Top 5 alternatives to the Myers-Briggs test

The Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (“MBTI” or “Myers-Briggs” to its rapidly dwindling group of friends) is the personality test people love to hate. Our spotlight on MBTI’s shortcomings was the most popular post of 2014. Now it’s time to talk alternatives.

“The mistake is that people look at it as if it’s the beginning and end of it all, and that’s a mistake,” says Jacob M. Engel, author of The Prosperous Leader. “You need a multi-disciplinary, multi-tool approach.”

Big Five

As MBTI comes under fire, the Big Five’s star is in ascendance. Unlike MBTI, which focuses on a set of binary, this-or-that results on four dimensions, the Big Five delves into degrees and relative strengths. This eliminates the “clubby” aspect of MBTI typology, in which support groups and “hate threads” are quite common. It also deals more directly with characteristics that are desirable, or otherwise, in an employee, teammate, or manager.

In last year’s article, Adam McKibbin remarked that “In Myers-Briggs, basically everyone is a winner.” Definitely not so in Big Five, where a measure of one’s neuroticism is on the table. (Agreeableness, conscientiousness, extraversion, and openness are also on the table.) Tested subcategories in some variants of the Big Five include “immoderation,” “depression,” “anxiety,” and “anger.”

Just as there are multiple instances of MBTI testing, there are several approaches to gauging the Big Five. Check out a free Big Five variant which provides a raw score readout, percentile ranking against other test-takers, and some basic personality conclusions.

Predictive Index (PI)

Administered by PI Worldwide, founded in 1955, the Predictive Index isn’t a test taken for laughs. It’s all business, baby. “MBTI is also used in academia and in personal coaching, but the Predictive Index was specifically designed for a business context,” says Matt Poepsel, VP of product management at PI Worldwide.

Unlike many personality tests which ask sliding-scale questions about scenarios (“I am easily distracted by shiny things”), PI has just two screens. The first is a grid of several dozen traits, and you are asked to select every trait which you believe others expect you to exhibit. The second screen is the same list, this time asking you to select the traits you believe you truly do exhibit. For example, others may expect you to be Conventional, Passive, and Reserved, when you truly see yourself as Spirited, Versatile, and Adventurous.

From these answers, PI crunches numbers behind the scenes and reaches conclusions about your levels of of dominance, extroversion, patience, and formality. “In the Japanilainen tytГ¶t avioliittoon business world, those factors and drives account for a significant amount of on-the-job behaviors,” Poepsel says.

Like the Big Five, PI scores are a matter of degree rather than absolutes. The relationship between them is used not only to assess the current state of play, but how much people can be directed or managed-to become more assertive or more team-oriented, for example.

PI isn’t free, as many MBTI and alternative tests are. You need a specific invitation to get access to PI’s toolset. Results aren’t self-service, either. Results are “read back” by a trained analyst, although the company can also generate an automated report as a takeaway. The report provides a personality summary and a breakdown of the individual’s strongest behaviors and tendencies, along with an overview of their expected management style and suggested strategies to best manage them. If you’re on the fence about a key hire, PI analysis can help answer some nagging questions.

Traitify

Traitify is carving out a niche in personality assessment that feels more like Tinder than the stolid, Web 1.0 approach many of the entrenched tests offer. The startup shows test-takers a series of photos with representative captions, and asks you to click or tap “Me” or “Not Me.” After a few dozen images, you get an assessment.