The hemisphere dominance personality assessment

The hemisphere dominance personality assessment indicates the brain hemisphere (right or left) that dominates in the test taker. Most professionals are aware there is a dominant side of the brain; however, these same professionals are often unaware of the influence this hard-wiring has on the day-to-day activities of professional performance. For example, “right-brained” individuals tend to be more creative. Professionals with dominant right brains may be best suited for creating new product and service lines, developing long-range strategic plans, and forecasting threats on the environmental horizon. In contrast, “left-brained” individuals are more detail oriented, methodical, and calculating. They prefer implementing strategic plans to developing them. Although it is difficult to change one’s predisposition for creativeness versus detail orientation, creative thinkers can make specific adjustments in their daily business of work to become more organized, whereas more concrete thinkers can exercise creative elements of their brain by engaging in more creative arts such as writing, music, or painting.

Jungian Assessments 28

Scholars have suggested that all individuals are born with a personality archetype. Over the years, family, society, and the environment all exert influences on this archetype. Working professionals should be aware of their natural predispositions (as measured by Jungian assessments) so that certain characteristics can be leveraged, or weaknesses avoided. The most popular assessment of this kind is the Myers–Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI), which has been a reliable source of documenting personality since World War II. The MBTI focuses on four dimensions of personality: extraversion or introversion, sensing or intuition, thinking or feeling, and judging or perceiving. 29 – 32 (Two preferences are identified in each dimension.) The MBTI results indicate the test taker’s preferred style and remain fairly stable throughout a person’s career.

Extroverts prefer the company and collaboration of teams, whereas introverts prefer comfort zones that involve the interaction of just a few people. Extroverts tend to be “charged” by other people and interaction with others, whereas introverts tend to be “charged” by quiet reflection and isolated activities. Extroverts can be alone and function very well, just as introverts can be with other people for long periods and function very well. Extroverts tend to be more assertive, whereas introverts have refined listening skills.

Sensing individuals seek empirical affirmation from the environment—that is, reassurance that history plays a critical role in today’s decision and will impact tomorrow. Intuitive personality types prefer more latent cues from the environment for decision making and, at the extreme, ignore the past.

Thinking individuals tend to be very strong at execution, whereas the strength of feeling individuals resides with interaction. Logic and cause-and-effect reasoning are valued by the thinking profile, whereas emotion and the impact of decisions on the organization are important to the feeling-oriented individual.

Judging people carefully weigh all of the options and alternatives. They tend to be more structured in their approaches to implementation. In contrast, perceiving individuals find confidence in their own heuristics (rules of thumb with which to make decisions) and prior knowledge for decision making. Perceiving individuals tend to be more spontaneous.