Valentine’s day is almost upon us once again. Why is it that some people really look forward to this event and others couldn’t care less?

Individual circumstances play a part in this – however the most important factor is personality. Each one of us responds to events according to our personality. For most things in life this is fine, however for an event such as Valentine’s day there tend to be two personalities involved and this is where it becomes complicated. People are often attracted to their opposite and when this means opposite personality there can be a huge gulf in expectations about how Valentine’s day should, or indeed, whether it should be celebrated.

Most of us would be ready to accept that there could be mega challenges between people with different or opposite personalities, yet many people with an attitude in common can still experience difficulties.

Introverted Personalities

Is there such a thing as a romantic personality?  Perhaps some people seem more romantic than others. Those with introverted intuition are often described as romantic, mainly because they can be seen as dreamy, otherworldly, and with a mind on more noble things. Is this romance? The dictionary states that romance can be characterised by an idealised, sentimental or fantastic view of reality, remote from experience.

Some people who share an Introverted attitude, may have a Feeling preference that may add to the view that they have a romantic nature, yet the Feeling preference could be more to do with their own and less to do with other’s feelings -which means that it is not very romantic at all!. Introverted Feeling people tend to prefer their own company and thoughts and are not really keen on sharing these with others.

Other people may have an Introverted Sensing preference and because they are quieter, more reflective and seem sincere, this can be used to support the idea of them being more romantic types. Those with an Introverted Thinking preference can also be seen as more romantic to others because they may  have taken great care to identify a suitable romantic break, that they are going to treat their partner to. They will  fastidiously gather and analysing all sorts of information to find the ultimate romantic outing. After organising all the booking of arrangements, they may surprise their partner by springing this treat on them as a fait accompli.

Shared attitude

All these types share the attitude of Introversion which, even when not the reality, makes them seem more thoughtful and caring.  There’s an air of soulfulness that goes with romance and it is enhanced when a bit of mystery is created by not fully knowing what in introverted person is thinking. There’s also danger lurking here! What if two people share the same attitude of introversion yet their preferences are very different? Say for example an Introverted Sensing person had as a partner an Introverted Intuitive person. They would get along to an extent through their shared introversion, however these very different preferences could cause a fair bit of discord.

The Introverted Intuitive partner wants to arrange a romantic getaway and arranges to take their partner on a surprise weekend spending it at a first class hotel where there will be a luxury bedroom with dinner, wine and dancing to be enjoyed. This person is keen to delight their partner with the surprise created. The surprise is sprung on the Introverted Sensing partner the evening before they depart for the great adventure; is the partner pleased? Not a bit of it. Firstly, Introverted Sensors hate surprises. They want to be fully prepared for any eventuality. Secondly, spending time at a dance with strangers is never going to be their idea of fun, and when they compare what will be spent on this outing compared to other more sensible things that they would like or perhaps need, they become totally outraged.

Shared attitude / Different preferences

It’s easy to see that something arranged from one person’s perspective, using their preferences may be done with the best of intentions, yet can go very badly wrong. If the shoe had been on the other foot it could just as easily have ended in disaster as the Introverted Sensing partner would in all probability not arrange the sort of treat that would appeal to their Introverted Intuitive partner. Similar situations arise with the other variations of preferences. Yes these people all share Introversion however they deal with their world in very different ways.

When this amount of discord can come about with people who at least share the same attitude, think how much worse the situation could be between people with an introverted attitude who have a partner with an extraverted attitude, the complexities only increase.

How on earth do relationships survive could be the question this expose of the different preferences might raise. We all know that some do and some don’t, so there must be more than just personality at stake – and yes there’s a great deal more. People are complex and it is never easy to pigeon-hole them. They may share much in common in terms of attitude or they could have different attitudes and share preferences. Whatever the mix the result will be the same – relationships have to be worked at.

Understanding a partner’s attitude and preferences is a start and even armed with all this information it would still be difficult to say with any certainty that one person’s idea of being romantic will be the same as another’s. The advantage this understanding brings about is at least an awareness that we should each be looking at what it is that makes our partner tick and not assume that just because we like something done in a certain way this will be suitable for them. This may not sound too romantic, yet it could save many a vulnerable relationship!

