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How Useful is Myers Briggs Personality Test · Enhance.training

• 0:00
  SPEAKER_00: How useful is Myers Briggs personality test?
• 0:03
  SPEAKER_00: And you might also be asking when in your career is the Myers Briggs test useful to take?
• 0:09
  SPEAKER_00: Personality tests are a form of feedback, helping you become more aware of your own preferences, personality traits, and so on.
• 0:16
  SPEAKER_00: Taking Myers Briggs will benefit some of you a lot more than others, and this podcast will give you an idea if MyersBriggs will help you.
• 0:25
  SPEAKER_00: In this podcast, we're going to cover firstly what is the Myers Briggs personality test, secondly, how and when MyersBriggs can be useful to you and your team.
• 0:35
  SPEAKER_00: And third, a rundown of each of the eight Myers-Briggs type indicators, i.e., a bit about the Myers Briggs explained.
• 0:42
  SPEAKER_00: When you understand what you're getting out of taking Myers Briggs, either for yourself or with your team, you can make a better choice on taking it or not.
• 0:51
  SPEAKER_00: My name is Jess Coles and I've had a 25-year management career in corporates and household names such as Innocent Drinks, Fosters, EY, and Peer Consulting, all the way through to SMEs.
• 1:02
  SPEAKER_00: I took the first Myers Briggs personality type test when I was working at Innocent Drinks.
• 1:07
  SPEAKER_00: And I've taken quite a few other personality tests by this point, so it's quite interesting to compare.
• 1:13
  SPEAKER_00: If you're new to this podcast, Enhanced.training shares business and people management expertise to help you improve your performance and that of your team and business.
• 1:22
  SPEAKER_00: And do visit us at Enhanced.training and take a look at the courses and resources for you to improve your management skills and the outcome your team delivers.
• 1:32
  SPEAKER_00: Firstly, a bit about the Myers-Briggs Personality Types Test.
• 1:36
  SPEAKER_00: The Myers-Briggs Test was created in the 1940s by a mother and daughter team, Catherine Briggs and Isabel Briggs-Myers, based on theories by the famous psychologist Carl Jung.
• 1:47
  SPEAKER_00: The Myers-Briggs test consists of 90 plus forced choice questions, which means you have to choose one answer out of two possible options.
• 1:56
  SPEAKER_00: Based on your answer, the Myersbrig test puts you into one of 16 personality types with associated characteristics.
• 2:04
  SPEAKER_00: The Myersbrig test compares four different preference pairs.
• 2:08
  SPEAKER_00: Each preference pair is an opposite.
• 2:10
  SPEAKER_00: Extroverts paired with introverts is the first pair as an example.
• 2:14
  SPEAKER_00: Your preferences are assessed between the extremes of each pairing and you're given a position on the line between the two extremes.
• 2:21
  SPEAKER_00: You are then given a letter depending on which preference you are closer to.
• 2:26
  SPEAKER_00: Those preference pairings are extrovert to introvert, sensors to intuitives, thinkers to feelers, and judges to perceivers.
• 2:35
  SPEAKER_00: You get a letter label for each pairing, which gives you the four letter combination that Myers-Briggs is well known for, and many people who have done the Myers-Briggs test will quote you their four-letter combination.
• 2:47
  SPEAKER_00: The preference pair combinations give you one of the 16 different personality types, each with associated characteristics.
• 2:54
  SPEAKER_00: And with that summary in mind, let's discuss how useful is Myers-Briggs' personality type for an individual.
• 3:02
  SPEAKER_00: The first point to really emphasize is that we use the attributes of both preference pairs every day.
• 3:08
  SPEAKER_00: The Myers-Briggs test shows you how strong your preference is for one of those pairs over the other.
• 3:15
  SPEAKER_00: As mentioned at the beginning, improving conscious knowledge of your preferences is really useful.
• 3:21
  SPEAKER_00: With conscious knowledge, you can work out adapting how you show that preference to others or how your preference affects your decision making and actions.
• 3:30
  SPEAKER_00: What preference pairs you fall into gives you a high level insight about yourself.
• 3:36
  SPEAKER_00: What is even more useful in my view is how strong your preferences are.
• 4:30
  SPEAKER_00: On the downside, the output you get from Myers Briggs is pretty high level, so as you might expect from a questions-based test.
• 4:38
  SPEAKER_00: The more self-aware you are, the less value and knowledge you will get from Myers Briggs.
• 4:43
  SPEAKER_00: This makes the Myers Briggs test more useful towards the beginning of your career, in my view.
• 4:48
  SPEAKER_00: As you get into the middle management ranks and onwards, you are more likely to get a lot more value out of, say, a mentoring or a coaching program than personality tests.
• 4:57
  SPEAKER_00: MyersBriggs is fairly low cost, and most of the 2 million people taking it each year take the test as part of a team.
• 5:04
  SPEAKER_00: So let's talk about how useful is Myers Briggs personality type for a team.
• 5:09
  SPEAKER_00: The insights and increased understanding of team members' preferences is where Myers Briggs and other personality tests become particularly useful in my view.
• 5:19
  SPEAKER_00: Getting to know 5, 10, or 20 people or more in a team takes time and effort.
• 5:24
  SPEAKER_00: Using Myers Briggs can speed up that learning process at least as far as their high-level preferences go.
• 5:30
  SPEAKER_00: You can also look at the team as a whole and see how balanced that team is, where the strong preferences are and what mix you have.
• 5:38
  SPEAKER_00: I think this gives useful insights that you can then use in your job of managing the team overall and individuals within the team.
• 5:46
  SPEAKER_00: Knowing preferences helps you correctly flex the communication and management style that you use with different team members and perhaps the whole team.
