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Myers-Briggs

REPOST: Four Functions, Three Rules

by Ron Potter August 17, 2023

A Note From the Editor:

As we recently mentioned, we are reposting popular blog posts while Ron is recovering from some health issues. This series was interacted with well, so we hope you enjoy revisiting this introductory post.

The Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI) structure is made up of four pairs of functions. Together they combine for a possible 16 different preference types. Notice that I use the word “preference.” These functions have nothing to do with skill or ability, they are simply different preferences for dealing with the world around us.

Experience Preference

Let’s experience a preference in real time. Take a writing instrument and a piece of paper and sign your name to it. I know, I know, I never actually do this either when a book or blog site asks me to do it but I guarantee you will understand it better if you experience it instead of just imagining it. So pick up that pen and sign your name. Thanks.

Photo Credit: Lucas, Creative Commons

Now, put you pen in the opposite hand and sign your name again. When I do this in a team of people the room immediately fills with nervous laughter and chuckles. It can be embarrassing.
When I ask people to describe the experience of that first signature I’ll hear words like:

Easy
Comfortable
Natural
Without thinking

When I then ask them to describe the second experience (often after waiting quite a while for them to complete the task) they will use words like:

Difficult
Awkward
It took longer
I had to think through almost every letter

This is an example of your personal preference at work. Whether right handed or left, when you’re working from your preference it’s easy, comfortable, and natural and you do it without thinking. Let me suggest right here that if you’re trying to make a decision, maybe you shouldn’t do it “without thinking!” When we force ourselves (individually and collectively) to use our non-preference methods, we’re actually forcing ourselves to think more.

The best teams and leaders

Over my consulting career I have observed many teams and leaders improve their effectiveness by learning to balance their MBTI preferences. The most effective teams are the ones that, either naturally or through process balance their preference diversities and use that balance for better decision making and corporate impact. Also, the best leaders I have ever worked with seem to have no strong preferences when it comes to working with their people in spite of the fact that they and I know that they possess very strong personal preferences. Great teams and leaders have learned to balance their natural preferences.

Over the next several blogs we’ll first do an overview of each of the functions and then in subsequent blogs I’ll dig into each one in more depth with some practical applications for creating better dynamics and better decisions making.

So the Four Functions are:
1. Energizing
2. Perceiving
3. Deciding
4. Work Life

And the Three Rules are:
1. Balance
2. Balance
3. Balance

With the proper use of these four functions and three rules you’ll build better teams and become a better leader.

Many of you have shared this learning with me in numerous MBTI sessions. Share with us some of your “ah ha” moments or deeper understanding that have helped you become better leaders and team members.

This post was originally posted here on December 8, 2014.

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You’ll Never Be Caught Up!

by Ron Potter September 23, 2021

Most people are list makers. I’ve observed two types.

Logical, structured lists, usually written down in chronological order. Myers-Briggs refers to these types as Judging. Don’t let the title throw you off course. It simply means that they prefer to live a planned and organized life.
Random list makers including anything that comes to mind at the moment. Myers-Briggs refers to these types as Perceiving. It means that they prefer to live more of a spontaneous, flexible life.

Each type deals with its own difficulties. I’ve seen the logical list makers work hard on completing a task that was not originally on their list. After the task is complete, they have a tendency to write down the task on their list and then cross it out as completed.

Adding it to their list after it’s completed means absolutely nothing but they experience satisfaction from adding it to the list and then checking it off as completed.

It’s a little bit like Fitbit users who keep track of every step they take. If their device isn’t charged or they forgot to put it on before they leave for their walk, jog, or run, there is no record of the steps taken. They often feel that the steps were not actually taken because there is no record to show the effort. They still received all the benefits from all the steps but without a record, they feel like they never took them at all.

The random list makers have everything they can think of on their list. From critical issues to totally random issues. One question I often ask them is “How many lists do you have?” The answer: too many to keep track of.

The point here is not the type of list maker you are. The point is you’ll never be “caught up”.

You’ll Never Be “Caught Up”, Stop Feeling Guilty About it

This was a recent Harvard Business Review article titled, You’re Never Going to be “Caught Up” at Work. Stop Feeling Guilty About it.

As I write this blog my mind often drifts to the other tasks that I haven’t gotten to yet. It can lead to guilt and even shame if I let it. It’s a tough human dilemma fighting the issue of never being caught up.

Feeling Guilty Doesn’t Help

It is important to make sure you’re not just procrastinating from doing something that may be difficult but important. Prioritizing your task list is important so that you do get the most important items first. And though there aren’t enough hours in the day to accomplish everything, don’t feel guilty about it. Feel good that you got to the important things.

One of the issues I’ve seen at play is many people’s ability to say no to someone else. By promising to get to things that are really not going to be possible you’ll

Create guilt or even shame for not living up to your promise.
Overwork yourself by doing things for other people rather than those things on your priority list.
Do a poor job of accomplishing the task for them and at the same time not performing up to the standards that are expected of you. Again, guilt and shame.

Be honest and straightforward with people. If you can’t help them or realistically won’t get to the task they’re asking you to do, it is better for both of you to let them know that up front.

Give Yourself a Break

I’ve watched many people try to help others get past the feelings of guilt/shame by exercising self-forgiveness. Give yourself the same break. I know this can be difficult because we all want to perform at our peak so maybe you need that honest friend to help you with this issue just like you’re trying to help others. Do you have that someone that will talk with you straight and you’ll appreciate it? If not, that should be your number one priority.

