5 Personality Tests to Understand Yourself and Your Staff

Here at GovLoop, we love personality tests. You might say we’re obsessed. There’s probably a personality test to gauge how obsessed, and we will probably take that test. You get the point.

But we don’t take personality tests because we like to click around the internet all day. We take them to get to know ourselves and our peers. Professional assessments can be a great way to learn how people work, what motivates them to achieve and where they might need a helping hand from their peers.

Here are five of our top suggestions for professional tests that help you understand yourself and your staff:

CliftonStrengths by Gallup examines the natural talents and motivations that make individuals contributors to projects and teams.

It answers questions like: What strengths do you bring to a team? Are you more focused on execution, ideation or relationship building? What strengths might you want to lean on your team members to provide?

Use it to: Build great teams and pull from the strengths of you individual employees.

Take the test: The $20 test highlights your top five strengths, though you can pay more to receive all 34 of your strengths. Both can be found here.

Thomas-Kilmann Conflict Mode Instrument (TKI) is an assessment to determine how you are most likely to tackle conflict, as well as where you might need to push yourself to better handle interpersonal dialogue.

It answers questions like: Are you more likely to confront or avoid conflict when it arises? Do you usually compromise or even accommodate others in order to end conflict? What should you be doing more of, in interpersonal or less of to overcome interpersonal conflict?

Use it to: Understand how you’re likely to face (or avoid) conflict and when you might need to take a different approach for better outcomes

Take the test: The official assessment can be found here, but there are a ton of free versions (like this one or this one) that test conflict styles online as well. GovLoop also made a conflict management style assessment and cheatsheet that we think is pretty snazzy.

Work Appreciation Language is modeled after the five love languages. This more-work-appropriate assessment helps people understand how they like to be shown appreciation and what motivates them to achieve.

It answers questions like: Do you prefer words of affirmation or monetary rewards for your work? Do you value time with others, or would you prefer more autonomy as you pursue new projects?

Use it to: Understand what motivates you, as well as your employees, in their daily tasks.

Take the test: You can buy this test and related materials here. Alternatively, there are a number of free versions of the traditional love language test that you can use as a proxy.

The Enneagram takes a broader approach to assess your overall worldview and the way you think. It also considers how your archetype will react and feel in relation to both positive and negative events.

It answers questions like: Are you more rational or idealistic? Are you sensitive and withdrawn, or do you thrive on interpersonal contact and goals? If something negatively impacts you, are you more likely to react with rage or sadness?

 Use it to: Give context to employees’ reactions and feelings toward situations and other people

Take the test: You can purchase an official test here, although there are some free tests online that also come with resources to understand your type.

The Resilience Assessment Tool seeks to understand how well you can weather the challenges of life, and which parts of your life – emotion, physical, mental or social – might suffer in times of strain.

It answers questions like: How prepared are you for the inevitable challenges that come up in personal or professional life? In a time of stress, what part of your life are you most likely to let suffer? Where can you improve your resiliency?

Use it to: Better prepare for times of stress, keeping an eye out for where you or your employees might start sacrificing wellness to handle challenges

Take the test: You can take the test here, for free!

Once you’ve taken one (or all!) of these tests, consider sitting down with your colleagues to discuss the results. Not only does discussion force you to really engage with your results, it also gives you an opportunity to communicate your findings to peers. It’s through that shared understanding that real impact will start to show!

P.S. We at GovLoop also take the Harry Potter Sorting Hat quiz about once a quarter. It’s not so professional, but it can tell you a lot about a person in a fun way.