Psychometric testing is widely used in the world of business for both the recruitment and development of employees.
Personality tests like Myers Briggs and behavioural profilers like DISC, are readily utilised to determine a candidate’s suitability for a role. There are also a variety of aptitude tests which examine a person’s abilities when it comes to performing certain tasks.
The use of psychometrics, however, isn’t limited to employers; many coaches use testing as a tool to highlight areas of focus and to help their clients become more self-aware.
In this article, we’ll unpick the use of psychometrics in coaching and look at what you can expect to gain from testing as a coaching client.
Psychometrics in Business:
“Psychometrics is the science of measuring mental practices and processes.” Oxford Dictionary
According to aptitude-test.com, testing for mental proficiency in recruitment dates all the way back to around 2200 BC, when Chinese Emperors used to test people in public roles for skills, intelligence, and mental endurance.
Since then, specialists in this field have created hundreds of psychometric tests, all designed to test a person’s mental state, processes and capabilities, personality, and aptitude for a particular role.
Today, the use of psychometrics in business is widespread; according to Belbin, 70% of UK companies with over 50 employees use tests measuring personality, behavioural style, motivators, interests, and values.
Many organisations see testing as an invaluable tool in their recruitment process. As well as saving time and money, psychometric tests can even assess the long-term potential of candidates before any investment is made in their development. Testing also allows hiring teams to identify high-potential employees early, so attention can be paid to their development and retention.
Psychometrics in coaching:
When it comes to coaching, psychometric testing provides coaches with an early glimpse of their client’s strengths and weaknesses; gaining this level of information at the beginning of a coaching journey, means they can really hit the ground running.
Coaches aren’t the only ones, however, who stand to gain from the insights psychometric testing provides.
It’s not unusual, for example, for a client to come to us with a skewed ‘sense of self’.
Overestimating or underestimating one’s own abilities can lead to a lifetime of poor career choices, workplace conflict and stressful situations.
Psychometrics help coaching clients to understand more about themselves and how they interact with the world around them. It can assist them in building better relationships, improving their key skills and ensuring that they are always working to their strengths.
Forms of psychometric testing:
Assessment specialists, Thomas International state that there are 4 main types of psychometric testing:
Aptitude Tests:
Aptitude tests explore a person’s ability to perform certain tasks - sometimes in a time pressured environment - and highlight their strengths, weaknesses, and overall intelligence.
Often multiple choice, these tests include questions on pattern recognition, situational judgement, critical thinking, problem solving and numerical, verbal, and logical reasoning.
In recruitment, the type of questions asked will depend on the skills required for a particular role; the results will then be used to eliminate candidates from the race.
As coaching is supportive and developmental, any aptitude tests a client takes will be relevant their overall goal; the results will then highlight to their coach areas which need to be worked on in order to make that goal a reality.
Behavioural Tests:
According to Belbin, behavioural tests investigate a person’s propensities towards certain types of behaviour and their interactions with others.
This includes components like their communication style, their stress triggers and whether they’re introverts or extroverts; it’s as much about how a person comes across to other people, as how they see themselves.
Behavioural profiling tests use both hypothetical, work-based situational questions, and past experiences to explore a person’s propensity (amongst other things) to be adaptable, to cooperate and to lead.
In coaching, this information can be invaluable to clients. A person’s perception of how they interact with people around them is important to their development. Gaining a deeper understanding of how and why they behave the way they do, and the impact this then has on other people, can help them to grow as individuals.
DISC profiling is one of the most popular behavioural tests out there. It examines a person’s behavioural inclinations and profiles them into a grid of 4 behavioural styles:
Of course, depending on the situation, a person can be a blend of all these styles; behavioural tests are used to plot a client’s tendencies, not their stable characteristics.
“DISC provides a common language people can use to better understand themselves, and those they interact with – and then use this knowledge to reduce conflict and improve working relationships.” Discprofile.com
Personality Tests:
Thomas International describes personality as a combination of values, views, and patterns of thought.
The most popular personality test amongst professionals today, is the Myers Briggs Type Indicator.
