There has been a surge in the use of personality assessment tools to help individuals and organizations gain insight into human behavior and enhance the quality of their relationships. As a fifty-year-old man who had to put myself back into the dating pool, I’ve also learned that these tools come in handy in the dating world. Everyone seems to know their Enneagram number. Also, people seem to value other people who are self-aware, so having this tag on your dating profile can pay dividends with the right person or confuse the wrong person.
When I tell people I’m Birkman-certified, they often ask what it is and how it compares to the Enneagram. I wrote this blog to help answer their questions. Both provide insights into personality but differ significantly in their approaches and applications. I believe that people often choose the Enneagram approach because it is relatively inexpensive and often free, while The Birkman Method can be expensive. I also believe that in life, you get what you pay for.
Birkman Method:
Birkman is a workplace assessment that helps people understand what motivates them, how they typically work at their best, what they need from others and their environment, and how they may respond when those needs are not met. From a scientific standpoint, The Birkman Method is grounded in psychometric measurement and has been used for more than 70 years, with millions of questionnaire completions and millions of reports generated worldwide. Its value comes from measuring not only visible behavior but also internal motivations, expectations, and stress responses, which many basic personality tools do not fully capture. Because it combines relational data with occupational interest data, Birkman is often used in coaching, leadership development, career exploration, hiring support, and team effectiveness work to create more practical, evidence-informed conversations about performance, communication, and fit.
Pros:
- Comprehensive Insights: The Birkman Method provides a comprehensive analysis of an individual’s personality, including their usual behavior, underlying needs, and stress behaviors. It offers a well-rounded view that can benefit personal and professional development.
- Workplace Application: The Birkman Method is often used in organizational settings for employee development, team building, and leadership training. It helps individuals understand their strengths and weaknesses, facilitating career growth and better workplace relationships.
- Objective and Reliable: Birkman’s scientific foundation and validation studies lend it credibility as a reliable personality assessment tool. The results are based on decades of research and data analysis.
- Customized Feedback: The Birkman Method offers tailored insights, which can help individuals recognize unique patterns in their behavior, motivation, and preferences. This personalization can be beneficial for self-improvement.
Cons:
- Complexity: The Birkman Method can be quite complex to understand and interpret, especially for those lacking a background in psychology. This complexity may discourage some from using it.
- Cost: Obtaining a Birkman assessment comes with a price tag, and professional interpretation of the results can often be expensive. This cost can be a significant barrier for some individuals.
- Time-Consuming: The Birkman Method typically takes longer to complete than some other personality assessments. This might be inconvenient for those seeking a quick, surface-level understanding of their personality.
Enneagram:
The Enneagram is a personality framework that helps people better understand their core motivations, fears, patterns of thinking, and default ways of responding to stress and growth. It organizes personality into nine primary types, each with its own worldview, strengths, blind spots, and relational tendencies. While the Enneagram is widely used in coaching, leadership development, team communication, and personal growth, it is generally considered more of a developmental and self-awareness model than a traditional psychometric assessment. Its scientific support is more mixed than tools built primarily around validated measurement models, but many coaches and organizations still find it useful because it gives people a practical language for exploring behavior, motivation, conflict patterns, and personal development. I was introduced to the Enneagram while single, and I thought it was an interesting way to have dating conversations. I took the assessment for free on Crystal Knows, and I discovered I was an 8 on the Enneagram. It seemed to fit with everything else I know about myself, and I got a book to learn about it in more detail. I also learned that there is a way to map your Enneagram number to your Myers-Briggs profile, which I found interesting. Unlike Birkman, when you take this assessment, your data doesn’t go into a master database, so there is no ability to look at standard patterns among society.
Pros:
- Easily Accessible: The Enneagram is readily available to anyone interested in exploring their personality. Numerous books, online tests, and resources make it accessible to a broad audience.
- Soulful Insight: The Enneagram delves into the spiritual and emotional aspects of an individual’s personality. It helps people understand their inner motivations, fears, and desires, offering a deeper, more introspective look at themselves.
- Growth and Transformation: One of the core principles of the Enneagram is personal growth and transformation. It provides a framework for recognizing areas where individuals can improve, fostering a journey of self-discovery and self-improvement.
- Interpersonal Insights: The Enneagram also explores how different personality types interact. This insight is particularly valuable in improving relationships, both personal and professional.
Cons:
- Lack of Scientific Validation: The Enneagram’s lack of empirical validation calls into question its accuracy and reliability. Some critics argue it’s more of a belief system than a scientific assessment.
- Simplicity vs. Complexity: While some appreciate the Enneagram’s simplicity, others find it overly general and lacking the depth that other assessments, like the Birkman Method, provide.
- Fixed Typing: The Enneagram assigns individuals to a specific personality type, which can be limiting. People are complex and can exhibit a range of behaviors, so pigeonholing them into a single category may only partially capture their essence.
In conclusion, the answer to the question “Which method is best for me?” depends on your needs and objectives. If you’re looking for an in-depth, scientifically backed assessment to use in various professional settings, you may want to consider the Birkman Method. On the other hand, if you’re more focused on a more spiritual, reflective way of self-reflection and self-growth, then the Enneagram may be the right fit for you.
Remember that each method has advantages and disadvantages; there’s no “right” or “wrong” way to use these tools. The important thing to remember is that they’re simply tools to help you discover and grow who you are, and the best way to use them is to improve your life.
Career Upside can provide insights for individuals and companies on how to use The Birkman Method to optimize achievement. As your career coach, we help to identify and leverage your strengths while addressing areas for improvement. If you would like to learn more about our career coaching services, you can visit our career services page.
