Why should results from personality assessments be easy to read?

Those who develop personality assessments are most focused on data collection rather than utility. As a result, there are plenty of personality reports with complex graphs and output. There are some that try to simplify it by giving you a label or a four-letter code.
The label is all too often childish sounding in nature and not very informative. The four-letter code is difficult to remember for the individual much less remembering anyone else’s code. We believe that assessment results do not have to overwhelm, and at the same time, they can be deep enough to give you what you need to know.  

Personality surveys – simple and deep at the same time?

We believe that assessment results can be both simple in output and deep enough to provide real utility.

First, it’s about using everyday language that a lay person can read and understand. Esoteric language and psycho-babble is fine for the psychologists, but how many psychologists are using personality assessments for self-development?

Psycho-babble is fine for the psychologists, but no psychologists are using personality assessments?[/tweet_box]

Second, it’s about providing relevant categories that are neutral in judgment and unique enough that people can remember them and use from productively for leveraging similarities and differences. Now, we fully understand that nobody wants to be categorized or “labeled.” However, the first reason we need to categorize is as a short way of describing a complex concept or identity. People are still unique and complex. The other reason for needing a category is as a way of finding like-minded others and better understanding those who may be quite opposite ourselves.

Reason for needing a category is to find like-minded others and better understand opposite.[/tweet_box]

Personality surveys – what to do next?

Finally, the utility of the assessment has to be relevant to the individual who took it. It needs to be made up of results they can take action on and create greater well-being for themselves as well as others. The objective of personality assessment should not be to simply inform. It should be to educate and create positive change. If you cannot understand it. If it is not made up of meaningful results to help you better understand how others experience you and what motivates you. And, if it doesn’t have relatable, actionable results. Then, the purpose of the assessment is lost.