Came across the following book in today's Washington Post's weekly best-seller list:
TYPE TALK: THE 16 PERSONALITY TYPES THAT DETERMINE HOW WE LIVE, LOVE, AND WORK
(Dell, $17). By Otto Kroeger and Janet M. Thuesen
It reminded me of a fairly detailed conversation that I had gotten into with a friend (This friend, Eric, has the coolest title short of the President of the US - he is a Futurist. He does for a living, what we all do over coffee breaks. Anyway, I digress...) a couple of weeks ago about the whole MBTI personality types. I have never been very sure about how much faith to put into this. Do people change over time? Are they different personalities in different circumstances, etc.
The conversation with Eric was quite enlightening. He is clearly quite bought into this and talking to him got me convinced of the value of the framework. My questions were not necessarily answered, but I did feel that for the here and now, they were irrelevant. It was, more than anything else, a way to think about how people were behaving and what their preferences were. It gave me a framework to evaluate what was bothering me about my current environment, and come up with suggestions that might help address them.
So, apparently I am an ENTJ, doing a job that is probably best suited for an ESTJ, working for an ENTJ boss. My action point - hire an ESTJ to do the sensing for me...
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At was first I was also very suspect of this frame work, it just feels too soft for me, but I decided to give it a go and see what I was. Here is a link to a site that does the evaluation:
ReplyDeletehttp://www.humanmetrics.com/cgi-win/JTypes2.asp
I ended up being an ENTP, after reading the "Who am I" I was pretty shocked, it was pretty accurate and highlighted some areas I have been battling with at work.
So give it a go and post what you ended being and comment on how accurate you think it is.
Secondly, do you think this should be part of the interview process?
Yes they should definitely be part of the interview process. It doesn't have to be the formal multiple choice questionnaire. An assessment of one's 'type' can broadly be made by asking questions as part of a behavioural interview.
ReplyDeleteI also think its important to figure out what 'type' you are looking to hire for a role based on the job content and the working environment.