Assessments Today

Different takes on some old subjects: MBTI, DISC, EQ

2010-03-15T15:55:26+01:00

This is probably the best introduction to the MBTI I have seen and it comes in at under 2 minutes. While it probably takes at least a few viewings to grasp all the content, I found it to be a nice overview to the MBTI. I am quite surprised at how few views it has received:

Blog Radio is another interesting place to find some resources - especially if you are an auditory learner. Here is an interesting show from Career Success Radio with Cynthia Kivland (a LinkedIn connection of mine) Cynthia is President and author at Coaching Smart People and discusses EQ:

Creating High Performing Teams using MBTI, DISC & EQ

In the above hour long broadcast, hosts Annemarie Cross and Keith Keller interview 3 guests on how to build a high performing team through using key personality type and behaviourial profiling tools MBTI and DISC. They’ll also be discussing emotional intelligence/quotient (EQ ) and the impact that both high and low levels of EQ of a leader can either support or derail their own and their team’s career.

Finally for a little lightness on the subject, here is a short video by Richard Wiseman from Quirkology.

Debriefing Assessments: Rater Groups - Step 3 with Pam Boney

2010-03-10T11:30:00+01:00

This is the last short video I took during Tilt 360 Leadership Predictor™ Certification with Pam Boney, CEO of Tilt Inc. She spent some time teaching participants how to debrief an assessment properly. This is Step 3 of 10 and discusses the importance of going over the rater groups - who is in, who was included and who might be missing.

Debriefing Assessments: Values, Culture and Job Fit - Step 2 with Pam Boney

2010-03-09T09:26:00+01:00

This is the second short video I took during Tilt 360 Leadership Predictor™ Certification with Pam Boney, CEO of Tilt Inc. She spent some time teaching participants how to debrief an assessment properly. This is Step 2 of 10 and discusses the importance of fit - values, culture and role. Pam specifically covers the aspect of role fit in this video.

Debriefing Assessments: Context - Step 1 with Pam Boney

2010-03-08T12:10:24+01:00

I had a great time working with Pam Boney, Chief Executive Officer of Tilt Inc. and doing some coach certification training in Italy. Like most of us, Pam hates to be recorded but she was gracious enough to let me capture some of her thoughts regarding how to debrief her assessment the 360Tilt Leadership Profile. Everything she discusses in these videos relates to any 360 degree that you might be using. So take a look at one of the best.

This is the first of three short videos. The first looks at the situational context. While there are 10 steps to Pam's approach, the other seven relate more specifically to her 360Tilt Leadership Profile.

Color to Determine Personality Traits

2010-02-24T09:45:05+01:00

I have known about the color quiz based in the work of Dr. Max Lascher for a number of years. This instrument is used worldwide, most notably in Europe, by psychologists, doctors, government agencies, and universities to screen their candidates. Since the 1950's the instrument has been given to hundreds of thousands of people.

Now psychiatry professor Lange has come along with something that looks very similar: Color Career Counselor. While I tried to do the interactive test online, the two browsers I used: Firefox and Safari on Mac didn't want to give me my final results - nor did it send me the results when I gave my email. It was rather disappointing but perhaps you might fair better. Apparently, according to Inc. an analysis of some 900 CEOs' results shows they like magenta -- and are less dominant and confident than the rest of the population.

Career Path claims that their Color Career Counselor is the world's first non-language test to define occupational interests. It uses color preference to determine successful career paths. The test is based on the multi-patented Dewey Color System, which is the world's only scientifically validated color-based personality test - published in the North American Journal of Psychology. The Color Career Indicator 4.0, provided by Dewey Color System, is an extensive evaluation that identifies "Your Most Fun Careers" from among more than 1,000 occupations, with record-breaking accuracy. A specific, ranked list of your top jobs is provided to you, along with additional information to assist you in your career exploration.

Test color can generate over 50 million different answers, each one written by an artificial intelligence engine for every test. Our symbolical rules are in conformance with the Freudian topics and the C.G. Jung's typology. They all have been validated by a group of 800 people and by over 1 800 000 on line tests.

For those with reading or language challenges this might be an option. I have no idea how valid these assessments are or if you will find them enlightening or just entertaining. All the ones I have listed are free so there is little to loose. I would recommend trying all of them yourself and doing some comparisons. If you do not see some correlations or comparisons, I would suggest not using them.

Your experiences would be appreciated in the comments.

Tilt 360 Leadership Predictor™ Certification - Milan - March 4&5, 2010 - Time Sensitive

2010-02-23T17:16:22+01:00

TILT 360 FIRST COACH TRAINING IN EUROPE

Attention all European coaches - seeking great training in assessments and wanting ICF credits.

