Conducting a personality assessment can help you identify a number of traits that can potentially benefit you, or create a disadvantage for you, in the business world. Personality tests and assessments won’t tell you what line of work you are best suited for or what type of business you should run, but they can give you an indication of whether you have the strengths necessary for success in various professional endeavors.

Personality Assessment Measures

A personality assessment can help you pinpoint various emotional characteristics that have the potential to impact your professional life and your ability to run a small company. For example, if your assessment shows you are a highly analytical, detail-oriented person with a propensity toward measures, numbers and data collection, it could indicate you have the personality traits necessary for running a financial business, such as an accounting agency or a real estate office. The findings of your assessment can help you shape the way you approach business operations.

Personality Assessment Tools

A variety of reputable personality tests are available as self-assessment tools, with one of the most notable tests in the business world being the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator personality inventory. The assessment identifies distinct personality traits and describes them in combinations of four different areas, including extraversion and introversion, sensing and intuition, thinking and feeling, and judging and perceiving. For example, you might assess yourself and find you are an introverted, feeling, perceiving intuitive personality. With these findings, you consult the breakdown of personality descriptions and read about what the assessment means to you and how you likely would interact in the business world.

Benefits of Assessments

A personality assessment won't necessarily change who you are, what you do or how you behave, but it can provide you with important information you can use for professional development and successful small-business operations. A personality assessment gives you an indication of what you’re good at and the areas where you're the least competent or naturally suited. For example, if you are an introverted, emotional personality, you might be better suited to behind-the-scenes back-office business operations than front-office, hands-on interaction with customers or other business associates.

How to Use Results

If you use personality assessments in your small business, you can help yourself and your employees identify each person's traits and determine what they mean professionally. Having this information can help you effectively utilize staffers, create work teams and manage projects by assembling the best combination of personality types for the tasks at hand. For example, you might pair a sensitive, perceptive employee with an extroverted thinking personality in conducting a high-profile sales call with the idea that one employee will be good at talking about product benefits while the other will excel in closing the deal.