Being resilient can help you bounce back from changes that are bound to happen in your everyday life, whether they are to your school schedule, your relationships, your work schedule, or your life plans.  People often think of “resilience” as bouncing back quickly from change – but different personality types bounce back in different ways, and there’s no one “right” way!  When dealing with change, what’s important is that you know what your type needs, and also what your possible blind spots might be.

The first two letters of your MBTI® type give us information about how you respond to change – and consequently, what you need to “bounce back” and be resilient.  Those first two letters also tell us what you might do to be even more resilient.  Here’s how that works…

If your first two letters are IS:

• Form of resilience:  IS’s often need to spend time alone reading or gathering lots of information about the specifics of why the change is happening and exactly how the change will effect what they’re doing.  Once they get all the information they need, then they bounce back and feel resilient.
• Limitation:  Be careful of spinning your wheels in information.  Also, sometimes you have to bounce back in the absence of thorough information.  In those cases, remind yourself that the fact is, you can’t always get all the facts!

If your first two letters are IN:

• Form of resilience:  IN’s often need to spend time alone conceptualizing the change and processing how the change relates to other things.  Once they understand how the change connects to other things, then they bounce back and feel resilient.
• Limitation:  Be careful of over-swirling in your mind about connections and possibilities.  Also, sometimes you have to bounce back in the absence of exploring all the connections.  In those cases, remind yourself that you can continue to explore the change internally!

If your first two letters are ES:

• Form of resilience:  ES’s often need to take action on the change and do something to make the change happen.  Once they take action, then they bounce back and feel resilient.
• Limitation:  Be careful of taking action too quickly.  Also, sometimes making the best bounce means slowing down.  In those case, remind yourself that slowing down is taking action!

If your first two letters are EN:

• Response to change:  EN’s often need to explore the change with others and to identify additional changes that could be made.  Once they explore the change, then they bounce back and feel resilient.
• Limitation:  Be careful of making too many changes out of one change.  Also, sometimes you have to bounce back in the absence of exploration.  In those cases, remind yourself that you can come back and revisit the change and make suggestions later!

Also, check in with yourself about your perceptions of what it means to be resilient. It’s easy to look at a different type, and think they’re taking too long to bounce back, or they’re bouncing back too quickly. Remember, different types have different ways of being resilient – so bounce in the way that’s right for you!

By Patrick L. Kerwin, MBTI® Master Practitioner

When we’re faced with a problem to solve, it’s natural to solve it using our natural MBTI preferences.  So for example, if you prefer ISTJ and you are trying to solve a problem in your relationship with your boyfriend or girlfriend, it’s natural for you to:

• Use Introversion Spend time reflecting on the problem, using your preference
• Use Sensing to look at the reality of the situation and practical alternatives
• Use Thinking to analyze the problem objectively
• Use Judging to come to a conclusion quickly

And as natural as that might be, here’s the problem:  There are 8 preferences!  So when we solve problems using only the four preferences that are natural to us, we overlook valuable information and make lop-sided decisions!

To make a well-rounded and thorough decision, we need to engage our opposite four preferences.  For ISTJs, that would mean engaging their opposite preferences of E, N, F, and P, so they would:

• Use Extraversion to talk to others to get their perspective on the situation
• Use INtuition to consider other possible ways of looking at the problem and other alternatives to solving it
• Use Feeling to consider how their boyfriend or girlfriend might feel about the situation
• Use Perceiving to stay open to letting the situation unfold

So when you’re making a decision, remember to look at the bullets above that describe your four opposite letters.  Have you taken those into account?  When you use your four opposite letters in addition to using your four preferred letters, you won’t just make a natural decision - you’ll make a good decision!

Free Webinar Event: “Teams in Conflict: Be Better at Building Skills Using the MBTI® and TKI Tools”

The statistics are staggering! The cost of conflict on individuals in the workplace leaves little doubt about the dramatic negative effect on performance-for the individual, in teams, and throughout the organization.

