How can you use personality tests to improve your career coaching?

1 Benefits of personality tests

Personality tests can provide valuable insights into your clients' preferences, strengths, weaknesses, motivations, and values. They can help you and your clients understand how they relate to others, how they cope with stress, how they learn and work, and what kind of environments and roles suit them best. Personality tests can also help your clients identify potential career paths, explore new options, and align their choices with their personality.

2 Challenges of personality tests

Personality tests are not perfect, and they have some limitations and pitfalls that you need to be aware of as a career coach. Personality tests are not objective measures of ability, performance, or potential. They are based on self-report, which can be influenced by bias, mood, social desirability, and expectations. Personality tests are also not static, and they can change over time and context. Personality tests are not prescriptive, and they do not tell your clients what they should or should not do. They are descriptive, and they provide a framework for understanding and exploring.

3 Tips for choosing personality tests

When selecting a personality test for your clients, there are several factors to consider, such as the purpose and goal of the test, its quality and credibility, cost and accessibility, as well as ethical and legal implications. You need to ask yourself what you want to learn from the test, how it will help your clients, if it is based on sound theory and research, how much it costs, how easy it is to administer and score, if it respects your clients' privacy and confidentiality, and if it complies with relevant laws and codes of conduct.

4 Tips for administering personality tests

When administering a personality test for your clients, it is important to explain the purpose and benefits of the test and obtain their informed consent. Provide clear and accurate instructions on how to complete the test and make sure they have enough time and a suitable environment. It is essential to avoid influencing or coaching your clients' responses, and instead encourage them to answer honestly and spontaneously. Additionally, monitor your clients' reactions and feedback during and after the test, and address any concerns or questions they may have.

5 Tips for interpreting personality tests

The final step of using personality tests in career coaching is to interpret the results and discuss them with your clients. To do this effectively, it's important to use the test results as a starting point for coaching conversations and focus on the themes and patterns that emerge from the test results. Additionally, compare and contrast the test results with other sources of information, such as your clients' self-assessment, feedback, experience, and goals. Finally, help your clients apply the test results to their career development in order to identify their interests, values, skills, and opportunities.

6 Here’s what else to consider

This is a space to share examples, stories, or insights that don’t fit into any of the previous sections. What else would you like to add?