Vacation or Break Time

I’ve noticed with myself that if I’m off work for a week, I actually get one day of rest and recuperation.

I may leave work late Friday night because I’m trying to finish off those things I feel are important to accomplish before I leave. This may flow over into Saturday. Sunday can be very active with church, friends, or traveling if we’re going someplace. Monday I can feel myself start to let down and I usually get my best night’s sleep that night followed by a Tuesday that is often completely disengaged from work and very relaxing.

But by Tuesday night I can catch myself thinking about work again and the things I need to accomplish when I return. That feeling increases Thursday and Friday and in the end, I realize I accomplished one day of R&R. So I get one day off in a one-week vacation. I need to take two weeks to get a week off!

Vacation and Break Time Killers

So what will destroy all of those efforts?

Not turning off your phone
Continuing to read texts and emails
Taking some work with you to get done before everyone gets up in the morning.

You’ve got to shut things off! My personal experience is that even if I’ve been good at shutting those things off during my vacation/break time when I get back to the office I’ll find an email box with several hundred messages and feel immediately overwhelmed.

At first, I would take all of those emails and save them in another file intending to get them soon. I never did.

After that, I simply deleted all emails in my inbox. I found that if there was something important the person who sent it will reach out again looking for an answer. If I simply said, “Sorry, I was on vacation, how can I help you?” most of the time the other person understood and then would get me caught up on the issue.

I don’t believe I ever experienced more than about one percent of follow-up on those hundreds of emails.

Get Your R&R

It’s up to you. Only you can make sure it happens.

But our personal experiences tell us and research confirms if we don’t get adequate rest, relaxation, recuperation, and regeneration, our body and minds will continue to deteriorate over time diminishing our ability to perform.

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Myers Briggs Type Indicator: Diversity – Closing Thoughts

by Ron Potter April 22, 2021

Statistics Worth Noticing

There are a few statistics that I think are worth noticing. I have seen some interesting patterns in corporate leadership teams that are quite different from the US population as a whole.

Thinking

The first observation is that there are five dominant types when I look at corporate teams. They start with the types that end with the TJ combination. Remember that T (Thinking) is very logical in their decision-making. The opposite end of the scale is the F (Feeling).

The word feeling is misleading in Myers-Briggs types (MBTI). People often assume that you either work and think logically or your feelings tend to take over and may make rash decisions. A better descriptor might be values. People who have a preference for F (values) over T (logical) are not illogical. They’ll weigh all of the logical points of view but their final decisions will be driven by the values they believe the team (and themself) should live by.

Feeling Plays a Large Role (or Should)

As an example, I would often watch leadership teams prepare to make decisions based on the logic of one dimension or another. Once they have worked through all the logic, an answer might seem very obvious. Then, if there is a person on the team with the “F” preference, they may ask a question something like this: “I see the logic and I agree with the logic but how do you think our customer will react to that decision?” The question was not logically based but was value-based. I’ll notice the rest of the team being silent for a moment as they contemplate the question and then say something like “You’re right. The customer probably won’t like that at all and we may lose customers because of the decision.” This often leads to a rethinking of the decision, taking into account both logic and values.

Entrepreneur

Before I show you the interesting statistics, I want to throw in one further MBTI type. That type is the ENTP. It doesn’t end in TJ like the other four but it has been classically known as the “Entrepreneur Type”. I find that with leadership teams, the ENTP (Entrepreneur) type often comes up with a new or innovative approach to a topic but then the TJ’s take over for implementation (very logically based).

Together these five types INTJ, ENTJ, ISTJ, ESTJ + ENTP make up 71% of Leadership teams and 68% of Operations teams. Those numbers aren’t unexpected but in contrast to a general population where those five types are the preference of only 28%, it paints a very different picture of corporate leadership.

Don’t Misunderstand

It’s important that you don’t misunderstand me. I’m NOT saying that you should have a preference for one of those five types to be considered a good corporate leader. If you’ve learned to balance your own thinking on each of the four scales, regardless of your personal preference, you’ll make the best corporate leader. In fact, it is my belief that many teams and many individuals on teams fool themselves into thinking that the TJ+ENTP types are required and therefore “act” as if they are one of those types for fear that they’ll be “found out” to be one of the “inferior” types. There are no inferior types, only inferior balance of all types.

The Other Statistic Worth Noticing

The other statistical anomaly I’ve noticed on corporate leadership teams is in the NT/ST area. Notice that both types have the T component (logical) while some of them also have the N (iNtuitive) component and others have the S (Sensing) component. They are both logical in their decision-making but some are driven by their conceptual (N) view of the future while others are driven by the facts and details (S) of the present.

The US population, in general, is 10% NT and 30% ST. Leadership teams are 49% NT and 39% ST while Operations Teams are 32% NT and 50% ST.

Once again, this pushes corporate leadership teams in a much more logical approach to decision-making versus the general population.

Word of Caution

But here’s one word of caution. Madison Avenue learned a long time ago that we make decisions based on feeling (F) and then justify those decisions based on logic (T). Neuroscience has proved that to be true. This also holds true for ideas and thoughts. We “buy” based on feeling and then justify based on logic! Don’t kid yourself. Your feeling, value, emotional side comes into play in your decision-making much more than you think.

Years ago my wife and I were in a Chevy dealership looking for a “sensible” car. While we were waiting, another salesman and I were drooling over the current Corvette. My wife finally said, “I see no logical reason to buy a Corvette.” The salesman and I looked at her as if she was from the moon. The salesman said, “No Corvette has ever been sold based on logic!” Guess which model makes the most money for Chevrolet.

