MBTI, Disc, StrengthsFinder and Your Professional Identity
If you've ever asked me how assessments like Myers Briggs, Enneagram, StrengthsFinder, DISC, etc. factor into my research on hybrid professional identity, I probably told you they provide clues about your professional abilities, tendencies, skills, characteristics, and strengths, but they are not your identity.
While personality assessments give you adjectives and adverbs, nouns or a number about yourself, everyone who takes it falls into the same "set" of codes, words, or categories.
Your professional identity is a distinct concept that only you know about yourself and that means only you can choose the right words to call yourself.
The minute I hear people using generic terms to describe their professional identity, I push them [hard] to get more precise. There's just no way that everyone is a "problem solver." The better question is what kind of problem solver are you really?
We unconsciously lock ourselves into professional identity language others have designated for us or that we've told ourselves so many times we don't hear it anymore. This is why the Barnum Effect is a profoundly important concept to know about.
Are you typecasting yourself into an identity box and don't realize it?
First, A Study and Some Background
The Barnum effect is defined as a psychological phenomenon in which people view as valid general personality descriptions that supposedly pertain uniquely to them. And it's named after P.T. Barnum, the famous circus owner, because he was known to be a sly trickster.
"The original study was conducted by Professor Bertram Forer, who administered the Diagnostic Interest Blank to 39 subjects. When he gave the subjects their “individual” test results the following week, each subject actually received the same personality description consisting of 13 vague statements, many of which came from an astrology book. For example:
You have a tendency to be critical of yourself.
While you have some personality weaknesses, you are generally able to compensate for them.
At times, you are extroverted, affable, sociable, while at other times you are introverted, wary, reserved.
Asked to rate how well the test results applied to them, the subjects, on average, rated the accuracy of the description as 4.3 on a scale of 0 (very poor) to 5 (excellent)."
This confirms that most people strongly agreed with the results they received, even though it was phony.
There have been numerous studies evaluating the Barnum Effect, and they consistently show the same outcome.
What this means is that if we're given a label or receive a description about ourselves, we tend to believe it and fit ourselves into it.
The question to hold in your mind is this:
When you see something that's supposed to be about yourself, ask yourself- Is this label or description truly me- is this my identity the way I see myself- or is this the Barnum Effect?
We Typecast Ourselves
In Sir Ken Robinson's book, Finding Your Element, he mentions that as soon as we create "types" of anything and try to fit people into them, we create a fixed set of options. Rarely does anybody fit perfectly into them.
This is where the Barnum Effect comes into play. Once a label has been applied to us, we tend to play into it. It just seems to happen.
Robinson mentions that he knows a business consultancy that advises on how to help teams work better together. One of their tools is to not allow anyone in the room to use or reference their job title. This way, nobody knows who anyone is. The CEO could be working with a junior member and it doesn't matter. Nobody is typecast by roles and titles.
Try that on for size!
Final Thoughts
I agree with the following comments expressed by researchers who study personality assessments:
Personality results should not be used to predict performance, but as a vehicle for increasing self-awareness
Personality measures are a starting point for change (self development or identity development), and not a predictor of the outcome-- as in a categorical label of WHO someone is
The key audience should be the person who took the assessment and not an HR professional or management
When I guide people through professional identity work, I encourage them to reflect on the results from any of their prior personality assessments and bring that language into the examination of their professional identity. We use it to jumpstart self-reflection.
Then, I push them to stretch their imagination about what the words in their assessment mean to them. We rarely use the actual words as part of their final hybrid title because something more unique always emerges.
TODAY'S TAKEAWAY
Overall the best use of personality assessments is to facilitate self-reflection and further self-awareness, which helps you refine and define your true professional identity:
"In a rare experimental field study, Sutton, Allinson, and Williams (2013) showed that self-awareness improved as a result of training with a personality type instrument (Enneagram); the reflection and insight gained was positively associated with job contentment and enthusiasm, and with improvements in relationships and communication with colleagues." (From Moyle & Hackston, 2018)