Learning to Live and Work Well with Others through the MBTI

The Myers-Briggs Type Indicator or MBTI

Introduction

It will be easier to understand others and ourselves if we learn a method that can typify personality differneces. This can help a lot in various social settings: to function as a leader or as a member of a group. It can be in the family, in business operations, in religious communities and any type of group setting or community project. This method we can learn through the Myers-Briggs type indicator or MBTI. The Myers-Briggs type indicator is a way of indicating 16 types of personalities. In simple terms, it is a personality test. It should be a way of understanding others and ourselves, and not a way of limiting the richness of each of our personalities in a "compartmentalized" form. But it will give us some method of understanding people who often behave according to core personality types.

The eight indicators of the MBTI personality types

There are eight indicators of the MBTI personality types. These are the degrees of introversion or extroversion, the degrees of feeling or thinking, the degrees of sensing or intuiting, and the degrees of perceiving or of judging.

Introversion as a personality indicator

Those who rate high in this indicator mean they are good at concentration and can work at jobs that require much focusing and centering. The person who tends more to introversion is usually aware of the inner world of his thoughts and feelings. Because of this character trait of concentration, focusing, and interiorization, people who have high introversion ratings are highly skilled in jobs and tasks that require detail and accuracy.

Extroversion as a personality indicator

Extroversion is a personality indicator whereby the person focuses not so much on the inner world of his feelings and thoughts but rather on the external stimuli around him - the environment and the people he encounters. Whereas the introverted personality type gets much of his energy from within, the extroverted type personality gets much of his energy from external stimuli. An introvert would replenish his energies by relaxing with a good book or watching a VCD while an extrovert would hang out with his friends and chat in order to relax.

Feeling as a personality indicator

The feeling personality indicator is a gauge by which a person is sensitive to the feelings of the people around him. Usually, when he makes decisions or when he interacts with others, he is very aware of how his speech or actions can affect the feelings of others. Those in the sales career would do well with this personality indicator, because they deal with people of all types - especially leads, prospects, and clients. Managers who rate high in this personality indicator are also good in terms of how they deal with their subordinates. This makes them appear as people-orienteded managers.

Thinking as a personality indicator

Those who use more their thinking function in their personality are usually more objective in how they decide and act. It takes time for them to act as they need to gather all the data that are needed to make a decision. Whereas the feeling-oriented type would act at once according to the need of a person, those who are thinking types would stand back, study the situation, and then make his decision. Managers who are naturally feeling-oriented usually strengthen the network of relationships in a corporation. Managers, on the other hand, who use more their thinking function are able to see the bottom line and thus strengthen the direction towards the preservation of assets: both labor and capital.

Intuition as a personality indicator

A person who uses more his intuition is a person who is idea-oriented and looks at the possibilities of every situation. This person is able to see the bigger picture, and to come up with a solution that includes the bigger context. If we were to use an analogy, when an intuitive person is given a sheet of paper with a dot, he will not focus his attention on the dot, but on the whole sheet of paper which contains the dot. For this personality type, problem-solving then means always being aware of the bigger picture in which the problem is found.

Sensing as a personality type indicator

Whereas the intuitive person looks at the whole, the sensing type of person looks at the facts - all the details of the situation. He is aware of what is presently happening at the moment. All his senses are in function to gather the necessary data for assessing the situation. These data help him know how to come up with a solution to the problem. Thus, his sight, hearing, touch, smell, and taste sense functions are all alert in knowing what is actually happening. This person usually is fond of the news and all things related to being 'in the loop'.

Perceiving as a personality type indicator

A person who is of the perceiving type is usually very adaptable to situations. He is not tied down to a rigid schedule or a system of proceeding in work. Rather, when a certain occasion calls for something to be acted upon right away, this personality type takes the freedom to leave what he is presently doing, and attend to what should be done at the present moment. Availability is probably his greatest personality gift. Those in the service professions would probably profit from this personality type, as the service professions require a personality type that can always be 'on the move' and 'jumps right away at any situation in need'.

Judgement as a personality type indicator

This personality type is more structured. He thrives on structure and organization. Managers need to have this personality function in order to be able to manage their work and their life. This personality type has lists and schedulers that set-up his day or week. And usually, when the time appointed needs to be attended to, he usually complies and efficiently does what needs to be done. For this personality type, what is important is that you tell him beforehand what he needs to do in advance. Otherwise, this will disorient him and he will not know how to deal with the new schedule in relation to the original schedule of work.

Finding out your MBTI

All of these personality type indicators are in us. The only difference is that one is more dominantly used than the other. With the basic descriptions given above, you can already have an idea of how you live and work, and how others live and work also. Given the eight personality indicators above, you can tell understand why others function the way they do. Some are more extroverted than introverted, more thinking than feeling, more intuitive than sensing, or more perceiving than judging. To gain a certain bit of accuracy in knowing the exact percentages of your introversion, extroversion, feeling, thinking, intuition, sensing, judging or perceiving, you can take many free Myers-Brigg type tests online.