Effective Teams in the Workplace with the Myers-Briggs 16 Personality Types

Any organization runs with the collective effort of people. The potential of people counts a lot for the organizational development. To address the individual’s potential and channelizing them according to their capabilities is quite important for productive and effective outcome of the company.

Here comes the role of managers and senior leaders to drive the best out of employee’s potential and talent. Giving the proper attention and directing the energy of everyone to enhance the potential of entire organization. Individual potential and capabilities of employees is directly proportional to the potential growth of an organization.

The foremost thing is to create a friendly environment within the organization where everyone is open and helpful, rather than doctrinaire, bad-tempered and dominating unproductive environment. To acknowledge the natural strength of an individual which they inherit since their childhood is called the natural talent or potential. If this naturally inherited potential is not recognized and people are assigned their work, then they are not going to perform their hundred percent, which results in loss of interest in work, and they are distracted from the goal. Therefore, its significant to evaluate the talent and assign the role accordingly.

People with different mindset, behaviour pattern and potential need to be combined as a team which should work in sync to take any kind of combined decision for organizational growth. Group or team-base working environment is always favourable for any organization. Groups utilize the potential and talent of each individual and come up with the brilliant innovative solution of the problems.

To discover the personality type of each team member and direct their energy naturally, we need some theories to match as per the personality type. The energy direction of the 16 Myers-Brigg's personality types is based on each type of basic beliefs, values and set of expectations about the world.

1.ESTP (extraversion, sensing, thinking, perception)

They are inspiring professionals who like to elucidate guidelines. They perform good as team and like to make decision by examining all the facts and data. They mostly have conventional approach, but they need to apply new methods. Most of the time they are creative in their field. They are quite efficient of taking quick decision at the crucial time.

2. ENTJ (Extraversion, intuition, thinking, judging)

Individual with this trait is good for leadership position within creative areas, such as digital marketing or product designing. They have leadership qualities, and they prefer logical and structural approach for achieving the goal as per the timeline. They create innovative approach to find opportunity and face the challenges.

3. ISTJ (Responsible realists)

These are dutiful person, love routine and believe in hardship and honesty. They are faithful, sincere and calm by nature. This personality type is well organized which is important in today's working system (remote working). These people are committed to their work and doesn’t need to be checked or managed.

4.INTJ (Conceptual planner)

These individuals can be called perfectionist or creative in their field. People with these personality types are great at implementing ideas. They are very particular about the deadline. Some time they take hasty decisions which may not result fruitful for the company. Therefore, sometimes they need guidance for their decisions.

5. INFJ (Insightful visionaries)

Individual with these traits is conscientious who are quietly forceful but also instinctive about people and concerned about their co-worker's feelings. They are always ready with innovative ideas. They are excellent judge of the character, so they are quite appropriate for virtual interview or remote working system. They perform better off-screen rather than on-screen (good for back-office job rather than front desk).

6. ISFJ (Practical helpers)

People with this personality type prioritize harmony and co-operation, have a strong work ethic, and respect the feelings, wishes of colleagues. They are good at managing the coordination among the team member to keep them united and happy. Thus, they are perfect for managing remote working employees. They are also very good at following the rules and inspiring others to do the same, this leads to increase the efficiency of entire team.

7. ISFP (Versatile supporters)

They are thoughtful doers who excel when they do for others. They have risk taking abilities, quite approachable, friendly and are against conflicts. They also value exploring new ideas and experience. Their energy is an asset but sometime needs to be directed in right direction by others. They are dedicated employee type.

8. ISTP (Logical pragmatists)

They are straight forward and to-the-point person, loyal but not very concerned about the rules and regulation. They are highly unpredictable personality type because they are mostly rational and logical but can also be energetic and quick. They can work as asset for remote working environment as they are digitally connected with each of the team member to be more focused towards work. Apart from all these positive aspects they lose focus easily.

9. INFP (Thoughtful idealists)

They can be called as daydreamer and often get lost in their imagination. They are excited soul, so they bring enthusiasm to projects and maintain their excitement for longer periods of time. Thay are deeply rooted with values which can be the reason of dissatisfaction and frustration. These types of remote employees need to be encouraged and monitored to boost them.

10. INTP (Objective analysts)

They like to solve problems individually. They love patterns, quick in noticing dissimilarities and are logical. They are perfect for this lockdown as they like to work alone. They should be given freedom to work in their own natural self and value their opinion as well, because they often come up with productive solutions. If there are these type of person in a team, then encourage them to share the ideas, solutions, documents and software to the team as much as possible.

11. ESFP (Enthusiastic improvisers)

They can be called as soul of the workplace. They are highly enthusiastic, energetic and natural performer who always end up in innovative or creative professions. They are sympathetic and helpful. They are, in fcat, the front desk performer of the company, so they are not the right person to work remotely. They should be involved in some creative things like making videos, posts etc. They can be involved in direct interaction with the client to drive the sale for the company.

12. ESFJ (Supportive contributors)

They are naturally helpful and caring, like to work as a team. They are social, kind and considerate and give priority to others interest first. They like involving colleagues in events and activity to keep them engaged and happy. They are best project managers because people admire their company.

13. ENFP (Imaginative motivator)

They are mostly people's person, who love to experiment and discover new ideas. They like to be surrounded by people and work with feeling above logic. They are motivated by genuine goals which is heartfelt rather than money oriented. They excel at both generating ideas and collectively achieving the goal. They are great starter but bad finisher, so with them timeline of the goal is always an issue.

14. ENFJ (Compassionate facilitators)

They are also natural leaders but different from ENTP colleagues, they work more with intuition and feeling than logic and rules. They are managers who moves with equal interest of the team and are inspirational. They are more of positive than negative. They tend to forget their own needs to give the best result, they burnout themselves not only physically but mentally too. They can be assigned as leader to communicate through zoom meeting and form an environment of togetherness.

15. ESTJ (Efficient organizer)

They work as guardian in any organization. They are decision maker, hard-working, traditional in their approach and promising. They work as a captain for the team. They love to organize themselves and other around them. They sometimes can be dominating. Then need to be guided of being tactful with the people particularly when they are communicating through mails and messages.

16. ENTP (Enterprising explorer)

They are fascinating intellectual who are born to be head of any organization. Most of the CEO’s are this type of personality. This personality needs constant mental stimulation. They focus on big ideas and always try to implement new ideas. They are very good debaters. They are also good at impressing client and pitching for new business. They need to be remined to take break occasionally otherwise, they can be dictator.

Teams are made up of a variety of personalities, and it is important for all personalities to be acknowledged and appreciated for their unique gifts. In order to create an effective team, you will need to understand the different personality types and how they interact with each other. In this blog, we’ve talked about the Myers-Briggs Personality Types and how they influence workplace teams.

Having a good knowledge of the dynamics that different members and their personalities have in your teams, plus having the right tools to manage their skills, is key to a high performing workplace. Learn more about how our HR Managament Software can help your company.