Instructors: Pam Boney, PCC, CTC, Founder & Chief Executive Officer of Tilt Inc. and co-facilitated with Roberta Hill, MCC, MBA

Dates: 4-5 March 2010

Location: near Milan, Italy

Program accredited by ICF for 16.5 CCEUs

An in depth and experiential learning approach designed for experienced coaches, consultants and HR professionals. Some familiarity with 360 assessments desired but not required.

What you get out of our program?

Certification class for the Tilt 360 Leadership Predictor

This full version class includes two full days of working with the tool and is our most thorough class for learning the model

Once certified, you will be able to use three assessments for Leadership Development:

The Tilt 360 Leadership Predictor
The Tilt 360 Team Climate Predictor
The Tilt 180 Mentor Survey

Venue

Arona is approx. 20 minutes from Milan Malpensa Airport, on Lake Maggiore. If you want to go to Milan, there is a direct train connection that takes 55 minutes to downtown Milan.

Hotel Atlantic
Viale Repubblica 124
Arona
Italy

Hotel phone number country code 39 0322 46521, hotel@atlanticarona.com Mrs. Manuela

www.atlanticarona.com

Single room B&B €85,00 per night.
Double room B&B €125,00 per night
plus €30 per person/day (2 coffee and lunch)

Cost

$1,495.00 (program costs only)
plus 60 Euros for coffee and lunches for the 2 days payable separately

Program information: http://tilt360leaders.com/training/certifications

Register online: http://tilt360leaders.com/training/calendar

Does your client possess what it takes to be an entrepreneur?

2010-02-18T13:24:05+01:00

Image by .nele via Flickr

I have come across a few assessments that determine entrepreneurial potential or capabilities (see below) but sometimes the most simple (sic) are the best. This past week, in the Harvard Business Review blogs, Daniel Isenberg asks:

Should You Be An Entrepreneur?

Isenberg then presents a 20 item check list. Getting rich and taking risks are not on the list. He follows it up with some sole searching questions and some recommendations.

Brilliant. I recommend you try it out for yourself if you are a solopreneur and offer it to your clients. This is a fantastic resource if you coach entrepreneurs.

Some other assessments / tests for consideration:

The Entrepreneur Test (For a Small Business Owner)
Should You Be An Entrepreneur?
Entrepreneurship Test (for women)
How to Change the World: What's Your EQ (entrepreneurial quotient) from Guy Kawasaki
Can you be an entrepreneur? from Psychology Today

A One Two Punch - Good pairings for the MBTI and DISC

2010-02-03T16:51:07+01:00

Image via Wikipedia

Normally I don't recommend giving clients more than one assessment. It is a bit like overload and you end up spending a heck of a lot of time on debriefing the data than getting on with the learning.

That said, there is in my mind an excellent match for each the MBTI® and the DISC. First, let me be VERY clear that I do not recommend using both the MBTI and DISC together. Nine times out of ten it will only confuse the client. They will ask you to correlate their results which is rather tricky since they measure different things. The MBTI is a preference assessment and the DISC is a behavioural (observed) how assessment. Second, I will assume that you are properly trained and certified in the instrument of your choice.

MBTI® and Firo-B®

Clearly, I am not the only one who thinks this is a great combination. For quite sometime the CPP in the US and Psychometrics in Canada have offered a combined MBTI® / Firo-B® Online Report. I have always liked the Firo-B^® and was glad to see it come back into vogue in the late 90's in leadership development programs. It does have a strong "psych"flavour and needs to be used properly. "The Fundamental Interpersonal Relations Orientation-Behavior ™ (FIRO-B^®) assessment has helped people around the world unlock the mysteries of human interaction at work and in their personal life. This instrument quickly gathers critical insights into how an individual's needs for inclusion, control, and affection can shape his or her interactions with others." Here's what they say on the web site:

Leadership Report Using FIRO-B ^® and MBTI^® Instrument 17 pages
The FIRO-B and MBTI instruments tap into key aspects of personality and behavior in areas such as communication, problem solving, decision making, and interpersonal relations. The instruments are also quite distinct, each providing a view through a different window of the client's leadership personality. Together, they complement each other and provide rich information of use in a personal, ongoing leadership development program.

DISC and Values (Spranger and Allport's Motivators)

I knew of two different vendors offering this combination and I am now pleased to report that their is a third one on the market. All of them are based on the research of Dr. Eduard Spranger and Gordon Allport who looked into what drives and motivates an individual. The seven dimensions of value discovered between these two researchers help map the reasons that drive an individual to utilize their talents in the unique way they do. These assessment helps clients understand motivators and drivers and how to maximize performance by achieving better alignment and passion for what they do.

