How can I use psychometrics in my coaching?

‘She is such a people person’, or ‘He’s a big picture person’. We often hear these types of phrases used to describe others at work, and sometimes among our friends, who have had the fortune, or misfortune, to have completed a personality questionnaire.However, these phrases often hide a greater complexity, not only within the instrument, but also in understanding the true richness and diversity of what it is to be human. In this chapter, we look at what is personality and how psychologists have tried over the past one hundred or more years to categorise it, and we consider the implications of different personalities for coaching.