“Myers Briggs is a self-report inventory designed to identify a person’s personality type, strengths and preferences.” Verywellmind.com
MBTI consists of over 90 either/or questions, the answers to which place the candidate in one of 16 personality brackets. At the end of the test, the results are totted up and 4 personality archetypes are used to determine a 4 letter Myers Briggs personality type.
Whereas behaviour and emotions can change with the wind, an individual’s personality - what’s at their core - remains largely unchanged. In other words, Personality tests do map the more stable characteristics of a person.
Emotional Intelligence Tests:
“Emotional intelligence is the capacity to be aware of, control and express one’s emotions, and to handle interpersonal relationships judiciously and empathetically.” Oxford Dictionary.
Emotional intelligence or EQ tests examine a person’s ability to communicate, read, understand, and effectively manage emotions.
The most commonly used model of Emotional Intelligence, is Daniel Goleman’s Emotional Intelligence Theory.
Goleman suggests that emotional intelligence is more important than cognitive intelligence when it comes to career development and advancement. As emotional intelligence theory is largely centred around human interaction and relationships, this plays into the old saying: “it’s not what you know, it’s who you know (or at least, how you interact with them)”.
Goleman’s model of EI includes 5 realms:
Know your emotions.
Manage your emotions.
Motivate yourself.
Recognise and understand other people’s emotions.
Manage relationships.
These 5 realms are then broken down into 4 quadrants:
Self-Awareness.
Social Awareness.
Self-Management.
Relationship Management.
Using the Goleman model, many EI tests ask a series of forced answer questions (e.g. a scale of strongly disagree to strongly agree), to generate a score for each of the quadrants.
“Emotional intelligence, more than any other factor, more than I.Q or expertise, accounts for 85% to 90% of success at work. I.Q is a threshold competence. You need it, but it doesn’t make you a star. Emotional intelligence can.” Warren G. Bennis
Psychometrics in action:
At Paul Starbuck and Associates, when appropriate, we introduce our clients to psychometric testing as part of their discovery process, and the results often become a catalyst for growth.
We once worked with a client, who was less than impressed with the results of their psychometric testing. In their own words, the results were: ”A complete load of rubbish and nothing like me.”
Even after talking them through with their coach, the client struggled to see the point of the exercise and went home to tell his wife as such. He threw his printed results on the kitchen worktop, and then went off down the pub to drown his sorrows.
He returned later that evening to find that his wife had read the report and was surprised by the accuracy of it. She said that the results had him “banged to rights.”
They sat down and she helped him understand how he really reacts and behaves and the impact this has on the people around him.
The client came to his next coaching session with his tail between his legs and informed us that in sitting down for an impromptu psychometric feedback session with his wife, he had learnt so much about himself. She had supported him through the results and held a mirror up to him so he could understand more about his behaviour.
With all of us on the same page, the following coaching sessions with this client were a dream; they made tons of progress towards achieving their overall goals.
“No personality type is better than one another. But a complete awareness about your personality helps in highlighting your key strengths and that in turn helps in better life decisions.” Blocksurvey.oi
Discover your true self:
When it comes to coaching, the conversation is always centred on the client; it’s all about their goals and supporting them in overcoming challenges that may stand in their way.
Good coaches will have psychometric tools in their arsenal and use them to skilfully gain clarity around their client’s cognitive abilities, thought processes and motivations in relation to their dreams. Testing can also provide a coach with useful insights such as how a client learns and retains information and how they may react when confronted with a given situation.
Psychometrics are also of use if a client is embroiled in a workplace conflict or suffering from team, communication or leadership issues.
It takes time to get to know somebody - and time is money. Psychometric tests cut to the chase and can speed along the process of identifying areas to work on with the client.
Ultimately, psychometric test results provide coaches with a deeper understanding of their client’s strengths, blind spots, abilities, and capacity to learn. This means that the coach is as prepared as possible to help their client reach their full potential.
If after reading this article, you feel like psychometric testing could be advantageous to you achieving your goals, please get it touch.
Let us start your journey together with a free discovery session.
Phone : 07799474776
E-mail: Paul@paulstarbuckassiociates.com
“It’s not what happens to you, but how you react that matters.” Epictetus
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