The Myers-Briggs Type Indicator

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.

Why do NFL teams conduct training camps annually? Fundamentally, they are testing each player’s level of knowledge of the team’s playbook. This assists the coaches in deciding who to keep or cut, but more importantly, it allows the executives to assess each athlete’s character. Likewise, the Myers-Briggs Test has everyone answer a myriad of questions to figure out their specific personality. I received the designation of introverted, sensing, feeling, and judging or “ISFJ.” Simply, I am someone who avoids receiving attention, builds deep, personal friendships, and judges people harshly for their mistakes. Additionally, this test was extremely informative because it helped me identify possible future jobs and explained how I can further excel within social relationships.

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..

The Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI) is used to evaluate my personality type. My personality type is ESTJ with 1% Extravert, 38% Sensing, 25% Thinking, and 3% Judging. The ESTJ personality falls under the SJ – The Guardian in the Keirsey’s Temperaments category.

“People are different from each other, and that no amount of getting after them is going to change them. Nor is there any reason to change them, because differences are probably good, not bad” (Keirsey & Bates, 1984). This quote from “Please Understand Me” shows the different is a good thing. During my class, I was able to take the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator test to see which of the sixteen types I fell under, which then falls into the four temperaments (also known as the colors). Eight traits make up your type. These traits identifies normal human behaviors and characteristics. The Myers-Briggs Type Indicator “explains personality types in greater depth, which can be useful in developing strategies for more effective study, better time management, smoother communications, more successful relationships, selecting courses and majors, and developing our less-preferred ways of learning” (Personality Types & Learning, 2016).

This past Friday the Myers-Briggs test determined my personality to be within the INFJ category. The character description helped me to identify different aspects of my personality, and I have reviewed the major ways I communicate with others and progress through various emotions. The career page encouraged me to consider possible careers matching the conditions under which I best thrive. The review also pinpointed my God-given gifts, showing my role in His will.

The Myers Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI) created a strange feeling of joy mixed with feelings of remorse at the same time; I have all these characteristics and still I did not get any leadership role in my life career! Therefore, I believe there are some competencies need to develop. For instance, ENTJs type have difficulty to communicates with SFs type which means I need to develop my Negotiating & Persuasion skills. Furthermore, ENTJs type can be tolerant in the procedures which can lead to loss control the employee and obstacle to achieving the goals. Therefore, I need to develop social awareness skills at workplace to be more flexible with zero tolerance.

This the most widely administered personality test in the world. It is also a valuable tool for understanding communication style. The MBTI has 4 preferences, they are:

The Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI) is an assessment that measures someone's psychological preferences, and how we use these preferences to make a decision. Upon finishing the assessment, I have been classified as an extroverted sensing thinking judging (ESTJ). Which, to me, make perfect sense because according to www.humanmetrics.com/personality/estj, it explains that ESTJ's are joiners, outspoken, and "thrive on order and continuity". All these aspects outline how I think, how I view most subjects, and points out most of my biases. This assessment made me realize why I write in the way I do, because I write logically, objectively, and write more quickly because of it. I don't appeal to the audience and tend to brush

Motivation is a subject that researchers, practitioners, and organizations have spent an unprecedented amount of money on researching, assessing, modeling and working to understand human behavior and performance. With all the research, there is not a quick answer or even full agreement as to what exactly motivates individuals to be successful. The extensive amount of research has included studies across a variety of work settings and at the level of the individual, the group, and the organization leaving us with many theories to explore. Researchers have identified and agreed upon that individual behavior and personality relate to individual performance. I am no different.

I felt the Myers-Briggs type indicator results were accurate because I took it a year ago and it hasn’t changed. I have been a debater all my life and I am not going to change. The document that seemed most like me was “under stress, the ENTP may lose their ability to generate possibilities.” The document that seem least like me was “the least developed area for the ENTP is the Sensing-Feeling arena. Yes, the self-estimated type matches my reported type because a debater never hides from the truth. It was very interesting that this test match me better than most test.

In my opinion, the best test to use for employees would be a Myers-Briggs type indicator. This test is extremely simple to use and not very time consuming. If this was to be given to a group of employees it can be easily read and the results will be sent back within a few days. The group of people may not even know that their personality is being read until the results are back.

The Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (MTBI) is a self-report questionnaire that narrows down psychological preferences and gives insight into how people make decisions. It is based off of the psychological functions: sensation, intuition, thinking, extraversion, introversion, judging, perceiving, and feeling. The combinations of these functions make up 16 different personality traits. After taking this test, I received the personality type of ESTP.