On Monday we started a brief series on how personality style impacts leadership. We’re using the MBTI as the instrument for considering how personality style impacts leadership and looking at the four paired opposites of the MBTI: introversion-extroversion; intuition-sensing; thinking-feeling; and perceiving-judging. I had a great question from a reader about whether introverts or extroverts make the best hires. In short my response is that the single trait of introversion or extroversion hasn’t been a determining factor in hiring people. It’s the overall personality that impacts our response to others. I do like Bill Hybels’ “formula” of hiring based on a person’s character, competence and chemistry. Hybels observes that character is a necessary pre-requisite for any hire, while competence although important can be taught. The determining factor is often “chemistry,” how the candidate feels or fits with others who will be working with him or her.
Today, let’s turn to the second paired opposites in the MBTI: intuition-sensing. What is meant by these pairs is how does one gather information. The sensor is one who tends to be more concrete in the process and gathers information more through her senses: touch, taste, feel, smell and hearing. The sensor tense to be more practically oriented, and while all sweeping generalizations are over generalizations, the sensor is more prone to this than the intuitive. The intuitive tends to focus more on the realm of ideas than the realm of sense. I am an extreme intuitive, while Nancy, my wife is a strong sensing personality. We have known our personality differences since early in our marriage, and since we are four letter opposites: I’m an ENFP and she’s an ISTJ, it has made for a lot of interesting and lively marital adjustment sessions over the years.
Since Nancy comes at the world with a solid sensing perspective she tends to notice details that I never even notice. Whether it’s a simple matter such as the mismatch I have going on between my shirt and my pants, or the much more vital matter of a person’s sad or disturbed tone in conversation that I miss completely, being an intuitive can cause frustration, particularly for a sensor. What does all of this have to do with leadership style? Plenty. I have found it extremely helpful to have some sensing folks around me, because I am often oblivious to obvious details of life. At the same time my intuitive nature often has me picking up on the overall theme of a situation quickly, which can be a great advantage at times.
As a leader, I have found it challenging to be patient with sensing types, because they often require a great more detail than I do. At times the level of detail they ask for isn’t reasonable, but many times their attention to detail has kept me from making minor and major mistakes. When selecting members of your leadership team, it is always helpful to find folks who aren’t exactly like you, so they can fill in your blind spots. This is definitely true when it comes to the sensing-intuitive split. I’m grateful for the folks on our leadership team who help me see things I miss, even though at times it makes me crazy before I realize how important their input is to our success.
Even if you’ve never taken the MBTI, you probably have a sense of which side of the continuum you fall on when it comes to intuition and sensing. It’s worth your time to find out what you are if you haven’t. The website 16personalities.com will give you a free assessment of your MBTI type, and for a fee will give you extensive detail. It’s well worth your time to find out your type and the type of those on your team so you’ll understand one another better. After all, understanding is a major key to working together effectively.
Here’s to leading better by using the sensing-intuition spectrum effectively–today!