Personality Types

I have a course coming up soon which looks at, as part of it, the different personality types of people that we come across.  There are tons of profiles out there and I am trained in the most well known.  I am using the insights personality types on this occasion as it gets the job done very quickly in a short space of time.  

Why bother at all with personality types?
One simple reason, if you don't have the information that these profiles contain, you are robbed of choices.  With information about personality types and feedback about your own 'type' you are more aware. Without awareness, you are a 'loose cannon' as the expression goes.

It is critical for anyone working with other humans to have a basic understanding of personality types and more importantly, how other people perceive them.  Even if you don't agree with the findings of whatever personality thing you have filled in, it pricks your consciousness so you think about the most important part of your personality.  That is ...Impact.  What is the impact that you have on others?

Once you know how others perceive you, you can decided whether you want to make more of it, modify it or work on reducing the impact. 


==========================
My 'take' on some of the other personality things out there, for what it is worth.

Disclaimer first.  They are all good in different ways. Generally, the rule is, the first profile someone ever gets is the one that most blows them away.  Every profile after that has to work much harder to impress. Eventually, the delegate (if a senior person) is underwhelmed by any profile as they have done so many by then!

Insights - Easy to explain and depth if people want it. The profile that surprises most people for its accuracy and for ease of linking to different types
MBTI - Good but complicated. People remember their own type but not how to link to other types
SDI - Good but can be confusing if people have done any other profiles that use colour
Belbin - good if you use the versions that build in 360 feedback
TMS - Great, little bit tricky to explain but works best with management 
DISC - Good but so many versions, depends which one you get
Wilson's Quadrants - Good, materials pretty good but a little bit 'less UK!'
Social styles - plagiarised version that is not great as so many free ones online