Leadership Profiling Exercise

Introduction

In an organization, employees must be fitting their job descriptions. It means that the human resource department should always hire the right employees based on the need for a job position. Thus, personality type and job performance are related to any organization. In this sense, psychometric testing has been applied by different organizations in determining the skills, intelligence, and personality types of employees (Loewenthal & Lewis, 2018). In the end, the company will have the right candidate for a specific job position. The paper will analyze the use of psychometric testing in determining the personality type of different people.

Critical Evaluation of Psychometric Testing to Evaluate Personality Types

The psychometric test represents a standard and a scientific tool that is used in the measurement of an individual's mental capability and the behavior of people. The essential function of the test is to ensure that individuals are suitable for a specific job position or a role. Now, the test has been useful in identifying personality types of different people, which will be useful in knowing their roles within the organization (Loewenthal & Lewis, 2018). A psychometric test has used a part of the recruitment process in which people employers can assess the intelligence, skills, and personality type of different people. After the assessment, the human resource department will have the right candidate for a position. If the results would not match the required skills, a company may not hire that person.

The analysis of personality type is essential in determining if a candidate is suitable for a particular position or nor. An example would be in a nursing firm looking for an employee. In such a scenario, an employee would be required to have a caring attitude. In a managerial position, it's likely that a candidate applying for that position should have strong decision-making skills. Now, the use of the test has been effective in knowing the skills and personality types that employees may have who would then be matched with the job position. It would be essential to note that personality affects job performance in an organization. Loewenthal and Lewis, (2018) mentioned that personality characteristics of people affect the level of efficiency and the effectiveness of performance in an organization. In this sense, he concluded that emotional intelligence is equally important as the IQ if excellent performance was to be attained.

The psychometric test will use necessary frameworks, such as a questionnaire that will be presented in the form of multiple-choice questions. When the answers have been given, they will be computed and analyzed to determine the personality type of people that are taking the test. Notably, all people taking the test will have standard questions to ensure that all the test takers have equal opportunity (Loewenthal & Lewis, 2018). All of those that are taking the interviews will have a fair chance. The main areas tested in the psychometric test include openness, conscientiousness, extraversion agreeableness, and neuroticism. In openness, the test will check if the candidate can adapt to new ideas, their level of open-mindedness, and their ability to accepting new ideas. In conscientiousness will involve the aspect of judging the candidate's work ethics. It will include the ability of a candidate to perform a task effectively. When it comes to extraversion consists of the ability of a person to be confident and assertive. Agreeableness would test the ability of a person to cooperate with others and work as a team. Finally, neuroticism will test the level of anxiety and tension when a candidate is working under pressure.

Key Qualities of Outstanding Leadership

One of the key attributes of outstanding leaders is having self-confidence. Typically, confidence allows a leader to be respected and admired by the employees and other leaders within the organization (Nikoloski, 2015). Fundamentally, a confident leader will always treat their life positively because they already know what they want and various ways of dealing with challenges and difficulties, that may arise in the workplace. In every situation, an outstanding leader will always have the confidence to deal with the issue at hand and come out as victorious. The good thing with self-confident leaders is that they will transfer the same energy and zeal to their juniors, thus cultivating a positive culture at the workplace.

Respect is an outstanding quality that all leaders must-have. Without respect, it would not be straightforward to get things done in any way. Leaders in different capacities should, at all times, be ready to support like-minded people. On the same note, they should always have respect for other employees and members in an organization that has a different opinion regarding an issue (Nikoloski, 2015). Lack of that skill as a leader will lead to problems with other leaders, which would ultimately disqualify and individual from the category of being an outstanding leader. A leader must always have respect for all the employees despite the differences that can arise.

An outstanding leader must always have strong communication skills. The skills to communicate are essential in dealing with issues that arise within a firm. With excellent communication skills, business strategies will be passed to the employees. The employees will also know the vision and the mission of the firm (Nikoloski, 2015). On the same note, strong communication skills allow leaders to connect emotionally with employees, which will enable them to detect problems before they become uncontrollable. It's through communication that leaders will also tell stories involving real people as a way of moving and motivating them. In most cases, the morale of the employee will rely on their leaders, who must continually motivate them through proper communication and other strategies.

