As more and more life and business coaches start to include personality assessments in their coaching toolkit, an overwhelming number of books discussing this topic are flooding the market. Of course, some are much better than others. Here are five well-respected books on personality assessments that you can rely on to provide you with the information you need in order to put your assessments to work effectively in your coaching practice.
The 4 Dimensional Manager: DISC Strategies for Managing Different People in the Best Ways by Julie Straw and Allison Brown Cerier
As a business coach or executive coach, you will find that many organizations prefer to use DISC assessments over the other personality instruments due to fact that DISC results are so much easier to apply to modern workplace. The 4 Dimensional Manager makes the case that successful managers approach leadership much like a professional coach by inspiring and empowering team members to become their best selves. The first half of the book focuses on using DISC to understand your own values and motivations, while the second half is using your understanding of the four communication styles to lead and motivate different types of people.
Please Understand Me II by David Keirsey
David Keirsery of the Keirsey Temperament Sorter follows up the original 1978 Please Understand Me with a much more coherent and cohesive text. Keirsey uses the decades of experience that he has earned since he first developed his personality assessment to present a very refined theory. He also introduces a new dimension of assessment in this book that addresses four different types of intelligence: tactical, logistical, diplomatic and strategic.
Gifts Differing: Understanding Personality Type by Isabel Briggs Myers
During World War II, Isabel Briggs Myers and her mother, Katharine Cook Briggs, created a questionnaire for women who were entering the industrial workforce to take the place of men fighting overseas in order to place new workers in positions best suited for their personal temperaments. This was eventually developed into the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI), which is one of the most influential personality assessment instruments being used today. In the classic Gifts Differing, the late Myers discusses each of the 16 MBTI personality types in depth in what is considered to be the most scholarly text written on the topic.
Personality Type: An Owner’s Manual by Lenore Thomson
If you are looking for a more general discussion of personality styles and communication techniques, Leonore Thomson’s Personality Type comes very highly recommended. Thompson gears the majority of her discussion of personality types toward the theories developed by Carl Jung, which is the origin of all modern personality assessments. The book focuses on the four major personality types and how these different perspectives effect our own values, motivations, communication style and behavior. A simple personality assessment tool is included with the book as well.
Quick Guide to the 16 Personalities in Organizations by Linda V Berens, Sue A Cooper, Linda K Ernst, Charles R Martin and others
This short but powerful book is devoted entirely to discussing the how the 16 personality types discussed in the MBTI and the Kiersey Temperament Sorter can be used to form cohesive teams and improve communication in the workplace. This quick guide is split into eight different sections, each of which is written by a different leading expert in the field of personality theory. Topics include Personal Development, Career Mastery, Learning, Stress, Teams, Creativity, Leadership, and Problem Solving. All-in-all, this is an excellent resource to have on hand for every business coach and executive coach.