What is an MBTI® Personality Assessment and How Will It Help Me?

What is MBTI?

The Myers Briggs Type Inventory personality assessment tool is a self-reporting questionnaire which is accessed online through a qualified MBTI Administrator. The questionnaire takes approximately 15 minutes to complete. Based on the psychiatrist Dr. Carl Jung's work on personality differences, Myers and Briggs developed the questionnaire to highlight the differences in personality between normal, healthy people.

The assessment is composed of simple questions pertaining to real life situations which reveal how we interact with the world in our preferred, most natural state. The questions revolve around 4 dichotomies consisting of two opposite poles and each represented by a letter. We all use both poles at different times, but one pole from each dichotomy will be our preference. When we use our preferred methods, we are generally at our best and feel most competent, natural and energized. 

I like this wonderful analogy to help explain our preferences. Write your name using your preferred hand. Jot down how it felt to write your name in this manner. Most people will answer with words like: easy, natural, thoughtless. Now, switch hands and write your name with your non-preferred hand. Jot down how this exercise felt. Most people use words like: difficult, unnatural, awkward, hard. You use both hands every day and both hands are very important. No one hand better than another. Yet, you clearly have a preference as to which hand you would like to use most often. This is the most natural way for you move through the world. It is easy, not tiring and you feel competent using this preferred hand. This is your preference!

Your preferences, as revealed in the assessment, will be presented by a 4 letter 'type' which will outline the inherent gifts and possible areas for improvement in your unique personality. Your 'type' will differ from others as indicated in your different preferences resulting from the following:

• Extraversion (E) or Introversion (I)- where you prefer to focus your attention and get energized
• Sensing (S) or Intuition (N)- how you prefer to take in information
• Thinking (T) or Feeling (F)- how you prefer to make decisions
• Judging (J) or Perceiving (P)- how you prefer to organize and move through your world

There are 16 personality 'types', each with their own traits, strengths and weaknesses. Examples of different types are: ENFP, ISTJ, ESTP, INFJ. Of course, personality is extremely dynamic and cannot be perfectly described by any one test, but the variability allowed in the MBTI regarding the clarity of each person's preferences, does provide an extremely accurate measure of the complexities of your unique personality.

How Will It Help Me?

Taking the MBTI personality assessment and receiving feedback from a Qualified Administrator will help you identify your unique gifts. It will also help you appreciate others who differ from you. There are valuable differences between healthy people that can be the source of miscommunication and misunderstanding. Greater self-awareness often leads to improvement in this important area. I have also found awareness of 'type' to be most useful in relationship coaching, as this knowledge can be used to understand and explain the joys and challenges inherent in various personality 'type' pairings. Your career can also be enhanced with the knowledge of what you need to be happily engaged at work.

Over 2 million people annually take the Myers Briggs Type Indicator personality tool to help them rediscover their true selves and set a path to greater understanding. Your relationships, careers, stress management and  parenting style all have the opportunity to improve after gaining insight into how and why you interact with the world in the unique way that you do. As I like to reminds my clients: 

"Your unique personality affects EVERYTHING in your life!"

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