Liz Strauss at Successful Blog

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January 15, 2007

Using the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator as a Personal Productivity Tool

ME Liz Strauss wrote this at 8:54 am

The Myers-Briggs Type Indicator

A conversation started this weekend about the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator. I promised to continue it, but before I do, some background might help. The Myers-Briggs Type Indicator outlines our preferences for four categories of focus:

  1. Favorite World: Introvert or Extrovert — Do you prefer to focus on your inner world, or do you prefer to focus on the outer world?

  2. Information: Sensing or Intuitiion — Do you prefer to focus on basic information, or do you prefer to focus on adding value and interpretation?

  3. Decisions: Thinking or Feeling — Do you prefer to focus on logic and consistency first, or do you prefer to focus first on people and circumstances?

  4. Structure: Judging or Perceiving — Do you prefer to get things decided and to closure, or do you prefer to keep room for new information and possibilities?

All of us can do all eight. The indicator only points to our preferences — where we go first and where we would rather focus.

Finding our preferences adds to our self-awareness. It’s one more way to help manage our life and our business. If we know our preferences, we can keep our energy up and our stress level down — making opportunities for things we prefer does just that.

An introvert, who has a day of meetings, can schedule private time to regroup. An extrovert, who has a day of paperwork to get through, can schedule in a break to touch base with clients or colleagues.

More energy and less stress just by using what we know about ourselves. That makes the Myers-Briggs a personal productivity tool.

How might you change your work day based only on what you know about you?

–ME “Liz” Strauss
Related articles
Who’s Talking about the Myers Briggs Tonight?

Other resources
If you want to seriously take the MBTI, the Myers & Briggs Foundation recommends Capt.org. It’s US$150 via email. If you want a taste of what the test measures, you might go to Humanmetrics. com
Keirsey.com They carried on the research.
Google Directory for Myers-Briggs Type Indicator
Type Logic Resources and software





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24 Comments to “Using the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator as a Personal Productivity Tool”

  1. January 15th, 2007 at 9:43 pm
    qureyoon said

    hm.. never thought it’ll be quite a buzz here :P
    and i never pay to took the test.

    usually i took it, before interview sessions on a company that i wanted to work with.

    and to see that it actually take $150 ?! wow ! never thought of such a price.

    but the MBTI test, are surely accurate. there’s much you can learn from the results, and i do agree it can change the way you can become more productive or vice versa ;P

    there’s some case where you became agree with the negative aspects, so that you say like ‘well, that’s me what do you expect?!’ and you refused to do some improvement ;)

  2. January 15th, 2007 at 10:02 pm
    ME Strauss said

    Hi queryoon,
    You’re right. I ‘ve seen folks use their preferences to justify their weaknesses. “Oh I’m an intuitive, so I’m not good with data.” As if a business could run if everyone gave themselves permission to just not care about things they didn’t want to care about. :)

  3. January 16th, 2007 at 5:38 am
    Jesse said

    We are all taking the indicator in our department. So far, 2 of us are nearly identical ISTJs and our boss is an ENTJ. That must be why we work so well together. Having 2 ISTJs working on the same thing could be a disaster, but we are diversified to our specialties. We can’t wait until the others take answer the questions.

  4. January 16th, 2007 at 5:41 am
    ME Strauss said

    Hi Jesse,
    That you’re all thinkers means that the three of you probably don’t hurt each other’s feelings, but whoa for the feeler who walks into your group! :)

    It seems good that your intuitive boss has two sensory guys working with him and vice versa. :)

  5. January 16th, 2007 at 10:19 am
    Kian Ann said

    I took this test when I was studying management in school. It said that I am an INTJ!

    So I’m supposed to be introverted. Well.

    Maybe I am. :P

  6. January 16th, 2007 at 10:42 am
    ME Strauss said

    Hi Kian Ann!
    I’m an introvert as well. That only means that we like to focus inward to consider the world. :)

  7. January 16th, 2007 at 11:06 am
    Whitney said

    I took the MBTI in my mid-20s and learned I’m an ISTJ. That knowledge has helped me deal with challenges on individual jobs, shape my overall career path, and identify what kinds of volunteer work to pursue.

    In my mid-30s, at another job, HR administered a shorter version of the MBTI to try to improve communication between staff and management. My boss was very different from me, and the MBTI showed that he was my polar opposite. While I tried to take the new info and use it to improve how we worked together, he didn’t reciprocate and didn’t respond to my attempts at improvement…the whole exercise proved fruitless for the two of us. It did help identify some traits (preferences) in other’s work styles that mesh badly with mine. The knowledge has been valuable for job interviews, and has helped me to craft better questions.

