6 Ways Personality Typing Can Help You At Work

Personality typing, like Myers-Briggs and any 16 types variant, is often dismissed as pseudoscience. However, pseudoscience or not, it does have daily, practical value.  As a tool for understanding people, personality typing is especially applicable in the workplace, where it’s critical to be able to work effectively with others. Below, I’m going to list 6 ways that personality typing can help you at work, which I hope will be beneficial for you.

6 Ways Personality Typing Can Help You At Work

1. It can help you understand where your coworkers are coming from

Because all of the personality types think differently, it is important to realize that when people’s ideas differ from your own, it doesn’t mean their ideas are bad or stupid. Having a good understanding of the cognitive functions helps you to understand the different things others are taking into consideration when forming their opinion, helping you be more open to other people’s points of view. If you take a step back and realize they were just doing things the way that was most effective for them, the irritation should reduce significantly. Everyone is different, and each type handles tasks in different ways. Knowing this will help demystify some of that behavior.

2. It can help you appreciate your differences

No one person is good at everything. That’s what makes us all unique. These differences are what make the most effective teams, assuming we can recognize each other’s strength and view things through a more objective lens. Knowing who to go to for different tasks and knowing where people excel can help everyone appreciate each other much more, bringing harmony and more productivity to the workplace. Need to brainstorm a new idea? Why not try one of your NTP or NFP co-workers? Need to figure out how something works, and it came with no instructions? Why not ask one of the STPs? Really need something done on time? Your SJs are on the job. How about a delicate social situation? The NFJs could help. No matter the situation, knowing your co-worker’s strengths to help leverage a situation will always be useful.

3. It can help you communicate more effectively

This is a big one. You won’t get very far with a Ti dom by simply laying out facts with no explanation, nor will talking about the business’ bottom line help with a Fe dom. Knowing what things to focus on during communication and finding ways to word things appropriately can work wonders for communication. Recognizing what types you are working with is the first step! Knowing what functions are being used the most by each co-worker will allow you to relay the relevant information to them, so they can really get behind what you are saying. Explaining how a certain task is going to affect people positively will resonate with a Fe user much more than simply telling them it will make things more efficient, which is how you would approach the same subject with a strong Te user.

4. It can help you to be more efficient in the workplace

I work with an STP. I have learned, because of the way Se and Ti work together, that it is best to ask him a question when we are around whatever it is I have a question about. For example, if I have a question about a certain procedure, he can show me how it is done and run me through the steps no problem. However, if he can’t physically show me, he struggles to produce the steps. So, I know it is best to ask a question when we are in a situation where he can physically show me the answer.

I have also learned that if I’m just looking for a quick and straight forward answer about something, I should avoid asking my INTP colleague. I once asked him if I had done some paperwork right. He talked about the paperwork, made observations about how I had done the paperwork, but refused to confirm if it had been done correctly, in spite of the fact that he had to approve the work anyway.

Another co-worker of mine who is an ENTP can produce lots of solutions, but I know I have to make sure and do a lot of follow up with him. Not following up with him means he will move on to something else and completely forget what I needed him for. He is perfectly competent and can be reasonably reliable, but only if you give him frequent reminders.

5. It can help you to avoid conflict

Another lesson I have learned is that asking an STP too many questions all in one shot is typically a bad idea. They can burn out easily and start to see you as incompetent if you are prying them for too much information. STPs value independence in themselves and in others, so a large volume of questions may cause them to view you as needy or helpless. They also don’t like being observed unless specifically showing you something, and they prefer to work alone, for the most part. To work with someone with an STP personality type is more like working on the same problem, but separate from each other, only interacting to connect together the two separate pieces you were both working on.

6. It’s easier to dismiss negative behavior if you recognize that they don’t mean it the way you’re taking it

Co-worker do something you didn’t like? They may not have been trying to get on your nerves. Understanding how each personality type interacts with each other and the world helps immensely with seeing co-workers actions more objectively. What you translated as insensitive, may have, on their end, simply been relaying facts. Maybe you felt as though you were being ignored when, in reality, their brain was just chewing on a problem in the background, and you didn’t realize it. Having an open mind to how different people’s brains operate can help you be much more forgiving when you find something is getting on your nerves.