Self awareness through assessments

In my opinion self awareness is key to career success. Gary Vaynerchuk (digital marketing guru), Tony Robbins (business strategist) and others share the same sentiment so even if there might not be a scientific paper to prove it, I feel I’m in good company.  Knowing your strengths and focusing on them is more likely to lead to success than being a well-rounded person. And just as important, knowing what you are not good at and avoiding those activities are important as well.

How can you become self aware? Part of it is through Jerry Colonna (called the CEO whisperer) called “radical self-inquiry”. Short of being an avid practitioner of radical self-inquiry assessments might be helpful. While assessments definitely should NOT be the only way you find your identity, they can provide some eye-opening insights that you might not have otherwise considered. Here are some of my recommended assessments:

Clifton Strengths Finder

https://www.gallupstrengthscenter.com

While Strengths Finder wasn’t the first assessment I’ve taken, it was quite revealing. Gallup did a comprehensive survey and the results turned into 34 talent themes that form the root of your strengths. The themes themselves are neither good nor bad, and depend on how you decide to manifest it.  They are also influenced by other strengths you have, so different pairs can results in different tendencies. I like Marcus Buckingham’s (formerly of Gallup) definition of strength as “something that strengthens you” versus the traditional definition of “something that you’re good at”.

My top 5 are: input, maximizer, learner, developer and futuristic.

What are yours?

Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI)

When most people think of personality assessments Myers-Briggs is

https://www.16personalities.com/ is a free assessment that leverages MBTI foundations.

When I took an MBTI assessment a early in my career I was and ISTJ and taking 16 personalities recently I was an ENFJ. What are you?

DISC

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DISC_assessment

DISC is a behavioural assessment that uses 4 major quadrants D-ominance I-nducement S-ubmission C-ompliance (though the words might change from assessment to assessment – i.e. some use Influence for I or Steadiness for S and other variations). I like DISC as it based on observable behaviours which means that you can probably tell someone’s DISC profile within a few minutes of interacting with them versus MBTI which you can’t necessarily tell from any outward interactions.

I don’t generally link to Wikipedia as the trusted source, but since there are a multitude of administering organizations out here, I haven’t tried many so I didn’t want to recommend something I haven’t used myself.

I’m a high S and low D with equal IC.  What are you?

Career assessments

https://80000hours.org/career-quiz/ I like the premise of the organization and the career results are focused on roles that make a social impact

http://sokanu.com A more traditional career test.

That’s just a few and will add to the assessment list as I get more time.

You can google career tests and try them out. They might not tell you anything new, but others might provide some interesting insights. Feel free to suggest any that were useful for you and can add the content here!