Why We Love Personality Tests at Work
If you've ever taken a personality test and thought, "That's so me..." or "Wait, what if I'm doing this wrong?" you're not alone.
We LOVE a good personality quiz.
Whether it's finding your Hogwarts House...
(hi, Slytherin here, with Harry Potter levels of hesitation)
...or identifying your Divergent faction
(I'm definitely Dauntless, though I'd overthink the jump off the train)
...there's something satisfying about having language to describe who you are and how you show up.
But here's the real question: Do these tests actually tell us anything? Or are we just sorting ourselves into new boxes?
Why we love these frameworks
From DISC to Working Genius, Birkman, and Predictive Index, personality tools are everywhere in today's workplace.
They show up in hiring processes, team offsites, executive coaching sessions, and even icebreakers.
And they're popular for a reason. They give us a language to understand ourselves and others, by:
Helping teams communicate more clearly and collaborate more effectively.
Sparking powerful insights like "Ohhh that's why I get so drained in back-to-back meetings."
But the truth is, they're not perfect (FAR from it, actually).
What the Research Actually Says
Harvard Business Review found that the personality testing industry is a $500M+ (!!!) business and that many organizations lean heavily on assessments that haven't stood the test of scientific rigor.
For example, Myers-Briggs (which categorizes people into 16 "types") is wildly popular but not especially reliable. Many people get different results if they retake it weeks later.
More robust models like the Big Five Personality Traits (Openness, Conscientiousness, Extraversion, Agreeableness, and Neuroticism) are better supported by science, especially when it comes to predicting workplace behaviors. But they're rarely used in the corporate world, mostly because they're... well, a bit boring.
So what's the takeaway?
Tests can provide insight, but they don't define you.
When they help & hurt
Here's what I tell leaders in my programs: These tools are a starting point, NOT a full story.
When used well, they help you get curious about your own tendencies, spot dynamics that might be playing out with your team, and give you the chance to reflect on your energy, motivation, and growth edges.
But when used poorly, they can become excuses ("I can't lead meetings, I'm an introvert!"), lead to snap judgments about others, or box us into identities that no longer fit.
The danger isn't the tool itself. It's what we do with it.
So What Really Builds Self-Awareness?
In both my leadership programs, Foundations of Leadership and Leading Through Complexity, we dig into something that matters more than any label: Leadership Identity.
Who are you, really?
What do you stand for?
And how do you want to be experienced?
It's not about finding the perfect quadrant or acronym. It's about understanding your natural tendencies, your blind spots, and the behaviors you want to grow.
Because the most effective leaders I know aren't just self-aware. They're self-directed. They use every insight, test-based or not, as fuel to lead with more clarity, empathy, and intention.
leadership lessons from factions, houses & quadrants
Our fascination with personality tests didn’t start in the workplace.
Long before DISC assessments showed up in team meetings, we were sorting ourselves into Hogwarts Houses, choosing Divergent factions, or figuring out which Fourth Wing quadrant we’d belong to at Basgiath.
And whether you’re a Slytherin (ambitious & strategic), a Dauntless (brave & bold), or a Rider (resilient & ready for risk), these worlds mirror the same core human desire that workplace assessments try to fulfill:
✨ The desire to be understood and to understand others.
✨ The desire to feel a sense of identity and belonging.
✨ The desire to play a meaningful role in something bigger than ourselves.
In Harry Potter, your House isn’t just where you sleep, it’s how people see you. In Divergent, your faction shapes your future. In Fourth Wing, your quadrant defines your strengths and your survival.
It’s the same tension we experience at work:
Do I lead with intellect or influence? Am I strategic enough? Too emotional? Not adaptable enough? And what do other people see in me?
That’s the power and the peril of these identity-based systems.
They can help us articulate strengths. But they can also limit what we believe we’re capable of.
The key is remembering this: You are not just your quadrant. Your House. Or your StrengthsFinder results.