Personality Tests for Business

Emily Thompson 0:02
bosses we know the struggles of shipping it can be complex with the uncertainty over costs and deciding which carrier to use plus tracking your packages. Things at best can get confusing. But now there's a better way to ship send pro online by Pitney Bowes. With sin pro online, it's easy to save time and money no matter what you send from letters and packages to overnights and flats, and you'll always get the rate that's best for you. You can use send pro online to easily compare USPS and other shipping options all in one online tool. You can use them to print shipping labels and stamps on your own printer, and to track all of your shipments and get email notifications when they've arrived. You send pro online for your business for only 1499 per month, and our listeners can get a free 30 day trial when you visit PB com slash boss. You will also receive a free 10 pound scale to help you weigh your packages and accurately calculate the cost of shipping. So you'll never overpay. Get Your FREE scale and 30 day free trial now@pb.com slash boss. Hello, and welcome to being boss. This minisode is all about personality tests and how you can use them in your life and work.

Caitlin Brehm 1:28
Alright, Kathleen and Emily, I've got a fun one for you today. Let's talk about personality tests. creative entrepreneurs love a good personality test. Never before have I met so many INFJ's then before I started running in creative entrepreneurs circles. And even in the being boss community, I've seen conversations about different personality types all over the place. Even coming down do what Hogwarts house you're in team Hufflepuff over here. So besides personalities as being something that's just kind of a fun way to pass the time or connect with other people. I feel like there's probably some practical way you can apply those to your business too. So share with us some of your favorite personality tests and results and maybe how that fits into being a boss.

Kathleen Shannon 2:21
Alright, so yeah, let's talk about personality, personality tests. And really identifying or using tools to identify who you are and how you move through the world.

Emily Thompson 2:33
And also how you work with other people. I think that's the fun little one that I want to get in

Kathleen Shannon 2:36
there with. Okay, so my first experience with personality tests beyond the kinds that you would fill out in a circle in 17. Magazine.

Emily Thompson 2:46
Why I did those too

Kathleen Shannon 2:48
all about it. And the fun part about personality tests is really getting to it feels self indulgent, like those 17 magazine tests, but everyone likes to feel understood. And I think that personality tests really do that. So the first one I did was the Myers Briggs personality test. Have you done that one? Emily?

Emily Thompson 3:08
It's been years since I've done that one. I don't remember what mine is. So don't ask.

Kathleen Shannon 3:14
Mine is ENFJ. For those of you who are curious.

Emily Thompson 3:18
So there's some people out there that's like well done, and everyone else is like, what does that mean?

Kathleen Shannon 3:22
What does that mean?

Emily Thompson 3:23
We see you, we see you.

Kathleen Shannon 3:25
So hang on, I'm pulling up a quick summary of Myers Briggs. Okay, so there is the E or the eye, and that is extraversion or introversion. So that's basically on whether you focus on the outer world or on your own inner world, I was actually pretty much a tie between E and I, introvert and extrovert. I feel like we've talked about this in an earlier episode, I feel like I'm leaning more towards I lately. And then the next one is sensing or intuition. And this is how you prefer to focus on the basic information you take in, or whether you prefer to interpret and add meaning to it. So I'm definitely an interpreter and adding meaning and decisions. So this is the next part of the Myers Briggs personality. And it's when making decisions do you prefer to look at logic and consistency or first look at the people in special circumstances. So this is thinking or feeling. So like for me, I always forget people's names right after I meet them. And I think that's the F part of my function.

Emily Thompson 4:39
Well, that I definitely have that as well. I have to like hardcore, like repeat people's names a million times in my head, and then there's still only a 20% chance that I'll remember it.

Kathleen Shannon 4:48
And then the last part of Myers Briggs is structure in dealing with the outside world do you prefer to get things decided or do you prefer to stay open to new information and options? This is called judge Seeing or perceiving

Emily Thompson 5:02
Judgy?

Kathleen Shannon 5:03
I will I would think that I would be, oh yeah, I'm a J. A j, I like to get things to sighted, I do not like things to stay open. So you can go you can check out Myersbriggs.org for that one. And there's like, I think 16 different combinations of what you could be. And it's really fun to look at what celebrities or historical figures what their Myers Briggs personality would have been as well. So that's Myers Briggs. And that's a huge one that a lot of professional leadership, like organizations used whenever they're giving their employees personality tests.

Emily Thompson 5:40
We also did one recently together, which I thought was really fun. We did the Sally hogshead fascinator.

Kathleen Shannon 5:47
Yeah, I think how

Emily Thompson 5:48
to fascinate how to fascinate, um, personality test where Kathleen and I did a fun little test, and came up with like, I'm the mastermind, and you are the

Kathleen Shannon 6:00
maestro,

Emily Thompson 6:02
Maestro. So my mastermind is a combination of power, surprise, and Mystique. Because I don't really talk very much, which I think is fantastic. Or I'm more of an observer and listener, and I only speak when I have something amazing to say.

Kathleen Shannon 6:23
Right? Mine was power and prestige. So we had the power overlap. And I think my prestige part of it. I don't know, it feels funny saying prestige. Like I never used, I would never use that word to describe myself. But Mystique was actually my, what was it called?

Emily Thompson 6:44
I don't know, your lowest one, the

Kathleen Shannon 6:46
lowest, like my weak point in my personality is Mystique. I'm talking about everything. my armpits and vagina,

Emily Thompson 6:59
whatever she can, and then my lowest one was alert, which really opened my eyes to my inability to sort of, I don't know, be in things like I'm a planner. And then I'll execute like, as I can go, but if as I go, but if I'm having to be really responsive to things that are just happening happening, and I have to be alert to like, stay on track, I'm gonna explode. So that test for us did a whole lot of really good things for for I think, both of us like internally with how we do the podcast, and that, you know, we've gotten some feedback from some of you out there that Kathleen talks too much. She doesn't let me talk very much. But you guys don't realize is that we like it that way.

