Here’s what I know: personality tests are a scam. Look, you are perfect as you exist right now. There is no possible way you can improve. You cannot improve your communication with your spouse, or your colleagues, or your boss. Everything right now is perfect. So, if anybody comes to you and says, “You know, if you take the MBTI assessment, you might fix some of the blind spots you have” that is a total scam. Don’t believe it! Look, everything you’re doing right now cannot be improved. You have reached the peak performance of your life. So, don’t believe the hype around “personality tests.”
When running a meeting where Introverts are present, consider a couple of factors:
Introverts will not give you their true feelings right away. They need time to collect their thoughts and respond appropriately. Giving them a small window to respond to, “Anybody got any questions or concerns?” will likely just end with a “Nope, I’m all good.” Ask for a response in the morning or by email later in the day. This way, you can be sure you will get their honest input.
Consensus is not consensus. Any response that is coerced or given too quickly under pressure can be discarded.
Conflict will arise down the line when the Extraverted boss finally hears the opinion of the Introverted colleagues and exclaims, “What! Why didn’t you tell me in the meeting when I asked if anybody had any concerns?!” Avoid this by following Step 1 and giving ample time for a response.
Extraverts will blurt out what is on their mind as a way of solving their problems or brainstorming. This is their cognitive process playing out for all to hear. Most of this bluster is not a final decision but a collaborative approach that happens to be out loud in front of everyone. For the Introvert, this process is internal and should not be viewed as disinterest or lack of focus.
You need to follow Brittinay Lenhart on LinkedIn for all her charming and useful content surrounding improving corporate culture. Here are some of her relevant links for you to get to know here better:
In this wonderfully concise video, Brittinay outlines 5 ways to promote a Healthy REMOTE Work Culture:
360 Degree feedback
Check-In with your people.
Have Effective Meetings
Avoid Micro-managing
Transparency
Give her a follow and connect with her on LinkedIn so you don’t miss out on her content. She is very active and engaging with her audience, truly utilizing her talents to help others.
There is a common post-interview plague that is tragically infecting job seekers. It is in regards to not understanding how the interview went and going as far as to say you “killed the interview.” From my experience in being the middleman in this process, those who claim the interview went amazingly well, don’t get the job. Those who said the interview was OK, or they “think it went alright” are the ones who usually get the role.
Lack of Awareness
There is a disconnect between what you perceive as building rapport and being jovial, and the true reality of the situation. Candidates will tell me they were joking and laughing and the conversation was very light-hearted, as trademark signs that the interview was going swimmingly. What’s happening is the laughter is the nervous kind, and the jokes were off-putting. The laid back nature of the interview is because they’ve already decided you aren’t a fit and they don’t need to get deeper into the details of the job. Generally, this is recurrent theme with these candidates and is something that can be reversed by focusing on MBTI and the way in which one interacts and perceives the world.
Myers- Briggs and Interview Style
We have to start by understanding ourselves. And the way we do that is by first reading, Please Understand Me by David Kiersey. Once we discover the way our specific type (out of 16) perceives and relates to others– in a way I guarantee most of us haven’t fully conceptualized– we can fix some of the recurring potholes we always stumble in.
I think I can offer one straightforward explanation as to why your type is affecting your interviews and potential job offers. If you are an Extrovert in general, you are going to get your energy from the outer world. If along with your extroverted-ness, you also have a preference for Feeling vs Thinking, you are going to internalize your outer world. So when you get the laughter and smiles and eye contact in the interview, you are going to say, “hey, I am doing pretty well here!”
Unfortunately, you may be reading the situation on a very superficial plane. Your S and T functions will come in handy here if you make a wholehearted effort to develop them. Learning to strengthen your Sensing (S) and Thinking (T) functions will help you pick up on physical clues that can alert you to points when the interview might be taking a wrong turn and you need to course correct.
Obviously, there are millions more words to be written on the finer points of using MBTI to help with JUST how to interview better and be more aware of our faults. Though our tendency is to find a way to externalize our blame onto the interviewer, we should first make certain the interviewee truly knows themselves.
What managers get wrong about developing and using talent correctly, is not utilizing the Myers Briggs Type Indicator to bring out the absolute best in each individual. Educators, HR managers, and corporate recruiters have moved away from evaluating people’s innate nature and DNA-level talents in favor of surface-level assessments like the DiSC profile and StrengthsFinder (now called CliftonStrengths).
Speaking with certified MBTI individuals has shed some light on what’s happened in the last decade. MBTI is deemed too complex and requires a deeper discussion about psychology, temperament, and sometimes abstract concepts to fully wrap your head around its application to the business world. Thus, management has implemented broader assessments to get a general consensus about individuals. I would argue most assessments today are simply MBTI-lite and have poached the best concepts of it to make it more digestible to the masses.
Understanding MBTI was a radical shift in my understanding of team dynamics, communication, and individual values. I realized that the reason we have conflict in our work environments can be traced back to PERSONALITY TYPE, rather than our current go-to’s which are blaming intelligence, work ethic, or motivation. This does not address the underlying problem, thus managers are unable to solve inter-office disputes.
Undeniably, people have different innate abilities that make them better suited for certain roles and careers. They also have different ways of communicating and interpreting information. In previous articles I discussed how communication, the centerpiece for all workplace conflict, is largely based on MBTI type over anything else. In subsequent videos and articles, I will address in further detail the ways managers can use “typing” to get the absolute best out of their team.
Please do take a look at some of these YT channels that truly influenced me and my understanding of myself and others. You will find something here that you like.
