As we draw our segment on personality style and leadership to a close today we focus on the fourth set of paired traits in the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator: Judging-Perceiving. (If you’ve missed the three previous posts, we covered Introversion-Extroversion; Sensing-Intuition; and Thinking-Feeling.) Of the four pairs of traits, the final one is the least apparent from the names. When you read the words “judging” and “perceiving,” it would be challenging to understand what the traits mean. In reality, the two words are intended to tell us more about how we order our lives, how we take the information we have received and considered and apply it in our daily experience.
The “judging” person approaches life with a more ordered and orderly style. Planning and organizing are likely to come more naturally for the “J.” J’s typically aren’t thrilled with surprises. They prefer routine. This is in contract with the “P” who approaches life from a more spontaneous angle. P’s tend to take life as it comes, and enjoy the surprises life throws our way. While each of these paired opposites relate to one another on a continuum, leads can gain a great deal of insight into other leaders, employees or volunteers, and family members and friends when we are aware of the differences.
One of the most important aspects of our personalities to remember is unless we give intentional thought to the reality of personality distinctions, we will tend to assume everyone approaches the world the way we do. As an ENFP, I find it challenging to create and follow a schedule. Perhaps a better word than challenging is boring. I find it boring to be “locked in” to a particular schedule, and to daily routine. That is not an excuse, although we can easily take our personality traits and use them as excuses. I am a leader, and I am an ENFP. That means when it comes to planning and organization, I am not a natural. Yet I serve as the lead pastor of a church with hundreds of participants and nearly twenty full and part-time employees. That means I need to know the strengths and short-comings of my personality style and lead accordingly.
Because of my personality, I am energized by interacting with others, and yet unless I invest the time in solitude for prayer and planning, my interaction will be of little value. I am also inclined to “go with my gut” because I am an intuitive feeler, and yet my gut isn’t always right. That means it’s important to gather useful metrics, and to seek the counsel of other staff members who are more inclined to look at the facts, analyze them and then consider a course of action. Neither approach is “right” or “wrong,” but they are quite different. The best leadership team’s will complement each other from a personality standpoint.
While four posts about the importance and nuances of personality differences and how they impact our leadership styles is barely scratching the surface of this important matter, I hope it has challenged you to dig into it, and do more research on your own. Better yet, if you’re an ENFP as I am, get someone on your team who is an ISTJ or INTJ to do it. It’ll be more fun for them! I enjoy learning about others’ personalities simply for the enjoyment of it, but to translate that into how to build more effective leadership teams, while interesting for a moment, is something I tend to lose interest with over time. That’s another reason it is vital for us as leaders not to bring people around us who are closely like us. It is the differences in us that bring the greatest effectiveness to our cause, provided of course, we agree on the cause. More about that on Wednesday.
Here’s to leading better by understanding one another’s personalities better, so we can work together more effectively–today!