The Keirsey Temperament Sorter divide people to four different personality temperaments: Rationals (5-7 percent of those surveyed), idealists (8-10 percent of those surveyed), artisans (35-40 percent of those surveyed) and guardians (40-45 percent of those surveyed) [1].
I am a Guardian which is funny because I always see myself that way in a broad sense of the meaning. Based on Keirsey test, most of the stated characteristics of a Guardian does reflect on my attitude, so I am not surprised when I read the result. But there is probably one trait that I don’t think resonate with me which is “trust and respect of authority”. I always have issues with authority since my teenage years even up till now but after much self-reflection, I believe I only respect authority that deserves to be respected, who walk the talk and not just an empty can who talks loud to assert authority but full of air. Out of the 4 types of Guardians; I think I am probably the Supervisor.
When looking at 4 types of Guardians, there are 4 letters identifier assigned to each personality type. They are, E or I (for extroverted vs. introverted), the second is S or N (for sensing vs. iNtuitive), the third letter is T or F (for thinking vs. feeling) and the fourth letter is P or J (for perceiving vs. judging). Interestingly, all 4 guardian types have the same second and fourth letters. Which means all of guardians are S (Sensing) and J (Judging).
The last thing organization wants is to place an employee in a role that they do not want or capable. I believe Keirsey Temperament test should be a part of any business interview process. The result could help in predicting if the employee is suitable for the job scope. Employer or manager can discuss with the employee on how the company can leverage employee’s strength and teach the employee how to tackle their weaknesses.
But we have to keep in mind, although this is a good tool to have on a basic understanding of employee’s temperament but it is not perfect. Human is a complex being. Probably when the employee is taking the test, he/she is not in calm and relax state of mind which might skewed the test result. Also, once employer knows the result, it might caused a biasness and judgement towards the employee. For example, as a Guardian – the test result indicated that I like to follow rules, inflexible and resistant to change. If I am an employer and based my decision solely on this test result, I will placed this employee in a support role where the environment and process are already stable. But looking at my track records, I have delivered lots of projects where the clients requirements keep on changing and yet I manage to excel and deliver the project successfully.
Reference:
[1]https://www.bizjournals.com/seattle/stories/2004/09/13/smallb3.html
