What kind of personality test should you use for leadership development?

So <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2019/08/22/smarter-living/inclusivity-diversity-personality-assessements-myers-briggs.html?ref=timjacksonphd.com" rel="noopener ugc nofollow" target="_blank">this article in the NY Times</a> created quite a stir a few years ago on a professional listserv that I’m a member of (The Society for Consulting Psychology, a division of the American Psychological Association). The gist of the article is that the author felt unjustly categorized by a personality test she took (the Myers Briggs Type Indicator, or MBTI) and wondered if it’s use contributes to a lack of diversity in the workplace. The story piqued my interest because it mistakenly labelled the MBTI as a personality test, even though it’s psychometric validity is unsubstantiated. In other words, based on available evidence it doesn’t reliably and accurately measure personality. Despite this the test is incredibly popular and widely used in organizations across the world. The continued branding of the MBTI as a personality test is interesting in light of attention it’s received in a book describing it’s dubious origins (<a href="https://www.amazon.com/Personality-Brokers-Strange-History-Myers-Briggs/dp/0385541902?ref=timjacksonphd.com" rel="noopener ugc nofollow" target="_blank">The Personality Brokers</a>). Personality testing is a central feature of many individual- and team-based leadership development programs. For example I use personality testing whenever I assess executives, and I often use these tools to support team-building activities with leadership teams. If you are an executive going through a leadership development process, or if you design these programs in your organization, you should know that there are two important categories of personality tests: selection-grade and non-selection grade. <a href="https://medium.com/@jacksonlead/what-kind-of-personality-test-should-you-use-for-leadership-development-4bae77819a14">Learn More</a>