• 5:54
  SPEAKER_00: If you had a very introverted team, you might create quieter areas in which team members could use to explore their ideas.
• 6:01
  SPEAKER_00: If you had a very extrovert team, you might organise more team events, meetings and activities so more time is spent together.
• 6:09
  SPEAKER_00: When choosing project teams to solve specific problems, you might combine those with strong thinking preferences, for instance, with those with strong feeling preferences so you cover the full spectrum in the output from that project.
• 6:22
  SPEAKER_00: Knowledge and awareness give you more conscious choices and should help you improve how you communicate and manage your team and help the team overall with their output and enjoyment.
• 6:32
  SPEAKER_00: Use Myers Briggs and other personality typing exercises to learn more and understand more about your team.
• 6:40
  SPEAKER_00: And quickly going through what each Myers Briggs preference pair means.
• 6:45
  SPEAKER_00: The first preference pair of Myers Briggs personality types is extroverts and introverts, and this is about how people respond and interact with the world around them.
• 6:56
  SPEAKER_00: Extroverts typically are energized by being around people, enjoy a variety of tasks and are action-oriented.
• 7:03
  SPEAKER_00: These descriptors probably apply.
• 7:06
  SPEAKER_00: I'm a people person.
• 7:08
  SPEAKER_00: I like working in groups.
• 7:10
  SPEAKER_00: I jump quickly into activity.
• 7:12
  SPEAKER_00: I just want to get things done.
• 7:14
  SPEAKER_00: Introverts tend to feel recharged from having time to alone to think through their ideas, are more thought-oriented and enjoy deep, meaningful social interaction.
• 7:24
  SPEAKER_00: These descriptors probably apply.
• 7:26
  SPEAKER_00: I like working on my own or with one or two others.
• 7:30
  SPEAKER_00: I like to reflect and think before jumping into action.
• 7:33
  SPEAKER_00: I like exploring different ideas and possibilities.
• 7:37
  SPEAKER_00: The second preference pair of Myers-Briggs personality tests is sensors and intuitives, which focuses on how we gather information from around us.
• 7:47
  SPEAKER_00: Sensors, as the name suggests, use information they gather from their five senses.
• 7:52
  SPEAKER_00: Tend to be quite realistic people who focus on facts and details and apply common sense and past experience to come up with practical solutions to problems.
• 8:01
  SPEAKER_00: These might apply.
• 8:03
  SPEAKER_00: I like to see the application of things to learn best.
• 8:06
  SPEAKER_00: I like working through the facts before deciding.
• 8:09
  SPEAKER_00: I trust experience over ideas and concepts.
• 8:13
  SPEAKER_00: Intuitives pay more attention to patterns, impressions, and the big picture.
• 8:18
  SPEAKER_00: They enjoy thinking about possibilities, abstract theories, and seek creative solutions to problems.
• 8:23
  SPEAKER_00: These statements might apply.
• 8:25
  SPEAKER_00: I'm interested in new possibilities.
• 8:28
  SPEAKER_00: I like to understand the big picture, then work out the facts.
• 8:32
  SPEAKER_00: I focus more on the future than the past.
• 8:35
  SPEAKER_00: The third preference pair of Myers-Briggs tests are thinkers and feelers, which is about how people make decisions from the information gathered.
• 8:45
  SPEAKER_00: Thinkers place more emphasis on facts and objective data.
• 8:49
  SPEAKER_00: They tend to be more consistent, logical, and impersonal in their decision making.
• 8:53
  SPEAKER_00: They value honesty and fairness.
• 8:56
  SPEAKER_00: And these statements might apply.
• 8:58
  SPEAKER_00: I notice inconsistencies.
• 9:00
  SPEAKER_00: I believe telling the truth is important.
• 9:03
  SPEAKER_00: I can be seen as uncaring or indifferent.
• 9:07
  SPEAKER_00: Feelers tend to make decisions based on their personal values while considering how the feelings and emotions of others will be impacted by their actions and decisions.
• 9:15
  SPEAKER_00: These statements might apply.
• 9:17
  SPEAKER_00: I like to maintain harmony in the team.
• 9:20
  SPEAKER_00: I am tactful and caring.
• 9:22
  SPEAKER_00: I make decisions with my heart.
• 9:25
  SPEAKER_00: I can be too indirect at times.
• 9:29
  SPEAKER_00: The fourth preference pair of Myers-Briggs tests are judging and perceiving, which is about how people tend to deal with the world around them.
• 9:38
  SPEAKER_00: Those are the preference for judging, lean towards structure, planning, firm decisions and sticking to the rules.
• 9:44
  SPEAKER_00: Statements you might make include, I like things organised and planned.
• 9:49
  SPEAKER_00: I like to-do lists.
• 9:50
  SPEAKER_00: I appear task and goal-oriented.
• 9:53
  SPEAKER_00: Perceiving tends to be more open, spontaneous, flexible, and adaptable.
• 9:58
  SPEAKER_00: Statements you might recognise, I don't like being too organised, deadlines spur me into action, I prefer to go with the flow.
• 10:06
  SPEAKER_00: I enjoy spontaneity and responding to what happens.
• 10:09
  SPEAKER_00: So there you have the main aspects of the Myers Briggs explained.
• 10:14
  SPEAKER_00: Hopefully you have a better idea of how useful is Myers Briggs personality tests for you.
• 10:19
  SPEAKER_00: Use Myers Briggs personality types to give you additional insights into yourself and your team.
• 10:25
  SPEAKER_00: Use of Myers Briggs and other testing is really useful to speed up the learning about your team and surface the less obvious preferences.
• 10:33
  SPEAKER_00: And the more self aware you are, the less you're likely to get from Myers Briggs and other high level personality tests.
• 10:40
  SPEAKER_00: Keep this in mind when setting your expectations.