Myers Briggs

Type Indicator:
A Key to Workplace
Relationships

Supervisory Development Core

Department of Employee Relations

Question 1: _______________________________________________

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Question 2: _______________________________________________

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Revised 03/00
 Notes

Myers Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI): A Key to Workplace Relationships 1

 Type Percentage Chart

ISTJ 6% ISFJ 6% INFJ 1% INTJ 1%

ISTP 7% ISFP 5% INFP 1% INTP 1%

ESTP 13% ESFP 13% ENFP 5% ENTP 5%

ESTJ 13% ESFJ 13% ENFJ 5% ENTJ 5%

Myers Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI): A Key to Workplace Relationships 2

 Team Predictions

• The more similarity between individual types on a team, the sooner the team members
will come to understand each other; the more different the types, the slower the
understanding.

• Groups with very similar members will reach decisions more quickly but may make more
errors because not all viewpoints are represented. Groups with many different types will
reach decisions more slowly (and painfully) but may reach better decisions because
more viewpoints are included.

• Team members may often choose tasks that fit the gifts of their type.

• Leadership roles may shift as the tasks to be done require the skills of different types on
the team.

• Team members who are opposite on all four preferences may have trouble achieving an
understanding; members who share two preferences from each of the opposites may
act as “translators.”

• The person who is the only representative of a certain preference (e.g., the only
Introvert) may be seen as “different” from the other team members.

• Team members who come to appreciate and work with different types may help to
diffuse conflict.

• Successful teams with many different types promote the personal development of team
members by encouraging learning from the gifts of other types.

• Teams that are “one-sided” (i.e., have few types) will succeed if (a) team members use
different types outside the team as resources, or (b) they make an effort to use their own
less-preferred preferences as the tasks require.

• Extraverts may dominate discussions, and perhaps decision making, unless they make
a special effort to involve Introverts; Introverts may need to make a special effort to be
heard.

• Feeling types may be more concerned with harmony and “teamness;” Thinking types
may be more concerned with truth and task.

• Good decisions will be made when the basic facts and realities have been taken into
account (Sensing), when useful new possibilities have been opened up (Intuition), when
inconsistencies or consequences have been analyzed (Thinking), and when important
values have been considered (Feeling).

Myers Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI): A Key to Workplace Relationships 3

 Team Frustrations and Type Dialogue

ISTJ ISFJ INFJ INTJ

Stop working so Stop worrying about Stop staring off into Stop being so
hard! everyone! space! stubborn!
Projects get done Each team member Thinking about the A team’s vision that’s
when we pay matters. Attention to future and its well thought out is
attention to facts and each person’s needs implications for our worth fighting for!
to what needs to and wants helps us team is vital to team
happen now. Play function well. productivity.
comes later.
ISTP ISFP INFP INTP

Stop nit-picking! Stop wearing your Stop feeling hurt! Stop being so
heart on your sleeve! theoretical!
Precision and Caring for our team- Exploring our deeply Teams need to
accuracy of mates displays our held beliefs and develop models and
information allows humanity and can values keeps this carefully analyze
our team to produce translate into team on the right concepts before they
good work. increased team path. can begin effective
involvement. work.
ESTP ESFP ENFP ENTP

Stop being so blunt! Stop playing! Stop changing your Stop generating new
mind and the team’s actions!
direction!
Sometimes this team Life should be lived; This team needs to Entrepreneurial
needs a jolt to get it work should be explore all the teams keep business
back to work. enjoyed. Happy options as it gets coming in.
people are down to work.
productive people.
ESTJ ESFJ ENFJ ENTJ

Stop driving things Stop socializing! Stop talking! Stop trying to

so hard! manage us!
Some tough work Friends and Knowing each team Someone needs to
needs to be done relationships keep member well is one take charge.
right now. people committed of the things that
and loyal to the holds this team
team. together.

Myers Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI): A Key to Workplace Relationships 4

 Problem Situations

In reflecting on the following problem situations, considering (1) the strengths and
weaknesses of each person’s type, (2) the demands of the work environment, and (3) the
diagnostic approaches to problem solving provided by an understanding of type.

1. An ISTJ manager is having problems working with employees. What strategies

would you use to help the manager deal with those problems?

2. An ESFJ supervisor is having difficulty doing performance reviews of employees.

What strategies might you recommend?

3. An INFP employee is having trouble coordinating a number of services and planning

schedules for the office staff. How would you help this employee perform the task
more efficiently?

4. An ESTJ office manager has the reputation of “blowing up” when things do not go
her way. What approaches might you use to help her with this problem?

5. An ISFJ employee is having problems making cold sales calls and in negotiating
contracts. How could you work with this person to make him successful in this role?

