At a Board development session earlier
this week we discussed the results of recent Myers Briggs personality type tests we
had all taken. The purpose of this was
for us to gain more insight into ourselves as individuals, the Board collectively
and how we relate and interact together.
We want to work more effectively as a collective Board through being
aware our strengths and where there may be gaps or less prevalent personality
types we need to accommodate for. Before
you get too excited, this blog isn’t going to be a tell-all story of what my
fellow Board members’ personality type results are; I’ll leave them to decide
whether to share this information in public or not!
For anyone not familiar with Myers
Briggs, essentially it is a way of identifying your preferred personal style in
four dimensions, which defines how you perceive the world and make decisions. A simple survey is completed by an
individual, then scored resulting in a four-letter description of your ‘type’
from the four different dichotomy scales, as shown below:
Dichotomies
|
||
Extraversion
(E)
|
–
|
(I) Introversion
|
Sensing (S)
|
–
|
(N) Intuition
|
Thinking (T)
|
–
|
(F) Feeling
|
Judging (J)
|
–
|
(P) Perception
|
From the above dichotomies there are 16
different personality types (shown below).
This doesn’t mean any individual is restricted to behaving in a
particular way, but the scored ‘type’ just defines their preference for how they perceive the world and make decisions.
From the scoring, my type came out as
ENTJ, which means I have a preference for Extroversion, Intuition, Thinking and
Perception. This doesn’t mean I can’t practice
and use skills or attributes associated with Introversion, Sensing, Feeling or
Judging, only that these aren’t my preferred styles.
This outcome for me was no surprise and
is consistent with the three times I have done this before in the last 15 years. The most interesting thing for me to reflect
on now is how this applies in my current role and how I relate to colleagues
internally and externally. I also want
to take time to think through how using knowledge of my preference can help me to
be more effective.
As an ENTJ most of my weaker
characteristics stem from my dominant Extraverted Thinking, the E and T in my
type. These can overtake my personality,
stifling the natural expression and balancing value of the other personality
functions. Because of this I am aware
that I may:
·
Find it hard to understand other
people's needs where these differ from my own.
·
Become so engrossed in a plan or
ambition that personal needs and the needs of others are forgotten.
·
Take every decision not made in
agreement with my rational beliefs as a personal rejection.
I am aware of this, which is a start,
and will make efforts to try to counter these perceptions and how they
influence my behaviours and decisions where I can. I’ll be doing a similar exercise in the near
future with my direct team to help us work better together.
