Using personality assessments to drive leadership growth

By Antoine Laganiere

Personality assessments help us understand ourselves more deeply and how we show up in the world. Once we have the assessment results, the goal is to use them to push ourselves out of our comfort zones and grow as leaders and people. So, rather than use only our strengths to interact with the world, we also develop, practice and grow the other aspects of our personality that we underutilize or avoid.

It can be tempting to not employ or strengthen these more challenging traits because we’re not used to them or they make us uncomfortable. We might even want to double down on our strengths and pursue roles or projects that highlight them. While it’s important to be aware of our value-adds and leverage these in our interactions and work style, it’s just as important to seek development and round out our weaker or undervalued behaviors and skills.

Assessments help us become better leaders

Struggles are the purpose of our lives. Whenever we feel uncomfortable, it’s a good sign we’re growing. And we should be inspired by that.

When our personality assessment says, for example, that we’re reflective, slow-paced, sensitive, and creative, we can absolutely appreciate and be proud of using these attributes every day. At the same time, we can work on being more action-oriented, faster at producing our work, and finishing projects efficiently. Or be aware enough to find ways to make this happen.

Looking at groups, if everyone on our team has the same introverted traits, rather than simply hiring an extrovert into the team dynamic, we can be deliberate about helping the group grow their skills in the areas that are outside their comfort zones. Not with the intention of making everyone more extroverted, but exercising those extroverted muscles to help the team broaden their skillsets and grow.

This is especially helpful for us as leaders when we take on new roles as we progress in our careers.

We may need to build out and leverage our skills in areas we’re uncomfortable with. But it feels empowering to get better at these skills, and the process makes us better leaders, as it helps us mentor and build the next generation of leaders.

You can be a human “being” and a human “becoming”

There’s always some element of ourselves we can work on as leaders, and assessments can identify areas to help us all grow. That’s because we’re in a constant state of unfolding. Of becoming more self-aware versions of ourselves.

Becoming more self-aware is the first step in making us better leaders because it allows us to be more effective and better able to help the people around us. And we can’t grow without being self-aware. Greater self-awareness helps us:

• Be strategic between thinking “of me” and “of others”.
• Be more authentic and relatable.
• Increase our credibility.
• Build trust with our people.
• Be more open, courageous and vulnerable.

Debriefing assessments with a coach can help inspire growth

Debriefing personality assessments and working on the results over time with a coach can help. That’s because coaches are well versed in conveying the messages that personality assessments can offer, and inspire growth by integrating who we are into expanded versions of ourselves.

Coaching can help make progress and growth more intentional by encouraging reflection and building new habits that more closely align with who we want to be. We can consider and find answers to questions, like:

• Why is this personality trait important?
• What kind of meaningful growth can come out of developing this trait?
• What’s getting in my way?
• What am I going to do differently?
• How will I measure my progress?

Coaching can also help us be more accountable for our actions around these questions. And encourage ways to help us make exercising new traits easier and more effective.

Self-awareness is something we should all strive for.

And personality assessments are tools to help us get there. They provide views into ourselves we may not be aware of. Perspectives that will help us become the leaders our organizations and our people need. Outlooks that will help us continue growing and evolving into the very best versions of ourselves.

If you’re ready to dive into assessments to help drive your growth as a leader, contact us.