Jamie explores why psychometric reports alone aren’t enough and why Leadership Development needs a more narrative-led approach. He shares a different way of thinking about psychometrics and how this led him to create NarraWay – a coaching tool built entirely around the narrative approach.
MBTI, DISC, Insights, The Big 5 and other psychometric tools tend to be the entry point for any Leadership Development programme. Answer a few questions, and then a Coach will walk you through a report that tells you what this model thinks you might be.
Now, there are good things about these tests.
People do find them genuinely useful and valuable. But in my opinion we overdo them in Leadership Development, and underdo an alternative approach: the narrative approach.
Whereas a psychometric tells you what it thinks you might be, a narrative based approach has you telling the Coach who you think you are.
A psychometric will use a scientifically validated model, backed by data, to hint at what your thinking, feelings and behaviour might reflect. A narrative based approach will have you surface the beliefs and memories that you use to define who you are.
A psychometric will use external data to provide you with insights. A narrative approach will use your own beliefs, memories and reflective ability to actively work on creating an identity that serves you best.
In my opinion, we should use both in leadership development programmes. But what I observe is we overdo the psychometrics, whilst underdoing the narrative based approach.
We overdo the psychometric report in Leadership Development
Here are three reasons why we should be incorporating more narrative based approaches into Leadership Development.
1. Stories, not Labels
Psychometrics label people. They literally produce reports that suggest which labels a person’s thinking, feelings and behaviour may be more closely aligned with.
But in my experience, the report labelling people isn’t the scariest thing. The scariest thing is how willingly people tend to soak up these labels. How many times have you come across someone fresh from doing a psychometric who will proudly announce their type to you?
Labels are so tempting because they remove the need for further introspection. They are also fascinating for people not so familiar with personality science. They feel like an answer, and answers are incredibly satisfying.
Now, a decent psychometric will advocate for a Coach or Facilitator to run through an effective debrief process to avoid people falling into the trap of embracing the labels. But in practice, this is much easier said than done.
From my observations, even Coaches and Facilitators who go to great lengths to avoid the labels trap find that people still tend toward the label, because at the end of the day they have a “scientifically validated” report that tells them they are one.
A narrative based approach gets completely away from labels and focuses instead on stories. The stories behind this person’s tendencies, their strengths, their values and so on.
And crucially, the narrative approach is all about evolving these stories.
Through the narrative process we surface the fragments of identity that were hidden deep in our unconscious. We can now look at them from a different angle, evaluate whether they’re merely remnants of a former self or still have relevance today, and adapt them to better serve us.
Instead of a label telling us who we are, the narrative approach evolves who we are.
2. Process over Output
A psychometric produces a static output (a report) that is really only relevant for a fixed period of time. But our identity is forever evolving.
Have you ever retaken a psychometric years later only to get a different result?
We are not fixed. We evolve.
The narrative approach is a process, not an output. It teaches people how to recognise what’s not working, surface the stories that hold them back, and create the stories that will take them further forward on the journey they’re on right now.
It’s a process that any mature adult will have to go through repeatedly throughout their life. And that’s exactly why it deserves a central place in Leadership Development, because unlike a report that gathers dust, the narrative process is something people can carry with them and return to whenever they need it.
3. Identity Formation
All of this brings me to my final point. The narrative approach is literally the process of identity formation. It is what we should ultimately be working towards anyway with the psychometrics.
Too many times I have seen psychometric debriefs quickly finish with “Now there are your insights from the report, so what’s your action plan going to be?”
But that skips the most important step. Before jumping to action, we should be encouraging people to view psychometric data as merely data. Data that needs to be taken with a pinch of salt, looked at with a critical eye, and actively interpreted through reflection:
- Does this data reflect who I am, or who I was?
- Does it capture who I want to become, or just where I’ve been?
- Do I even agree with the data?
That reflective work – sitting with the data, questioning it, weaving it into a narrative that actually serves you – is where the real transformation happens.
Without it, a psychometric debrief is a conversation about a report. With it, it becomes a process of evolving our identity.
A different way of thinking for a psychometric
This is ultimately why I created NarraWay; a coaching tool built entirely around the narrative approach.
Rather than starting with a test and a report, NarraWay starts with ‘you’. It asks you to reflect on the strengths you already know you have, map the journey you’re currently navigating, and think strategically about how to apply those strengths to the challenges ahead.
No labels. No types. Just your story, and the tools to shape it.
Because we are who we are. And the most powerful thing Leadership Development can do is help us embrace that and evolve it.
Find out more about dedicated workshop on Narrative-Based Strengths Discovery and get in touch to discuss how NarraWay could help you, your team and/or your organisation.
