The Myers-Briggs Dichotomy

Throughout the beginning of this semester I have looked at how individuals behave within business organizations. Through various exercises and results, I have found a number of patterns within my behavior and interests. I have become aware to what interests me, and a number of skills/abilities I was oblivious I had. This reflection and in class exercises have allowed me to expand my skills, abilities, and behaviors, well fitting them into prospective future employment.

The world would be a lot better of a place if everyone got along and knew how to communicate effectively with one another. There are several different personalities at any given workplace. “According to typological theory, each of us is born with a predisposition for certain personality preferences” (Kroeger pg11 para4). The Myers-Briggs Personality assessment is the most effective way to determine one’s personality type. The test uses different markers to determine how one is stimulated and exerts energy, gather information, make decisions, and living structure. At the completion of the test one will get personality type that is comprised of four letters. The test was developed based off of Carl Jung and Isabel Briggs-Myers’ psychological research on personalities and later dissected into Otto Kroeger’s book, “Type Talk at Work.” This book gives one the tools to determine what one’s personality is and then goes into great detail about one’s strengths and weaknesses and how it applies to to real life situations. My personality description is ENFP; Extravert, iNtuitive, Feeling, and Perceiving. The following are details regarding and ENFP personality type examining a holistic view including personal and work place interactions. Everything is based on insights gained from real world experiences and interactions.

The Myers-Briggs Type Indicator Personality (MBTI) was developed by Briggs Myers and her mother Katharine Cook Briggs in 1943 during the onset of World War II (Ham, 2016). Briggs recognized the need for psychological instruments that would value human differences and utilized the C G Jungs theory in creating the MBTI (The Story of Isabel Briggs Myers, n.d). According to The Myers & Briggs Foundation (2014) Myers and Briggs initially tested a group of 20 relatives and friends. They utilized such sample, because they thought they could predict their personality solemnly on observation which by observation. The initial random sample did not truly represent a whole population, but merely were used due to availability.

Who are you? Many fortune cookies, horoscopes, and other whimsical devices attempt to tell us our personalities, or our combination of traits and behaviors that make up who we are. However, psychologists today deviate from those unsubstantiated methods and have concocted various personality tests that give us a better understanding of who we are. One such test is called the Myers-Briggs personality test. Based on theories by Carl Jung, but primarily created by Isabel Briggs Myers and her mother, Katharine Cook Briggs, the test gives people a standardized survey of questions to answer. Standardized, meaning the test is given and scored in the exact same way every time to give unbiased and accurate results. It scores people in four pairs of characteristics, so there is a total of 16 possible personality types. Each pair of characteristics are opposites and a person can fall anywhere between the extreme end of one opposite to the extreme end of the other. The pairs are extroverted and introverted, sensing and intuition, thinking and feeling, finally judging and perceiving. A person can have strong, moderate or weak tendencies towards a preference. (Rathus, 2010, p. 420) There is some criticism of the Myers-Briggs test however, not everyone fits into the categories. People may answer according to socially acceptable norms instead of their honest answers. Not all of the theories were proven, Carl Jung made many observations and deductions but they weren’t formally

John Adams once said, “Thanks be to God that he gave me stubbornness when I know I am right”. John Adams, like myself was introverted, intellectual, thinking, and judging, or an INTJ on the Myers Briggs personality test. Like all INTJs, Adams was stubborn and flouted the ideas of others that he did not agree with. By using my results from the Meyers Briggs personality test, I can examine how I react to certain things and use this to improve my Spirituality, my relationship with God, and ultimately my relationship with others through Christ.

The Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI) “is an introspective self-report questionnaire designed to indicate psychological preferences in how people perceive the world and make decisions” (13). It is one of several personality assessments that is popular among modern mental health experts throughout the world. Currently, it is estimated that the MBTI is “taken by more than two million people per year and is translated into 16 languages (10). “The purpose of the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator personality inventory is to make the theory of psychological types described by C. G. Jung understandable and useful in people 's lives” (4).

After taking a Myers-Briggs assessment my mind has been changed. The very first time I took any kind of personal assessment was my second year of college. I had taken my general education classes and it was time to pick a major. The thing is, what 19 year old know what they want to do for the rest of their lives? None I tell you! So I went to an advisor and was given the test. Many seemingly random questions the results were in; you can be a doctor or lawyer or astronaut they said! The least helpful 45 minutes of my life I gave to that advisor.

