Jordan Salvit

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!

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?