Suppose there is a significant cultural pressure, within the business environment, to operate in a logical fashion. As other people's views affect the individual's view of himself, he may come to believe that he is more logical, and lose touch with the inner Feeling side.

(This issue might be raised during the 'mid-life transition', when individuals often seek to understand themselves better, and pay more attention to their own needs rather than accommodating the cultural pressure on them to conform. For further discussion of this subject, see 'Navigating Mid-life', a book published by Consulting Psychologists Press.)

Read the full article here via teamtechnology.co.uk

 

Reflection is an Action Step + Bigger brain for those who self-reflect video| Futurity - Reveln Consulting

Video via futurity.org  (under 3 min.)

Deb:  One of my favorite quotes from Peter Block is, "Is Reflection an Action Step?"    These new introspection research findings adds support to efforts to define and work within a person's capacity and create happiness & success using strengths and natural attributes vs. a more pervasive "blank slate" you-can-do-anything philosophy.  

Blank slate is often connected with training, various religious philosophies, and certain educational, coaching approaches.  I am endeavoring to use a Flawless Living coaching approach with clients, maximizing effectiveness and working assessments and observations to tie all work to the clients developmental level.

Excerpts:
U. COLLEGE LONDON (UK) —Researchers in the U.K. have identified an area of the brain that is larger in people who are good at reflecting on their own thoughts and emotions.
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 “It’s something we do all the time, but some people are better at it than others.  Even if we don’t get feedback when we make a choice, we often know intuitively if it’s a good or a bad decision.”
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“We introspect when we think about our own thoughts, feelings, or the decisions we have made,” says Steve Fleming, joint first author of the study and a researcher at University College London.

“It’s something we do all the time, but some people are better at it than others. Even if we don’t get feedback when we make a choice, we often know intuitively if it’s a good or a bad decision.”

Measuring introspection has previously proved challenging. Unlike learning, where a person gets better at a task, or decision-making, where we can determine whether a person’s choice is correct or not, there are no outward indicators for introspective thought.

Details of the work are reported in the journal Science.

“We found a correlation between introspective ability and the structure of a small area of prefrontal cortex near the front of the brain,” explains Geraint Rees, study leader.

“The better a person was at introspection, the more grey matter they had in this area. The same was true for the white matter or nerve connections in this area.

 via futurity.org

 

MBTI Resources including A Simple, Effective Film School Video Overview of the MBTI 2 min. | YouTube - Dreamerhoy

via youtube.com

Deb: Videos on the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (the MBTI) are popping up on YouTube. Many of these are rather boring talking heads, some with misinformation. (In that case, why not just buy an accurate MBTI book?) This film school video is both cutely campy and accurate in illustration, and brief.  Take a look!

From the creator's YouTube description:

This is an infographic piece introducing the basic concept of the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator, or the MBTI. (permission pending)  It was a TERM 3 final at VFS Digital Design program. 
via youtube.com

Deb:  Here are several MBTI additional resources that you might also find useful:

  • The MBTI and stress reactions, known as "being in the grip" of one's preferences in stress, are featured via a consultant and a graphically attractive publication for veterinary professionals.

 

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