The more that I talk about MBTI(Myers Briggs Type Indicator), the more people start asking about using MBTI to resolve psychological issues.  This is my first red flag to stop and explain that although knowing your type is a useful self-development tool, it does not correct or deal with personal psychological issues.  Carl Jung was a contemporary of Sigmund Freud, but unlike Freud who studied abnormal behavior and defined the ego and id, Jung studied what it means to be normal.  In reality, everyone has issues and some can be resolved by understanding your personality preferences.  Others can be resolved by understanding your friends and families personality preferences.  There are still others that are not at all related to MBTI, but are better suited for Freud’s work.

To help contextualize the idea, I’ll explain how I have found the MBTI tool very useful and when I drew the line between MBTI and psychological therapy.

• MBTI is a great self development tool.  By knowing your preferences you can facilitate environments that work with you and are in line with what you need.  I am an ENTJ and know that I need people around (Extrovert), that I need to plan everything out (Judging), that I need some quiet time to think about the big picture and observe(Intuitive) and finally that I need to debate my decisions with peers (Thinking).  I interpreted this and know that I do not work at my best in my home in a quiet space.  I work at my best with people around and ideas flowing aloud.  I also came to realize why I love confrontation (Thinking) and rarely use empathy in my decision making process.  Introducing Feeling and empathy in my decision making process has been the hardest and yet most rewarding development that I have been working on.
• MBTI helps understand why certain interpersonal relationships are easier than others. When I took my certification course at AMA, I learned that Judging types have a hard time accepting Perceiving types.  This is because the Judging type wants closure on all issues as soon as possible, whereas Perceiving types prefer to defer decisions until they are necessary.  Understanding this difference allowed me to take a step back and recognize that it is not that I don’t like the person, I just have a hard time accepting their preference.  To resolve this, I often try to compromise with my peers by setting deadlines that appease my Judging preference and put constraints on how long my Perceiving-preferenced peers can deliberate.
• MBTI does not explain your issues with your parents.  I don’t know if everyone has issues with their parents, but Freud certainly believed many people did.  Those issues are sometime driven by trauma or years of conflict or whatever the reason, but ultimately they are not resolved by understanding your core personality preferences. These issues require time with a professional discussing what the root causes might be and how to get past them.

Over the last week, I celebrated Passover with my family and always appreciate all the conflicts of personalities in the room.  The matriarch of my father’s family is an ESTJ and lets everyone know how every task should be done.  The fact that all of her children have a preference for Feeling helps explain some of the tension, but many other issues stem from years of other “stuff” compounding.  I typically stop using MBTI after accepting who everyone is and what their preferences are.  I am not equipped to resolve the other stuff.

If you are an MBTI enthusiast like me, I hope you recognize that MBTI is a tool that can be used often, but does not fix everything!

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Over the last few weeks I have had some very interesting conversations with people who rationalize situations very differently than I do.  These conversations were all theoretical and stirred a heated and loud debate.  It wasn’t till afterwards that I realized these debates were fueled by the T-F dichotomy.  

One of the conversations happened yesterday with a friend who said he thinks we should NEVER fire people.  I asked him if there was any situation when he thought someone should be let go and he responded NO.  I was in shock until I realized that he strongly prefers Feeling and is very empathetic.

I personally prefer Thinking and am clearly not as empathetic as my friend.  I generally approach a situation by assessing all the facts before I assess people’s emotions.  If my goal is to cut $100,000 from the budget, I look at my expenses and see what I don’t need.  This analysis is unrelated to the people that may be effected by the cuts.  

I tried very hard to explain my thought process to my friend and he wouldn’t even listen.  Granted, I also had a hard time listening to him.  The best part was when we both realized that we were much better off having had the conversation.  We were finally able to show the other person the value of extreme Feeling and extreme Thinking.  We agreed that starting from both extremes makes the middle so much more meaningful.  

Can you imagine what the world would be like if everyone preferred Thinking?  It would be a place where facts and figures would rule.  People would lose jobs regularly.  There would be no leniency for rule breakers or punishments.  

The world would be very different if everyone preferred Feeling.  It would be a place where empathy and camaraderie ruled.  No one would ever be let go and punishments and rules would differ for each person.  

As a T, I think the F-World would be chaos.  To an F, the T-World would be prison.

Next time you have a heated debate with someone, think if it is driven from the T-F dichotomy.  If it is, I hope you learn as much as I have from the other person’s perspective.

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As I continue to work with new people and personalities, I realize how insightful Carl Jung’s theory is and how useful the MBTI tool can be.  MBTI is based on the premise that everyone has 4 basic personality preferences.  The first preference shows where you get your energy from (my E vs I post). The second and third deal with how you take in information and how you rationalize your decisions.  The 4th preference deals with how you approach the task at hand.  I find that how you decide to approach a task causes the most issues between people and is directly related to the last preference, Judging vs Perceiving.  

