MBTI as a Management Tool Part 2: Build High-Performing Teams and Increase EQ

The Myers Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI) is a powerful tool for leaders, managers and human resource professionals to increase Emotional Intelligence (EQ) and build high-performing teams. This is part two in my four-part series on MBTI.

In part one of my series, we covered the history of MBTI, its common uses, and the basics of the MBTI personality types. My next posts will cover practical tips on using MBTI in your organization.

For this post, I interviewed certified MBTI practitioner, Freddi Donner of Business Stamina on how to apply MBTI to increase EQ and how MBTI diverse teams can add depth to organizations.

Client Example of Applying MBTI to Increase EQ

Effective leaders know how to manage emotions. This does not mean that leaders don’t have emotions, or that they aren’t allowed to express them. It means they manage their behavior in response to those emotions “so that they don’t terrify the people around them.” That’s EQ in action.

Donner’s client, let’s call him Marc, was a leader of a commercial real estate firm’s engineering department. While working with Marc, she and Marc learned that he was an introvert (I) and had high standards for how things got done. While mild mannered and humble, Marc thought his way was always the best way to execute projects.

Identifying the Leader’s Challenge

Marc’s challenge was that in a meeting with other leaders, he would spend a lot of time using detailed data to explain why his idea was the best solution. What was the ultimate reason for this behavior? Marc and Donner mapped out that he wanted people to know how he made the decision, in order to show them how his decision was better than the alternatives. This has to do with the second letter in MBTI, which is S. Someone with the letter S in their personality profile likes details, needs things to be proven and is very methodical.

Unfortunately, Marc’s preferences were working against his leadership style and his leadership team wasn’t interested in how he got to his conclusion. All the data he presented didn’t make him look more credible. In fact, it did the opposite. To the team, Marc looked like he was insecure about his decisions because he was continually justifying them.

How the leader met his challenge

Once Marc recognized this, he was able to change his behavior. He spoke with authority about his decisions and did not explain the many reasons why his decisions were reached. This behavior change increased his credibility and effectiveness as a leader.

The MBTI Stress Management Report

MBTI helped Marc improve his EQ and leadership communication. In addition, the MBTI Stress Management Report, a separate MBTI report, can provide leaders with an indicator of how they might respond to emotional situations. When stressed, some people might lock the door and not answer emails for two days. Others may buzz around and interrupt other people’s day with their anxious energy. Neither option is productive.

The MBTI Stress Management Report takes the responses a subject has given to the questions on the MBTI assessment test and generates data to shows what may happen when this particular MBTI personality type experiences stress. Why is this important? If a leader knows this about herself, she will be able to deal with her behavioral reactions more appropriately.

Here’s an example: One of Donner’s type A clients, let’s call him Jon, was interested in knowing how he responded to stress.  Donner worked with Jon to discover that when he gets stressed, he goes into a ‘controlling mode”, which means he takes back everything that he has already delegated to his employees.  Donner calls this behavioral response a triple negative. First, Jon has just increased his own workload. Second, he’s demoralized the employee he assigned the project to. Third, Jon prevented his employee from learning how to complete the project to meet his expectations. Through coaching with Donner, Jon recognized his stress behaviors and created new behaviors and practices to manage his stress that did not impact the team with a triple negative.

MBTI Helps Create a Highly Productive Teams

In addition to increasing EQ and identifying stress behaviors, MBTI can also help build effective teams. To create productive teams, there needs to be an appreciation for the fact that we all think differently, and an understanding that thinking differently doesn’t make you better or worse. This understanding increases the probability of building mutual respect, which creates the environment for more productive and more harmonious teams. So when possible, a mixture of MBTI personality types is best for a team.

What Does a Balanced and Imbalanced Team Look Like?

Some organizations, especially in the technology field, have the tendency to attract highly analytical, detail-oriented types, many of whom are introverted (I). For example, if you have a team entirely of T’s (thinkers) and no F’s (feelers), only a certain type of data is going to be brought to the table when it comes to making decisions. An entire group of T’s will focus on facts and figures and want to come to a decision quickly. They will all validate each other’s data and quickly move ahead with a decision.

However, they may have missed one entire aspect of the decision-making process—how this decision makes employees and clients feel.  Without having an F on their team, they may be limited in their scope of factors for decision-making. This type of imbalance creates blind spots. If a leader notices this, then that leader needs to find ways to bring more ‘F’ to the team to avoid ‘group think’.

Here is Freddi Donner talking about the T (thinking) and F (feeling) personality types. Watch her discuss E (extroversion) versus I (introversion) as well as S (sensing) versus N (intuition) here.

Stay tuned for the continuation of this MBTI series, where we will discuss the single greatest value of bringing MBTI into your organization, as well as how to deal with team members who are resistant to participating in the MBTI assessment.

What do you think about MBTI? Tell me all about it. Leave a comment below, send me an  email or find me on Twitter.