Decoding Assessments

As we’ve discussed before, professional assessments are systematic evaluations or examinations conducted by experts or professionals to assess the skills, competencies, capabilities, or performance of individuals in a specific field or area of expertise. The purpose of a professional assessment is to gather information and make informed judgments about an individual’s qualifications, aptitude, potential, or suitability for a particular role, job, or professional setting.

Professional assessments can take various forms depending on the context and objectives. They may include skill assessments, psychometric assessments, performance evaluations, certification exams, and career assessments. During this article series, we’ve been particularly interested in personality and behavioral assessments, and we’ve explored several frequently used ones. Each has its own unique benefits, uses, and, most importantly for this piece, output. Before we explore assessment outputs, which ones have which benefits, and which one is right for you, let’s first understand where professional assessments came from.

Where did professional assessment come from?

Professional assessments have evolved over time, with their roots in various fields and disciplines. In fact, some ancient civilizations used assessments to evaluate skills and knowledge of individuals in various domains. During the industrial revolution, with a rising need for efficient workers, workforce selection, and management talent, organizations began developing assessments to evaluate job candidates. Industrial psychologists pioneered the use of psychometric tests to measure cognitive abilities, personality traits, and vocational interests.

The mid-20th century witnessed significant advancements in psychometrics, the science of psychological measurement. Prominent psychologists, such as Raymond Cattell and Louis Thurstone, contributed to the development of standardized tests, personality assessments, and intelligence tests. Simultaneously, career assessments gained prominence as individuals sought guidance in making informed career choices. Career counselors and psychologists developed tools and inventories to assess individuals’ interests, values, and aptitudes to assist them in career planning.

Today, professional assessments have diversified across various domains, including education, employment, counseling, and personal development. They continue to evolve as new research, methodologies, and technologies emerge, aiming to provide more accurate, reliable, and comprehensive evaluations of individuals’ skills, capabilities, and potential. With rapidly evolving technology and workforce capabilities, the growing diversity of assessment tools aims to serve a variety of audiences with varying needs. One way for assessments to differentiate themselves from the pack is to provide unique outputs.

What kinds of outputs are out there in the professional assessment landscape?

It’s almost impossible to find two assessments that give identical outputs. But, there are some common output frameworks that many assessments use to share the results of the tool. Here are several examples of outputs that are commonly used to communicate the results of an assessment:

Scores: Many assessments provide numerical scores or ratings that indicate an individual’s performance or level of proficiency in a particular area. These scores can be used to compare individuals, establish benchmarks, or determine eligibility for certain opportunities or positions.

Reports: Assessment reports offer detailed information about an individual’s performance, strengths, weaknesses, and areas for improvement. These reports may include an analysis of specific skills, competencies, personality traits, or cognitive abilities. They provide valuable feedback and guidance for personal or professional development.

Recommendations: Based on the assessment results, recommendations may be provided to individuals, employers, or educators. These recommendations may suggest suitable career paths, training programs, areas for improvement, or interventions to enhance performance or development.

Proficiency Levels: Some assessments categorize individuals into proficiency levels or skill bands. This classification helps in understanding an individual’s proficiency in a particular area relative to established standards or benchmarks.

Qualifications or Certifications: Certain assessments, particularly certification exams, provide individuals with official qualifications or certifications upon successfully meeting the required standards. These certifications validate an individual’s knowledge, skills, or competencies in a specific field or industry.

Development Plans: Assessment outputs may include personalized development plans that outline specific actions, goals, or strategies to enhance an individual’s skills, performance, or career prospects. These plans can serve as roadmaps for professional growth and improvement.

Feedback and Interpretation: Assessments often come with expert feedback or interpretations to help individuals understand their results and implications. This feedback may be provided in written form, through individual consultations, or via online platforms.

Like we’ve said in each article in this series, it’s important to note that the outputs of professional assessments should be interpreted and utilized in conjunction with other relevant information and professional judgment. The purpose of assessments is to provide insights and guidance, aiding individuals or organizations in making informed decisions and facilitating personal or professional development.

What are some real examples of professional assessment outputs?

With these broad categories of outputs in mind, let’s explore some specific assessments that give varied outputs.

