Conflict Leadership and Psychometric Testing

Obvious and Deeper Benefits of Psychometrics

Often the benefits of using psychometrics, scientifically validated assessments that will tell you about your personality when compared to a norm group, are stated in general terms or with specific outcomes in mind, such as team building or assessing your fit as part of a recruitment process, with self-knowledge thrown in as being essential in any management position. I think this is true, but it can go much deeper and be transformational if it catches you at the right time and you allow yourself to embrace and live the insights. From the point of view of Conflict Leadership psychometrics can play a critical role in understanding individual nuances and triggers that in the unaware lead to negative conflict and can be the engine that drives the understanding and ability to transform negative conflict into constructive disagreement.

For me, the right time was when I was in a difficult role overseas where I was already out of my cultural comfort zone (See me below as the cultural outsider 🤔) and working through the consequences of the Global Financial Meltdown and the Arab Spring. A lot was going on. I also happened to have been recently appointed Middle Eastern distributor for a high-end psychometric tool, Facet5.

My Facet5 Profile

This is my Facet5 Profile, and amongst other things, it told me that I am very determined and independent, but I don't like confrontation and will naturally avoid it. That is my Will score. I am also deeply introverted and enjoy my own company, don't feel the need to check my ideas with others, and if you are looking for a great host for a corporate function, you really should consider someone (read anyone) else. That is my Energy score. The Affection score tells you that I am very altruistic, supportive and trusting, so I will have difficulty being hard on people and may be easily taken advantage of, because high on Affection is another way of saying low on pragmatism. My Control score is also pretty much off the scale on the low side, meaning I have little or no respect for tradition, and like to do things my own way, with potentially low self-discipline and low self-regulation. Finally, my Emotionality score indicates that I don't stress about stuff much, even when things are demonstrably going off the rails, so being laid back and confident is not always a plus.

Your psychometrics is not your identity

That is a longish preamble but necessary if we are to explore the power these insights gave to me. First, take your psychometrics with a grain of salt - your background, history, experience, training, intelligence are not being measured. Smart people are not trapped by their psychometrics. Personality-wise, I might lack discipline, but I have trained consistently in martial arts for over 40 years. I might be shy and introverted, but I have no problem confidently facilitating training groups or addressing large groups - these are necessary skills which I have honed and practised to the extent that they are never a problem.

So practically, day to day, how does this work?

Scenario 1: Saying No to The Board

I am at a board meeting with a group of very successful and highly placed businessmen. I am the GM of a joint venture, setting up a training college. Up for discussion is the need for a detailed business plan. Before understanding my psychometrics, I would have accepted that that work was my responsibility, I would have done the research and painfully lost the evenings and weekends required and would not have tried to avoid the work which I would have seen as irresponsible shirking. And, it wasn't as if I would have been given an option. However, armed with the insights afforded by Facet5, I was able to say something like:

While I acknowledge the importance of getting the business plan done, my contribution to this group is based on the academic excellence of the training materials that I am producing, and the quality of the relationships that I am building with our potential clients. Developing detailed business plans is not really in my skill set, so I suggest that we find a professional to whom I can provide the information that they will need to produce the plan, while I continue to concentrate on the training programs and clients that our business will depend upon.

There was no resistance to this proposal, but I need to emphasise, that I would never have had the confidence to resist or refuse that assignment without the knowledge and insight into my strengths and challenges that Facet5 gave me.

With the Minster for Oil and colleagues in Bahrain

Scenario 2: Dealing with a Very Difficult Colleague

I had a very senior colleague who would attempt to play me by coming into my office with a massive problem to be solved, immediately or the sky would fall in, and it was my duty to resolve the critical issue there and then. My reaction would be a species of mind jam, as I tried to resolve 1 - I am the leader, leaders are decisive, I need to do something now and demonstrate what a competent leader I am, and 2 - this person is playing me with confected urgency to manipulate me into a decision I probably don't want to make.

