While The Advisory Board places a great deal of emphasis on the DISC Personality Test during our Coaching Jump Start program, every business and life coach should be aware of some of the other personality assessments that are used by other professionals in our field, most notably the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator, or the MBTI. Here is an inside look at what you need to know about the MBTI, as well as a little bit of information about a couple of the other best known personality assessments that are used by today’s top coaches.
The Myers-Briggs Type Indicator was developed during World War II by mother and daughter team Katherine Cook Briggs and Isabel Briggs Myers in order to help women who were entering the workforce for the first time try to match their personality styles with different industries. Their initial questionnaire was expanded and improved upon until it became “the most widely used personality assessment” being used today, according to the MBTI’s current publisher, CPP.
The MBTI uses a person’s answers to a series of carefully chosen set of questions to identify his or her preference amongst four different dichotomies, or preferences. As a result, the MBTI reveals a person’s preferences amongst the follow key categories:
- Attitudes (Extroversion vs Introversion)
- Perceiving (Sensing vs Intuition)
- Judging (Thinking vs Feeling)
- Lifestyle (Judgement vs Perception)
A person’s preferences amongst the four dichotomies of the MBTI are then used to identify a person’s overall personality out of the sixteen different possible combination of personality assessment results:
ISTJ ISFJ INFJ INTJ
ISTP ISFP INFP INTP
ESTP ESFP ENFP ENTP
ESTJ ESFJ ENFJ ENTJ
Due to the widespread use and popularity of the Myers Briggs Test Indicator, there is an incredible amount of information out there about the motivations, values and general personality traits of each of the 16 personality types that are generated by the assessment. This information can also be used to indicate a given person’s ideal work environment and social preferences, as well as his or her most compatible personal and professional partners.
Other important personality assessment tools that new coaches should familiarize themselves with include:
Remember, it is not necessary to develop a mastery of any of these personality assessment tools or to use them in your coaching practice. However, it is worthwhile to invest a little bit of time to discover the pros and cons of the different instruments that you have at your disposal so that you can make an informed decision as to which, if any, of these tools are right for your coaching style.
For more information on the Myers Briggs Test Indicator, you can find some excellent resources at the following websites: