Combining Multiple Personality Tests: A Practitioner Hackathon

What Assessments Work, When and Why?

Lynne Hindmarch, Independent Business Psychologist, OBC Ltd.

Lynne introduced our event by talking through the decision-making process of identifying which assessment is appropriate for which context and why. Taking a very practical approach, Lynne demonstrated the importance of recognising there is always the option to choose from a variety of different test providers.

Lynne is an independent Business Psychologist and her work includes executive coaching, both individual and team (accredited by APECS) coaching supervision, career counselling and assessment for selection. Lynne has been attending TPF events for over twenty years and on the Committee for the last twelve, including as Chair.

Dark Triad and Dark Tetrad and a Psychodynamic Approach

Dr Michelle Hunter-Hill, Chartered Psychologist and Programme Director, MSc Occupational and Business Psychology, Roehampton University

Michelle highlighted how she has used Dark Triad and Dark Tetrad measures in conjunction with two specific Systems-Psychodynamic tools – ORA and CIBART in order to assess and tackle cases of deviant/risk-taking behaviour, cyber-bullying/trolling, and corporate psychopathy, at an individual and organisational level.

Dr Michelle Hunter-Hill helps clients understand their psychological make-up, enabling them to delve ‘beneath-the-surface’ and identify core factors driving behaviour in a range of traditional and non-traditional occupational settings (e.g., in the office, on the track, field, and screen). As a Chartered Psychologist and Scientist, Michelle assesses personality, ability, values, and occupational interests to predict how individuals might perform at work and respond to emotional demands at work.

Dr. Michelle is concerned with ensuring psychological safety and wellbeing of individuals at work. Having worked as an advisor to some of the most prominent organisations, on personality profiling for the purpose of examining individual deviant and anti-social behaviours such as trolling, psychopathy, character assassination, and “criminogenic” corporate culture, Dr. Michelle is renowned for providing predictive clues and solutions to bring about behavioural change. She recognises that underperformance is not always down to poor and deviant behavioural choices, and she coaches individuals to develop their resilience and overcome principal performance challenges. Using a combination of psychometric tests, biographical interviewing, and psychological science she assesses the capability of people performers, whether it be senior and c-suite executives, athletes, or celebrities. Dr Michelle works mainly in the UK and Middle East. She runs The Psychometric Café’, The Issues@Work Clinic, and she designs, and delivers BPS-accredited courses in Ability and Personality Testing.

Hogan Assessment Suite

Gillian Hyde, Chief Psychologist & MD at Psychological Consultancy Ltd.

Gillian presented a case study of an individual’s profile, using the Hogan Assessment Suite (Hogan Personality Inventory (HPI) + Hogan Development Survey (HDS) + Motives, Values, Preferences Inventory (MVPI)).  The HPI is a versatile tool which focusses on normal or ‘bright side’ personality traits – qualities that describe how we relate to others when we are at our best. Providing in-depth insight into how people work and lead, the HPI is linked to on-the-job performance and can be used for selection and hiring and personal and leadership development. The HDS describes the dark side of personality – qualities that emerge in times of increased strain and can disrupt relationships, damage reputations, and derail peoples’ chances of success. The MVPI gives an understanding of what motivates an individual’s choices and decisions. Through gaining an appreciation of these drivers, organisations can better advise, motivate and manage staff.

A Chartered Psychologist with more than 25 years’ experience, Gillian has particular expertise in assessing leadership derailment and creating personality assessments. Her work encompasses in-depth individual assessments, consulting on the management of extreme personality characteristics for individual and team development and researching derailment patterns within organisations.  She also designs tailor-made assessment solutions for clients and is an expert trainer on the Hogan Development Survey. As Chief Psychologist at Psychological Consultancy Ltd, her client work ranges from one-to-one executive coaching to creating and validating bespoke assessment systems. She has worked with a diverse range of organisations including UBS, HBoS, Standard Chartered, VirginMedia, HMRC, The British Council and BMW.  Gillian has a BSc in Psychology from UCL, an MPhil in Criminology from Cambridge and an MSc in Occupational and Organisational Psychology from Birkbeck College, London. She has served on the Steering Committee for Test Standards for the British Psychological Society and is a founder member of the Association of Business Psychologists.

Resilience and Decision-Making

Jessica Nelkin, Business Psychologist, Zircon – BeTalent.

How does an individual’s levels of resilience relate to how they make decisions? The BeTalent Resilience Questionnaire helps to raise self-awareness and explore the emotions typically experienced at work. The BeTalent Decision-Styles Questionnaire assesses whether you are an ‘agile’ decision maker or whether you have a ‘pronounced’ preference for making decisions. Jessica presented data from a population of over 500 professionals to provide deeper insights into the impact emotions have on decision-style and preference. She also explored how decision-making and resilience can predict levels of procrastination, opening the door to a discussion around the value of these tools in a workplace environment.

Jessica is a Business Psychologist at Zircon and graduated from her MSc in Occupational Psychology with Distinction. Jessica is a qualified Test User for Occupational Ability and Occupational Personality tools and is a Graduate member of the British Psychological Society. ​She developed an interest in the field of Occupational Psychology after completing her undergraduate degree in Psychology and by working on qualitative and quantitative research projects as an intern in the Psychology department at a major university. Since joining Zircon, Jessica has been highly involved in the design, development and validation of BeTalent products, most notably, Decision Styles. She is accredited to use the BeTalent suite of products which includes Strengths, Resilience, Psychological Safety, Blended 360, Team, and Decision Styles. She has also been involved in several client projects as Project Coordinator and has contributed to research published in the British Psychological Society’s ‘Assessment and Development Matters’.

Team Coaching of Leadership Teams

Alex Popa-Antohi, Business Psychologist and Executive Coach

Alex presented anonymised data from a team coaching programme for a leadership team. He focused on the Diagnostic & Inquiry phase of the team coaching, where a whole-team diagnostic tool was used, in addition to phone interviews with team members and stakeholders. The results were further explored in a team workshop and informed the focus areas for further team coaching. To support the team leader, a series of coaching sessions were offered, using a combination of a 360 assessment (Primary Colours of Leadership 360), and trait-based tools (Hogan Assessments). Alex described the benefits of using different assessment tools at the individual and team level and will focus on the tensions arising from the contradictions in the data.

Alex is an experienced team and executive coach, and business psychologist. He specialises in running bespoke development interventions for senior leaders and leadership teams and brings over 13 years of international business and organisational experience. He is an Accredited Master Executive Coach with APECS, and has earned a Master’s degree in Psychology from the University of Bucharest, followed by an Advanced Diploma in Systemic Team Coaching from the Academy of Executive Coaching (AoEC). Alex is a qualified Test User for Occupational Ability and Occupational Personality tools with the British Psychological Society (BPS) and accredited in using various psychometric assessments such as teamSalient, Hogan Assessments, BarOn EQ-i 2.0 & EQ 360, NEO / Primary Colours of Leadership, Saville Wave Assessments.

Traits and Types – Senior Leadership Assessment

Tameron Chappell, Independent Chartered Occupational Psychologist, Athinka Ltd.

Tameron presented anonymised data from a senior leadership team where she combined a trait tool (NEO-PI-3 Primary Colours Leadership) and a type tool (Team Management Profile) to support the team. She described how she chose the two tools for the team, the pros and cons of using each individually with teams and what the value was in combining them.

Tameron is an independent Chartered.Occupational Psychologist through her own company Athinka Ltd., as well as working as a long-term associate for a handful of boutique leadership consultancies including Alumni Harvey Nash and Cerulean Learning. She works with individuals, teams and organisations to build the internal capability for change using interpersonal dynamics and systemic methods. She also happens to love a good psychometric and has been a committee member of The Psychometrics Forum for many years (apart from the sojourn at Hogrefe where she was able to get her psychometric geek-on with NEO and Implicitly amongst other tools as well as seeing the actual Rorschach plates in the basement).