Assessments Aren’t Meant to Put You In a Box

As a former Human Resource executive and as a leadership coach, I’ve been exposed to a good number of assessments. While in HR, I used to joke that we (the HR team) were the guinea pigs for any assessment the organization had heard about and wanted to test. “Try it on HR before we introduce it to the team…”

There are many quality assessments out there. They are validated and reliable (meaning they accurately and consistently measure what they say they are going to measure). The issue I have isn’t with the assessments themselves, it is with the way they are being used — or, more accurately, misused.

Assessments are not meant to put you in a box. I cannot tell you how many times I’ve heard a phrase such as “I am an INTJ.” No, no you are not! Nor is that the way the Meyers-Briggs instrument was meant to be used. For those not familiar with these letters, Meyers-Briggs uses these to indicate:

• I = Introversion
• N = Intuitive
• T = Thinking
• J = Judging

Like nearly every other assessment I’ve been exposed to, Meyers-Briggs shows these results on a scale. In other words, the person who says, “I am an INTJ” tends toward introversion, toward intuition, toward thinking, and toward judging. It does not mean that they are incapable of extroversion, sensing, feeling, or perceiving.

Assessments also reflect your state of mind when you are taking them. This affects the results in three ways. First, let’s say that you’ve had a bad day, that you felt stressed when you took the assessment. This could skew the answers you chose. Second, let’s say that the environment you are in values certain behaviors over others. You may, consciously or subconsciously, answer in ways that you think are culturally acceptable. And, lastly, you change. You grow and develop. This can explain why, if you take the same assessment at two different points in your life, you may get different results.

Used properly, assessments offer insights into a person’s preferences. They provide data and information that can help the individual better understand themselves and help others appreciate how they might bring out the best in the person. They are not meant to label a person but, rather, to raise their awareness of how they may show up in the world. By working with someone who understands the instrument, you can discover how to more effectively apply what you are learning about yourself.