Personal Growth with the Core Values Index Psychometric Assessment

Taking the Core Values Index psychometric assessment can provide numerous personal benefits: understanding yourself and others, improved communications, finding paths toward greater happiness, and obtaining a state of ikigai and flow.

Not Just For Work Anymore

Most people are exposed to psychometric assessments like Myers-Briggs, The DiSC, StrengthsFinder and others through their job. Recruiting firms and Fortune 500 companies use them during the hiring and evaluation processes to make sure they are putting people in appropriate roles.

A relative newcomer to the market, the best psychometric assessment available today, is the Core Values Index. It has the highest repeat reliability rating of them all, 97.7%. This means if you take the CVI today and again two or even five years from now, your scores will differ by less than 3%. No other assessment even comes close.

A common mistake is assuming that psychometric assessments like the CVI are only used in an employment or business context. In fact, the CVI can provide even greater benefit to individuals who take it for personal reasons.

Understand Yourself

At its core, the CVI describes your personality's DNA, your human operating system, in a way that enables you to understand what makes you happy. This is of profound importance because doing what you love is how you find true fulfillment and joy in life.

When you complete the CVI, you have the choice of two report options: basic and comprehensive. The assessment itself is the same, only the scope of your results is different. For the sake of this article, we will be discussing the comprehensive report.

Your CVI report describes your personality based on ratios of four core value energies or personality types: Builder, Merchant, Innovator, and Banker. These personality types are represented by scores of 0 (none) to 36 (maximum). It is your particular ratio of core value energies that make you unique.

A key point you learn about the CVI is knowing that you see the world through the lens of your own personality and core value profile. This shapes your perceptions and expectations of how the world and everyone in it functions. By learning more about your own lens and the lens through which others see the world, you will gain the ability to navigate your way through relationships and challenges with greater ease and effectiveness.

Personality Types

The CVI report goes beyond trite statements of "You are creative" or "You are logical." It provides invaluable information about the kind of activities and processes that make you happiest.

For example, one of the core value energies is called Innovator. Those whose highest score is in the Innovator core value energy dwell in wisdom. Solving problems and being the source of wisdom in the room is what makes them happiest.

Another core value energy is called Builder. Those with primary scores in the Builder energy love getting things done. They find their greatest happiness moving things forward, achieving results, and acting toward powerful accomplishments.

Reading your report helps you understand yourself at a much deeper level than any other assessment or mere personality test ever could.

By learning what makes up your personality's DNA, you learn what makes you happy.

Understand Others

The first benefit of taking the CVI and reading your comprehensive report is understanding yourself. The second benefit is understanding others.

When you learn about the four core value energies and how to recognize their presence in others, you immediately benefit from the ability to understand what motivates people. If someone's primary score is Banker, for example, you'll immediately know that they value knowledge and justice above all else. They seek to 'know' and let others worry about action and problem-solving.

When you study the CVI, you learn how to identify likely core values energy profiles in others. This immediately gives you the ability to relate to people on a deeper, more meaningful and constructive level.

Where Does Success Come From?

Have you ever tried to succeed at something you didn't enjoy? It's not easy, and your odds of success drop dramatically when something doesn't align with your core personality.

Personal success and failure stem from alignment or misalignment, respectively, with your personality's DNA.

If you are a logical person trying to achieve success in a creative pursuit, you might as well try nailing gravy to a tree.

When you take the CVI and learn the fundamentals of how you are emotionally hardwired, you can identify the type of activities and endeavors that will bring you the most happiness. It will be these pursuits where you have a natural edge toward success because the journey will feel joyful and energetic, not Sisyphean in its drudgery and pointlessness.

Can You Hear Me Now?

Once you understand yourself and understand others, the ability to effectively communicate improves dramatically. For example, if you are speaking with someone who's primary core value energy is Builder, you will know that they prefer a succinct, results-oriented communication style. You would keep your topics to a minimum, avoid long-winded discussions or nested sidebars, and get to the point quickly.

Bankers crave knowledge. They will appreciate communication—especially in written form—that is thorough and detailed. Flowery analysis and meaning that must be intuited or gleaned will annoy them. State the facts, all the facts, and only the facts and you'll make a Banker happy.

Merchants, on the other hand, are all about intuitive human connections. They can read subtlety and nuance better than anyone. Never try to lie to a Merchant! They convey and receive information most enjoyably through storytelling.

Once you learn tips and tricks like these for identifying and understanding the core value energies of others, you will see a dramatic improvement in your ability to communicate effectively.

Ikigai and the State of Flow

From our article, "Ikigai: Finding Your Personal Happiness" →

The Japanese have a concept called ikigai that roughly translates into English as 'reason for being.' It can be graphically represented as a four-lobed Venn diagram with what you love, what you are good at, what you can be paid for, and what the world needs, all overlapping into passion, mission, profession, and vocation with a state of ikigai in the center.

Psychologist Mihály Csíkszentmihályi describes Flow as a state of complete immersion in an activity, "Being completely involved in an activity for its own sake. The ego falls away. Time flies. Every action, movement, and thought follows inevitably from the previous one, like playing jazz. Your whole being is involved, and you're using your skills to the utmost."

If you truly know your core self, and learn the way you are hardwired, you can identify the activities and pursuits, both personal and professional, that will bring you the greatest happiness. You can find your ikigai, your reason for being, and progressively engage in activities that bring you into a state of flow.

Can all of this be yours after taking the Core Values Index psychometric assessment?

Yes!