Regent Street in Leamington Spa is a most interesting street. It has Games Workshop, my Ruaridh’s favourite shop in the world. But it was the contrast between two other shops I had to comment on.

There is a music shop, where upon the door there are unwelcoming signs.

“No change given for parking”
“No second hand instruments”

Hardly a warm welcome.

Regent Street also has the best cafe in Leamington Spa, Gusto Ricco. Tel : 01926 426 977 (no website I’m afraid.) In fact it’s the best wee eatery I have come across for a long time. They care. They take care of the details, small adjustments to the alignment of the menu on the table for instance.

Games Workshop, where they have a policy of “come in and play or just chat or just hang out”.

Perhaps both of these great examples of customer service emphasised the shockingly poor service of the unwelcoming music shop. Of all places, a music shop should be full of music lovers hanging out. They should have a big sign on the door saying

“Come in for parking change and enjoy a tune when you are at it”. Would you not rather have a busy shop of people looking for change than an empty shop?

Personality is adopted by every business. Every business has a personality. What’s yours?

You have a Twitter account? Good, then we can continue… Wait a minute, you don’t have a Twitter account? Don’t go away – this post is also about saving lives. Really. Truly. It’s also about making money. And personality. All of these things in one post – how so?

1. Twitter to start with – it’s quick and easy. We have a new personality widget. Complete the questionnaire, and it’ll tell you what kind of a Twitterer/Tweeter/Twit? you are. We’ve integrated it with Twitter, so you can easily share your results with your followers. Heartily encouraged – it’s all a bit of fun. So far, we’ve heard it’s very accurate too! And there’s a special link on there we want lots of people to see. That brings me to the next point;

2. Saving lives. Yes, it’s true. We’ve managed to link Twitter, personality and life saving together. But it isn’t some random association. It’s all to do with a special man we call Dr Mani. Dr Mani is a heart surgeon based in India. Well over a year ago Dr Mani suggested we produce a Twitter personality report. It took us ages, but we’ve eventually done it – and the timing is good, because Dr Mani is launching a new book. So, we’ve decided to use our Twitter personality report to send people to a page that tells them all about Dr Mani’s new book. It’s our way of saying thank you – and supporting Dr Mani’s cause. All profits from Dr Mani’s book go to sponsor vital heart surgery for children. The book? Well, it’s called Think, Write, Retire – and that brings me on nicely to the next point;

3. Making money. Dr Mani has been turning his knowledge into information products for years – and taking that profit and turning it into heart operations. He believes you can too! Here’s a short interview with the man himself to reveal more:

Can anyone use your book to create wealth on the internet without giving up the safety of their current job?

My book, “Think, Write & Retire”, shares the lessons I learned myself over the last 14 years, creating and selling information products on the Web.

I believe that it is possible for anyone to follow the same system and create wealth – though it is not instant, effortless or even ‘guaranteed’ always.

Information is what drives people to access the Internet.  And information products have always been (and will continue to be) in demand – as long as the information is valuable, useful and serves a need/want.

‘Think, Write & Retire’ takes a detailed look at each stage of the process -

* identifying one’s own areas of expertise or ‘above average’ knowledge,
* seeing how to package it into a product or resource others will value,
* researching what others are buying or seeking, and then
* matching the expertise to existing demand to achieve sales and profit.

It is written and designed in a way that anyone, even without any prior experience in information marketing, can learn how to create wealth from being an infopreneur.

Your profits sponsor children’s heart surgery – do you think there’s more chance of internet success if the cause is charitable?

A couple of years ago, I was interviewed for a short piece in FAST COMPANY magazine, and the reporter asked me the same question.  I replied that, on average, promotions where I donate all my profits to charity pulled a conversion rate that’s higher by 20% to 25%.

On a larger scale, I believe that any business (on the Internet or off it) has a higher chance of succeeding when it evolves around a worthy purpose.  There are many possible reasons for this, and to satisfy my curiosity, I polled my customer list once and asked WHY they purchased from me.