  8. January 16th, 2007 at 11:12 am
    ME Strauss said

    Hi Whitney,
    I had a boss one who believed that I was undisciplined because i had to walk around before I could write. Luckily he had an open mind and I finally was able to explain to him that I could write until I had time to figure out what it was that I wanted to write about.

    Sounds like the boss you describe suffered from the same idea as mine did at first — that everyone thinks in the same way and if you don’t you must be being . . . difficult, stupid, arrogant, lazy, undiscipline, or some other negative.

    If someone is unwilling to take in the idea that we might actually be wired differently, then the exercise of finding out how we are wired is useless at best.

    However, accept the premise and the possibilities of using the information as you did are really quite marvelous. :)

  9. January 18th, 2007 at 12:06 am
    Glen Stansberry said

    I’ve never really thought of a personality test as a productivity tool, but it makes sense.

    The more you know about yourself, the better you can plan your workday. Great post Liz!

  10. January 18th, 2007 at 4:55 am
    ME Strauss said

    Hi Glen,
    Welcome! I’m laughing because my first thought was, “Of course you didn’t. Your brain isn’t twisted and weird like mine is. You have a chance at a normal life. . . .” :)

    just kidding.

    I have one more post about using the Myers-Briggs as a manager and that might shed even more light. :)

  11. January 18th, 2007 at 7:32 am
    Liz Strauss at Successful Blog - Myers-Briggs: Vacation and Work with your PJs said

    [...] Related articles Using the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator as a Personal Productivity Tool Who’s Talking about the Myers Briggs Tonight? [...]

  12. January 19th, 2007 at 4:05 pm
    Loose Links « Ian’s Messy Desk said

    [...] Myers-Briggs Type Indicator as a Personal Productivity Tool: [...]

  13. February 6th, 2007 at 3:29 pm
    Galba Bright said

    Hello Liz:

    I would caution people against reading too much into a Myers Briggs test result. I’ve worked with numerous companies in the past and helped them to choose and use psychometric assessment tools.

    I think Myers Briggs is useful for initiating a discussion about individual differences and for exposing people to the idea that we are not all the same. I know I did an assessment years ago and it began to get me thinking.

    However, I would never recommend it as a basis for hiring and other serious people development decisions, nor would I use it to guide my personal development decisions. The key problems about Myers Briggs are
    1) it doesn’t measure cognitive abiility, which is an important part of how we perform as human beings.
    2) the report is fakeable, both consciously and unconsciously. It depends on the test taker’s state or mood at the time that s/he did the test. - the results are not measured against any objective observable data, so if the person deliberately misrepresents themself one has no way of knowing. The best psychometric assessment tools always have a scale that measures the extent to which a person has been frank and candid in answering.
    3) the terms used in the test do not have any consistent intrinsic meaning i.e. people completing the test do not necessarily ascribe the same meaning to a certain adjective and therefore when comparing ratings there is a high risk that one is comparing apples and oranges, as opposed to apples and apples.

    Myers Briggs is probably the best known test of it’s type in the world. It is extensively marketed, yet there are several tools that are far more reliable,valid and do a better job. I don’t have any agenda against Myers-Briggs, nor am I pushing an alternative.

    Myers-Briggs is useful as an initial prod, but it’s not a good tool for the reasons that i outlined.
    Perhaps the ASTD or SHRM would be good sources for people wishing to broaden their awareness of cutting edge effective assessment tools. I hope that this comentt doesn’t come across as carping, rather as an encouragement to us to use the best possible tools as we seek to raise our self awareness.

  14. February 6th, 2007 at 3:47 pm
    ME Strauss said

    Hi Galba,
    Actually, I don’t have a lot of faith in any organization that weighs too heavily a formal assessment over the informal assessments of its managers. All formal assessments are flawed in the mere that humans are not standardized beings that can be “normed.” Each of us is the exception to the test.

    All formal assessments are useful in that they provide additional, in my mind, supplemental information that is useful, but not standalone valid. The variability in the construction and delivery of any test make it impossible for it to be otherwise.

    So if we want to use them to color in details that is a fine thing, but if we want to use them to define and label, then we are walking on thin ice.

