Psychometrics

“I was sceptical, but the psychometric tests I underwent threw up so much about me that I recognised that I’m now a convert.” – Marketing executive, banking

Psychometric instruments

Psychometrics are instruments that can be used to help us understand ourselves and each other. They are a short-cut to measuring human personality.

Successful leadership requires that a manager understands both him or herself, and also how and why other people are different.

These are the instruments we use most often:

The MBTI (Myers Briggs Type Indicator) assesses thinking style and suggests which of 16 possible personality types a subject has a natural preference for. Knowing which of these types you fit can help you understand how others see you, and how to influence others more effectively.

FIRO-B is a brilliant partner to the MBTI. Where the MBTI sorts your natural thinking style into some well-recognised patterns, FIRO measures your actual behaviour against three dimensions of need: the need to belong (Inclusion), the need to have influence (Control) and the need to love and be loved (Affection). How much a particular individual needs of each of these can vary enormously.

The Strong Interest Inventory can be of value for those who are at a career-crossroads and searching for an insight into which type of job would best suit them.

The Thomas-Kilmann Conflict Mode Instrument identifies five different styles of conflict management. For most of us, only one or possibly two of these styles comes naturally to us, but we can learn others, and hence develop a more effective repertoire of conflict-management skills

The 16 Personality Factor questionnaire gives a remarkably accurate assessment of an individual’s personality by assessing them on 16 different scales.

360 degree feedback

If psychometrics are a way of measuring personality, then two other instruments available to Management Futures are a way of knowing how you appear to others ‘in the round’

360 degree feedback is a technique which involves a manager’s supervisor, peers, reporting staff members, colleagues and customers in delivering a fully-rounded appraisal of them and their performance. Each fills in a questionnaire, the results are analysed and converted into a bar chart, together with key comments about the ways in which the individual is seen as effective, and the ways he or she could improve their effectiveness.

In the very valuable coaching session that follows the assessment, we help the individual identify the key messages, including the affirming ones, and build a development plan to build on the areas in which they are under-performing.

We often develop additional special instruments tailored to specific competencies which a particular organisation needs to have measured.

We also use another instrument, the EQI, which measures emotional intelligence as assessed by a similarly wide range of individuals who come in contact with the particular manager. The EQI measures assessments of how others perceive a subject’s insight into themselves, how far they think he or she has self-control, how they rate their insight into others, and their general social skills.

However effective a person might be at the tasks involved in their job, they cannot function effectively, or progress in their career, with a low EQI. Taking the EQI assessment can help them focus on the areas in which they already function effectively as well as those in which there is room for improvement.

Contact Alan Rogers, Executive Director, for inquiries, details of fees or to arrange a no-commitment meeting with a coach. Tel: 020 7242 4030 or email: alan.rogers@managementfutures.co.uk.