The three that I know of are:

The PIA&V (Personal Interests, Attitudes and Values™ from TTI Performance Systems. TTI along with Inscape is a recognized source for solid DISC instruments in the personal and business coaching communities and is also the distributor of PIAV which is a nice companion tool with the DISC.
The founder of Maximum Potential co-created the PIAV with Bill Bonnstetter of TTI. He has the rights to a similar product. Maximum Potential uses more business language but unlike the PIAV, it does not have normative data.
My new portal Assess Yourself will be offerning the Online Assessments from Tony Alessandra. The Online Values Assessment measures seven dimensions of motivation (and similar to those above) as outlined below:

Aesthetic - a drive for balance, harmony and form.
Economic - a drive for economic or practical returns.
Individualistic - a drive to stand out as independent and unique.
Political - a drive to be in control or have influence.
Altruistic - a drive for humanitarian efforts; help others altruistically.
Regulatory - a drive to establish order, routine and structure.
Theoretical - a drive for knowledge, learning and understanding.

New Survey: How do you define Success?

2010-01-25T10:28:23+01:00

I have begun some research for my contribution to a new book and I could really use your help. Success is one of those interesting concepts. Like beauty it is in the eye of the beholder. It is not so much an end result as a value judgment of who one wants to be. Therefore it is different for every person. There are four overall objectives, two of which make it quite unique:

How do people define success (for themselves personally)?
How does age influence how we see success?
Is there a difference between those that use social networks and those that don't?
Is there any correlation between "personality types" and how they define success?

Question 4 will be addressed in an optional section at the end of the survey for those respondents who are familiar with the five personality systems being used. Since you read this blog, I am hoping that you will provide me with this data.

I am collecting input in three ways:

Through Social Networks directly - if you use Twitter, the definition has to be 140 characters or less. Please @robertahill and add #success (in case the first gets dropped)
Via comments and discussions below - so please join the dialogue.
A more in depth survey which I really hope that if you have read this far then you will take the survey by clicking the link below:

Also, would you will Retweet and pass this link along to others. Your support is greatly appreciated. Results will be posted here on my blog and through Twitter and LinkedIn.

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This survey will remain open until at least Feb. 5th.

Update Evening, Jan 25th:

Thanks to early responders, fix a typo AND put in additional theme that somehow was missed while entering the choices.

Update Jan 26th:

The survey has an optional area for you to add your name and email should you want to retain credit for anything you write OR if you would like me to get in contact with you. NO emails will be published or shared. There is no link referral mechanisms - so unless you provide your info, it is completely anonymous.

Respondents are slowly coming in via all sources. Thanks for putting the word out.

Update Jan 29th:

I have not determined how I will use the data. Naturally, all written comments would be quoted directly - with or without attributions depending on what respondents have indicated. My intention was not to offend by using the statement "relinquish of rights. I simply wanted to be sure that I had permission without having to negate confidentiality. Rather, I wanted to ensure that the data - even if anonymous was not used with consent. Hence the opt out section. I hope I have clarified my intentions by making some additions.

Someone pointed out that the survey takes much more than 3 - 5 minutes. I must have under estimated and apologize for those that felt I was misleading. I have adjusted the intro accordingly.

Do you work with a difficult person? Try the Dimensional® Model of Behavior™

2010-01-19T17:07:00+01:00

Image via Wikipedia

Psychological Associates has a created great little online questionnaires that only takes a few minutes to help you size up the behavior of the people you work with — your boss, peers, direct reports, even your customers. Best thing? It is free to try out for yourself.

Quick. Simple. Useful - Give it a go.

Theses questionnaires are based on the Dimensional Model of Behavior, a scientifically-proven means of simplifying and categorizing human behavior. It was developed by Victor R. Buzzotta, Ph.D., and Robert E. Lefton, Ph.D., and is based upon research at the University of California and at Harvard. It is a four quadrant model that measure two similar but slightly different continuum from the Platinum Rule.

What makes it a little different from the other behavioral style assessments is that you get to assess how you think your customers are perceiving you by looking at how they interact with you. Suggestions on how you should adapt are provided. Adapting your behaviour in an emotional intelligent manner is really what it is all about. The Corporate Platinum Rule Assessment through AssessmentsNow does this and more. Platinum Rule actually seeks feedback for the groups of people that YOU are most interested in finding out about. That said, I like the aspect of this tool to look at customers as well as the traditional work relationships..