Diversity of Thought

Diversity has been used and misused a lot recently. I think one cartoon recently summed up that misuse:

When we think about diversity from a leadership point of view, we should be celebrating and encouraging diversity of thought, history, perception, and preferences. This helps us build unity, engage everyone and in the end, make the best decisions.

Respecting team members and their ideas will be key to building unity. Dividing people into arbitrary groups doesn’t help. Building respect is what helps. I’ve built these thoughts around the Myers-Briggs Type Indication. But working with any valid assessment of personality will do the trick as long as you drop the arbitrary ethnic, racial, or gender division. Diversity of thought is independent of these arbitrary divisions.

RESPECT the people you work with!

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Myers Briggs Type Indicator: Orientation

by Ron Potter April 15, 2021

The last of the four functions is known as your Orientation or “Living” function. The two ends of this scale are judging (J) and perceiving (P). It’s really about how we want our lives to be lived.

Judging vs Perceiving

The judging (J) preference likes things to be organized and planned. Perceiving (P) preference likes things to be spontaneous and flexible. I often see couples land at the opposite ends of this scale. I have a preference for “J”, planning. My degree from the University of Michigan is actually in project management, which means it was my job to organize, plan, and keep projects on schedule. My wife falls on the perceiving end of this scale. Although she is very organized, it’s something she has to work at and her normal mode is to bounce around from project to project. For us “J’s”, we like to finish one project then move on to the next.

Vacation Story

You might want to look at the last story about vacations in the April 8th blog titled Where Decisions are Made. Vacation structure is a good place to look at the difference between natural preferences. If we talk about your job, you have likely trained yourself to function more like a “J”, even if you have a natural preference for “P”. Away from work, in environments like vacations, our natural preferences tend to be a little clearer.

You Think Too Much

Recently another family member who happens to be a natural “P” made some life decisions that I found curious. When we finally spent some time together after these life decisions were made, I asked her if I could ask a few questions about her decision. She agreed. I asked my first question and she gave a thoughtful answer. I was halfway through asking my second question when she stopped me and said “You think too much!”

She was right. I think through decisions much more completely that she would be comfortable with. But I had to admit, she was right, I do think too much. But I also came to realize that I was most happy when I could plan things out. Yet she was equally happy in her spontaneous approach. I would say that both of us are equally happy with our lives.

Happiness comes when we’re able to function in our preferred world. It has nothing to do with one preference being happier than the other.

J vs P Statistics

When we look at the statistics on this function, we see that the US population is roughly evenly split with 54% on the “J” side and 46% on the “P” side. However, corporate leadership teams are closer to two-thirds and one-third with 63% on the “J” side and 37% on the “P” side.

That difference becomes a little more pronounced with Operation Teams falling 67% on the “J” side and 33% on the “P” side.

Be careful if you have a preference for the Perceiving (P) side of this scale. Work often demands that teams think and act on the “J” side of this preference. As with most people, the “J” side can be trained even if it’s not natural. There are a few things to remember:

Teams need balance. Bring out your “P” preference when it can add to the conversation or decision-making.
You need balance. It’s OK to function as “J” in the business world but not let that carry over to all aspects of your life. You won’t be happy if you can’t live part of your life in your natural “P” preference.
None of the MBTI or other personality assessments have anything to do with skill or ability. They are simply preferences (When the opportunity exists, I would prefer to live and work in … my world.)

Walking the Balance Beam

Almost all of our education system up to and through graduate school pushes toward the “J” side. Apprentice programs of almost any type of work also push us toward the “J” side. (Measure twice, cut once). So you’ll probably be pretty good at working with a “J” bent. However, if you never allow yourself to have part of your life in the “P” world, you won’t experience the happiness that you would enjoy.

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Myers Briggs Type Indicator: Where Decisions Are Made

by Ron Potter April 8, 2021

We’re going to take this break because the last two functions (Sensing-Intuition & Thinking-Feeling) are the two functions that make up our decision-making process.

Energizing

The Energizing function doesn’t come into play in our decision process except that we must be in our preferred function (extraversion or introversion) in order to make our best decision.

If we have a preference for introversion, but because of norms or a particular leader, we are required to make decisions during the meeting or on the spot, we’ll make a decision but we will remain uncomfortable. For the introverted person to make the best decision, it would be better to take a break so they can think clearly before asking them to make a decision.

If we have a preference for extraversion, energy remains high during conversations and it seems easier to make decisions that we’re comfortable with. Our quiet times are useful to think about the many options and maybe even rank-order them. But we’re never quite comfortable with a decision if we don’t have the opportunity to bounce our thinking off someone else. This ability to talk through a decision gives us confidence. I once heard a person with extraversion preferences make the statement “How do I know what I think until I hear what I say?” Perfect summarizing statement!

But neither extraversion nor introversion contribute to our decisions, they are simply environments that allow for better or more confident decisions.

Decision Functions

The next two functions, perceiving and deciding, are exactly where our decisions are made. Of the sixteen Myers-Briggs Types, the second function will be either sensing or intuition (Perceiving) and the third function will be either thinking or feeling (Deciding). For instance, my preference is ENTJ. My second function (Perceiving) is iNtuition and my third function (Deciding) is thinking. I must have these two functions satisfied in order to make a decision.

Which Function is First?

It is the first (Energizing) and last function (Orientation) that determine which of the two functions lead. When we get to the last function (Orientation) it will identify us as having a preference for either judging or perceiving (J vs P). You will recall from a previous blog that the third function (T-F) is called your Deciding function but it was originally described as your Judging function.