MBTI®

The Myers-Briggs Type Indicator® (MBTI®) is a widely used psychological assessment tool based on Carl Jung’s theory of psychological types. The MBTI® measures an individual’s preferences across four dichotomies, resulting in a four-letter type code that represents their personality preferences. The outputs of the MBTI® assessment typically include the following:

1. Four-Letter Type Code: The MBTI® assessment provides a four-letter type code that represents an individual’s preferences in four dimensions: Extraversion (E) or Introversion (I); Sensing (S) or Intuition (N); Thinking (T) or Feeling (F); and Judging (J) or Perceiving (P). 
2. Type Description: The assessment also provides a detailed description of each personality type based on the four-letter code. These descriptions offer insights into the individual’s preferences, strengths, potential areas for growth, communication style, and likely approach to work and relationships.
3. Personalized Feedback: The MBTI® assessment often includes personalized feedback or interpretations that help individuals understand their type preferences, how they interact with others, and how their preferences may influence their behavior, decision-making, and communication style.
4. Application Areas: The outputs of the MBTI® assessment may also suggest potential application areas where individuals with specific type preferences tend to excel or find satisfaction. These application areas can include career suggestions, team dynamics, leadership styles, problem-solving approaches, and personal development strategies.

The MBTI® assessment is primarily intended for self-discovery, personal growth, and understanding interpersonal differences. It is not specifically designed for selection or evaluation purposes in employment settings, but rather, it provides a framework for understanding personality preferences and promoting self-awareness.

DiSC®

The DiSC® assessment is a popular behavioral assessment tool that measures an individual’s behavioral style and preferences. It categorizes individuals into four primary behavioral styles: Dominance (D), Influence (I), Steadiness (S), and Conscientiousness (C). The outputs of the DiSC assessment typically include the following:

1. DiSC Profile: The DiSC® assessment generates a profile or report that provides a graphical representation of an individual’s behavioral style. The profile often displays the relative strengths or scores across the four dimensions of Dominance, Influence, Steadiness, and Conscientiousness. It visually illustrates the individual’s preferences and relative emphasis on each dimension.
2. Description of Behavioral Style: The DiSC® assessment provides a description and explanation of the individual’s behavioral style based on their profile. It outlines the typical characteristics, tendencies, and motivations associated with their dominant behavioral traits. This description helps individuals gain insights into their communication style, work preferences, decision-making approach, and how they interact with others.
3. Communication and Interaction Insights: The DiSC® assessment offers insights into how individuals with different behavioral styles may communicate, interact, and collaborate effectively. It provides guidelines on adapting communication and behavior to engage and work harmoniously with individuals who have different styles. This understanding can enhance interpersonal relationships, teamwork, and leadership effectiveness.
4. Strengths and Development Areas: The DiSC® assessment often highlights an individual’s strengths and areas for development based on their behavioral style. It helps individuals recognize their natural strengths and how they can leverage them in various contexts. It may also identify potential blind spots or areas where individuals may need to adapt or develop new skills to be more effective in certain situations.
5. Application in Various Settings: The outputs of the DiSC® assessment suggest applications and recommendations for utilizing behavioral knowledge in different areas. This may include team building, conflict resolution, leadership development, sales and customer service training, and improving work dynamics. The assessment provides guidance on leveraging individual strengths and adapting behaviors to enhance performance and collaboration.

The DiSC® assessment provides individuals with valuable insights into their behavioral preferences, communication style, and interaction patterns. It is often used in personal development, team-building initiatives, leadership training, and improving interpersonal relationships in various professional and personal settings.

Resilience Innovator® Type Assessment (RITA)

The Resilience Innovator® Type Assessment (RITA) is a tool developed by Epicenter Innovation that focuses on understanding an individual’s unique levels of resilience and propensity to innovate. Designed specifically to examine individuals when they are in the most stressful situations, RITA is a combination of a personality and behavioral assessment. The outputs of RITA include the following:

1. Unique typological profile: RITA provides each individual with a combination of three archetypes–a primary, a secondary, and a tertiary type–that represent their “Resilience Innovator” personality. The archetypes are based on the OCEAN model, and are Warrior (W), Guardian (W), Reflector (R), Architect (A), Maverick (M), Stoic (S), Explorer (E), Traditionalist (T), Harmonizer (H),  and Influencer (I).
2. Description of Types: Along with the identification of an individual’s unique type profile, the assessment report gives full descriptions for each archetype along with a unique description related to the individual’s complex type profile.
3. Ranking of Key Traits: The assessment ranks the individual’s top five Key Traits related to resilience and innovation in order of prominence. There are 50 Key Traits related to resilience and innovation that the assessment uses to measure an individual’s unique Resilience Innovator® personality, and in addition to ranking and exploring the top five, the report provides data of how high the individual scored in each trait.
4. Description of Behavioral Style: Because of RITA’s dual nature as both a personality assessment and a behavioral assessment, a behavioral style analysis is part of the report. This analysis explores an individual’s level of Sociability, Grit, and Attitude, three behavioral conditions that determine how likely an individual is going to behave resiliently and innovatively.
5. Strengths and Development Areas: With the typological profile description, the ranked traits, and the behavioral analysis, the RITA report provides insight into strengths and weaknesses related to those areas. These explanations help individuals identify where they excel and where they might need to improve when approaching pressure-filled situations.
6. Actionable Insights and Strategies: The end of the RITA report has several coaching and reflection prompts to prompt the individual to think about how to become more resilient and innovative when faced with adversity. The report provides actionable insight in each section and the prompts serve as a way to get an individual’s development underway.
7. Team Compatibility and Collaboration: RITA can be used to understand team dynamics and facilitate collaboration. The assessment provides a common language for teams to work more efficiently and effectively under pressure while identifying areas for optimization based on a team’s typological and behavioral makeup.

