One of the keys of running a successful company is knowing your employees. By the same logic, entrepreneurs and start-up owners who work for themselves will benefit from getting to know themselves a little bit better.
The Entrepreneur seeking self-awareness has a few options.
The Myers-Briggs Test: This is a test that finds one’s psychological preference or pre-disposition to a particular behavior. The test finds one’s preference in four pairs of traits. The questionnaire can help an entrepreneur find out if they are: extroverted or introverted, sensitive or intuitive, a thinker or a feeler and or if they are more judgmental or perceptive. The Myers-Briggs Test has been administered to thousands of corporate employees so the management can predict their behavior.
The DISC Assessment: This is a personality test that finds out how an individual works in a team setting. The test was developed in the 1970s to help streamline a workplace that included more and more collaborative projects. The test measures people in four areas: Dominance, Inducement, Submission and Compliance. Based on where one falls in each of these four categories, an individual is given one of fifteen personality types that include: Creative, Developer and Results-Orientated.
The Four Types of Entrepreneurs
In this ideas-based and new venture economy there is still no dominant test to determine what kind of entrepreneur you might be. There are only educated guesses by start-up veterans and experts.
One such expert is Linda Rottenberg, CEO of Endeavor, an international network of high-impact entrepreneurs. Linda wrote in the Wall Street Journal defining her four entrepreneurial phenotypes:
The ancient Greeks carved “Know Thyself” onto the walls of the temple of Apollo centuries before iphone app developers and Internet start-ups. They may have been on to something…
Resources:
http://www.myersbriggs.org
https://www.discprofile.com
http://online.wsj.com/articles/the-four-new-breeds-of-entrepreneurs-1412282673
If you have found any other resources for self-awareness as an entrepreneur, please use the comment feature below and let us know!