Blog Post
The Power of Decision Profiles vs. Personality Tests
Why leadership teams need to move beyond static assessments
For decades, organisations have relied on personality tests to understand their people. They promised insight, self-awareness, and better teamwork. But in practice, the results often end up in a PDF that gets filed away and rarely influences real decisions.
Leadership today requires more than descriptions. It requires tools that actively improve how teams decide. That’s where Wizer’s Decision Power Profiles mark a fundamental shift.
Why Personality Tests Fall Short
Traditional workplace assessments — from four-letter codes to colour systems — share common weaknesses:
Static and descriptive: They provide labels but don’t adapt as teams, decisions, or contexts change.
Context-insensitive: They capture personality but not how people behave under pressure or in group decisions.
Low organisational impact: Insights are personal, not embedded into systems or processes.
Symptom-focused: They describe style and preferences but overlook the root cause of poor outcomes — how groups actually make decisions.
These limitations explain why so many organisations spend energy fixing symptoms of weak culture or engagement while leaving decision-making itself unexamined.
Introducing Wizer’s Decision Power Profiles
Decision Power Profiles are not another personality test. They are a next-generation, science-based framework designed to improve the quality of decisions across individuals, teams, and organisations.
Built from three evidence-based foundations:
Personality psychology (Big Five): Captures behavioural tendencies in decision contexts.
Cognitive diversity (Dr Juliet Bourke): Maps how people orient to outcomes, options, process, evidence, people, and risk.
Wise Crowd theory (Surowiecki): Demonstrates how diverse, independent groups can outperform even the smartest individuals.
From this research, Wizer identified seven complementary archetypes — Analyzer, Collaborator, Guardian, Explorer, Deliverer, Achiever, and Visionary — each representing a distinct way of approaching decisions.
But the key difference is that these profiles don’t sit in isolation. They plug directly into the Wizer platform, powering live intelligence across your organisation.
Old Tools vs. Next-Generation Decision Intelligence
Traditional Personality Tests | Wizer Decision Power Profiles |
Static, descriptive labels (e.g. types, colours, codes) | Dynamic profiles that adapt to team, decision, and context |
Insights end in a PDF | Insights feed into a live platform |
Focus on individual quirks and preferences | Focus on team strengths, gaps, and blind spots |
Not actionable for decision-making | Real-time recommendation engine suggests missing voices |
Encourages self-awareness only | Builds self-awareness and organisational intelligence |
Often symptom-level insights | Addresses the root cause: how decisions are made |
The Benefits for Leadership Teams
Reduced error rates (~30%) through cognitive diversity and inclusive leadership.
Increased innovation capability (~20%) by surfacing new ideas and overlooked talent.
Faster, smarter decisions by assembling the right people at the right time.
Lasting organisational intelligence — every decision builds capacity for the next.
From Insight to Action
With Wizer, leaders can:
Map decision strengths across the organisation.
Spot blind spots before they affect outcomes.
Assemble panels with the right mix of perspectives.
Unearth hidden talent and surface new contributors.
Everyday decisions become opportunities for learning, alignment, and building trust.
Final Word
The shift is clear:
Old tools describe.
Next-generation tools decide.
Wizer’s Decision Power Profiles give leadership teams not just a picture of who they are, but a system to decide better — consistently, inclusively, and with measurable impact.