The outputs of RITA aim to empower individuals by providing a language and framework for understanding their unique strengths when they’re under pressure. It provides insights into strengths and areas of improvement in order to make more resilient and innovative individuals, in and outside of the workplace.

CliftonStrengths®

CliftonStrengths® is a popular assessment tool developed by Gallup that focuses on identifying and understanding an individual’s strengths and talents. The assessment aims to help individuals discover and leverage their unique strengths for personal and professional success. The outputs of the CliftonStrengths® assessment typically include the following:

1. Personalized Strengths Report: The CliftonStrengths® assessment generates a personalized strengths report that outlines an individual’s top five strengths out of a list of 34 themes. Each strength is described in detail, highlighting its definition, potential indicators, and examples of how it may manifest in one’s thoughts, behaviors, or actions.
2. Strengths Definitions and Descriptions: The assessment provides comprehensive descriptions of each of the 34 strengths, including their core components, associated behaviors, and potential areas of application. These descriptions help individuals gain a deeper understanding of their strengths and how they contribute to their overall effectiveness and success.
3. Ranking of Strengths: The assessment ranks an individual’s top five strengths in order of prominence. This ranking provides insight into which strengths are most dominant or influential in the individual’s profile. It allows individuals to focus on developing and leveraging their most prominent strengths to achieve greater productivity, engagement, and satisfaction.
4. Actionable Insights and Strategies: The CliftonStrengths® assessment offers actionable insights and strategies for applying and developing one’s strengths. It provides guidance on how to maximize the benefits of each strength, leverage them in different areas of life, and overcome potential challenges or pitfalls associated with each strength.
5. Personal Development Suggestions: Based on an individual’s strengths profile, the assessment provides recommendations for personal development and growth. It suggests activities, resources, or areas of focus that can help individuals further develop and refine their strengths, enhance their performance, and achieve their goals.
6. Team Compatibility and Collaboration: CliftonStrengths® can be used to understand team dynamics and facilitate collaboration. The assessment provides insights into how individuals’ strengths can complement each other within a team setting. It helps identify potential areas for collaboration, delegation, and optimizing team performance based on the collective strengths of team members.

The outputs of CliftonStrengths® aim to empower individuals by providing a language and framework for understanding their unique talents and leveraging them to achieve success. It encourages individuals to focus on their strengths rather than trying to fix weaknesses, promoting a positive and growth-oriented approach to personal and professional development.

Kolbe-A™ Index

The Kolbe-A™ Index assessment measures an individual’s instinctive or natural way of taking action and problem-solving. The outputs of Kolbe-A™ typically include the following:

1. Kolbe Index Result: The Kolbe-A™ assessment provides individuals with a four-digit score that represents their instinctive method of operation across four action modes: Fact Finder, Follow Thru, Quick Start, and Implementor. Each mode is associated with a numerical value that indicates the individual’s preference or level of instinctive action in that particular mode.
2. Action Modes Descriptions: Kolbe-A™ offers detailed descriptions and explanations of each action mode. It provides insights into the typical behaviors, problem-solving approaches, and strengths associated with each mode. Individuals can gain a better understanding of their preferred ways of gathering information, organizing tasks, initiating action, and dealing with the physical world.
3. Strengths and Challenges: The assessment highlights the individual’s strengths and potential challenges based on their action mode preferences. It provides an understanding of how these preferences can contribute to success in certain areas while also presenting potential areas of stress or conflict. This information can guide individuals in leveraging their strengths and adapting their approach to improve effectiveness and productivity.
4. Personalized Strategies: Kolbe-A™ offers personalized strategies and recommendations for optimizing performance based on an individual’s action mode preferences. It suggests ways to leverage strengths, mitigate challenges, and enhance productivity by aligning actions with instinctive tendencies. These strategies provide practical guidance for personal and professional growth.
5. Compatibility and Team Dynamics: Kolbe-A™ can be used to understand individual and team dynamics, particularly in work or collaborative settings. The assessment provides insights into how individuals with different action mode preferences can interact, communicate, and work together effectively. It can assist in building teams that are well-balanced and utilize the diverse strengths and problem-solving approaches of team members.

The outputs of Kolbe-A™ focus on an individual’s instinctive way of taking action and provide insights into their unique problem-solving style. By understanding their natural strengths and preferences, individuals can make more informed decisions, capitalize on their inherent abilities, and align their actions with their instinctive tendencies for improved performance and satisfaction.

