I will tell anyone who listens that I am a personality type junkie. Myers Briggs, DiSC, Enneagram, StrengthFinders, Hogan, Big5, pick your poison, I could talk about it all day.
I realize there are some who doubt the science behind many of these indicators. As a practitioner who is certified in MBTI and Hogan I use them not only in my business every single day, but also in my daily life. I feel 100% confident there is value in learning about your personality and the personality of those around you. We could fight about the science all day, but I could never be convinced that learning more about how you best work, communicate and interact is a detrimental thing.
A follow-up that I do with leaders who have gone through a MBTI workshop with me is based around leading individuals on their team whose preferences are the exact opposite of theirs. Sometimes individuals on the team are opposites in every way and that almost is better because the skills are then complimentary. More often than not, individuals are opposites in one area and that area can cause some difficulty. Helping leaders understand the others preference in this area and how they can best lead them can change the dynamic of the relationship for the better.
For today’s post I’m going to walk through a common difference, using the Myers Briggs Type Indicator, that can create major issues. When the leader is a judging type (XXXJ) and the employee is a perceiving type (XXXP).
The Judging/Perceiving Dichotomy
In Myers Briggs, the judging/perceiving dichotomy describes how a person organizes their world. This is the difference between your list makers and your non-list makes. Between planning and spontaneity. Between completing a project methodically over the entire course of the time you have to complete it versus doing all the work the few days before the due date.
As you can imagine, in a leader to employee setting, this can create frustration and misperception. To a perceiving employee, a judging leader can come across as micromanaging and OCD in their need for structure and organization. To a judging leader, a perceiving employee can come across as lazy and as a procrastinator.
In this dichotomy, as with all of them, one is not better than the other. Workplaces (and the world) need both types.
This dichotomy however is one that people rarely have difficulty knowing which they are. Meaning, they are pretty set in their way of organizing their world. They may question whether they are a sensor or an intuitive, a thinker or a feeler, but people rarely struggle here. Their preferences in this area are strong and because of that, conflict with the other group can be strong as well.
The Work Project
To better explain how these two types are different, let me give you an example. Let’s say you have 2 employees on your team, one a judging type and one a perceiving type. You give them both the exact same project, same scope, same directions and same deadline. They are to work independently and complete their work by the deadline.
As soon as the assignment is given, the judging type is likely to go back to their office and start to plan out how they will complete the task. They will break up what they see as the different subtasks within the project and schedule them to give themselves plenty of time to complete it. They will be done with the assignment well before the deadline and will either turn it in early or will spend those few days reviewing what they did so they can ensure they are turning in their best work.
The planning type may forget about the assignment as soon as it is given. Over the course of the few weeks they have to complete it they will think about it periodically and may do a bit of work, but won’t focus on it too much. Then, a few days before the deadline they will focus on nothing else and complete the project just in time. Perceiving types often state that they do their best work under the pressure of a deadline.
Both assignments get turned in on time. Both assignments are done well and achieve the objectives set before them, but the way the two employees went about the process is very different.
How This Shows Up in Leadership
Let’s say that you as the leader are a judging type. You are prone to planning your work, working on it over the course of time and leaving yourself plenty of time at the end so you don’t have the pressure of a deadline. Your employee is a perceiving type.
You ask your employee half way through to the deadline time how the project is coming. If you do not understand their personality type you may find it frustrating to hear that they haven’t really started. You have no reason to doubt their work but find it hard to understand how they wouldn’t have even started a project this large.
From your employee’s perspective, because they are a perceiving type, your questioning about where they are with the project comes off as mistrust or micromanagement. You are frustrated that they haven’t even started and worry that they aren’t taking this project seriously. They are frustrated that you don’t trust them to do the work their way.
How Understanding Type Can Help
If you are a judging type and you know your employee is a perceiving type, you can anticipate ahead of time the way they will work through an assignment. You will likely realize that if you give them an open project with a deadline weeks into the future, asking them about their progress too early will result in them not having made much progress. Unless there are performance issues with the employee and you doubt their ability to actually do the work, allowing them to manage the project how they work best will produce the best results. If you need them to work on pieces earlier then communicating that up front will be important.
On the other hand, there are times when perceiving types need to adjust their way of working. If the project involves other people and one person needs that perceiving type to finish their portion before they can do theirs, having that employee wait until the last minute can put the project in jeopardy. In this instance the leader can either give the perceiving type an earlier deadline or have them work out how they will work with the others involved to ensure that the project is delivered complete and on time.
The point of learning about personality type is so that every individual can learn about how they prefer to communicate, interact and work. But it also allows them to understand other’s preferences so they can adapt to others when they need to.
None of us get to say, “this is how I am, deal with it”. We all must adjust when needed to the preferences of others.
Team building Using Myers Briggs
I call Myers Briggs the gateway drug into the other personality assessments. It is basic enough to provide a high level overview of type while creating a common language that teams can use to describe why they are doing the things they are doing. For teams looking to work better together an MBTI workshop can provide quick results in a fun and engaging way.
To find out how I conduct MBTI teambuilding session, and how we are doing those remotely during COVID, schedule a free consultation session here.
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