An overwhelming 85% replied (to my astonishment) that it was because they knew the profits were going to a worthy cause – and that made them happier to spend money with me than anywhere else!

Until then, I had not made the fact (that a part of my profits go to fund heart surgery for kids) an integral part of my
communication.

But after the people who matter most (my clients) said that’s what was important to them above all else, I made sure this information was conveyed to all prospects… just like I’m doing with this new book launch, where I mention upfront that 100% of book sales profits are going to charity.

From the outset, you have been a fan of PeopleMaps personality testing. Do you think that any personality type can successfully create wealth on the internet?

I simply LOVE the way you’ve turned personality testing into a fun and interesting process through your quiz and with widgets.  The test itself is engaging and interactive, the results uncannily correct and the lessons or advice you make us derive from them certainly helps in making anyone who takes the test a more effective person.

Yes, I do believe any personality type can create wealth on the Internet.  Though the ‘best’ approach for each type of personality will be different.

In “Think, Write & Retire”, I get into this in a section dealing with the four major ‘business models’ on the Internet.  When you see how they each differ, you’ll also notice that some will fit specific personality types better than the others.

For instance, a naturally confident, outgoing, friendly and chatty personality may find direct selling and aggressive marketing activities a more natural fit, while the diffident, quiet and shy type of person may prefer to rely on an ad-supported content publishing model more attractive for wealth building on the Internet.

The nice thing about the Web is that it is so vast, diverse, and has people interested in so many different areas and topics that there is room for just about any personality type to achieve massive success – as long as the core tenets of passion, purpose and persistence are there!

If you have those, and want to learn the “how to” of wealth building as an information marketer, my book will be of some help.

So, what can you do next?

1. Visit the widget, complete the test and share your Twitter personality with your Followers.
2. Take a look and see if you’re interested in Dr Mani’s new book and order a copy.
3. Don’t forget to rate the report, and leave us a comment to let us know what you think.
4. Share it with friends. The more people you share it with, the more people hear about Dr Mani’s book, and more buyers, means more heart surgery = more kid’s lives saved. FOR REAL.

Spent a great couple of days with Learning Links Europe talking about how personality profiling can impact on their business.

The workshop session yesterday was a little unorthodox but I think they enjoyed it. I know I did. We dealt with some big issues;

We started the session looking at the day to day problems that each of them were facing. The issues raised were very broad. Afterwords we looked at these a little closer and discovered that personality profiling would help them significantly with each of them. This comes back to the theory that “all my problems walk and talk”

We talked about how we could increase the level of service to clients. This was an important issue as this was a room full of people who care passionately about the welfare of their clients. Between us we discovered a whole bunch of different ways that personality profiling could help clients.

We explored how we all view the world differently and how difficult it is to understand that some people, located on a different part of the personality map, view the world so differently from us. Although logically we understand this, it is only natural to assume that others all see the world the way we do. It takes awareness to overcome this.

With a team of over ninety people, LLE is a “complex” work environment with many relationships. We looked at how to use profiling in-house to help individuals and the many formal and informal teams work together. There is a great spirit already and we discovered power personality tools that we can adopt that allow a team thrive.

If I was summarise the day it would be that we explored how personality profiling helps you understand yourself and others. From this understanding comes tolerance, forgiveness and an accelerated “moving forward”.

I had a great day. Lot’s of laughs and everyone even managed to tolerate my swearing. I get a little carried away with the theatre of it all but I hope no one was offended too much.

Over 1 million people have taken the PeopleMaps personality test and I was wondering why. I thought I would summarise some of the reasons here and explain what a personality test is in the process.

1. People do personality tests when they are thinking about their careers as often they will have to complete one as part of the recruitment process.
2. People take personality tests to help them verbalise who they are and obtain a deeper understanding of “self”. Understanding what makes us tick makes life a whole lot easier. For some it is a bit like getting the manual for that new surround sound system that you knew was great but never quite figured out how to work.
3. Personality tests are often used by people who are making big decisions in their life as it helps them think things through.
4. People take personality tests for fun. Although PeopleMaps is a professional system we believe in making it easy to digest and fun to do.
5. People do personality tests when thinking about their relationships. Going into our coming out from a relationship is often when we are most introspective.

