The California Psychological Inventory (CPI™)

Identifying Leadership Behaviors, Attitudes, and Preferences

"CPI" is a trademark of CPP (see www.cpp.com/en/index.aspx). We have no association or connection with CPP.

Understand your personal and leadership characteristics.

If you had to describe yourself, what traits and characteristics would you identify? What would you say are your strengths? What areas do you need to develop? And how do you compare with other professionals?

One way of answering these questions is to talk with friends, family, co-workers and bosses. Unfortunately, this is time-consuming, and people may not have sufficient insight or experience to answer you conclusively.

A quicker approach is to complete a personality test that's been validated and proven reliable. Likewise, if you want to improve your understanding of team members or your evaluation of job candidates, having them complete a psychometric test is an efficient and dependable means of doing so.

There are many different psychometric tests, so it's important to become familiar with the most popular psychometric tests that businesses use. Many people are familiar with the Myers-Briggs Typology Indicator® (MBTI) as a personality assessment. However, tests such as Dominance, Influence, Steadiness, and Conscientiousness (DiSC® ), and the California Psychological Inventory (CPI™) are also widely used.

Note:
Although the name implies that this is an U.S.-focused test, it is actually used worldwide. Scores are standardized using norms from a range of populations.

Advantages of CPI

One of the key advantages of using the CPI is that...

... for the complete article:

Mind Tools Club members, click here.

Join the Mind Tools Club to finish this article AND get 1,000 more resources

Join now for just $1, first month

"When I started using Mind Tools, I was not in a supervisory position. Now I am. Along with that came a 12% increase in salary." – Pat Degan, Houston, USA

Add this article to My Learning Plan