What’s the difference between all of these outputs?

The benefit of having one kind of output over another depends on the specific purpose, context, and preferences of the individuals or organizations using the assessment. Here are some factors to consider:

Clarity and Understanding: Different assessment outputs offer varying levels of clarity and understanding of an individual’s traits, preferences, or capabilities. Some assessments provide detailed descriptions, examples, and explanations that can help individuals gain a comprehensive understanding of their strengths, weaknesses, or behavioral tendencies. This level of depth can be beneficial for personal insight and self-awareness.

Actionability and Practicality: The value of assessment outputs lies in their ability to translate assessment results into actionable insights and strategies. Assessments that provide specific recommendations, development plans, or guidance on how to leverage strengths or address weaknesses can be highly practical and useful for personal or professional growth.

Application and Relevance: The benefit of assessment outputs depends on how applicable and relevant they are to the individual’s specific goals, context, or situation. Outputs that offer insights into career paths, team dynamics, or leadership styles can be particularly valuable for individuals navigating their professional journey or seeking to enhance their performance in specific roles or settings.

Flexibility and Adaptability: Some assessment outputs provide a broader framework or language for understanding oneself or others, which can be flexible and adaptable to various contexts. These outputs may be beneficial for individuals who prefer a versatile approach to understanding and interacting with different personality types or behavioral styles.

Accessibility and Ease of Interpretation: The benefit of assessment outputs also lies in their accessibility and ease of interpretation. Outputs that are presented in a clear, user-friendly manner, such as graphical profiles or concise summaries, can make it easier for individuals to grasp and apply the information effectively.

It’s important to remember that no single type of output is universally superior. The most beneficial output depends on the specific needs, goals, and preferences of the individuals or organizations utilizing the assessment. A thorough understanding of the assessment purpose, the intended audience, and the desired outcomes is crucial in determining the most suitable and valuable assessment outputs.

How do I know which output will be most effective for me?

We always try to provide some advice about how you should go about determining which assessment is right for you and your team. In terms of output considerations, here are some things to think about when choosing a professional assessment for your organization:

1. Clarify Your Goals: Start by clearly defining your objectives for taking an assessment. Are you looking to gain self-awareness, identify strengths and weaknesses, explore career options, improve teamwork, or enhance personal development? Understanding your goals will guide you in selecting an assessment that aligns with your desired outcomes.
2. Assess Purpose and Content: Evaluate the purpose and content of different assessments. Research and review the assessment descriptions, methodologies, and the types of information they provide. Consider which aspects of your personality, skills, or behavior you want to explore and choose an assessment that focuses on those areas.
3. Consider Validity and Reliability: Look for assessments that have undergone rigorous development and validation processes. Assessments with established psychometric properties are more likely to provide accurate and reliable results. Check for information on the assessment’s reliability, validity, and adherence to industry standards.
4. Assess Accessibility and Format: Consider the accessibility and format of the assessment. Determine if you prefer online assessments, paper-based assessments, or assessments administered by a trained professional. Additionally, assess the ease of understanding and interpreting the assessment outputs. Choose an assessment format that aligns with your preferences and convenience.
5. Review Sample Reports or Outputs: Many assessment providers offer sample reports or example outputs on their websites. Reviewing these samples can give you a sense of the information and insights the assessment provides. Evaluate whether the outputs resonate with your needs and preferences.
6. Seek Recommendations and Reviews: Seek recommendations from trusted sources such as professionals, colleagues, or mentors who have used or are familiar with different assessments. Additionally, look for reviews and testimonials from individuals who have taken the assessments you are considering. Their experiences and feedback can provide valuable insights.
7. Consider Professional Guidance: If you are unsure about which assessment to choose or how to interpret the results, consider seeking professional guidance from psychologists, career counselors, or HR professionals. They can help you navigate the options, select the most appropriate assessment, and provide expert interpretation of the results.

Remember that assessments are tools, and the outputs are just one piece of the puzzle. It’s important to use assessments in conjunction with self-reflection, additional information, and professional judgment to gain a comprehensive understanding of yourself or the specific context you are exploring.

In Conclusion…

There are many assessments that are waiting to be explored by your team for you to use. Choosing which one is right for you and your team was our number one priority in writing this article series, and we hope you continue to come back and use the advice in a way that works for you and your organization.

This concludes our series on assessments, but there’s always a chance we’ll come back and address more queries about the use of these tools in professional settings. In our next article series, we’ll be exploring the relationship between resilience and burn out.

This article was written by Nia D’Emilio, Learning & Events Coordinator for Epicenter Innovation. This article is part of a larger series about professional assessments, their benefits, and their use cases.