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Myers-Briggs is debunked. So are all “personality” tests bunk?
About once a year articles are published debunking Myers-Briggs. The arguments by this time are familiar:
- The authors had no formal training in psychology and there’s no science behind their questionnaire
- The system has built-in “fudge factors” to compensate for differences in gender where they should be gender neutral
- Half the people who retake Myers-Briggs get different results even a few weeks later
So, upon reading this, I typically receive an email from a client or two asking, “Can we trust the STM assessments?”
The answer is yes, and here’s why…
We don’t use Myers-Briggs. We use a DISC assessment, which is similar, but more importantly, the DISC assessment is only one of three assessments we employ. We use two additional assessments, which yield key pieces of information, and make the STM system more accurate and useful for hiring selection.
Behavior assessments, which is the category both Myers-Briggs and DISC belong to, are very effective for determining how one is perceived by others. It’s fun to do this with a group, and they are both quite accurate—as far as they go. Companies that use behavior-based assessments apply them for the serious business of hiring selection when they are essentially worthless for this function. This is a problem.
Let me explain.
Think of a job that you know inside out. Maybe an accountant, for example. Now, I bet you can think of a really good accountant who is quiet, serious, and introverted (to use a term familiar to both Myers-Briggs and DISC users). Now, can you think of at least one accountant who is also very good but extroverted and outgoing? No matter the position, people always agree that people from opposite ends of the behavior spectrum can be good at the job. While the Myers-Briggs and DISC assessments may describe an introvert and an extrovert very well, that assessment alone cannot predict who will be the better accountant…or sales person, or COO, account manager, etc. This is why behavior assessments are only 40-50% accurate at predicting hiring success.
And this is why we utilize three assessments from three completely different systems. They’re not related in any way, measure very different factors, and, critically, meet all of the EEOC requirements for validity, lack of bias, and so on.
Our second assessment is a motivators assessment, which measures factors highly relevant to predicting success in a position. Top performers for any position will typically have two or three motivators (or values) in common. Using our accountant example, we typically see that they are motivated by return on investment, knowledge and discovery (learning), guiding principles (doing things right) and sometimes helping others (supportive and team-oriented). In our experience a motivators assessment, combined with a DISC assessment, can be 80-90% accurate.
Our third assessment is a competency profile, based on a clinical instrument, and it’s very effective at measuring attitude, talent, energy, and drive. When we add this to the mix, our accuracy climbs past 90%, but the major contribution is information. Before we added the competency profile, we only had a behavior and motivators instrument for a total of 22 unique factors. I often got the message from clients that the assessments were repetitive, and of course they were. Our data was limited.
Today, we often get the opposite feedback. We provide 97 unique factors from three different assessment systems as opposed to 16 Myers-Briggs types. The raw assessment can be over 90 pages which is why we create a shorter summary report that interprets key data and provides our clients with specific and actionable information.
Myers-Briggs has its uses, but one of them shouldn’t be hiring selection. If you want accurate, actionable, and useful information about a job candidate or employee, you need to dig much deeper.
I’m sorry but I disagree that MB is debunked. It was based on real observations and works surprisingly well for a lot of people.
We use DISC, which like MBTI works “surprisingly well for a lot of people”….as far as they go. Team building and communication exercises based on MBTI types or DISC styles are fun, informative and useful, but they were never intended for use as hiring assessments, judging readiness for promotion or even for precise coaching advice. As noted in the blog–everyone can think of successful people in any role within a wide range of MBTI or DISC types; that is extrovert or introvert, thinker or feeler, task or people oriented…there are successful people from all behavior spectrums. I wrote this blog to make that point clear as many times experienced hiring managers or coaches assume no assessments are capable of predicting hiring or coaching sucess, as they have only experienced behavior profiles.
Exactly, and notice they’re trying to get us to use another personality test product that they created. Big red flag. They need to discredit their competition MB to get users on their product
My point is not to denigrate the MBTI as a way to build up a personality test that I created. That is not the way I work. In fact, every assessment we use DISC, Motivators and Hartman Value Profile were created and are maintained by others. My original blog was in response to the annual flood of articles that say MBTI is debunked; there are hundreds and likely thousands of such articles on this subject on the internet. As I commented to Don, any instrument can be effective in the right hands but you have to know how to use it. A fine carpenter working with rudimentary tools can produce a beautiful object—I on the other hand can barely build a decent looking bird house using the very best tools!
DISC has also been debunked, so….
I appreciate your comment and agree with you. Neither MBTI nor DISC is science based, but their conclusions are quite accurate as far as they go…and that is my point. Both are often applied to situations for which they are not suited–such as hiring, promotion determinations and so on. They are both illuminating and useful in the area of communications. But to predict if someone is a good salesperson or not, for example, it is not enough to know how they communicate. We probably know lots of high “S/C” individuals who are very effective salespeople, and probably “D/I” individuals who are are not.
I didn’t believe in MBTI for years, even after being tested at work… Then a highly respected friend asked me to take it and she had me read about the results. I respected her, so I did, and it described me to a T! After that I was a believer!
I have exactly the same history with assessments! What I discovered was that was responding negatively not to an assessment itself, but the way it was being interpreted or represented….often by people who did not appear to take the assessment seriously enough to deeply understand it. Whether MBTI, DISC, Predictive Index or any of the other hundreds of instruments on the market—if you really know the system behind the instrument you can do wonderful things with it. Your friend undoubtedly took the time to educate herself on the finer points of MBTI and the best way to apply it to common challenges.
Can i just point out that this is making MBTI assessments seem like they have no worth? I use it on a regular basis and find it’s made an important impact in my life.
Although your personality type shouldn’t define you or be taken as objective fact, the templates Myers-Briggs offers are insightful toward different facets to your overall personality and help you understand yourself and others better.
Just wanted to repeat that I am the last one to say MBTI has no worth, but many people “debunk” MBTI because they try to apply it to situations for which it was never designed. I wrote the blog for that segment of my audience who assume all assessments are “bunk” because someone did a poor job applying another assessment to their business challenges. Hopefully my responses are helpful. If you find an assessment instrument that works for you and provides what you require—then stick with it. To continue my tool analogy, if you have a quality screw-driver and you try using it as a hammer, expect to be disappointed.