The last function (Orientation) will indicate if you have a preference for either judging or perceiving (J-P). This indicates your preferred world. If your preferred world is judging, then you will prefer to start your decision-making process with the deciding (Judging) process. If your preferred world is perceiving, then you will prefer to start your decision-making process with your perceiving process.

ENTJ Example

I mentioned earlier that my MBTI preference is ENTJ. This means that I will rely on the Perceiving function of iNtuition and my Deciding function of thinking in order to make my best decisions (ENTJ). But, which of the NT functions do I tend to begin with? My last function (orientation) is J. This J refers to the original Judging function, now called the Deciding function. This means that I prefer to start with thinking then back it up with iNtuition.

Had my preference been ENTP, I would have preferred to start with the Perceiving Function of iNtuition and then back it up with the Judging (Deciding) function of thinking.

It’s important to know this sequence because I used the term “back up” in the previous paragraphs. For instance, my preference for ENTJ will start the decision-making process based on logic. However, I will back this up based on my iNtuition of what the right decision should be. So, even though I make decisions that seem logical, I also make them based on what I perceive to be the right decision.

What does the World See?

The last function helps us understand one more thing about our decision-making process. We will tend to use our lead decision-making process in our preferred world. The preferred world for extraverts is out talking with people. The preferred world for introverts is quietly thinking. This means that for the ENTJ, the world is exposed to and engaged in my lead decision-making process of thinking. I’ll use the iNtuitive process to think about the decisions long-term implications or to support how iNtuitively I see the world.

Personal ENTJ/INFP Example

One of the best ways to understand the J vs P preference (last function) is to think about non-work time. At work, we have often figured out that a good balancing act pays high rewards. In our non-work time, we tend to function much less guarded.

Let’s look at vacation time. Because of my “J” function at the end, I like to have my vacation time structured and decided. I want to know arrival and departure times, where we’ll be staying, when and where do we have meal times scheduled and when are we scheduled to “have fun!” Yes, even our “fun” time is scheduled! My wife is just the opposite —everything should be spontaneous!

I decided I needed to give her some vacation time built around her preferences because usually, my “J” preference won out over her “P” preference. So I made it clear to her that I wanted to give her a vacation that fit her preference. She was thrilled! But as our vacation time approached, my “J” would attempt to seize back control. “Where are we going?” “When are we leaving?” “What should we pack?” etc. But with each of my questions, she responded that she didn’t know yet. I finally received an indication that she wanted to go “antiquing.”

The day of our departure came. I drove to the end of the driveway, stopped, then asked “Left or Right?” She thought for a minute (she also has a preference for introversion), then finally said “Right.” These Left-Right questions continued for the entire week through five states of our vacation.

As we drove we would see a sign for an antique store at the next exit. Normally, when she wanted to stop at one of these stores, I would look at my watch and make a statement something to the effect of “Sorry, we don’t have the time built into our schedule.” But on this trip, my response was “Sure!” I was slowly learning. When we pulled up out front I wouldn’t ask “How long will we be here?” As we entered the store I wouldn’t ask “What are we looking for?” Once in the store, she might spot a cute little salt and pepper set. I would ask “Can I find some more of those for you?” That would put me on the hunt and firmly in my “J” mode.

We would leave the store and get back on the road and I”m thinking (I bet it’s going to be Strawberry Festival in the next town and there won’t be a room within 50 miles). And then she would say “I’m tired, let’s stop at the next B&B and rest for the afternoon and evening.” I’m thrilled.

And so the next several days went in a pure spontaneous “P” mode. I painfully survived but she enjoyed every minute.

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Myers Briggs Type Indicator: Deciding

by Ron Potter April 1, 2021

There are a couple of problematic issues with this preference pair. One of the issues is the title of this preference. For years it was titled “Judging” but the wise people at Consulting Psychologists Press (CPP.Inc) who own the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI) changed it to “Deciding” a few years ago. I think this is a better description.

The other problematic issue with this particular scale is that one end is defined as “Thinking” while the other end is described as “Feeling” (T vs. F). Business teams in particular revolt at the use of feelings. They’ll say things like they don’t let their emotions or feelings get in the way of making logical decisions. But this is your Deciding Function! You will either make balanced or unbalanced decisions. Make balanced decisions, both thinking and feeling. Those will be better decisions.

Thinking – Positive and Negative

A thinking preference can be very positive when it comes to decision making. The thinking preference tends to be very logical, objective, and can be firm but fair. In addition, they will often hold justice in high esteem, can be very principle-based, and will easily critique ideas and decisions. In the end, it’s very difficult to argue with the logic-based decision that comes naturally to the thinking preference. And that can sometimes become the problem.

Because the thinking preference comes across as confident and even critical, there is a natural barrier for others to challenge. I had a boss once that was probably the most logical, thinking based person I’ve ever known. Because I had gained his trust, he often would take me to visit various project sites to get a feel for how the business was working. Unfortunately, it never occurred to him that the way he set up the meeting rooms seemed much like a judge (with full authority) questioning those running the business. He would sit at the center seat at a small table. To his left would be the site’s general manager and to his right would be me. He then would ask each of the site managers to enter the room, sit in a chair (feeling fully exposed) in front of this tribunal looking over the desk at them.