Here are the common questions I get about personality tests.

Q : What’s the difference between a personality test and a psychometric test?

A: Psychometric testing cover the wider spectrum of numeracy and literacy. People often say “psychometric” when they mean “personality”

Q: What happens if you fail the personality test?

A: It is not a test. It has become known as a “personality test” over the years but it is not a test. There are no right or wrong answers. You are who you are and that’s fine.

Q: Is the PeopleMaps personality test like Myers Briggs?

A: Both PeopleMaps and Myers Briggs are Jungian systems. Myers Briggs requires training to properly interpret what it says. PeopleMaps writes in plain English so that everyone can immediately understand what it says and apply it to their lives.

Q: How accurate is the PeopleMaps personality test?

A: Have a read at our testimonials as this is the real measure of accuracy. Typically you should agree with between 80 and 100% of the statements made. It is always worth sharing your report with someone that knows you as you may have blind spots in your personality, where you do not recognise a behaviour but others do.

Q: More questions means more accurate results right?

A: No. Actually the opposite is true. After 5 minutes or so candidate fatigue starts setting in and accuracy drops. it took PeopleMaps over a year to develop a 7 minute questionnaire; the shortest and most accurate questionnaire online today.

Figures vary on how common workplace personality profiling is, depending on where you look. We use the statistic provided by ere.com from their 2007 survey, which shows that over 65% of employers use “personality measures” as part of their employee screening and assessment toolkit.

We wondered if these figures pan out when asking jobseekers about their experience? So that’s just what we did – Over two and a half thousand replied, and here are the results;

Have you ever been asked to complete a psychometric test for work?

Not quite the 65% of employees we might expect, but 49% is a high number nevertheless. Interesting, but not surprising, that training and development fell way short of recruitment. We certainly get more business from employers hiring new recruits than we do from those developing existing employees. Perhaps if more employers used profiling to help understand and develop existing staff, they’d need to use it far less for the recruitment of new starts – a question of false economies in play, methinks. And an opportunity for PeopleMaps to encourage more companies to invest in their existing employees.

Personality profiling needn’t be expensive, but sadly many professional providers feel they need to charge premium prices. PeopleMaps decided at the outset to offer affordable online profiling to everyone, anywhere – because we truly believe the world can be a better place when we understand more about ourselves and others.

And because our reports are written in plain English, you don’t need to spend any many on training or hiring a consultant to discover what your profile means for you!

Best of all, we give EVERY visitor to PeopleMaps FREE reports. There’s never any obligation to buy anything else from us – and we won’t ask for your credit card details up front. In fact, there is no further obligation to buy anything – ever!

You can login to your Members Area at any time and access your FREE reports. It’s worthwhile checking in occasionally – when we make improvements, the changes apply to every report in our system and you won’t ever need to complete the questionnaire again!

We will offer you a range of reports from time-to-time that require payment. For instance, if you’ve signed up to receive the Dream Job series of Free reports, then we’ll offer you the chance to sign up to the Land Your Dream Job Home Study Course. The price you pay will depend on when you buy it. You will always know the price you need to pay before you make a payment. Land Your Dream Job retails at £247 – but the price can vary dependent on our special offers, and you can bag it for as little as £97.

We’ll let you know when there’s a new report available – and when we’re running a special offer – but you will ALWAYS be able to receive personality FREEBIES from PeopleMaps. It’s guaranteed.

- free test – instant report
- 10 questions – eight minutes
- no credit card required – no obligation
Free Test

People are complex The environment and other people working with them could influence behaviour change on a regular basis. Behaviour has reasons, not causes and if we understand the reasons why, in most areas will be more committed.

Psychological type gives a snap shot of the preferred behaviour that comes almost unconsciously to most people. This is the behaviour that they are comfortable with and can sustain for long periods of time. It is positive news that people can be versatile and can change, as the behaviour they are comfortable with will almost certainly not be suitable for every eventuality. People are often asked to “think and act outside the box” – in these situations they need to be confident that they can do this.