Eventually, I figured out how to handle the situation by again falling back on the insights of my psychometrics. The other person in this scenario had actually refused to do the Facet5 test, so I had to figure out his psychometrics, and I was pretty sure it was something like

Will - even higher than mine because in addition to high Determination and Independence, he would have been much more comfortable with Conflict, as his behaviour demonstrated.
Energy - Very high - he was out there, always on the hustle, meeting people, forming relationships, with high energy and physical presence. He did not hang out in the background.
Affection - very low, so high pragmatism. We already know that he didn't do the test as his trust was low and he clearly didn't mind at all putting me on the spot and making me uncomfortable to get his way. Other behaviour clearly demonstrated a prioritising of Self Interest over Other Interests.
Control - I find this a bit harder to judge, but would assume high control with great self-discipline and a strong desire to control others, or at least bend them to his will.
Emotionality - let's assume middle to high.

With these assumptions in place, I could now develop a clear strategy. With equal scores on Will except for his ease with Conflict, I would be best to avoid face-to-face conflict - that was something he was good at and comfortable with, and I was neither. So, it was time to switch the battle from face-to-face to something with some distance. So, when he next tried this trick on me I confidently said something like:

Wow, that does seem to be a problem that we need to deal with. However, as you know, I don't like to make decisions without some research and reflection, so, what say I get back to you on Thursday?

And, magically, the energy dissipated. It was confected and was no longer having the desired effect on me. It was like pricking a balloon with a slow release of energy. My response would be on Thursday in a long and detailed email, with a clear paper trail, and I usually heard no more about it. This wasn't conflict avoided, this was conflict dealt with, or, in my terminology, and instance of conflict leadership informed by psychometrics.

To reiterate, psychometric testing does not tell us who you are.

It does not measure intelligence, history, experience, self and professional development, skills and competencies. But it does give us a very clear appreciation of our psychological tendencies and preferences in relation to others within a norm group, and it allows us to add some science as we take responsibility for developing the persona that will serve us in different aspects of our lives. In our professional life, we will get a clear indication as to whether, under specific circumstances, we are likely to be too assertive or not assertive enough, too pragmatic or not pragmatic enough, too controlling or too rejecting of potentially innovative alternatives.

A final anecdote

When setting up a training college there came the great occasion when I could present to the board the complete set of training programs accredited by the Ministry of Labour - we could finally go to market. One of the board members casually looked at the results of my months of great work, then picked up my weekly finances memo and questioned a $400 item spent during that period. I was frankly a little shocked that I wasn't getting credit for my output, questioned him about his focus, and he calmly, and quite rightly said:

Oh, we know you are excellent at all of that and don't need to worry about it. But, detailed financial matters - I am not so sure!

That is a great leader who knew nothing about psychometrics, but he knew me and he had my back. Since then, more often than not, I take criticism or rather checking from colleagues who have a different profile to mine as an indication that they have my back, they are aware of and are taking into account the risks that might be inherent in my profile. This is just another indication of the advantages of having a team with a diverse psychometric profile, and a knowledge and appreciation of their colleagues' strengths. In a team with this understanding, the controller and the free spirit are not in conflict, they are offering their unique gifts to the team and have each other's backs - potential conflict becomes productive collaboration.

Psychometrics and Conflict Leadership

My main professional interest is Conflict Leadership - how to effectively and confidently lead a conflict situation to a the most productive outcome possible in the circumstances. These more personal stories are part of the journey to my understanding of how important the personal insight is to ensure that our own inner conflicted natures don't result in our projecting that insight into our relationships, teams and organisations. Similarly, it is particularly satisfying to conduct team psychometric feedback sessions and watch in real time as understanding undermines longstanding conflicted relationships. Psychometrics and Facet5 can make a significant contribution to you being more internally aligned, self-aware and centred, and consequently able to deal with conflict with authenticity and integrity.

Contact MetaSkill and see if Facet5 is a fit for you

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