Beyond the Profile: Why Understanding People Takes More Than Just a Personality Assessment
You know how it goes. In the workplace, someone mentions personality, and suddenly everyone is talking about DISC, Myers-Briggs, or StrengthsFinder results. I get it. These systems have their place. They give us a starting point, a useful springboard for understanding ourselves and the people around us. But here is where I take a bit of a detour from the mainstream thought: those profiles should be the beginning of the journey, not the destination.
Let me paint you a picture. Imagine a personality profile is like a zip code. Say I know you live in 73134. Great, that narrows down your general area. But I have no clue about the street you live on, the shape of your house, or which neighbors you wave to every morning while getting your mail. It is the same with a DISC or Myers-Briggs profile. It tells us about broad strokes, some big themes, but not the full, vibrant portrait of who you are.
The Profiles and Their Insights
A handful of assessment tools make regular appearances in these conversations:
These assessments shine a light on different slices of our behavior, but they are not the end-all and be-all. Experience, culture, upbringing, and even life circumstances shape us in ways these tests cannot capture.
My DISC Profile: SC
Let me put this into context with my own DISC profile. I am an SC—Steadiness and Conscientiousness. For me, that translates to being reliable, precise, and the kind of person who will actually listen to you. I lean into empathy, and I make sure I get the details right. But, if you believe my profile alone, you would think I would want to hide under the table if I had to do any public speaking. It is true that, as an SC, the thought of giving an off-the-cuff, high-energy speech does not exactly thrill me.
But here is the twist. Just because public speaking does not come naturally does not mean I cannot do it—and do it well. I just need a game plan. I prepare, organize my message, and make sure my content is thoughtful and true to who I am. Those strengths—empathy, precision, authenticity—become my secret weapons on stage. A personality assessment might tell you about some of my default settings, but it will not tell you about my capacity to adapt.
Understanding the Nuance
The power in these profiles is not about boxing people into neat categories but offering clues on how to communicate and collaborate better. Think of it like getting a cheat sheet:
These are not hard-and-fast rules. They are guideposts, not walls. People will always surprise you. A risk-averse person in one situation might be a trailblazer in another. The colleague who triple-checks every number at work might be skydiving in their free time. We are all bundles of contradictions.
The Human Element
And that is just it. Life shapes us. The tough projects, the game-changing events, the skills we have honed over years—these things add more complexity than any profile could ever predict. To really connect with people, you have to invest the time. You have to listen, watch, and be ready to flex.
Yes, personality assessments are helpful. They are like discovering a new route to get home. But nothing replaces the experience of walking that path yourself, learning the landmarks, and really seeing what is there.
So, how about you? Do these systems hit close to home for you, or do they leave you feeling a little misrepresented?