I recently facilitated a workshop on leadership development for early childhood administrators. A significant factor in successful leadership is self-awareness, reflection, and humility. In this workshop, I introduce a number of personality and leadership assessment tools that can support that process of understanding our dominant traits, how we activate them in our leadership positions, and where we may need to focus energy to avoid getting in our own way. Below are a few of my favorites and common feedback about each one. (Listed alphabetically).
16 Personalities
Link: https://www.16personalities.com
What people liked:
- Free and easy to access
- Provides a lot of information in various personal and professional contexts
- Easy to share results and view other personality types
- Option to have results sent to your email but not required
What people didn’t like:
- No paper and pencil version
- Questions reflect general personality and overlook situational differences
DISC (Dominance, Influence, Compliance/Conscientiousness, Steadiness)
Link: https://www.123test.com/disc-personality-test/
What people liked:
- Free through 123.test.com
- Provides percentage results in each area
- Many resources online to understand results
- Represents everyone having some skill in each area
- Easy to complete
What people didn’t like:
- Full profile/report requires purchase
- Requires choosing just 1 like you and 1 not like you, no more or less
Enneagram
Link: https://www.truity.com/test/enneagram-personality-test
What people liked:
- Comprehensive descriptions for each area
- Valuable follow-up emails
- Results in a pie chart showing prominent areas
- Free to take through truity.com
What people didn’t like:
- No paper and pencil version
HEXACO (Honesty/Humility, Emotionality, Extroversion, Agreeableness, Conscientiousness, Openness)
Link: https://www.idrlabs.com/hexaco/test.php
What people liked:
- Easy complete
- Provides percentage results in each area
- Provides descriptions of high and low scores in each area
- Free to take through idrlabs.com
- Available in two languages: (English and Spanish)
What people didn’t like:
- It’s a lot of questions to answer
High5
Link: https://high5test.com/
What people liked:
- 20 outcomes, organized into 5 groups
- Volume of questions produces more refined results
What people didn’t like:
- Time consuming to take – 120 questions
- Requires creating a (free) account to take the test
MindTools Leadership Assessment
Link:https://www.mindtools.com/apdfhaw/how-good-are-your-leadership-skills
What people liked:
- Provides descriptions by percentage ranges
- Connects users to additional related resources
- Only 18 questions to complete
- Easy to complete
- Free to complete
What people didn’t like:
- Somewhat oversimplifying
- No paper and pencil version
Saboteurs
Link: https://www.positiveintelligence.com/saboteurs/
What people liked:
- Provides a different perspective than other personality tests
- Easy to access and participate
- Valuable follow-up emails
- Provides a lot of descriptive content
- Develops self-awareness
- Free to take
What people didn’t like:
- Because it is addresses what gets in our way, it can be overwhelming and sensitive to process
- No paper and pencil version
StrengthsFinder (Clifton Strengths)
Link: https://www.gallup.com/cliftonstrengths/en/252137/home.aspx
What people liked:
- Results are comprehensive
- Descriptors are the same but the combination produces different summaries
- Provides a range of context for each descriptor
What people didn’t like:
- Costs money to take the test (and/or buy the book)
- The results are rich but require a lot of reading to process
True Colors
Link: https://my-personality-test.com/true-colours
What people liked:
- Online and paper/pencil versions
- Easy to complete
- Lots of resources online to process the results
- 4 easy results to remember
- Free to take through my-personality-test.com
What people didn’t like:
- Oversimplifies people into 4 categories
VIA (Values in Action)
Link: https://www.viacharacter.org/account/register
What people liked:
- Comprehensive feedback
- Same descriptors for everyone but ordered differently
- Identifies qualities applicable to personal and professional identity
What people didn’t like:
- Too many questions
- No paper and pencil version
- Requires setting up an account (free)
I’ve used these tools for a number of years and enjoy taking them every so often to see how my skill sets have changed and are situationally influenced. Additionally, it’s a lot of fun to take these with a partner or team to compare results and identify overlapping and differing qualities.
Which Personality and Leadership Assessment Tools are your favorites?
Christine M. Snyder 