Join CPP and our expert presenters-Lynne Brown, executive coach, and Pamela Valencia, organizational development consultant, both also assessment experts-to learn how to improve team conflict management skills by implementing the trusted and reliable Myers-Briggs® (MBTI®) and TKI assessments together in one team-building/coaching session.

“Teams in Conflict: Be Better at Building Skills Using the MBTI® and TKI Tools”
Date: Tuesday, June 5, 2012
Time: 10-11 a.m. PDT (12-1 p.m. CDT / 1-2 p.m. EDT)
Register Today!

Our presenters will discuss how to

• Facilitate a day-long team-building session focused on developing self-awareness and conflict management skills to increase team performance
• Close the gap between a leader’s desire to lead a collaborating team and the commitments needed to get there
• Provide experiential learning exercises on the MBTI and TKI concepts and illustrate current team dynamics
• Offer examples of team agreements that keep the team moving forward

Don’t miss this chance to learn how to take charge of conflict and transform it into an opportunity for your people to learn and grow!

After registering, you will receive an email confirmation containing information about joining the webinar. For webinar questions, please call 800.624.1765 x 230 or email us at custserv@cpp.com.

A friend of mine was getting ready to interview for a job recently, and was talking to me about a piece of advice she was getting from people that she wasn’t finding helpful. You know the one:  “Just be yourself.” Rather than heeding that advice, she had been busy trying to turn herself into a pretzel, preparing to twist and turn herself into whatever the interviewers might want her to be. And this wasn’t working very well.

Being prepared for a variety of interviewing questions and situations is a good strategy - but you need to start from a position of strength. Your best position of strength is being yourself - and one way to do that is by remembering your MBTI type preferences.

In her case, we discussed her preferences for ENFJ, and what strengths her type might bring to the corporate trainer position she was applying for. She talked about being a natural facilitator, being comfortable teaching a variety of subjects, and being at ease with new groups of people. With that as a starting point and a place of strength, she didn’t have to be a pretzel - she just needed to help the interviewer see how her strengths could be an asset in a variety of situations on the job. And if “being herself” wasn’t a good fit, then it wasn’t the right fit.

So that trite saying really is true:  just be yourself.  And if you need a little help on how to describe yourself, do a little reading about your MBTI type. Pick out three or four qualities that reflect your greatest strengths, and make sure and mention them in the interview. Starting from “who you are” will help you be the best interview candidate you can be.

And by the way… she got the job!

What can you do to help students cope during this stressful time and get through it with increased resiliency? You can work with them using the MBTI and TKI assessments. These assessments used together give a clear picture of how students’ inferior function (“in the grip” of stress) informs which conflict style they use. By accessing the appropriate conflict mode for the situation, their goal should be getting back to their dominant function and a better approach to the stress. Then your students will be able to move from “fight, flight, or freeze” to action-and build their resiliency!

CPP has some resources to help you learn more about using the MBTI and TKI assessments together:

Using the TKI Assessment with the MBTI® Instrument.

View the “Be Better at Managing Conflict Under Stress” webinar.

Profile recently showcased this article from Jeff about how leaders can create a cohesive, energizing, performance-driven environment by applying principles of personality type to five key mainstays of business success. See below for an excerpt.

People are the lifeblood of any company. They generate the ideas, connect with the customers, and deliver the results. However, when it comes to fostering an environment that allows individuals and teams to flourish, many good leaders earnestly ask: “Where do I start?” CPP, Inc., publisher of the widely known personality-assessment tool the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator® assessment, seems to have found the answer.

• Building Trust: Truly knowing your team members’ personality types provides a way to begin rebuilding trust by tailoring your tactics to the preferences of your people base on a psychometrically validated model.
• Leadership: Understanding personality types offers insight into how your behavior is perceived by team members, empowering you to act and communicate in ways that inspire and motivate.
• Team Building: Effective team building is the most fundamental benefit of personality-type understanding. Appreciating the diverse ways people take in information, make decisions, and relate to the world, and recognizing the environments in which different personalities excel helps coworkers communicate to foster greater cohesion.
• Innovation: Some individuals are most comfortable generating ideas from scratch; others excel at refining existing ideas or adapting outside paradigms internally. With a management strategy guided by personality-type understanding, employees can combine strengths to implement resulting innovations.
• Managing Stress: Stress reactions are actually quite predictable based on personality type and understanding the negative impacts can enable individuals to better support and understand each other.

