What is MBTI? (Why Personality Types Matter)

This article has been transcribed from the Heartfire Rising (Mini) Podcast. CLICK HERE to listen to the episode.

Today I’d like to talk about the MBTI or Myers-Briggs type indicator. It is a personality assessment used by many coaches. I use it in my own practice, and it was initially developed by Swiss psychologist Carl Young and discussed in his book, Psychological Types, published in 1921. It was further developed by two non-psychologists, Catherine Briggs and Isabel Myers.

The Purpose of Understanding Type

More than 20 years of research have gone into building and constantly refining this assessment. And the purpose of the assessment is to develop better self-awareness and to understand others better. So it can be used for personal development, team building, enhancing communication, building better relationships, career development, and for problem-solving. The Myers-Briggs personality type or the MBTI is currently considered the most reliable and accurate personality type to date.

How MBTI Works (and Why It’s Different)

The reason why I personally like the MBTI best (and there are some other really good variations online. Some are free, in some you need to pay for) is because the individual taking the assessment determines their best fit type. So if you take an online assessment, it’s most likely going to spit out four letters, such as ESF J or I N TJ, and tell you, “this is what you are.” What is different about MBTI is that after you take the assessment, you sit down with a coach, and you answer some questions, and you determine your best fit based on that conversation. And then, you compare it with what MBTI determines is your most likely match based on your answers to the initial assessment. Therefore, side-by-side between your coaching and your report, you determine what your best overall fit type is. Within that, there are four preference pairs. And we’re going to go into more detail in the future about those, such as introverted and extroverted, sensing and intuition, thinking and feeling, and judging and perceiving.

Essentially, knowing your type helps you understand how you receive energy and take in information, how you process that information and make decisions, and how you approach the outside world. And then, when you further dig down, there are 20 facets that get into the nuances of personality. We’ll go through all of that in future podcasts.

Today’s Action Item

Just to start thinking about personality types … consider how do you recharge at the end of the day? Do you like to go out with friends? Is it a lively, noisy environment, or do you prefer to be at home with a book and a glass of wine and have nobody talk to you for a couple of hours? Now, this is not what you need to do. For example, if you have family obligations, you might have to go cook dinner for your kids. This is if you had a preference (and could do whatever you wanted) after work, what would you do to unwind and then start to recharge?

We’ll continue that conversation next time. In the meantime, I’ll let you in on a secret for those of us who nerd out on Myers-Briggs personality types: we start to try to type our pets. For example, our rescue dog Simone is most likely an ESFP, and pretty soon, you’ll know what that means. If you don’t already.

As always, thanks for taking this time with me today.

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CLICK HERE to learn more about Heartfire Rising Coaching and/or MBTI assessments.