Using MBTI as an effective management tool

[Mogura]

A question for you established managers out there.

Has anyone tried using MBTI/Personality Type as a management tool? I imagine that by casting staff in roles that are more suited to their personalities you can build an effective team.

I had a manager once that didn't give a rat's ass for his own team, myself included. He saw his team as something you step on in order to move up. Needless to say when he assigned individuals to tasks and/or projects he didn't put any thought or consideration into the suitability of the task/project to the individual at hand. We could have fired my manager and replaced him with Microsoft Project to achieve the same outcome--albeit for less cost.

Anyway, I am just curious as to whether anyone has employed MBTI as a management tool, and if so, what were the results?

Oh, and if anyone has any reading material suggestions for using MBTI in management, please provide info/links. Thanks...

[Elfrun]

Make me a resounding YES.

I type my staff (and fellow managers and bosses) in order to achieve the results I want in a way that they are blissfully unaware and happy to comply - whenever possible.

I stepped into my current position when things were extremely stressful for all involved, my predecessor sounds a little like yours only difference is this one didn't do it on purpose he simply had no clue! If I didn’t have an awareness of my staff’s needs I would not have survived.

Things are rocky now (see my thread titled My staff wanna quit!) but besides the current dramas I'm facing, any issues that have arisen such as in fighting amongst staff or substandard work has been dealt with effectively by understanding their temperaments.

Work loads are distributed according to strengths and what is needed to keep them satisfied in their work. This is why as much as my staff are unhappy with particular aspects of their working environment at the moment, they desperately want things to work out because they enjoy working for me.

Another area that I find typing invaluable is interviewing, generally when a new position comes up the workload is already set and a particular type of person is better suited for the role and of course, they need to fit in with other staff. Asking the right questions and typing quickly can find valuable employees who maybe don't interview very well.

I bookmarked this website (To view links or images in this forum your post count must be 2 or greater. You currently have 0 posts.) to look over at some stage but haven't explored it yet, it speaks about the 16 types in terms of how they work in a team and under stress which may be helpful, like I said, haven't checked it out yet though :undecided:

[Mogura]

Make me a resounding YES.

I bookmarked this website (To view links or images in this forum your post count must be 2 or greater. You currently have 0 posts.) to look over at some stage but haven't explored it yet, it speaks about the 16 types in terms of how they work in a team and under stress which may be helpful, like I said, haven't checked it out yet though :undecided:

Thanks. I came across this Web site (To view links or images in this forum your post count must be 2 or greater. You currently have 0 posts.), where it discusses using MBTI to create executive teams. Most of us here probably aren't executives, but a lot of the information/logic still applies. Have a look...

[Antares]

My dad's a CFO and an ENTP; *almost* the opposite of a stereotypical ISTJ CFO.

[mkay]

Trinity, wondering: Did you type people on your team based on observations only? I like the idea of MBTI but am wary of mistyping people.

Mogura, I was thinking MBTI could be useful in managing "up" and "down."

I'm relatively new to MBTI, but as it turns out I've been sort of using MBTI strategies as a manager in newspapers without realizing it. My jobs required me to know my team's skills specifically -- whom I could count on in key jobs, who would crack under certain types of pressure, who knew how to think through certain stories better and such. I had to know this well because we worked on deadline every day and if someone faltered, there was little time to recover, sometimes none, and then errors or oversights would run in the paper and I'd be responsible. ... I had to figure out dozens of people and shuffle them daily, depending on different stories, time constraints and who was working. Bigger picture, some people were rigid thinkers who loved to follow rules, so I assigned them route-thinking tasks. Some people needed more mental stimulation, so I'd assign them to more in-depth projects. ... I figured out people through conversations and observations, of them and their work. Knowing MBTI would've helped me better knit together why certain people were so rigid and unimaginative. Sometimes, I was stumped why someone relatively intelligent would make such irrational decisions or be so difficult to "reprogram." MBTI probably would've helped me figure out some people's limits sooner. ... But that's balanced against not typing people too quickly or incorrectly assuming people's limits based on typing.

Separately, I've been working on a startup built on sweat equity, so I've been recruiting people to work for free (if the company takes off, we all profit). I've been sorting by personalities, essentially types -- like I knew I needed SF-type people for certain jobs, INTJ-ish people for others, and so on. While I was recruiting, I didn't have MBTI to tap from, but I look back now and see patterns.

[Elfrun]

Thanks. I came across this Web site (To view links or images in this forum your post count must be 2 or greater. You currently have 0 posts.), where it discusses using MBTI to create executive teams. Most of us here probably aren't executives, but a lot of the information/logic still applies. Have a look...

Quite interesting, I'm sure it would be useful for any level of management.

INTJs can be effective leaders in scientific or technical organizations. They can guide organizations in a time of developing a product and bringing it to market, but can be aloof and detached.

;D yeah - but we still rock!


Trinity, wondering: Did you type people on your team based on observations only? I like the idea of MBTI but am wary of mistyping people.

Kinda-ish, but I grew up having the Kiersey 4 temperament type drilled into me at a young age, unlike MBTI it's based on what people say and how they act not on how they think and feel, so because I cannot know what is in someone else’s head I combine the two to get the full picture – personally I find that combination invaluable. I was going to mention that in my first post but let it go cause I don’t like overly long posts, I tend to skip over them and figure many others would as well ;)

Having and awareness of other peoples strengths and weaknesses should be fairly clear for us using our intuition, for me it’s about understanding what they’re not saying, the unseen motivators that will get me better results then expected.

In an interview I don't get too caught up in picking the exact type but I do ask questions that would invoke a more emotional response, maybe bringing up something their passionate about for example and that can generally give me a fair idea.

Once a staff member is employed the way they interact with others is a good indicator, another thing, funny as it may be, is goofy emails that get circulated that are based on MBTI, there’s a Simpson one doing the rounds at the moment and my staff always seem to want to tell everyone that they're Homer or Lisa etc.

I spend a bit of time and effort analysing new staff members, in the first three months of employment I meet with them regularly to discuss their performance, watching how they react to praise and criticism is very telling.

Understanding strengths and weaknesses is the most vital part as a manager, without that it simply wont work, MBTI for me is a tool that shows more about a person then they may be willingly share and that can be particularly helpful in resolving issues when problems arise.

[mkay]

Thanks, Trinity. I appreciate your perspective. It would be good to see you in action.

[candyfloss]

Yes, I think it's good for this. Being aware of different types in my team has helped me to be able to give feedback in a way that works for the team member, and give people tasks that they really like to do. For example, I've got a "feeling" person, who really needs me to appreciate her effort (even when I think that the objective results are not as brilliant as I'd like). I've also got someone with high "sensing", who's great at methodical type things, but I know not to expect a fast answer in a brainstorming session.

Like some of the other posters though, unless you are actually going to go to the lengths of doing the MBTI Type Indicator in full, I think it is a dangerous business to guess at type.

[SShack]

I try typing people I work with essentially if I am having difficulties working with them in an effort to try to figure out what's causing things to go wrong to see if I can fix it. Sadly, the problem is usually that the other person is an S and they're just not comfortable with my forward-focused strategies.