Blonde MBADocumenting the life of a blonde MBA student in sunny California. Maybe some blondes DO have brains!

When school started, I mentioned having taken about a zillion personality tests, trying to answer the questions “who am I?”, “what’s important to me?”, “what career best fits me?.” Well, this week I got a little more insight into why these personality tests have some importance beyond just pinpointing the strengths & weaknesses that most of us already know we have (whether we use them to our advantage or not) and providing a start for effective leadership in our lives & organizations…

Simply put? Knowing who we are and what’s important to us allows us to (1) manage ourselves & the direction we’re heading, and (2) communicate & best manage others who will most likely have different personalities, goals, and values from us.

First, it starts with self-awareness of ourselves. Knowing what values we hold most dear can guide every aspect of our lives, from picking a job of importance to picking friends & partners who have similar values. Knowing ourself also has everything to do with how we behave, so by taking time to process information through our self-awareness, we can effectively RESPOND to situations in our lives rather than simply REACT to them — a key characteristic of both good communicators & hence, good leaders.

I guess I’ve always thought of personality tests strictly in terms of MYSELF, but the second part of this is recognizing what’s important to others so we can best manage & relate to them, being empathetic to what values they hold dear so we can respond appropriately. This heightens our (*buzzword alert*) EQ, a.k.a. Emotional Intelligence, being able to perceive & monitor the emotions of ourselves & others, thus lending to the respect needed of a true leader.