We all have the ability to access the range of Jung’s bi-polar scales. If our preferred attitude is for introversion we need to be aware that if extraversion is called for we can use this too. We will be less comfortable using it, as we have had less practice and because of this we will possibly be slower as we need to think about what we do rather than do it on automatic pilot This may be a hidden blessing.

If we normally write with our right hand and injured this hand in an accident, we would be required to earn how to write with the left hand. This would be uncomfortable and slow until we did it often enough for it to become as automatic as using our preferred hand. It is exactly the same with the bi-polar scales – we have the ability to use the range but our preference for one way will make us lazy of learning the other until forced into it.

If we brought this thought with us to team working we would discover that we were a whole lot more adaptable than we originally thought. Not only adaptable but we could put ourselves in the other persons shoes more easily and try them on for size. It would not be quick but it could be done and with some great results ensuing.

Human behaviour is probabilistic not deterministic. Using the profiles may tell us how people will probably respond to their environment. It will also help with the individual’s development, choice of job role and their best fit within the environment. It provides a starting point or compass to get the best out of a most expensive and valuable resource.

The questionnaire is not a test as there can be no right or wrong answer to psychological type. It is an evaluation of the individual’s habitual or typical way of dealing with the world. The greatest benefit in using profiling is surely that of development and team working. It provides a useful aid for recruitment but should only be used as part of an overall process. Twenty five percent of the recruitment process should be underpinned by a psychological profile – the other seventy five percent should be made up of interview, past experience/CV and qualifications.

Jung believed that individuals were all unique. He was against boxing people and used the analogy of a compass as a method of finding his way around people’s differences, helping him to understand and aid the development of their own potential. The psychological profile designed by Peoplemaps was primarily for the purpose of development. The original target market were individuals trying to gain better self understanding, identify what career would give them greatest satisfaction, help them to promote their strengths and work on their weaknesses.

Organisations are looking for exactly the same information about the people they employ. Vast sums of money are spent on development but very little of it is targeted uniquely to an individual’s greatest needs. By providing a profile that acts as a compass identifying how best to understand each individual, employers will be able to target more cost effectively and provide solutions that will help satisfy and retain their employees.

Jung spent his whole life on his development especially on what he called individuation, which he described as the person’s attempt to get in touch with their full potential as a human being. His was a psychology for the second half of life, learning was a life long project and people were capable of changing and developing right up to their last breath.

He placed no value on people remaining consistent – his encouragement was for them to try other shoes. If someone has spent their whole life with a preference for introversion, which was his preference, he thought they would not be fully developed until they worked on their extraversion. For him this was the main advantage of the bi-polar scales; to let people take stock of where they were and then work at developing their less used gifts.

Validity is concerned with the extent to which an assessment instrument actually measures what it is designed to measure. It implies comparison between the assessments and some external criteria. Reliability is concerned with the consistency of assessments.

PeopleMaps is a Jungian profile designed to measure personality. The measures used are Jung’s rational and irrational preference scales, together with his Extraverted and Introverted attitude scales.

That the profile has measured personality accurately is confirmed by the respondents face validity of 80% and above. Hundreds of thousands of people have contributed to these findings, which also confirms reliability.

Profiling that is not Jungian based will normally be norm referenced, i.e. discriminating between individuals.

The questionnaire provides an Ipsative assessment, which means that responders must choose a response from a selection of four. Most and Least and the other two questions must also be given a weighting. (This differs from other Ipsative assessments, which only measure Most and Least and thereby lose accuracy.)

The theory underpinning PeopleMaps comes from the work of Carl Jung, the Swiss psychologist who believed every individual was unique. His theory focuses on the cognitive aspects of personality i.e. how people think; take on board information to make their decisions and sense of the world.

He created categories of psychological type through a combination of attitudes and preferences measured by bi-polar scales – Extraversion and Introversion he called attitudes, and Thinking and Feeling he described as rational preferences, with Sensing and Intuition being irrational preferences.

Jung’s Categories

Extraverted attitudes plus Introverted attitudes combine with either Thinking or Feeling, and either Sensing or Intuition.