Kathleen Shannon 7:44
Like, and I say that specifically on interviews, like whenever we're interviewing a third person, because I feel like you do plenty of talking whenever is just right, whenever there's a third person, I'm kind of the one that's getting really super curious. Not that you aren't curious, but I'm the one just probably because my lowest how to fascinate is Mystique, I just kind of an am asking what I'm thinking and saying what I'm feeling like there's very little processing between when I'm having a thought and when it's coming out of my mouth,

Emily Thompson 8:15
right. And all I'm doing is processing. So and we were talking about this a couple of days after we did the test. And when we realized that this really just is me and you and our dynamic and how this works. And I was saying that like literally how I feel during interviews sometimes is you know, I'm listening. And then I think, Oh, my God, I should totally be coming up with a question right now. And then I'm just so worried about coming up with a question that I'm not listening. And I'm stressing out about it. And then we're three topics away. And I don't even know what we've been talking about. So. So it really gave me like some internal permission, separate from what has been requested that I can just observe and listen and formulate what I need to say or what I need to ask and do it whenever I need to based on my own personality, not meeting Kathleen where she is because guys, she is her own person.

Kathleen Shannon 9:11
I also thought it was really cool how we were able to use that personality test to structure our next offering for being boss, which is the being boss clubhouse and even how we sell it. And even how we position ourselves, we were able to realize that the power part of our personalities and the fact that that really overlaps so strongly for the both of us means that confidence and self reliance are kind of the reason why you guys are listening to us in the first place. So why not bring more of that into what we have to offer? And so that was really enlightening. For me. I always feel like that kind of self confidence. I can even get a little shy about it at times like oh, should I should I be more humble? No, not humble. It's not really Like that, it's more like, maybe I need to do. Okay, this, this shows up a lot whenever I see other creatives I admire who are really about the research and really super methodical. And so people like my sister, for example, over at braid creative whenever I see the way she works, I started to feel bad about the way that I'm working. And rather than feeling bad about it, now I'm learning, I just need to use my strengths to my advantage. And that communication, saying what I mean and sharing it with you guys, like that's what I do best. So why not harness that and make it my job?

Emily Thompson 10:36
Right. And same thing, same thing with me with being the mastermind and really getting comfortable with the fact that I'm great at taking big ideas and tasks, and really hammering them down into small actionable to dues, really puts me in a place in my business where I'm doing work that I know that I'm best at. And I think this is where we sort of wrap this up or start wrapping this up into a pretty bow, where a personality test really allow you to see where your strengths are, it's totally helped you and I and really building building our company, and how it is that we function. But it also I really look forward to doing some personality tests with our team so that we can make sure we are communicating with them in the right way. So that we are we are giving them the task that they are going to really excel out and enjoy the most. There's another one that's just totally kind of off the wall is the was the Five Love Languages over it. Yeah, right. That's a really good one for you know, just being able to tell people or show people love and appreciation in the way that they need. We I think I did that one with the team about a year ago, I need Corey or I'm going to divulge to Kathleen what your love languages very soon.

Kathleen Shannon 11:54
That's Corey,

Emily Thompson 11:54
I can't remember I have to look it up. Which personality tests are only as good as long as you remember them and use them. I

Kathleen Shannon 12:01
feel like my love languages are all of them.

Emily Thompson 12:04
Kathleen just wants all the love in any way you can give it. Um, and sky charts, can we say in star charts. So when I was looking for our lat, our newest assistant, I remember making a funny joke. Actually, Caitlin, one of our team members made a funny joke that we should get their star charts because that's really how we're going to get to know who they are. And I made the joke to one of the girls that I was interviewing and so she sent me all of her birth data so that I could pull her star chart because that's something that I like to do with little hobbies and astrology research for fun.

Kathleen Shannon 12:38
I basically only work with Virgos and cancers.

Emily Thompson 12:46
That's some hipster shit you just said Kathleen. I basically only work with Ferguson cancer.

Kathleen Shannon 12:55
Alright you guys, so check out Myers Briggs, check out Sally Hogshead How to fascinate. And check out what your sign is.

Emily Thompson 13:03
Right all of them. You need to know your sun sign your moon sign and your rising sign Trust me. Hey, their bosses. Emily here to tell you about our new friends at ConvertKit. ConvertKit is an email marketing platform for bloggers. But I'll tell you some truth. I don't see myself as a blogger. Even though you can catch me once a week over on the being boss blog. I share content on this podcast on the being boss website and more notably to my newsletter list. Growing your email list and sharing content does not have to be overwhelming or full of too many options or buttons or settings. It can be easy for you to do and it really should be ConvertKit is known for their simple design, easy to use interface and powerful functionality tailored specifically to helping content creators grow their email list. If you're feeling overwhelmed by your current email marketing platform or worse, you're using that as an excuse to not be growing and nurturing your list then we recommend you check out ConvertKit try Convert Kit for free for 30 days go to convertkit.com/beingboss to learn more. Did you like this minisode Be sure to check us out on our website at beingboss.club. There you can find more from being boss including our full episodes minisodes and blog posts. And while you're there, be sure to sign up for our mailing list so that you can get access to behind the scenes and exclusive content from Kathleen and myself to help you be more boss in your work and life. Do the work be boss