Read “Winning Personalities: 5 Ways to Leverage Personality Types,” from Jeff Hayes.

“This year, I’m going to get organized.”  How many times have you said that, or heard others say it?

First, let’s take a look at that word, “organized.”  Often being an “organized” person conjures up an image of someone who has a system in place where everything is put away, neatly arranged in order, with a minimum of clutter and a maximum of tidiness.  With this as a standard, it’s no surprise that so many people feel disorganized!

But really, being “organized” means having a system in place that allows resources to be accessed easily when needed.  Think about your own room or workspace.  Whether you have things all over the place, or have them neatly put away, can you find what you need when you need it?  If so, then you are “organized”!

If you answered “no,” then you do some things to come up with a better system.  And the easiest way to get there is to remember your type!  If you prefer P, go with your style, and adjust your expectations.  Remember, it’s not about having it all put away, it’s about having a system that works.  Your first step might be going through one pile of stuff and getting rid of what you don’t need.  Or see if you can consolidate two piles.  Take it in small bites, and keep it fluid.  And if you prefer J, go with your style as well.  Is there a stack of stuff driving you crazy?  For J’s, the goal is often about putting things away - so go through the pile, trashing items or putting them away, until you’ve worked your way all the way through it.  Getting that closure will make you happy.

Whatever your type, you can get it together!

In “Flipping Out” I wrote about how each MBTI personality type can appear when under stress. Here is some insight to getting back to normal.

When your computer is acting all out of whack and nothing you do fixes it, there is one surefire solution:  control alt delete.  Knowing when to use those simple three keys can help take a frustrating situation and return it back to normal.  The same thing is true of our personalities.  When we’re stressed out, it helps to know how to reboot and get back to normal.

ISTJ & ISFJ:  Take lots of quiet time to reflect.  Prioritize what needs to be done, and accomplish a task that is easy for you to complete.

INTJ & INFJ:  Do something by yourself that engages your senses, like working outside, reading a book, watching a movie, or doing a craft.

ISTP & INTP:  Take time away from the people or situation causing the stress.  Get some alone time.

ISFP & INFP:  Get out in nature, or do another activity that relaxes you.  Spend some alone time reflecting or meditating.

ESTP & ESFP:  Do an activity you like that distracts you from the stressor.  Figure out what needs to be done to address the stressor, and get started on doing it.

ENFP & ENTP:  Get some space to reflect and refocus.  Talk to a close friend.

ESTJ & ENTJ:  Talk it out with a trusted friend.  Engage in physical activity.  Take some time alone to think of a new approach to the stressor.

ESFJ & ENFJ:  Talk to someone who will be supportive.  Take some time alone to reflect on the stressor, and to find some other ways to address it.

And this one applies to all personality types:  Don’t be too hard on yourself.  Everyone has out-of-character stress reactions, and you’ll eventually get yourself back to normal.  It might take some time to reboot, but you’ll get there!

I saw this question in a LinkedIn group this week and thought it was an interesting, and fun, topic to write about.

What advice would you give yourself?

Don’t be afraid to do what you love, and be enthusiastic about it. When I was getting my start, it took me a while to find my “perfect job.” “Perfect job,” does that really exist? Well, I was going to search for it! Everyone told me that I needed to just take the first job that came my way to get in the door. I was determined to prove everyone wrong as I knew if I wasn’t excited about going to work every day, marketing for that company would be difficult. I believe that I have proved my advisors wrong and have been lucky with careers that have not only helped me grow professionally, but personally as well, and of course that I have enjoyed. Case in point, I am now at CPP - perfect job found!

