Have you ever worked with someone you just couldn’t get along with? Or had a boss that was simply, intolerable? Yup, me too! The workplace can often be a highly competitive environment and with that, comes a clash of varying personalities. However, we’ve all learned as a kid (or hopefully that is) that it takes a team to win a game, so the professional thing to do is, put all bad feelings aside and learn to work together to better serve the company or organization.
So, how can we make this happen and understand the personalities of our colleagues better? We found this test called, The MBTI, or Myers-Briggs Type Indicator, which is used to pinpoint your personality based on how you like to look at things and how you make decisions. If you can recognize your personality tendencies, you can then recognize those of your coworkers or even your boss, and hopefully understand how to foster better relationships with them.
Here’s how it works: There are four different categories within the MBTI, which are: extroversion versus introversion, sensing versus intuition, thinking versus feeling, and judging versus perceiving.
Extraverted people tend to focus on the outer world of people and things, while introverted people tend to focus on the inner world of ideas and impressions.
Sensing individuals tend to concentrate on the present, focusing on concrete information. Intuitive people focus on the future, looking toward patterns and possibilities.
Thinking personalities tend to base their decisions primarily on logic. They use objective analysis of cause and effect in making decisions. People who score higher on feeling tend to make decisions using values; they use subjective evaluation, focusing on person-centered concerns.
Individuals who scored higher on judging tend to prefer a planned and organized approach to life; they like to have things settled before moving on to another issue. Perceiving people tend to have a flexible or spontaneous approach to life; they prefer to have their options open.
Use these descriptions and consult the MBTI to identify some varying personalities you see on the job and hopefully, it helps you to work along with some of your most uncompromising of colleagues.