Personality Type: A Critical Element to Success

Written by Travis McAshan | Posted on Monday, December 14th, 2009 | Categories: Inspired Thoughts

The Overview

You’re personality type affects every aspect of your personal and business life. Additionally, the personality types of your boss, employees, co-workers, and contractors can have a huge affect on your ability to achieve success in business. Without a basic understanding of how others view the world, you’re at a clear disadvantage.

Your New “People Skills” Secret Weapon

In order to become the most effective and efficient communicator possible, you’ll need a little schooling on the basic personality types. Secondly, you’ll need to obtain a personality assessment of yourself as well as those of your closest business associates. With this information you can add a powerful tool to your arsenal of “people skills”. These new skills will better equip you to handle the mine field of business relationships you’ll face in life.

Understanding the Science

The immensely insightful science behind the personality types was pioneered by Carl Jung in the 1920’s and refined by Isabel and Katherine Briggs in the 1940’s and 50’s. Isabel and Katherine’s goal was to make the theory of psychological types described by C. G. Jung understandable and useful in people’s lives. The essence of the theory is that much seemingly random variation in human behavior is actually quite orderly and consistent, being due to basic differences in the ways people prefer to use their perception and judgment. Essentially, there are 16 personality types falling in four major temperaments. They are the artisan, guardian, rational and idealist.

The Four Basic Temperaments

Temperament is a configuration of observable personality traits, such as habits of communication, patterns of action, and sets of characteristic attitudes, values, and talents. It also encompasses personal needs, the kinds of contributions that individuals make in the workplace, and the roles they play in society. Dr. David Keirsey has identified mankind’s four basic temperaments as the Artisan, the Guardian, the Rational, and the Idealist. (description taken from www.kirsey.com)

Personality Type for Profitability

We regularly add new contractors and occasionally new employees and one of my favorite moments when working with someone new is finding out their personality. It’s a revelation that opens a whole new world of communication with that person. Typically, depending on the length of time I have known and worked with them, the traits they have expressed give me the “aha” moment of clarity when I find out their personality type. It’s been a tremendous help in understanding their point of view, knowing the best way to communicate, and MOST IMPORTANTLY what they truly desire most in life. This information is all but priceless in facilitating best work relationships possible.

The Glide Team Personality Types

  • Travis McAshan – ESTJ (Guardian/Supervisor)
  • Dave Morgan – ESTP (Artisan/Promoter)
  • Chris Canada – INTP (Rational/Architect)
  • Kristen McAshan – ESFJ (Guardian/Provider)
  • Autumn Morgan – ENFJ (Idealist/Teacher)

The Glide Team Assessment

As you can see from the personality types of the Glide team, each of our personalities fits nicely with our roles in the company. This may not always be the case but if you TRULY want to find success in your company, the most impact you’ll find is when someone is working in an area they were CREATED to fulfill. As always, anything is possible and someone that has a promoter personality could easily manage a large company. However, it would be critical to surround that person with organized folks with an eye for details. Conversely, with an extremely action oriented manager it’s always good to have some serious THINKERS around to keep them honest about rushing into action without a solid plan.

Take the TEST!

Do you have 15 minutes? Take this FREE ONLINE TEST (no this is not a sales gimmick). If you’re in a rush, simply answer the four questions below to get a quick assessment of your outlook on the world. Basically, it’s 4 simple questions with 2 possible answers. Based on the available choices there are 16 total personalities available.

  1. Favorite World: Do you prefer to focus on the outer world or on your own inner world? This is called Extraversion (E) or Introversion (I).
  2. Information: Do you prefer to focus on the basic information you take in or do you prefer to interpret and add meaning? This is called Sensing (S) or Intuition (N).
  3. Decisions: When making decisions, do you prefer to first look at logic and consistency or first look at the people and special circumstances? This is called Thinking (T) or Feeling (F).
  4. Structure: In dealing with the outside world, do you prefer to get things decided or do you prefer to stay open to new information and options? This is called Judging (J) or Perceiving (P).

Your Personality Type

When you decide on your preference in each category, you have your own personality type, which can be expressed as a code with four letters (i.e. ESTJ). The goal of knowing about personality type is to understand and appreciate differences between people. As all types are equal, there is no best type. Use the list below to find out more about the various personality types and use the informational references listed below as well.

Personality Type Descriptions:

Descriptions are from www.keirsey.com.

What Next?

Now that you know your personality, the first thing to do is apply the understanding in your life. How do you do this? Firstly, understanding your strengths and weaknesses is a critical element to success in all areas of life. Second, my hope is that as you continue to learn about personality temperament and traits, you’ll be able to manage yourself and the relationships around you with better understanding and clearer purpose.

Suggested Resources:

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