There is great variety of behaviour within these categories depending on which position on each of the bi-polar scales the person’s behaviour is plotted. There are no right or wrong psychological types – the scales flag up our differences. Wouldn’t the world be a dull old place if we were all the same?

The extraversion – introversion scale

We all use both in different intensity at different times, however we will have a preferred way of dealing with the outside world that we use “most of the time”. Extraversion is how we think and act; Introversion is how we think and reflect. These terms are in common usage today and are possibly the easiest of the scales to see in practice. The majority of people will not be extreme, demonstrating a close balance of extraversion and introversion – as such they can be more difficult to read. Those more obvious preferences are easier to read. Most of us can point to an example of someone who acts and thinks out loud most of the time and identify them as an extravert and similarly those who are quieter, because they are reflecting on their thoughts, can be identified as introverts.

The Environment

Introversion
The environment has an impact on our behaviour. If for example one’s preference was for reflection and every member of the group shared this preference, someone would be forced to become more active and extraverted. The person acting the role would be seen as an extravert to the rest of the group, however if their natural preference was for introversion they would be uncomfortable maintaining this for any great length of time – and when the environment changed would revert to their preferred attitude.

Extraversion
The opposite would apply to Extraversion – if everyone was thinking and acting out loud, some of the group would actually be and appear more introverted. People have different tolerance levels: to someone with a preference for extraversion, other more extremely extraverted people could appear too loud and they may naturally seek solace in more reflective behaviour. This would not make them a natural Introvert as they could not maintain this attitude for any great length of time and would be soon found seeking an external stimulus.

PeopleMaps Profile as a Compass

Jung referred to his system as a compass and this is how the profile should be used. We can make these observations about people when they respond to circumstances at different times but we do not know, really know, the person’s natural attitude or preferences – this is where profiling comes in. PeopleMaps captures the individual’s response made to an on-line questionnaire and electronically measures them on the bi-polar scales. This enables the assessment of the person’s natural or most comfortable type. People have a preferred natural type, however they are often versatile and can respond differently to a variety of stimuli, such as the examples given above for extraverted or introverted behaviour.

The Rational Preferences

Thinking
People whose preference is for thinking make objective decisions and are able to put their personal feelings aside to reach a (to their mind) logical, detached analytical conclusion. They obviously do have feelings and will often examine how they feel about the decision at a later stage but their feelings rarely get in the way of making the decision in the first place.

Feeling
People whose preference is for feeling make subjective decisions integrating feelings and facts. They trust their feelings and usually include values in their decision making. They will be reluctant to take decisions if the decision does not feel right. They ask themselves how they and others will feel if they make this decision. All of these considerations have to be undertaken before they are comfortable with the decision.

There is no right or wrong way to make decisions. Both of these methods will have produced good and bad decisions. It could be argued that thinking decisions will be quicker. This will be true but speed won’t appear to be a value if the decision was wrong. Similarly with a feeling decision people may be happier, but not for long if it was the wrong decision made for the wrong reasons.

Irrational Preferences

Sensing
People whose preference is for sensing will want more factual information. They will want to know if they can feel or see something to ascertain that it is real. They want proof – real tangible evidence. They will see themselves as realists. Others may see them as pragmatists.

Intuition
People whose preference is for intuition will depend upon imagination and possibilities. They will be want something to get excited about, not for them the pragmatic view of the world.

Just as with Thinking and Feeling, there is no right and wrong with the irrational preferences. Intuition is about possibilities and potential, however if this is carried too far, the challenge is that the potential does not become any closer.

Sensing could be pragmatic but if the demand for evidence inhibits all possible potential then this could also be counter productive. Just as with all the scales they balance each other.

Within every person there is the ability to use either side of the bi-polar scales, although we will all have preferences for one side more than the other – most of the time. When two people are working together who have different preferences, they can complement each other.

The person with great intuition could benefit from working with the person who is totally practical and pragmatic, as together they could work out a way to harness the creativity and imagination of the intuitive. Using the strength of the pragmatist’s realism, they could bring about many successful conclusions.