I know that my boss was simply trying to get as deep into the details (He also had a strong presence for sensing that we talked about in the last blog) and find out the truth of what was going on. As soon as he detected any weakness in a person’s thinking or attention to facts, he would relentlessly pursue further details with more critical questioning. Often the person seated in front of us (the tribunal) would eventually crumble and sometimes leave crying.

Later, as we were driving away from the site, I would say to my boss that he had really crushed Larry (or whomever). My boss would come back with genuine surprise and say something like “I noticed there was something wrong. What was the matter with that person?” I would explain to him that his approach to questioning and drilling down shook the confidence of some people. Again confused, he would say “I don’t get it. I’m just trying to find out how things are going!” He was a total thinker and never learned the value of balancing it with feeling type questions.

Feeling – Positive and Negative

The positive side of the feeling preference is truly caring. Caring for people. Caring for values. The feeling preference focuses on things like values, mercy, compliments, harmony, empathy, compassion. These are actually the issues that help create great teams. If you’ve read my blogs you’ll know that there is no correlation between IQ and success. But, there is a complete correlation between EQ and success. EQ is Emotional Quotient and deals with many of the issues we just listed above: value, harmony, empathy, compassion. The feeling preference does not ignore the thinking side. They’ll acknowledge all of the points that the thinking preference makes as being real and accurate but will question if a decision is better being made on the facts or harmony (or other feeling preference focus).

I’ve watched leadership teams get ready to make a decision based on logic. They’ll list all of the logical reasons they should make this particular decision. But then, someone says “But how will our customers react to that decision?” After a pause, someone will say “Your right. They’ll hate it. Maybe we should consider a different decision.”

Statistics

I’m going to take a look at the statistics to see what we might learn and then I want to close with a couple of more thoughts.

Here at the Statistics:

US Population Thinking = 40%; Feeling = 60%
Leadership Teams Thinking = 84%; Feeling = 16%
Operation Teams Thinking = 83%; Feeling = 17%

One of the things we learn from these numbers is that both Leadership and Operations Teams are substantially more thinking-oriented than the general population. To some degree, this makes sense because businesses and corporations generally run and make their decisions based on logic, not feelings. However, that’s a falsehood.

Fifth Avenue marketing firms learned long ago that people make decisions based on feelings and then justify those decisions based on logic. Business and Corporate leaders are just the same, they just won’t often admit it. In fact, it’s important to know that even ideas are believed to be true based on our emotions and then justified by logic. Knowing this to be true, it’s important that when having a team discussion about which decision to make, members should share their feelings, emotions, previous experiences (baggage) with each other. And don’t let a member get away with explaining the logic of a decision. Make sure they share their emotions first, then explain what logic they use based on the emotions.

You’ll get sick of me saying this time and time again, but the best decisions are balanced. Balance, balance, balance. However, it’s important that to balance this Deciding function, you must start with the feeling side.

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Myers Briggs Type Indicator: Perceiving

by Ron Potter March 25, 2021

The perceiving pair in Myers-Briggs (MBTI) helps identify how you perceive the world. Each of us has a preference for either sensing or intuition.

The Positive and Negative of Sensing

This preference is for seeing and understanding as much detail as possible. When making decisions, the sensing preference wants the facts. What information is available to help make a decision?

The sensing function also seems to be focused on more of the near term than the future. In the business world I’ve seen the sensing types have the attitude that if we don’t make the right decisions at the moment, there will be no future to worry about.

The positive side of sensing is that they will often pay much more attention to detail than the intuitive preference. Like many married couples, my wife and I tend to be on the opposite ends of this scale. She has more of a sensing preference while I have more of an intuitive preference.

This has saved our (my) bacon many times, sometimes in big ways like purchasing a new home. I tend to think about the overall look and feel of the home and how that will help or hurt us when we’re ready to sell in the future. I’m also thinking about future market conditions and how that will affect our purchase. Meanwhile, she is going through the buy-sell agreement with a fine-toothed comb and is also paying attention to the details of the mortgage. I may be ready to buy or reject based on my preference when she’ll point out something I didn’t catch that changes my decision foundation.

The negative side of sensing is they will always want more detail. Having more detail is always a positive thing in their preference world. However, this can often delay decisions.

The Positive and Negative of Intuition

The positive side of the intuitive preference is that it is almost always thinking about the future. The intuitive preference will want to know why a decision is getting made, what will be the positive and negative outcomes of that decision, and will a sensing-based decision support our future goals?

Often the intuitive preference can discount the current data. They might ask questions like “Will this decision help prepare us for the future?” or “Should we be hiring now when the skills we need at the moment don’t align with the skills we’ll need in the future?”

Best to Use Both

Obviously, the best decisions will be made (keep this in mind when we look at the statistics) when we balance sensing and intuition. In my consulting work, I would often say to the teams, it never really matters which side of this scale (or any of the other scales) you fall on, the key issue is balance, balance, balance!

We talked in our last blog about a technique of pausing during a team meeting to have people write down key points. That helped balance extravert and introvert preferences. You can also use that time to ask team members to identify meaningful details and discuss their future implications. This helps balance sensing and intuition.

Statistics

It’s important to note that in the MBTI nomenclature, we use an N for the intuitive types rather than a I. This was done to help distinguish between introverted and intuition. Introverted = I; Intuitive = N. You have a preference for E I and S N.

US Population: Sensing = 74% iNtuitive = 26%

Leadership Teams: Sensing =41% iNtuitive = 59%

Operations Teams: Sensing = 60% iNtuitive = 40%

Notice that Leadership Teams are highly iNtuitive. This helps a team to be prepared for the future but can become a problem if they ignore or discount current details that the sensing preference will provide.