6. A new INTJ manager is experiencing difficulty working with a staff that values good
interpersonal relations and group problem solving. How could you help this manager
work more effectively within this culture?

7. An ISFP supervisor has recently experienced a marital separation and her work
performance is suffering. How might you help?

8. An ESTJ manager is causing problems for her supervisor by resolving matters

independently of others involved in issues important to the company. What
strategies would you use to help this manager be more of a team player?

9. An ENFP secretary is causing morale problems by complaining about the change to

a word processing system, saying he will not use it. How would you help this
secretary deal with this change?

Myers Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI): A Key to Workplace Relationships 5

 Effects of Combinations of Preferences by Quadrants

IS IN
Thoughtful Realist Thoughtful Innovator

Leads through attention to what needs Leads through ideas

doing

Individual focus: Intangible thoughts and

Individual focus: Practical considerations ideals

Organizational focus: Continuity Organizational focus: Vision

“Let’s keep it!” “Let’s think about it differently!”

ES EN
Action-Oriented Realist Action-Oriented Innovator

Leads through action, doing Leads through enthusiasms

Individual focus: Practical action Individual focus: Systems and

relationships

Organizational focus: Results

Organizational focus: Change
“Let’s do it!”
“Let’s change it!”

Myers Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI): A Key to Workplace Relationships 6

 Introducing Change to the Quadrants
Ways to introduce change to an IS
• Relate it to what I know
• Make practical sense to me
• Change at a steady pace, step by step
• Be careful and mindful of details
• Give me time to think about it
• Change “the way things are done around
here” only from necessity
Ways to introduce change to an ES
• Relate it to the work I do
• Show me the practical results change will
bring
• Offer a steady progression, step by step
• Be realistic with the schedule and don’t
expect too much too soon
• Let me “hash it over” with others
• Show me that my work will be more
effective if I make changes to the
implementation plan
Myers Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI): A Key to Workplace Relationships
Ways to introduce change to an IN
• Relate it to the new theories and
concepts
• Let me work on change that has impact,
especially conceptually and with ideas
• Don’t burden me with routines; let me
change at my own pace, swiftly or slowly,
as I think I need to
• Let me set my own quality control and
standards
• Let me work with my own ideas
• Change the ideas and concepts
Ways to introduce change to an EN
• Relate it to changing things in my world
• Challenge my imagination
• Minimize the routine; maximize the
variety
• Let me work on the broad focus and
overview of the change
• Let me brainstorm with others and try out
my ideas to see if they work and how
people react to them
• Let me try to change the world
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 Ethical Uses of the MBTI

The MBTI is strictly voluntary. No one should ever be mandated to take the MBTI or to
share his/her MBTI results and interpretation.

To match a job to an employee - use MBTI as an indicator that employee may be interested
in a certain kind of task. Don’t make assignments based on Type; this would amount to
putting a person in a “box”.

To grasp general differences and needs among members of a team to improve

communications, working relationships, team building and problem solving.

To seek out possible career choices or moves.

To assist with professional development; identifying areas of needed development.

For conflict resolution.

Unethical Uses of the MBTI

Do Not:

Mandate that an employee take the MBTI or share their results or interpretation of their
MBTI.

Put MBTI results into a person’s personnel file.

Share a person’s type without that person’s permission.

Excuse an employee from doing task(s) based on his/her preferences.

Post a person’s type on cubicle for others to see; or require that this be done.

Use MBTI results to promote or demote an employee. The instrument is an indicator only.
(Remember that MBTI does not tell us about a person’s skills and abilities.)

Myers Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI): A Key to Workplace Relationships 8

 Different Drums and Different Drummers

If I do not want what you want, please try not to tell me that my want is wrong.

Of if I believe other than you, at least pause before you correct my view.

Or if my emotion is less than yours, or more, given the same circumstances, try not to ask
me to feel more strongly or weekly.

Or yet if I act, or fail to act, in the manner of your design for action, let me be.

I do not, for the moment at least, ask you to understand me. That will come only when you
are willing to give up changing me into a copy of you.

I may be your spouse, your parent, your offspring, your friend, or your colleague. If you will
allow me any of my own wants, or emotions, or beliefs, or actions, then you can open
yourself, so that some day these ways of mine might not seem so wrong, and might finally
appear to you as right for me. Not that you embrace my ways as right for you, but that you
are no longer irritated or disappointed with me for my seeming waywardness. And in
understanding me you might come to prize my differences from yours, and, far from
seeking to change me, preserve and even nurture those differences.

From Please Understand Me, by Kiersey and Bates, 1978.

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Myers Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI): A Key to Workplace Relationships 10