Understanding your personality and communication preferences
Understanding your Executive’s personality, behaviours and communication preferences are crucial to building an effective relationship and partnership.
But!
Before we do that, you also have to do the work to understand your personality, behaviours and communication preferences!
Being self-aware, and understanding your personality and communication preferences, is incredibly important for Assistants.
The work has to start with you so that you know your preferences and what to do to align yourself with your Executive’s preferences.
It’s time for you to take some personality tests!
Myers Briggs
Let’s start with Myers Briggs – this is the first personality that I took with an Executive.
The test is one of the most popular personality tests and has been for quite some time now. It is free to take, pretty quick and the results are easy to understand and interpret.
The results are divided into a series of letters which define your personality type on a sliding scale.
They are:
- Extraversion (E) vs. Introversion (I)
- Sensing (S) vs. Intuition (N)
- Thinking (T) vs. Feeling (F)
- Judging (J) vs. Perceiving (P)
Here is the link to take the Myers Briggs personality test.
The Four Tendencies
The test designed by Gretchin Rubin looks at how you respond to expectations. Gretchin explains that there are two types of expectations and we respond differently to both. The expectations are either:
- Inner – which is something like a self-created goal or resolution
- Outer – which are work deadlines
Your ‘tendency’ (either Upholder, Obliger, Rebel, or Questioner) is determined by how you respond to these expectations. Understanding your tendencies can lead to better decision making.
Here is the link to take the four tendencies personality test.
The Big Five Personality Test
What’s unique about this test is that you are looking at 5 broad dimensions of how people’s personalities are different from one another, and instead of saying you are either ‘this’ or ‘that’, you are given a percentage.
The 5 factors this test looks at are:
- Openness to experience
- Conscientiousness
- Extraversion
- Agreeableness
- Neuroticism
Here is the link to take the Big Five personality test.
Additional Tests
Here are a few more tests that are worth taking to find out a bit more about yourself and your preferences.
Next steps
Take the tests and share the results with your Executive. Ask if they have taken any tests and can share the results with you.
Knowing and understanding your personality, behaviour and communication preferences is key when creating an effective relationship with any of your Executives.
It is your responsibility to ensure that you remain aware of what makes you and your Executive unique. Therefore, taking the initiative to better understand yourself through the use of personality tests will prove crucial. Ultimately, it sets the foundation for communication clarity between yourself and anyone else you interact with, especially Executives!
To make sure you are aware of everything you need to know to become a successful Assistant take our Strategic Business Partner Online Course today! Don’t miss out on this great opportunity!
