Personality Profile

Of the many ways of classifying and conceptualizing individual differences, some are obvious and quite visible, such as gender, race, language, national origin, social background or class. Other ways rest on less visible but nonetheless influential distinctions such as culture or personality.

In this journal I will be concerned with the differences based on the different types of personality profiles according to the Myer Briggs Inventory. I would try to link this differences firstly to my experience working in a team with different personality styles, and secondly to the development of certain leadership skills.

According to my MBTI model developed in class I have an ENFP profile while Hanna and Ramy, my teammates in two different projects, they have an ESTJ. This means that even though the three of us are extroverted, I am intuitive rather than sensitive, feeler rather than thinker and perceptive rather than judging (Saggers, 2010). These differences in cognitive styles might not have been very apparent if we had not had to come together to jointly bring a workshop product and go through a coaching experience. But since we did, we had the opportunity to watch or profiles in action and do fairness to the theory that explains our ways of dealing with reality.

In this sense, the theory says that people who use the sensing approach to generate information are usually very much matter of fact. They do not trust things unless they can touch them, weight them, move them or assess their worth through practical means (Saggers 2010).

Through the workshop experience Hanna showed this clearly. She had to travel a couple of weeks before things had to be ready and she wanted to see the results early before that date. It seemed she had...

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...ns. Firstly that a prior step to the gathering of information is the intend to listen. In other words, making listening the goal of a conversation. Secondly, patience is a clue factor that overlaps the whole process. I need to resist the urge to jump in and take over a conversation. Instead, it is better to file these thoughts away and bring them back up an appropriate time. And finally, managing people that favor the tree over the forest, may include asking them for overall context, and cross verification by asking the speaker, through open ended questions, how the examples and the details fit together to form the whole picture.

Although developing active listening skills undoubtedly requires some hard work, the rewards are worth it. It has proved me so far an atmosphere of mutual trust that increase bonding, cooperation and the feeling of mutual understanding.