The Personalities test leans closer toward a personality test, rather than a leadership assessment. However, there are leadership areas which allow you to see how your personality affects your leadership style. This instrument has combined aspects from Myers-Briggs for straightforwardness and an interpretation of the Big Five personality traits: openness, conscientiousness, extraversion, agreeableness, and neuroticism (123test, 2018). Personalities claims this method has allowed them to create an accurate test while maintaining an ability to illustrate your personality type (16 personalities, 2018).
I was assessed as an Entertainer (ESFP-A), they are of the most spontaneous and easily adjustable to their surroundings. They are quick thinkers and can react to any situation. As a manager, ESFP-A personalities can inject energy into mundane tasks, lead by example, and won’t ask a subordinate to do something they wouldn’t do themselves. Entertainers observe subordinates emotions and moods, which enable them to prevent conflict and promote an enjoyable workplace. Entertainers allow their subordinates to freely speak their minds and are more than willing to hear them out. ESFP-A personality types are inspirational leaders due to their resourcefulness and ability to think quickly (16 personalities, 20018).
The ESFP-A score stands for Extraverted, ObServant, Feeling, Prospecting, Assertive. The letters are derived from five categories: Mind, Energy, Nature, Tactics, and Identity. Mind determines how one interacts with their environment; energy is how you channel your mental energy; nature is your decision making and emotional coping skills; tactics defines your approach to work, planning, and decision making; finally, identity explains how confident we are with our abilities and decisions (16 personalities, 2018).
The Entertainer could fall into a few leadership theories, but I feel the best fit is situational leadership. In situational leadership the subordinate is the most critical aspect in choosing the leader behavior (Anthony, 2018). In the ESFP-A, the S stands for observant, which ties in very well with situational leadership. Observing and being aware of how your subordinates and other managers are performing and how they are feeling, gives the Entertainer the ability to stay flexible in their leadership style (Anthony, 2018).
DiSC is a non-judgmental personal assessment tool used to clarify an individual’s behavioral differences. People’s behaviors are not clear cut and usually do not fall into one personality trait. DiSC uses a combination of four personality traits to determine your dominant and subsidiary personality factors. Understanding how your DiSC profile is constructed, one can determine how they perceive their outlook on daily interactions, personal preferences, how they communicate, and what leadership styles can be most effective to them (123 Test, 2018).
Discprofile.com claims your profile can help individuals and teams increase self-knowledge, improve relationships, facilitate teamwork, mange more effectively, and become well-rounded and effective leaders. The DISC theory was researched by physiological psychologist, Dr. William Moulton Marston. It is a method of identifying expected actions and personality traits within human behavior. DiSC is an acronym for the four personality traits: Dominant, Influence, Steadiness, and Compliant (123 Test, 2018).
Dominance is how you handle problems, assert yourself and control situations. Influence is how you manage people, communicate and relate with others. Steadiness is your temperament – patience, persistence, and thoughtfulness Compliance is how you structure and organize your activity, procedures and responsibilities.
My DiSC profile is IDSC and is described as socially oriented person with a strong self-motivation to get to know people in all walks of life and to mature those relationships. IDSCs have a natural enthusiasm for all types of ideas and projects. Others are likely to describe IDSCs as gregarious, persuasive, and optimistic (Axiom International, 2018).
According to axionsoftware.com, a DiSC interpretation guide, people with IDSC are social people that are determined and self-assured, especially in challenging situations. IDSCs are solid, confident, and independent people who interact easily with strangers or uncomfortable situations. The combination of assertiveness and patience results in a behavioral style that achieves results while also being able to weigh their options before making the final call (Axiom International, 2018).
It can be difficult to predict what leadership style fits your personality the best. Leadership is driven so much by the uniqueness of each situation that even a style that was used with great success in the past, may not work in the present. However, for IDSC, I feel transformational leadership would be a suitable fit due to the level of emotional intelligence and integrity required (MindTools, 2018).
The Mind Tools leadership assessment answers the question, what is your leadership style. This is a 12 question quiz which examines the way you prefer to lead. The quiz is quick and lets you see what style you naturally gravitate toward. There are three areas in which you will fall on this scale: authoritarian / autocratic, democratic / participative, and delegating / “laissez fair”. The creators based their quiz on the 1930’s Leadership Styles Framework model, developed by phycologist Kurt Lewin (MindTools, 2018).
The 12 question quiz is made up of scenarios in which you have three (a, b, or c) options to choose from. An example of one of the questions is “If there is serious conflict within my team: A. I remind everyone that we have goals to meet, B. I bring my people together so that we can talk it through, or C. I let them work by themselves so that they don’t have to bother one another”. Once the test is completed your score is calculated and you can see where you fall within the three leadership styles (MindTools, 2018).
My calculated score was 26, which is within the democratic or participative leadership style. As a leader, I include my subordinates in the decision process, but I make the final decision (MindTools, 2018).
The democratic or participative leadership style allows a leader to set goals, gain insight from their team, and make the final decision. With this style a leader can build trust between them and their subordinates, since the subordinates will feel that they have a vested interest in the decision process. Also, by incorporating others in the decision process, a leader is more likely to have more options to choose from, rather than if they were working by themselves (Cherry, 2018). A downside to the democratic style, is it can become a slow process if the subordinates are involved in every decision. Not all decisions need to be made with a committee or panel (Cherry, 2018).
Since this assessment is derived from Kurt Lewin’s Leadership Styles Framework model and I fell within the democratic style, this would be associated with the participative leadership theory (MindTools, 2018). In this theory, the leader tries to find ways to include others in the decision process. The level of influence from others varies on the leader’s preference (Changing Minds, 2018).
