Important question: Can you refuse to take the test?

quote:

Originally posted by jaaron11:
We used MB and True Colors when I was in the corporate world. If you give them a chance, you can learn a lot about yourself and other people. You really need someone trained and skilled in interpreting the results to help you get the most out of it, though.

I had the same experience with MB. The leadership of the organization was give the MB test and shown the results. Then we we were given a series of problems to solve. It quickly became apparent that some MB personality types were better/quicker with coming up with the correct answer than others.

The takeaways were learning the strengths and weaknesses associated with each of the MB types and that having a mix of types improved the decision making of the team.

Personally I am an ISTJ and my wife is an ENFP - my polar opposite. Together our strengths tend to counteract the weaker areas of the other. Works out well.

Plus 1 on the strength finder
1 Arranger
2 Responsibility
3 Achiever
4 Relator
5 Restorative

My top 5 strengths

Did a session of this with my entire organization. While overall, it was a waste of time, it was actually pretty entertaining.

I did one years ago. When the results came in, I was escorted from the building. Never did get to see the results.

I just took the MB test and found it insightful and accurate for me.

I never considered Myers-Briggs to be any sort of a big deal one way or another. The personality types it identifies are generally accurate in my experience, and they’re not the super broad and therefore meaningless descriptions of the horoscope type such as, “You sometimes have doubts about what to do.” For me, though, it was more entertainment than anything useful because I already knew that I had the personality traits it said I did.

M-B isn’t one of those highly invasive tests (e.g., MMPI?) that law enforcement applicants and others are required to take that asks if you’ve ever considered suicide or if you watch your poop go down when you flush the toilet.

Can the results be misused by others if they know what M-B type we are? I’ll “answer” that with a question: Has anyone ever misinterpreted the things they know about you to incorrectly put you into a particular shape hole in the board—either judgmentally or literally in a job situation—regardless of whether they had a personality test result to go on? IMO there are two ways of looking at measures like this that management takes. One is “Don’t they know me without my having to take a survey?” but the other is if one is in such a precarious position that there’s a serious chance that the test results will seriously affect what happens to them in a company or other organization, then perhaps it isn’t the manager who should be looking for a different line of work.

quote:

Originally posted by Dzozer:

quote:

Originally posted by bobtheelf:
If boss doesn't have a sense of what his employees are like and their personalities already, then boss is a failure and should probably quit because he's not qualified.

This...

And I would take it as a sign that it might be time to look for another place to work.

Is it fair to assume that you have not taken the test, or the results were not shared among your team? It is a means for the boss to determine how teams work together, and determine how to sub manage interactions, and who to lead projects. It is more about determine strengths and weaknesses.

I will add, the way people act to the boss is not how they act to co-workers, and many employees interact more with co-workers than their superiors.

quote:

Originally posted by Fla. Jim:
I just took the MB test and found it insightful and accurate for me.

I've taken three at three different jobs, and found them all to be accurate and useful, especially when they tell you who you work best with, and how to approach certain situations.

quote:

Originally posted by Ranger41:
Personally I am an ISTJ and my wife is an ENFP - my polar opposite. Together our strengths tend to counteract the weaker areas of the other. Works out well.

Me (ISTJ) and the first wife (ENFP). That didn't work.

Second wife is also an ISTJ. Working out well for us.

Scanning this thread got me curious and I dug through my military memorabilia and found the results of mine.

ESTJ.

Go figure.

It has been my experience that with very few exceptions, teamwork is a situation where 10% of the people do 90% of the work but everybody gets to share the rewards. Probably just me, I'm an asshole.

I've done it a couple of times, separated by some years. I think my last result was ENTJ.

flashguy

quote:

Originally posted by 280nosler:
I will add ....

And it’s not just limited to our interactions with others. Something I’ve known for a very long time is that our inner beliefs and desires are not always manifested in how we act. A perfect example was described in a book I’m reading right now about a variety of topics, but including police practices.

A senior sergeant who was interviewed admitted that he didn’t believe women were generally well suited for police work. As the authors pointed out, such an admission would normally be interpreted as evidence that he would not train women subordinates properly and would discriminate against them in various ways. When the inexperienced women officers under his supervision were interviewed without knowing his admission, though, they all praised him highly for his fair treatment and conscientious management and mentoring style that helped them learn their jobs. I.e., he really didn’t believe women should be police officers, but that didn’t hinder his professional treatment and training of them.

Logician, INTP-T.

Me and my 3% bros like Elon... we fix your world.

I think that for workplace the Strengths Finder is a better tool, everyone in our company does them and it is useful.

I’m an INTP, and have occasionally tested as an ISTP. I’ve always been a bit of an introvert with a bit of social anxiety and after college about 10 years ago took an interest in personalities types and spent the time to learn about them. For me it made a huge difference in knowing how to interact with people and understand why they act/respond to things. If you read through the 16 types and their traits you can probably associate more than a few of them to people you know.

If you really want to have your mind blown take a FLUCT (full color personality test).

Not to drift too far off topic, but it does relate to personality: Anyone who is an introvert or would like to know more about introverts should read the book Quiet: The Power of Introverts in a World That Can’t Stop Talking by Susan Cain.

Back in the day, I mistakenly transferred into a department run by an absolutely incompetent and domineering manager. People left for other groups as soon as they could, while morale amongst those remaining kept spiraling downward.

Our manager had the idea to bring in a corporate psychologist to figure out what our problem was. At first I thought it was one of those useless corporate exercise, but the psychologist really knew his stuff. He identified the problem was that our manager couldn’t manage and his report made specific recommendations for him to get his act together.

Of course, the report went into the circular file. Nothing changed and I got out of there a few months later.

quote:

Originally posted by sigfreund:
Not too drift too far off topic, but it does relate to personality: Anyone who is an introvert or would like to know more about introverts should read the book Quiet: The Power of Introverts in a World That Can’t Stop Talking by Susan Cain.

Excellent book. I read it a few years ago and am rereading it now.

Took it many years ago ISTJ for me.

I took the test three times at different intervals in my career. I excelled in engineering skills but was weak in business skills. This caused me to get a Master's degree in business. The results were not shared with many, but my decision to get an advanced degree in Business really helped out my career.

I looked at it as a useful tool. Each time, I was put in the same personality category, only my strengths and weaknesses changed. Once I knew what my dominant personality was, the game was on!!!!

INTP here, taken it a few times over the years. Always the same. It's pretty damed accurate, frankly.

Strengths Finder is alright, too.

Don't overthink it. Ain't no thang.