Do you get your energy from being with other people or from being alone? How do you prefer to make decisions – based on present-day facts or based on a future theory and connecting what might be possible? MBTI can help you understand the power of these answers and much more.
Also known as Myers-Briggs, MBTI is the most widely used personality inventory in the world. 80% of Fortune 100 companies use it to help build stronger and more effective teams and healthier organisations. By enabling a deep understanding of personal motivations and group interactions, it provides powerful insights that can be applied to many personal and business issues, and revisited over time as new challenges and opportunities arise. It is especially relevant in a context of ongoing change.
There are 16 different personality types. Discover our top 5 reasons why you should know yours and that of those people who are important to you and your business.
1. Understand yourself better
All learning starts with becoming more self-aware and how you prefer to operate in a changing world. Where do you focus your attention and draw energy? How do you process information? How do you make decisions and handle challenges? What makes you unique and different, not in terms of capability or skill, but in terms of your personality preferences. Learn your strengths and potential blindspots, so you can manage your behaviour more effectively and relate to others more.
2. Understand others
How well do you understand what makes others tick? No one type is better than another, but we are all different. MBTI will help you to understand the world through someone else’s eyes. More often than not we prefer to think and behave in ways that reflect who we are. We may find it difficult to understand someone else’s perspective. Once we have a tool to do this, we can noticeably broaden our influence, our connection with others and ultimately our ability to thrive.
3. Thrive through change
Ongoing change is an integral part of today’s global context. However research consistently shows that current change solutions overwhelmingly fail to achieve their objectives. This is largely down to communication breakdowns and a lack of appreciation that people deal with change in different ways. MBTI helps people understand these different reactions and needs. As a result, you can give everyone the best opportunity to get what they need and to bring their creativity and energy to the constant of organisational change.
4. Become a better leader
Leaders vary widely in their styles and approaches. Whilst there is no “perfect” type for leadership, a growing body of research indicates that the best leaders are those who can skilfully adapt their style to meet the needs of the situations they face and the people they lead. By understanding different personality preferences, you can improve your leadership abilities in ways that not only fit your specific situation but also improve your leadership, whilst staying true to your nature.
5. Improve team-effectiveness
Six core issues affecting teams today include communication, team culture, leadership, change, problem solving/conflict resolution and stress. By using MBTI as a framework, teams can understand the differences that each team member brings to the team, learning about themselves, and each other. The magic comes when teams understand how these components can work together, how gaps can be overcome to boost team success. Fostering openness and trust, underscoring the value of diversity, as well as identifying strengths and potential blindspots can lead to the highest performing teams.