Operations teams need to be much more sensing focused because they are dealing with the here and now.

Balance, Balance, Balance

I’ve told my consulting clients that I don’t care if they ever remember what their natural preference is in the MBTI. What I do care about is that they learn to balance each of the four types. It’s the balance that brings the power of better thinking and better decisions.

I’ve spoken of a few of the CEOs that I considered the best I ever worked with. Their common trait is that they learned to balance the preferences. It didn’t mean that their personal preference changed.

It did mean that they had learned to balance the preferences by becoming better at asking themselves questions that their natural preference wouldn’t have thought of and by appreciating the balance they had in their leadership teams. They never let themselves or anyone else on the team ignore the questions that may come up based on opposite preferences.

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Myers Briggs Type Indicator: Energizing

by Ron Potter March 18, 2021

Extroversion or introversion. Where do you get your energy from? In Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI) this is known as your energizing function. More importantly, if you’re making a decision, which side of the pair do you need to be in when you are comfortable or convinced the decision you’re making is right. We are energized by extraversion or introversion.

Extravert or Introvert Labels

I think this pair more than any of the others has been misused when we label people. I clearly fall on the extraversion side of this pair. In fact, when I take the assessment I usually have the highest possible score on the extraverted side. People often assume that extroverts talk all the time.

Even though I score the highest possible score in that area, I spend a great deal of time reading and thinking quietly. My amazon statistics indicate that I read somewhere between 50 and 100 books a year. I spend that time in silence. I enjoy writing these blogs, creating visuals, both Powerpoints and animations, for my consulting work.

Every month or so I look forward to getting up to my cabin which sits in the middle of 500 acres of wilderness in northern Michigan to enjoy the quiet, solitude, time to think, and time to write. I spend much of my time being completely quiet. This is not a trait associated with extroverts.

However, if I’ve been thinking through a concept or a decision I have to make during this quiet time, I must talk it over with someone before I’ll make the decision I’m confident about. If I make a decision with quiet time only, then I’m always questioning the decision. I need to talk it through with someone. I need their thoughts and opposing views to be sure of my decision in the end. I am energized by my extraversion preferences!

Introverts Can Be Talkative

One of the traits of introverts is that if they’ve had time to think about a topic (which puts them into the introverted preference), they’re ready to talk. They will be fully engaged in the conversations and willing to share their thoughts. However, if we extraverts suddenly bring up an idea they haven’t had time to quietly think about they may go quiet.

What I’ve seen happen more often with teams is the introvert will simply repeat what they’ve already said. It can often sound as if they are saying to us “Didn’t you hear what I just said? Let me repeat.” In fact, the extraverts heard what they said, this was simply a new thought. But springing a new thought without time to quietly think about it doesn’t go over well for the introvert so they repeat what they have thought out.

How to Accommodate Introverts

Let’s face it, meetings are designed by and meant for extraverts. Why do we have meetings? To get together and talk.

One of the best approaches to accommodate both the extravert and introvert in meetings is for a wise moderator to:

Stop the Discussion
Ask everyone to write down what they think the three best ideas were based on the discussion
Give them time to write down their thoughts
After a reasonable amount of time, ask each member to put their best idea on the flip chart

It’s always fascinating to me to watch what happens during this “writing” time.

The introverts will do something to cut off the “chaos” in the room. They’ll put one hand over their eyes, or they’ll turn away from the team with their pad or they might even move elsewhere inside or outside the room. But this allows them to think. Almost immediately the thoughts clarify and they start writing. They’ll often write more than the requested three things and then either rank-order them or combine them.

Meanwhile, the extraverts may write the number one thing that was obvious to them. Sometimes they’ll even write two things but they seldom get three things written down. What do they do? They move over to the refreshment area where the rest of the extraverts have gathered so they can talk. By doing so, they’ll come up with their list of three and then regather at their seats.

The wise moderator then begins to go around the room and ask each person to contribute their number one item to the list. In doing so, the moderator has essentially kept the environment on the introverted side even though people are beginning to speak. Once the list is exhausted, the moderator will open it back up to discussion thus moving it back to an extraverted environment.

Meetings are extraverted environments. They don’t have to dedicate 50% to talking and 50% to quiet time. However, if you don’t build in some quiet time, you will lose the brainpower of a high portion of the participants.

I’ve often asked the introverts what happens to them as soon as they walk out of the room at the end of the meeting. They will all say something like “I wish I had said that —It all of a sudden became so clear to me!” What they’re saying is they didn’t have the opportunity to “think” during the meeting.

We must create an environment that allows everyone to capture their best thoughts.

Archetypes

The statistics on MBTI have proven to be the same around the world. However, I’ve observed that each culture has its ideal of what type a great leader is or should be.

In North America, we tend to hold up the extraverts as leaders. They should be outspoken, confident, leading through words, and ready to handle change.

In Asia, it tends to be almost the opposite. Their leaders should be soft-spoken, quietly confident, lead through action and think long term, not reacting to every change that comes along.

In an American office, if someone walks past the leader’s office and sees them sitting quietly, it’s assumed they are not doing anything so this might be a good time to interrupt them with a question. In Asia, if the leader is seen sitting quietly, it is assumed that they are deep in thought and should not be interrupted.

Statistics

For each of the four pairs, I’ll identify the split in the US Population, Leadership Teams, and Operations Teams.