  15. March 15th, 2007 at 10:25 pm
    Sevda Cranston said

    What is the common code in myers briggs type indicator for managers

  16. March 15th, 2007 at 11:03 pm
    ME Strauss said

    Hi Sevda,
    Welcome!
    I really think that all types can be vital and vibrant managers. I’m not sure what the answer to your question is. Maybe one of the people who reads my blog does. :)

    Liz

  17. March 16th, 2007 at 12:25 pm
    Galba Bright said

    Hello Liz:

    At the Myers-Briggs Foundation website, there is an overview about their 16 different personality types. This can help your readers understand how their specific preferences are described by the company. It won’t, however,answer the question that your most recent commenter asked.I feel that you’ve perfectly captured one of the reasons why this question is difficult to answer definitively because, as you say in your comment, all of these types include preferences that may help a manager to be successful. Here is the link for Myers-Briggs site.

    http://www.myersbriggs.org/my%2Dmbti%2Dpersonality%2Dtype/mbti%2Dbasics/

    Here is another link from the Myers-Briggs’ Foundation website, where they list web based companies that they believe use the Myers-Briggs’tools in keeping with the Foundation’s ethical requirements.

    http://www.myersbriggs.org/more%2Dabout%2Dpersonality%2Dtype/links/

    For those in a hurry, they can google a phrase like “intj careers” and look at the results. If a person takes the “quick fix” approach, they need to be careful of the pitfalls. I recommend that your readers treat such information as providing “possibly helpful suggestions.” Your personal development is too important to skim over. The more focussed effort you put in, the more you’ll get out.

    With all these provisos and disclaimers, here’s the link to Google’s #1 ranking for the phrase “intj careers.”

    http://www.teamtechnology.co.uk/careers/intj.htm

    In an earlier comment on this thread, I suggested that there were better (less well marketed) tools that would give people a more reliable and valid insight into their personality.

    I feel that the debate that you’ve initiated about Myer’s-Briggs is useful, because any discussion that helps us to understand ourselves better has the potential to make the world a better place.

    Thanks,once more Liz.

  18. March 16th, 2007 at 12:46 pm
    ME Strauss said

    Thanks Galba,
    What a wonderful response. I know it took time and thought. I appreciate that. :)

  19. June 8th, 2007 at 3:03 am
    Howard said

    The Myers-Briggs opened up a whole new world of how to see myself and others. It led to new understanding of how I work, made sense of things other people did that I could never empathize with before, and really shifted my whole life. I talk some about it on my webpage. Thanks for directing people to that test, and personality types in general as a way to increase understanding.

  20. June 8th, 2007 at 9:05 am
    ME Strauss said

    Hi Howard,
    The Myers-Briggs won’t ever replace conversation and relationship, but the most profound impact I’ve seen it make on a group is to prove unequivocably that we de not think alike.

  21. July 5th, 2007 at 8:58 pm
    Matthew said

    Myers-Briggs is not reliable, one should not base any descision or action on any belief derived from an MBTI without solid external supporting evidence.

    Problems:

    1) Notoriously unreliable - most people are not the same type on subsequent tests…it changes by the time of day you take the test!

    2) Most people are not at the extreme of any type, we are all pretty much in the middle ( aside from the variances noted above) MTBI assumes BiModal. Chances are you are not sufficiently one or the other for there to be any value in differentiating.

    3) Faking, Far too easy to fake! Fake away, they can’t tell. Google what they want you to be and put on an act - just think how you’re going to feel if some faker gets the job you should have had!

    4) The Forer effect - of the MyersBriggs types try and find one that is not largely accurate of yourself (at sometime of the day, workweek, PMS Cycle, etc.) Chances are 90% of them will be a good fit. Mr Forer proved that if you are assigned one, you believe it, and if you assign a whole room to it, they all believe it. Myers Brigs and Horoscopes work on the same principle.

    5) Exponents of Myers Briggs dismiss critics by “playing the man not the ball”. They will criticise you and say whay you are to dismiss logic. A bit like a religion, heretics are defective and no questions will be entertained.

  22. July 6th, 2007 at 5:43 am
    ME Strauss said

    Matthew,
    Welcome!
    Obviously, if I ran this article, I think differently than you do. Though I don’t find the MBTI to be a flawless tool, I do find it useful and helpful in telling us certains about ourselves and how people think. I and my friends have come out consistently on the test. Of course we felt no need to fake our answers.

    No one is saying to judge anyone by a MBTI only to leave room for the difference in our thinking as there will always be differences in our thinking. :)

  23. August 25th, 2008 at 3:13 pm
    Stacey Myers said

    We ended up taking the Myers Briggs test in our office as well. So far the results have helped us work together a little bit more efficiently but time will tell. We are beginning to make more decisions based on our individual strengths and weaknesses and how we all work together. I don’t think it will revolutionize how we work but I definitely see how it can help us become more efficient. We ended up using this site as a resource: http://www.personalvaluation.com

  24. November 4th, 2008 at 12:09 am
    Chipy said

    Hey awesome blog! There is actually this forum that connects Myer Briggs Type Indicate ( MBTI ) users with other users called Personality Cafe. Just go on google and search for the keywords Personality Cafe. I would love to chat with some of you and get to know about your personality a little bit more!

    Just wanna help you guys discover yourself a little more. :)

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