Chances are you’ve probably taken a diagnostic at some point in your life—maybe without even realizing it. If you’ve ever taken an online quiz to learn your personality type, for instance, you were in effect ‘diagnosing’ your character to learn more about your traits and why you are the way you are.
Diagnostics are often a staple in the workplace, especially when managers want to better understand their employees and learn how a team of very different people can come together for a common purpose. After all, cohesion like this is essential in driving better business outcomes.
Diagnostics are a great way to up-level your team and provide resources for your employees that can help them excel like never before. If you’re ready to introduce diagnostics into your own workplace, here are 5 of the most well-known ones that can help to enhance your team performance:
Myers Briggs Type Inventory (MBTI) Step 1 and 2
This diagnostic was created by mother/daughter duo Katherine Briggs and Isabel Briggs Myers. The test was developed after twenty years of research and was influenced by Carl Jung’s ideas on typology. Today, the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI) assessment is designed to measure psychological preferences in how people perceive the world and make decisions. One of the most widely used psychometrics in the world, the MBTI will help your team members to understand and appreciate differences, increase their self-awareness, confirm their self-perception, and appreciate and learn to capitalise on their strengths and those of others.
Lencioni’s 5 Dysfunctions of a Team
The 5 Dysfunctions of a Team started off as a business book published in 2002 by consultant and speaker Patrick Lencioni. To date, it’s sold millions of copies and is a fixture in business schools, nonprofit organisations, the military, and professional sports teams. It’s no surprise Lencioni’s ideas are so popular. Teamwork is the ultimate competitive advantage, because it is both so powerful and so rare. A high-functioning team can achieve its potential, resulting in a more productive organisation. Additionally, improving teamwork reduces any stress and work dissatisfaction of the people who populate those organisations, which has a profound impact on the lives of their friends and family members as well. In a ‘Five Dysunctions’ workshop, team members not only reach a common understanding of what it means to be a team but also make substantial progress toward becoming a more cohesive team.
Human Synergistics Life Styles Inventory (LSI)
The Life Styles Inventory, developed by Robert A. Cooke, Ph.D. and J. Clayton Lafferty, Ph.D., was “designed for managers, leaders, students, and those in professional and technical roles…[helping] millions of people to understand and change the way they think and behave. It has been referenced in numerous management and psychology books and journals as well as in newspapers, including The Wall Street Journal.” The Life Styles Inventory (LSI) identifies the underlying thoughts and motivations that guide your behaviour. The LSI also provides a powerful measure of both your intent and your behaviour as experienced by others.
Mayer Salovey Caruso Emotional Intelligence Test (MSCEIT)
The MSCEIT is the original, scientific conception of Emotional Intelligence and is based upon more than a decade of research by psychologists Jack Mayer and Peter Salovey. It’s an ability-based test designed to measure the four branches of the Emotional Intelligence model that Mayer and Salovey created. Those four branches are: Perceiving Emotions, Using Emotions, Understanding Emotions and Managing Emotions. The Mayer and Salovey model is guided by three key principles; emotions are critically important to success, people vary in their emotional skills and these skills can be measured objectively. Some of the key applications of the MSCEIT are selection and promotion, career development, executive coaching and leadership development.
Human Instincts
From hardwiredhumans.com: “A strange thing happened to Homo sapiens only 250 years ago: we changed our habitat. With the Industrial Revolution we changed from being hunter-gatherers and villagers and moved into offices and factories. Hardwired Humans explains how the instincts that served humans on the savannah show themselves in workplaces and how we can use Nature to build successful organisations and develop effective leaders.” This diagnostic will help you to understand why people behave as they do at work, apply the insight to practical topics and enhance your personal effectiveness.
Here at Shaping Change, we specialize in all of the above diagnostics and enjoy helping our clients reach their business goals through these tools and more. Interested in learning more about our services? Reach out to us through our contact page here.