- September 19, 2016
- Posted by: LTI
- Category: LTI News
“The strength of the team is each individual member. The strength of each member is the team.” — Phil Jackson
Understand your team as individuals and you can better understand how they will work together.
Understand your team as individuals and you can better understand how they will work together.
Raleigh business managers looking to improve team communication and collaboration might consider the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator® (MBTI®) as a good place to start. You may have heard of the Myers-Briggs test or even tried taking one. But what is it really, and how does it help Raleigh business owners and managers?
What is the MBTI®?
The Myers-Briggs Type Indicator® is a personality assessment. Once complete, the test taker receives a four-letter code, which gives the individual his or her actual “type.” The idea is to take theory and turn it into something practical you can use in real life. The theory comes from Carl Jung, who said what seems like random behavior is “actually quite orderly and consistent, being due to basic differences in the ways individuals prefer to use their perception and judgment,” according to the Myers & Briggs Foundation.
Why Raleigh Business Managers Should Care
Managers working to create a team must understand each individual and how he or she reacts and perceives in order to understand how different personalities can interact on teams for successful outcomes.
Many team leaders have their staff take the MBTI, but later say it wasn’t helpful. Just knowing your personality type and that of those around you isn’t enough. At Learning Technologies, we feel it’s important to look beyond individual personality types, instead focusing on communication, interpersonal interaction, conflict resolution, and problem-solving. Here are some of the benefits if the MBTI is applied correctly:
- Help both managers and team members avoid and resolve conflicts
- Improve communication and reduce misinterpretation
- Understand how individual strengths can benefit tasks and projects
- Identify a team’s strengths, weaknesses, and gaps
- Recognize and understand different perspectives
- Improve customer relations
- Help managers give effective feedback
The MBTI at Learning Technologies
When we work with business leaders and teams, whether it be a training session or outdoor team building, the MBTI can be a powerful tool to help:
- Understand your preferences and how they influence the way you process information, plan, make decisions, and interact with others.
- Communicate and understand other types and how their style can compliment areas in which you may be struggling.
- Learn how to capitalize on the differences within your group, adding value and creating a whole that is stronger than the sum of its parts.
- Improve conflict resolution by understanding style differences and how they can unintentionally contribute to conflict situations.
- Improve problem-solving by learning to leverage the strengths of different styles at the right time in the right way.
- Build greater diversity awareness by openly discussing differences at a personal level and focusing on the positive aspects of being different.
Have you taken the MTBI? Would you like to learn more about how it can benefit both leaders and teams? Talk to us about your experiences (positive or otherwise). Share with us on Twitter or Facebook or Google+.