The US Population is well researched and statistically sound. For Leadership Teams, I always used the database that I have gathered through the years. And even though it had a couple of thousand data points and should have been valid, I was always a little hesitant to say that it indicated anything beyond my own file. Then, one day I was able to see the database collected by the Center for Creative Leadership. They had tens of thousands (maybe hundreds of thousands) of leaders in their database. And to my great relief, their statics were exactly the same as mine.

Operations teams are the teams in the organization that are responsible for the rubber hitting the road. If the company makes widgets, this team is responsible to get as many widgets out the door as fast and cheaply as possible. The head of the Operations Team is usually part of the Leadership team.

Once we see the splits of these three data sets, it’s worthwhile to ask if there is anything to be learned.

US Population – Extraversion = 50% Introversion = 50%

Leadership Teams – Extraversion = 62% Introversion = 38%

Operation Teams – Extraversion = 56% Introversion = 44%

One of the things learned here is that Leadership Teams are more extraverted than Operation Teams and a lot more extraverted than the general population. This is a talkative bunch!

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Myers Briggs Type Indicator: Diversity

by Ron Potter March 11, 2021

We can see almost daily comments about diversity. It creates great division when it seems to be lacking and it’s talked about in glowing terms when it’s promoted as the issue that will solve all of our problems. The issue I get concerned about is that we think of diversity in too narrow terms.

Most of the time we are thinking about and talking about race or gender. While these are very important I believe there’s much more to diversity than those two categories. Please don’t get me wrong, I’m not saying that we shouldn’t be talking about and focusing on race and gender, I’m saying there is more to consider.

Myers-Briggs Helps with Diversity

A couple of years ago I wrote several blogs focusing on the use of Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI). I’ve been amazed at how many questions and comments I’ve received from people wanting to know more about MBTI in general and asking questions about specific situations and wondering if understanding MBTI would help.

This is why I’m starting a short series on MBTI again. I have not gone back and read any of my previous blogs. I just wanted this series to be inspired by my current thinking.

MBTI is Not a Label

Most of the teams I worked with wanted to label everyone to help them understand the person better. I always discouraged this practice and I didn’t like to hear about trained professionals who thought labels were a natural conclusion. They are not!

MBTI checks for preferences. Meaning, in a given situation what would your natural preference chose? This doesn’t mean that you can’t train yourself to look at things from many aspects, not just your natural preference.

In fact, the best leaders I’ve worked with have trained themselves to look and behave in the world in almost all of the MBTI aspects, not just their natural preferences. I’ve even asked people who work for these great leaders to tell me what they think the leader’s MBTI is. They can’t. They can see them perform, ask questions, make decisions using almost all of the facets of MBTI. It’s one of the things that make them a good leader.

I’m not going to go into great depth with every aspect of the MBTI. I’m going to focus on the four natural pairs, how they conflict and can also complement each other. I will also look at the statistics I’ve found that show how much of each time is present in the population as a whole as well as in business leadership teams.

Four Pairs

Over the next few weeks, we’ll take a look at the four pairs that exist within MBTI. They are:

Energizing – Extraversion vs Introversion {EI}
Perceiving – Sensing vs Intuition (SN)
Judging – Thinking vs Feeling (TF)
Orientation – Judging vs Perceiving (JP)

Each person has a “preference” for one unit of each pair. For instance, my MBTI is ENTJ. That means that I have a tendency to be Extraverted, Intuitive, Thinking, and Judging. Thus ENTJ.

Be Careful

I can’t tell you how many times people have said something to me like, “I’ve taken the MBTI many times and I always come out the same. I’m an ESTP.”

Be careful on two fronts. The first is that you are not an ESTP or any other type. It simply means that you have a preference for a certain set of pairs.

Second, be careful what you remember. For those people who have said that or something similar to me, I’ve asked to see their previous results. They are almost always wrong. They have simply categorized themselves into something they like or that resonates with a particular type but they are totally wrong in what they remember as their tested and identified type.

Scientific

There are a couple of other stories I would like to tell you. I was once asked by the head of the psychology department in a major pharmaceutical company to help her with her team. I told her I wanted to collect MBTI data of her staff so they could see how each other approached the world. She agreed. However, once the letter went out to her staff I received a scathing email from one of her managers. She wanted to know how I could expect to promote the work of these charlatans who weren’t even scientists with such an esteem group. I simply said that her boss had asked me to do it and to hang in there. As we finished the session, this person quietly came up to me and asked if I could do a session with her team.

A Rose by Any Other Color

Another experience I’ve had over the last few years is that clients would say to me, “We don’t use MBTI anymore. It’s very dated. Now we use [name of another product]. I said that was no problem, would they please send me what literature or website they had and how their people fit into this “new” chart. I would read through the data and then in every case, did a full day session with the team to help them understand themselves and the team in more depth. They were always amazed at how much I had learned in such a short time. What I often didn’t tell them that the “new” product was simply MBTI repackaged with different words and colors.

Granted, some of the language is dated and could be upgraded for modern teams to understand better. But the essence of MBTI is solid and extensive.

I hope you’ll enjoy and learn from our journey over the next few weeks.

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Balance on the High Wire – Part II: Decision Making

by Ron Potter February 15, 2018

The world is becoming a very fast paced environment. With each step of increased travel velocity, the world has become more interconnected than ever. With the advent of the internet and pipeline speed that velocity has become almost infinite in nature. It seems like a Niagara amount of information, data and connectivity are swirling around us every moment of every day. With each passing day, it becomes more difficult for us to maintain our balance. Without balance, bad things happen.