People who prefer judging are planners by nature.  They likely have a schedule of tasks and meetings set in advance and probably think through each meeting agenda ahead of time.  J’s rarely like to change plans unless they have allotted time and room for change.  This may sound rigid, but is more about closure.  J’s like to come to closure in a timely way, and usually that involves setting a plan and finishing on time or even in advance.

On the other hand, people who prefer perceiving are the exact opposite.  They don’t like plans and are constrained by rigid schedules.  Their tendency is to go with the flow and enjoy changing things.  When working on a project, P’s are likely to want to leave the research phase open ended.  P’s accomplish tasks when under pressure and will likely do the bulk of work towards the end of the project timeline.  

Imagine, if you are a J with a preference to plan and working for a P, it might feel like you aren’t accomplishing anything because of the ongoing research phase.  As the deadline approaches , you might feel resentment for the last minute requests.  In the opposite situation, if you are a P with a preference for flexibility and working for a J, you might feel constrained.  You might feel resentment for having to work on tasks that aren’t needed for weeks or months.   

People who are aware of their preferences try to facilitate situations that make them comfortable.  I have a preference for Judging and set schedules and plans.  Every time I have worked for someone with a preference for Perceiving, I either enforce a schedule for the whole project or make my own mini schedules and plans.  This helps me focus and accomplish at my best.  Every time I have had P’s working for me, I have noticed their ability to avoid plans and facilitate change.  For myself, I plan a longer research phase to help satisfy their need.  I also try to keep changing things for them, or allow them to change things, but I always set clear and hard deadlines.  Once the deadlines are set, I leave them be and trust they will deliver on time.  P’s can have a perception that a J’s need for status updates comes from micro managing, when often it is just a way to make sure the plan is being followed.

Since I am a J, my tips are slightly biased towards J’s working with P’s.  How do you react in similar situations?  Are you a P and worked with J’s like me?  What helped you?

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Last week I attended the 4 day Myers-Briggs Type Indicator® (MBTI®) Certification Program at AMA.  The seminar is meant for HR professionals to administer to their clients and staffs.  Although that isn’t my field, I felt this is a great tool to have as a team leader, manager or entrepreneur.  I was fortunate to have Linda K Kirby, the authority in the field, as my instructor and am inspired to share some highlights.

The theory behind MBTI was developed Carl Jung, a Swiss psychiatrist, in the 1920′s.  He believed that everyone is born with innate behavioral preferences and those preferences make up our psychological types.  Katharine Briggs and her daughter Isabel Briggs Myers took Jung’s work and applied it, developing a test to determine a person’s type.  The seminar at AMA taught how to administer the test and interpret the results.

MBTI types are based on a set of 4 dichotomies.  Today, I will only focus on the first: Extroversion Vs. Introversion.  Many people think this has to do with how much you like people and like interacting with people and that just isn’t true.  This dichotomy deals with where you get your energy from.  In other words, when is your brain revved the most?  Are you firing all cylinders when there is a lot going on around you and you are interacting with people?  Or do you need quiet and calm to work and function at your best?  When thinking about this distinction, keep in mind that everyone operates in both extroverted and introverted situations.  The question you should ask is which you prefer more.

Here are 5 differences between extroverts and introverts that really hit home for me.  I hope you find them helpful.

1. People who prefer extroversion(E‘s) need noise or activity around them to work at their best, while people who prefer introversion(I‘s) need quiet and calm to operate at their best.  This means an E will likely want the music playing in their office to get work done, but the I will find that distracting.
2. After a handful of active meetings an E will likely feel energized and want to continue while an I will feel drained.  An I will probably want to go into a quiet office to re energize, not meaning to be rude.
3. I‘s prefer to communicate in writing so they can process and respond in their optimal environment, while E‘s prefer to talk over the phone or communicate in person.  The E‘s need to communicate in person may seem intrusive to an I, but is not meant to be.
4. In a meeting I‘s will take their time to process their thoughts before deciding what to say.  They will often require a few seconds of silence to respond.  An E might interpret that silence as being calculating or not willing to share, when in reality they prefer to operate in silence.
5. In social situations, I‘s are less likely to initiate conversations.  This is not because they are shy or not interested, it is just because their tendencies are to stay silent.  The E‘s in the same setting will want to initiate conversation and interact with many people.  This overly friendliness may seem disingenuous, but it is not meant that way.  It is a function of their natural behavioral tendencies.

I prefer extroversion and I realized that I often get an email from a colleague and pick up the phone or walk down the hall instead of responding to the email.  This may be okay for many people, but after learning about what introverts prefer, I am sure it isn’t appreciated by all.  The next time you pick up the phone to call someone, ask yourself, “are they an Extrovert?  Would they prefer an email?”

What do you think your type is?  Any other situations that we should all be sensitive to?

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