An outstanding leader will always ensure that things are working in a manner that they are supposed to work. The business processes in a firm should be coordinated to work in harmony while at the same time, remain productive. All efforts in an organization such as marketing should yield results based on what was planned (Nikoloski, 2015). Therefore, outstanding leaders should always work to fulfill and reach set targets. In this regard, a leader should understand all the processes of the firm. They should know if the human resource department is hiring the right people, whether talents are being nurtured or if the workforce is motivated enough to reach the objectives of the firm. A leader who fails to meet the target should not be referred to as outstanding.

PI Profile and Outstanding Qualities of a Leader

In the PI profile, I have realized that I am moderately extravert and very dominant. In this regard, I have attributes that would make me a good leader, while some qualities are not likable in a business setting. In the PI profile, I am motivating, stimulating, and an excellent communicator, which means that I can get along well with employees and help them acquire their professional goals. The quality goes in line with strong communication skills that an outstanding leader must have (Hutsebaut, Feenstra & Kamphuis, 2016). As mentioned earlier, skills in communicating effectively will help in passing critical information to the employees, thus enabling them to work on time. However, being a moderate extravert means that certain traits would not go in line with good communication skills. In my level of being moderately extravert, I am overly talkative and superficial. In the aspect of being talkative, sometimes the wrong information can fall on people. In other cases, I may be tempted to say more than what is required. Schuetz (2016) indicates that in effective communication, only the right information should reach the employees. In addition, intelligence in speaking enables a leader to reveal information systematically, depending on ways that employees can grab. It would be prudent to state that speaking too much is not a way of having strong communication skills.

The other quality that I would want to compare with that of outstanding leaders is about self-confidence. With self-confidence, a leader is capable of knowing what to do and deal with situations as they arise. As mentioned earlier, self-confident leaders can handle all situations without fear and anxiety. Various qualities show self-confidence in a leader. The first one is connected with the ability to act and change. Self-confident leaders will perform when it's necessary as they are focused on the big picture (Hutsebaut, Feenstra & Kamphuis, 2016). They are convinced that everything will work out well. Ultimately, my PI shows that I positively possess the quality of being self-confident. I can drive change in an organization while at the same time, be willing to challenge the status quo. Without the right attitude and confidence, challenging the status quo may be difficult (Diekmann & König, 2015). In a different scenario, I may be too aggressive in an attempt to be dominant. In the eyes of other employees, being aggressive may be viewed as being insecure or forcing people to act on something. My need for control may be best to describe my level of self-confidence.

Conclusion

Psychometric testing has been useful in analyzing different traits of different employees in an organization. As mentioned in the paper, personality type will always have an effect on work performance, which indicates that if the hiring process is done right, the performance of the firm will also improve. In this sense, psychometric testing enables a firm to acquire the best employee for a particular position.

References

Diekmann, J., & König, C. J. (2015). Personality testing in personnel selection: Love it? Leave it? Understand it!. In Employee Recruitment, Selection, and Assessment (pp. 129-147). Psychology Press.

Hutsebaut, J., Feenstra, D. J., & Kamphuis, J. H. (2016). Development and Preliminary Psychometric Evaluation of a Brief Self-Report Questionnaire for the Assessment of the DSM–5 level of Personality Functioning Scale: The LPFS Brief Form (LPFS-BF). Personality Disorders: Theory, Research, and Treatment, 7(2), 192.

Loewenthal, K., & Lewis, C. A. (2018). An introduction to psychological tests and scales. Psychology press.

Loewenthal, K., & Lewis, C. A. (2018). An introduction to psychological tests and scales. Psychology press.

Nikoloski, K. (2015). Charismatic leadership and power: Using the power of charisma for better leadership in the enterprises. Journal of Process Management. New Technologies, 3(2), 18-26.

Northouse, P. G. (2018). Leadership: Theory and practice. Sage publications.

Schuetz, A. (2016). Effective Leadership and its Impact on an Organisation’s Success. Journal of Corporate Responsibility and Leadership, 3(3), 73-90.

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