The Predictive Index Test

Also known as the PI index or PI behavioral assessment, the Predictive Index test can help you select employees who will give you the range of behaviors at work that will create strong relationships, teams, and businesses.

In the movie, The Princess Bride, there is a scene in which the hero, the Dread Pirate Roberts, outwits another character named Vizzini and tricks him into drinking a cup of poison.

During the battle of wits, Vizzini engages in a stunning display of deductive reasoning to decide which of the two cups he’s offered contains the poison and to drink from the other. His mental gymnastics leaves the audience befuddled, the hero amused, and the poor Vizzini reduced to cheating … and dying.

Answering behavioral assessment questions as part of an interview process can be a bit like Vizzini’s experience when confronted with the cup of poison:

• Do I respond with what I really think?
• Do I respond with what they want me to think?
• Do I respond with what I think they want me to think?
• Or do they think that I’ll think what they want me to think so I should really respond with what I think?

Among behavior assessment tools for employees, the predictive index assessment solves this conundrum of second-guessing oneself. It asks test takers to select from a list of adjectives ones that describe the way others expect them to act. It also asks them to select from a second list of adjectives that describe them in their own opinion.

The results are a remarkable set of data that accurately:

• Describe an employee’s behavioral profile or preferred way of communicating and interacting with others.
• Suggest how they are likely to interact with employees who have different behavioral profiles.
• Reveal the strengths and possible trouble spots associated with different profile combinations.

In this episode of Stay Paid, Luke and Josh poke fun at themselves and each other as they discuss their own behavioral profiles and how they interact with each other. They also talk about how, for years, they’ve been using the PI behavioral assessment for sales.

Spoiler alert: There are four profiles especially suitable for salespeople and, at ReminderMedia, there is a strong and definite correlation between our successful salespeople and their PI profile.

Listen to the podcast to hear more details about the Predictive Index and the profiles it defines. Then, we invite you and your team to take a free PI assessment.

It’s fun, interesting, and you can walk away with a reliable indication of how different people on your team prefer to communicate and how they will interact with others. From there you can build on strengths, compensate for potential weaknesses, and fill in the gaps with needed differences.

Key Points

• Companies use behavioral assessments to screen candidates for fit within a company’s culture and for alignment with the needs of the position for which they are hiring.
• There are 17 Predictive Index reference profiles that are grouped into four categories.
• Get the most value from the results of a Predictive Index test by using your team’s plotted results to pair people who will work well together and to find gaps you may want to fill with people who have needed profiles.

Action Item

Go to remindermedia.com/staypaidPI and take the PI predictive index test online. Have your team take it too, and look for how you can use the strengths of your people to build stronger relationships, teams, and business.