How To Use Assessments
Using assessments can be valuable
There are many assessments out there, perhaps too many.
Some assessments measure the same aspect of who you are; however, some evaluate different aspects.
What do I mean by an ‘aspect’? Some measure talents, some personality, and some working style.
I want to give a brief overview of four assessments I am familiar with and use in my coaching.
Clifton Strengths.
Type: This is a talent assessment
Application: This assessment is focused on the individual; however can be applied in teams, and is especially helpful for organizations who seek to make the most of their ‘Key Players’.
Brief Overview: This assessment tells you where you rank on 34 strengths. There is no ‘weakness’ in this assessment, but one can surmise that anything below 20 is going to be something that is better done by others. Individuals can use this assessment to “Sharpen your skills, improve your problem solving, and aim your strengths at success.” Teams can use this assessment to understand “why [your team members] do what they do, what motivates them or when they’re at their best!” Learning your strengths, and learning how to work in your top 5-10, and delegating or collaborating for items that fall below your top 5-10 helps you BE your Best!
DiSC
Type: This is a personality assessment
Application: This assessment can be applied in individuals, but is more commonly used by teams.
Brief Overview: This assessment determines where you fall on the spectrum of 4 personality types:
Dominance – these people tend to be confident and place an emphasis on accomplishing the bottom line.
Influence – more open and place an emphasis on relationships and influencing or persuading others.
Steadiness – tend to be dependable and place an emphasis on cooperation and sincerity.
and
Conscientiousness – place an emphasis on quality, accuracy, expertise, and competency.
The assessment also comes with information about how you tend to interact with all four of the personality types, helping to explain why there are natural affinities and frictions. The assessment comes with information on how to interact better with those who are too similar to or too different from your type.
Working Genius
Type: This is a working style assessment
Application: Similar to DiSC, this assessment can be applied in individuals, but is more commonly used by teams.
Brief Overview: this assessment helps teams assess process/flow improvement
This assessment is based on the theory that ALL tasks have SIX phases, and evaluates which phases of the process you are best at. The six phases are:
Wonder, Invention, Discernment, Galvanizing, Enablement, and Tenacity.
As the theory goes:
Two of these are your areas of ‘genius’, you can do them all day and have more energy, not less.
Two of these are your competencies. You can do them, and do then well; however, they drain your energy.
Two of these are your frustrations. You just need to find someone else to do them.
Where teams and individuals get bogged down is when a team requires one individual to live in one or both of their competencies. They do the job well, which works for a while, but eventually the become drained, become irritable, and potentially burned out. When a team takes this assessment, the goal is to find people whose geniuses match their job description, allow them to dabble in their competencies, and have other team members whose geniuses fill in the gaps left by their frustrations.