Would you have done anything differently?

I would have visited my career counselor earlier in school. I was aware that my university had a career counseling office, but I only visited once as part of an assignment. I was lucky to have been given the opportunity to take the MBTI® assessment in one of my classes, starting my self-exploration and interest in development early. But I wish I had known about the Strong Interest Inventory®, even if it wasn’t directly offered by the office. Uncovering my interests may have helped me find my path a little earlier, rather than switching my major three times. And I think my parents would have been happier too.

What advice would you give yourself? Would you have done anything differently? Let us know!

Jennifer Overbo, MBTI® Product Marketing Manager, recently had the pleasure of meeting Mary, one of our 2011 graduates, at a local event. Mary provided her with some feedback about how she is using the MBTI instrument to help leadership teams improve their relationships-and their effectiveness.

She shared both her successes and challenges, so we wanted to share this with you on ICON Success!

Know what the issues are ahead of time. When you begin your work with a leadership team-whether you are an internal practitioner or an outside consultant-make sure you understand what the issues and expectations are before you design your training initiatives. Remember that no version of the MBTI instrument is appropriate for use if the group is in extreme upheaval or in the face of unrealistic expectations. Mary found this out the hard way when she was called in to present a workshop on team development and then later realized that there was much more to the situation than she thought at first, as the organization was planning to restructure.How can you make sure you have the full picture before you get started? Consider conducting one-to-one interviews with the group members and/or team leaders beforehand to determine the best course of action and whether or not the MBTI assessment is the best first step. In addition, make sure you have the support and participation of the key leader; it is critical to your success.

Know which tool to use when. Mary prefers using the MBTI® Step II

™ instrument with leadership teams. She’s found that it offers leaders a deeper insight into how they and others prefer to operate and that it is especially effective with leaders who’ve completed the MBTI assessment in the past and are interested in “exploring something new.”If time and budget allow for using the Step II assessment, this is her first choice for leadership development. Mary has also found that reviewing individuals’ four-letter type is a necessary precursor to Step II training activities, so she always wants to make sure she has enough time to adequately “set the training stage before launching into the more complex world of Step II facets.”

Have more than one trick in your training toolbag. As you build your experience with the MBTI assessment, don’t be afraid to try something new. It’s easy to keep presenting the same workshop over and over again, but you’ll feel more confident and be more entertaining if you can flex to the needs of the group, the organization, or even the specific situation.As a means to further her own professional development, Mary offers some “gratis” workshops in her local community and uses these sessions as opportunities to take some risks.Of course, she still adheres to her standards but she feels a greater sense of freedom in these weekend workshops, which are usually more focused on communication and relationship building. She also invites other practitioners to join her-she finds that she improves as she observes fellow trainers react and respond to the group at hand. She’s adapted activities, perfected them on the side, and then brought them back to her leadership work. And, as a result, she has some fun stories to interject into her training deliveries.

Develop your technical knowledge of the MBTI tool. When you are dealing with leaders, whether they are senior or on the move up the ranks, Mary says, “you are dealing with sharp individuals who really want the time they spend in training and development initiatives to be valuable.” And she feels that it’s very important that she deliver value for the training dollars spent. When she first started using the MBTI assessment, she knew she wouldn’t be perfect, but she began using the tool right away to keep the learning fresh and to grow from the experience of putting her knowledge into practice. In addition to using the tool within her own organization, she used it with colleagues and friends on the side, offering both one-to-one interpretations and workshops to build on her skills.Even after becoming certified, Mary has continued to develop by attending advanced MBTI trainings and webinars, but she also finds it helpful to continue reviewing basic technical information. She refers often to the manuals as well as to the MBTI® Step II

™ User’s Guide for support and to “refresh her facts” as needed. “People are going to have questions and some are going to be difficult to answer,” she admits, so she suggests that you know your own limitations and be honest when you don’t know the answer. In her view, there is nothing like a question to keep you on your toes and to give you a reason to follow up after the training session has been completed.