Over the last couple of blogs (Check out Balancing Act and High Wire), I’ve noted that Balance is the key ingredient of great decision-making, health, and happiness (human needs). Today let’s explore decision-making.

Myers-Briggs teaches us that human decision-making is a two-stage process of taking in information (Perceiving) and then making our decisions based on that perception. It has been my experience through 25+ years of team building and leadership development that we must keep those processes in balance.

My data is rather old (meaning more than a day at this point) but the last I remember seeing is that we create over 50,000 GB of data per second. I’ll let you look up what the size of that number really means.

The human mind can’t come anywhere near absorbing that much data (or even a fraction) every day to use in our decision-making processes. So, the mind needs to use shortcuts, models, and tricks to help us survive and make everyday decisions in our daily lives. Each of us uses a different method of taking in data related to a decision that we’re making. The two key areas that Myers-Briggs describes are:

Sensing
- Facts
- Details
- Data
- What do we know in the present?
- What have we done so far?
- What are the next steps?
Intuition
- Bigger picture
- Future
- Implications
- Where are we trying to go in the future?
- What will the possibilities be?
- What is the ultimate goal?

As you look at the written list you would likely agree that we need all that information in order to make a good, well-informed decision. The problem is that in our every day lives, our brain tends to focus on and give greater priority to either Sensing or Intuition. It takes a team and a good process to maintain a healthy balance. Without balance you’ll tend to be either too short-term or long-term focused. If this function isn’t balanced it can cause the business to fail.

Once the perceiving function is completed (and hopefully balanced) our “deciding” function kicks-in. Myers-Briggs identifies these as our Thinking and Feeling functions. A better way to think of these is logic and values. All too often in the business world, “feelings” are discounted as being too emotional. Decisions should be made on logic. But values are important to every organization. When values are violated, the culture begins to crumble, and the organization loses a sense of being. Logic and value must be balanced.

Just like on the high wire, goals cannot be met, and trust cannot be build when we lose our balance.

Balance, Balance, Balance.

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5. Myers-Briggs In-Depth: Attending and Perceiving: Sensing vs iNtuition – Part II

Most successful business people have figured out that they need to balance this function. This balancing act most often takes the form of a trusted partner, colleague or consultant.

Continue Reading…

4. Being Humble is Being Down to Earth

It doesn’t seem to make much sense, but truly great leaders are humble.

The problem comes with how the word is normally used: Humble is thought to mean shy, retiring, unobtrusive, quiet, unassuming. Being humble can seem weak or, horrors, even borrrrrrrriiiiiiinnnnngggggg.

What does it really mean to embrace humility?

Humility is derived from the Latin word humus, meaning “ground.” One way to describe truly humble leaders is that they have their feet on the ground.

Continue Reading…

3. Myers-Briggs In-Depth: Judging vs Perceiving

I have set up the following two signs in a team meeting:

I have to get my work done before I can play.
I can play anytime

I then ask the team to position themselves along the spectrum between those two signs. Once positioned it almost always correlates between their Judging vs Perceiving preference on this scale.

Continue Reading…

2. Absurd!: The More We Communicate, The Less We Communicate

People don’t want more information; they want more meaning. What does this mean? How should we interpret these numbers? Give us meaning. Tell us stories. Help us understand.

Continue Reading…

1. Character vs. Competence

Bob Quinn in his book Deep Change introduced us to the concept of the “Tyranny of Competence.” This is a person that is so good at the skills of their job, leaders will tend to overlook their other flaws in character. They assume the character flaws would never cause enough negative issues to overcome the positive impact of being really good at their job.

Don’t ever think that. The destruction caused by lack of character is always greater than the competency provided.

Continue Reading…

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10. Balancing Innovation and Execution

At some point, every leader seems to grapple with the balance between innovation and execution. Many leaders struggle with the notion that one great idea will save the day for the organization. Others spend an inordinate amount of time focusing on “getting out the laundry” and not on new ideas.

Continue Reading…

9. Opposite of Victim

Someone asked me the other day what was the opposite of the victim mentality. That ignited a lively dialogue which came to the conclusion that Creativity is the opposite of victim mentality. Isn’t that a great picture? If we eliminate policies, procedures, governance, or leadership styles that create or assume a victim mentality, we unleash creativity. Although my work is focused on leadership within corporations, the first thing that came to mind was our law makers.

Continue Reading…

8. You can’t fix culture

I named my company Team Leadership Culture because those were the three elements that made a company great. You can think of those three elements as a triangle: Team and leadership at the base of the triangle, culture at the top. If you have not taken the time to build great teams and great leaders, a great culture is not going to develop.

Team is the most important. With a great team, lots of wonderful things can happen, sometimes even with mediocre leadership. However, great leadership without a good team almost always fails.

Continue Reading…

7. Myers-Briggs In-Depth: Deciding: Thinking vs Feeling – Part I

Most (business) people react negatively to this “Feeling” function and will associate with the Thinking side rather than the “touchy feely” side. While this is a complete misconception, it drives a very strong bias to the Thinking side. In my data base of corporate leaders that I’ve gathered over the last 25 years, roughly 85% identify themselves with a Thinking Preference and about 15% with a Feeling Preference. This is far outside the parameters of the other functions.

6. Qualities of a Caring Leader: Confrontation

Part of leading is confronting people and urging them toward better performance.
Confrontation does not involve giving a report on another person’s behavior. It means offering feedback on the other’s role or response. Its goal, in the business environment, is to bring the employee, boss, or peer face to face with issues (behavior, emotions, achievement) that are being avoided.

Continue Reading…

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