On Friday, my team went through a training session on our personality types. And it turns out that I’m a Dominant-Conceptual (D/C) type.
This all started the week before when we took an assessment test where they presented four words to us and we have to choose which on best describes us – at work. (I was interrupted twice in the 10 minutes it was suppsed to take.) So this would be the personality that we exhibit while working, and only at work. In typical psych test fashion there were times where the words hardly described me at home or work, or they were words I would used to describe my behaviour at work but not in my personal life. And there’s the problem.
So we went through all the training and I still don’t feel comfortable with the assessment of myself. I talked with the instructor and she said that if that’s the case then I probably am being forced to use those two personality types – being someone I’m not. And because of that I’m probably stressed out. And I am.
What she said made me cry and think that I was in the completely wrong job. But, couldn’t it just be that work right now is very stressful because we’re under staffed?
So the test results could be:
- I really am the type of person that the test says I am, and I’ve been conditioned to think those traits are wrong.
- The test is completely wrong.
- Or the test is fundamentally flawed because it fails to look at the person as a whole.
I wasn’t sure, so I phoned my mom. (mom knows everything) She was in complete agreement with the test. In her words “You can get on your high-horse and take over.” Hmm..well, I don’t think I’m that bad at work considering my coworkers were surprised with the evaluation.
Sounds like it’s a combo of 1 and 2. Girls are taught that we aren’t supposed to be dominant. If you are all the other girls call you bossy. Bossy is bad. And no one plays with you. Also, how can you get a good idea of who someone is if you’re looking at only one aspect of their personality. You get a much better understanding of a person’s reaction to a situation if you know who they are at work and home. I just want to throw the damn test results out the window now.
Maybe you hide it well, but I don’t know that I’ve ever seen you bossy. Maybe you should go with that gut.
Hang in there though. If you leave I won’t have any sane people to talk to 🙂
Hi – just read this.
I both agree and disagree with the results. It is after all about work, and how you work. So the test only evaluates your working habit. It doesn’t evaluate you as a whole (hence #3 is a big part of it too).
I think the wording “dominant” is construed as negative, and there are better “clinical” words to use to describe this. For example, “assertive”.
Ashley, when I worked with you, I found you to be assertive in your ideas – but never dominant. And never on your “high horse”. 🙂
We had a Meyers-Briggs test recently, and the creative guys (designers & writers) in our department neatly fell into the same category. I was almost the same category except where the others were “extrovert” I was “introvert” – the only difference. But there is this one guy who deliberately answered the opposite of what he was supposed to feel, as he held much contempt for these kinds of tests. He fell squarely in the same category as us – and I told him it didn’t surprise me at all.