After studying my personality type and reading the book, Please Understand Me. I have learned that I am an Idealist, ENFJ to be exact. From the words in The Myers-Briggs Type Indicator ENFJ describes me as expressive, introspective, friendly, and scheduling. According to the book ENFJ’s are also called teachers. As soon as I read that I couldn’t think of a better title. My whole Life teaching others is what I have wanted to do. Once I furthered my reading I found that there are so many factors that I can identify with and a few things I have not yet began to look into. Whether it is about my hobbies or the simple likes and dislikes I have, this simple test has opened my eyes to things I wasn’t looking into during this time of my life. I have

Having worked in corporate, I have completed a vast number of professional assessments over the years, including the Myers Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI), Strong Interest Inventory Assessments, DISC Profile Assessment, Gallup Strengths Finder and even the more comprehensive executive leadership assessments. In corporate, these are generally performed prior to a promotion or during integration of a merger or acquisition. Initially, my thinking was, these were worthless time wasters; so I put very little stock in any of the broad array of assessments, to which I felt subjected. Surely, proper evaluation had to be more than a game of twenty questions. Across the years, I have saved my results in a small moving box as we have relocated nationally and internationally. I gained a deeper understanding of, belief in and reliance upon the power of assessments. In the last three years, I have sifted through my individual results with a fine toothed comb looking for similarities, consistencies and an underlying foundation on which to strategize the next phase of my life based upon my foundational principles. Interestingly enough, my results across the board, have not changed throughout more than 20 years of completing these assessments. As a result, there were no surprises seeing the result of the MindTools (2015) Leadership Skills Assessment..

Our counselors need to attend the program because this is part of their profession to work with clients and focus in depth on their unique needs. The Myers-Briggs assessment helps our clients gain self-understanding and a healthy psychological development (MBTI Training Institute, 2016). According to the MBTI Training Institute 2016, this program can enrich the work life as a counselor, career counselor, guidance counselor, therapist, or psychologist: improve the communication style in order to clarify the recommendations to clients, enhance your versatility and effectiveness with clients and coworkers, recognize individual communication preferences in order to help clients and families focus on positive steps for improvement, and resolves

Everyone has their own unique personality. Everyone is different, but certain parts of our personality can be analyzed and categorized. Our different interests help decide our true personality, these personalities can help determine and choose our career path and what we will be doing for the rest of our lives. My personality test and my interest survey helped me decide to become a detective because it stated what I am good at and how I interact with people on a regular basis, this helped because it showed my different mannerisms and what type of environment I would work best in. Based on the research of my ESFP Myers Briggs personality type and of my Interest Indicator realistic type careers, I have chosen the career of police detective.

Everyday you learn more and more about yourself.. You might not know it, but you could really like the sushi at the local place you always pass through after school but never get the curiosity of trying it. As senior year comes half of us know where we want to do with the rest of their lives, but the other half is still trying to find who they are. Taking personality tests can be important because they help us learn more about ourselves whether or not they are accurate. While taking both the Big Five Project and the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator assessment, I learned a little more about myself then I had expected.

According to my results of the Myers Briggs analysis and collectivism survey I am very loyal to a group. This could be considered a weakness in the sense that I do not think of myself first. This could allow me to do harm to myself to help others which in a sense could nativity affect my development as a leader and allow others to walk over me. Another weakness presented by the VIA was my humility and arrogance. The article “When Followers Become Toxic”(2004) presented in week 3’s readings states that “Those who already think highly of themselves are most susceptible to flattery’s charms. In particular, leaders predisposed toward narcissism may find their narcissistic tendencies pushed to unhealthy levels when they are given heavy doses of follower ingratiation.” (Offermann, 2004, Page 57) We also discussed this idea of follower influence in the final week of the course, according to the presentation from class some essential qualities of good followers are that they posses courage, honesty, and credibility. These good followers would help this weakness not be such an issue.

The Myers–Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI) enables an individual to gain a deeper insight into their inherent personality traits. For some people, they have had prior knowledge or underlying assumptions about their personality, but this test provides clearer information about each of their identifiable traits. According to the MBTI in Human-metric personality test, my scores were 22% (E) extroverted thinking more than introverted, 9% (N) intuitive as oppose to sensing, 16% (T) thinking more than feeling, and 12% (J) judging as compared to perceiving. Thus, my personality type is ENFJ. The ENFJ personality group is described as a minority group that consists of natural-born leaders, and people filled with passion, and charisma for example, Barack Obama and Oprah Winfrey; they are notable members of this group, also known as the protagonists (16personalities, 2016). The protagonists apprehend pride in providing guidance for others to improve individually and to improve the community at large (16personalities, 2016). The protagonists find it naturally easy to communicate with others and excel at communicating with other people in person (16personalities, 2016).

In organizations, the ability to influence others is critical to each member’s overall effectiveness. Naturally, an individual’s leadership plays a crucial role in the success or failure of an enterprise. Over the years to better understand me as a leader, I participating in the Harvard temperament and Meyer-Briggs personality tests. Of course, I know my type is an ENTJ, and I tend, to be frank, decisive and assume leadership roles. I look for organizational inefficiencies, and I develop and implement comprehensive systems to solve organizational problems. As a result, I enjoy long-term planning, goal setting and expanding my knowledge and teaching others. I relished uncovering new angles and versed in a variety of topics. However, my Achilles heel is my forceful in expressing my opinion and disregard for others thoughts (The Myers & Briggs Foundation - The 16 MBTI® Types, n.d.). By having this awareness, I can modify my approach and address each situation individually. In fact, I started