I'm a natural executive. I am focused on efficiency and unattached from my emotions. Similarities with Harrison Ford and Margaret Thatcher are apparent. I make up 1% of the women and 2% of the general populace.
People like us are driven by personal growth and sometimes ruthless in their pursuit. Although we make hard partners and parents, we are good landscape architects. We are ENTJs, which is an extroverted, intuitive and judging type. Sometimes, we're called the Commander.
This was over a decade ago and it was my lucky entry to the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator. The assessment is based on Carl Jung's theories about personality and states that all people are born with a preference to extroversion, introversion, intuition, sensing, feeling, judging, or perceiving.
These 16 personality types are made up of 16 different combinations, each with their own strengths and weaknesses. It is possible to apply yourself more effectively in both our professional and personal lives if we know which one we are.
Online research revealed my type as an insecure teenager. It was almost like a manual being given to me.
The Myers-Briggs Company receives $20m annually from military and civilian institutions, universities, charities, sports teams, and other organizations. It also includes 88 Fortune 100 companies. The Myers-Briggs theory has been adopted by many as a hobby and even a way to live.
When I was a teenager and insecure, online research revealed my type. ENTJ became a part of me as my astrological sign. Even a decade later, I still find myself reaching for Myers Briggs terms, talking about thinkers and feelers or having intuitive friends.
Since the 1960s, 50 million people have used the MBTI. 2 million more continue to use it each year. Is it still so appealing to think that there are only 16 types?
Merve Emre jokes that if you're an ENTJ, I will be an ENTJ and we'll have lots in common.
Emre was twenty-something when she first came across the MBTI at a management consulting. Emre says that I wanted to talk to Emre about the meaning of these words and how they gave me insight into my own identity.
This is what you might find amusing: She told me that the ENTJ types were CEOs around the globe. Six months later, I decided to quit my job to study English literature graduate school.
Emre, now an Oxford University associate professor, wrote The Personality Brokers in 2018. This account recounts the bizarre and sometimes troubling history behind the MBTI. Katharine Cook Briggs Myers and Isabel Briggs Myers created the assessment in 1943 to help recruit workers during the second world war.
Briggs' pseudo-scientific interest was in personality. He first tested it by baby-training Briggs Myers. Jungs theories about psychological types later made him a central point. His 1921 book was a gift to her. She described her spiritual awakening and the discovery of the Self as a journey with Jung as her guide and personal god. They became correspondents but this is a disgrace to Briggs' erotically charged obsession.
Carl Jung, whose work inspired Myers-Briggs. Photograph by Central Press/Getty Images
Briggs Myers, on the other hand, went from a precocious child into a prize-winning author. Emre says that her promising career was thwarted when Emre wrote a miscegenation mystery in which characters committed suicide after learning they were African American. The racism in the book's premise repelled even critics back in 1934.
It is a reflection of the disturbing and sometimes dangerous ideology that underlies the urge to sort people. Emre quotes Theodor Adornos, a social theorist who criticized 1950's nascent typology. He said that the desire to create types was indicative of a potentially fascist personality. (He also created his own personality test to identify potential fascists.
Briggs Myers' intentions were, however, idealistic. She saw type as a way to achieve society-wide equilibrium and help people be more efficient at work and at home. Briggs Myers, who had given up her writing ambitions, was hired in 1943 by Edward N Hay, a pioneering personnel consultant. In desperate need of helping the war effort, Briggs Myers drew inspiration from Jung's mother's study to create her type indicator that matches people with suitable jobs.
Emre says Briggs Myers understood that the system would be more efficient if everyone was good at something. It would increase productivity and encourage workers to accept their jobs without restriction.
Briggs Myers created an affirming framework that is simple and only four letters long.
Emre says that the utopian impulse is what most people have in their turn to type. It's not just a desire to understand yourself but also to be able express yourself to others in a language you can all understand. We both instantly understood what it meant when we said we were ENTJs. I'm sure we also imagined that we could sense the other person, which is an incredibly powerful fantasy.
Frank Winters found out his letters and it was transformational. Frank Winters discovered the MBTI while searching online for personal development. He tells me that he was trying to improve himself from his North Huntingdon home.
Only certified practitioners are allowed to use the Myers-Briggs Company's assessment tool. This is done for a fee. However, imitations are available online at websites like 16Personalities.com (Why you do the things that you do) or Truity.com ("Light up your life")
Winters did some research on type and completed questionnaires. He reflected on his four preferences and narrowed down the 16 types possible to ISFJ, the Defender.
Winters' need for routine, his sensitive to criticism and his tendency to appear aloof when in unfamiliar environments are all highlighted by the profile. He says, "It opened my eyes." It was then that I realized who I was.
He was able to understand his brain better from that point. He says that I must do it repeatedly to feel comfortable with something. This is how I have always been, he adds. When I try something new, I realize that I'm not going to get it right away.
Briggs Myers created an affirming framework that is simple and only four letters long.
The MBTIs promise that insights will be turned into action by teaching us to accept our preferences and not to detract from them. It claims that by understanding how we prefer to operate and how others might differ from us, we can create a solid foundation for lasting change.
Maggie Oglesby became a certified MBTI practitioner in 2012 because of the thrill of facilitating these breakthroughs. In Pennsylvania, she runs her own consulting firm, which supports team-building via type.
Oglesby claims that in her 20-year career she has not seen anything else that builds awareness as the Myers-Briggs nothing. Managers describe a cloud lifting from their teams.
Oglesby said that it is amazing and almost addictive to witness these aha moments. Two people don't get along instantly, but they quickly understand each other.
There can often be a boost for the business. Have you ever walked into a business and felt tension among the workers? It's almost like you want to leave. Your team will never be the exact same after four hours.
Oglesby is not wrong in pointing out that communication, empathy, and individual awareness are hallmarks of good management. The MBTI instrument's intervention doesn't only encourage people to voice their preferences, it also validates them. She says there is more respect than someone saying "I really don't like being interrupted".
Oglesby was raised in a home that believed children should be seen, not heard. This led her to suppress her natural tendency for emotion and extroversion. Her self-esteem was affected by being told she was sensitive. Learning about her ENFJ type helped.
Oglesby can now see that if someone rejects her idea during a meeting, it might be because they are just thinking and not feeling. She says that no one can make it right or wrong.
When you have that understanding, like I did, you suddenly stop being so frustrated and hurt. It would have saved me so much grief if I had the Myers-Briggs earlier in my marriage.
The Myers-Briggs Company warns against using type to predict romance compatibility. Oglesby is unable to answer such questions because it is beyond her expertise. She says that if you can understand the differences of any person and they can understand yours, any relationship can work regardless of whether or not you use the Myers-Briggs.
Oglesby insists that it is true that her husband, ISTJ type terms, is almost her exact opposite, and that their early years together were marred by many small misunderstandings.
She says that if you are able to remain married, these things will come out of your own experience. The Myers-Briggs can help you to figure so many things ahead-of-time the easy way, if that is your preference.
John Hackston, the head of thought leadership for Myers-Briggs Company remembers being told by someone who just learned his type that he wouldn't have divorced if he had known.
Hackston should consider the MBTI more than astrology for businessmen. It could also be considered therapy-lite. This is a simple, non-threatening lens that can help us reflect on our behaviour and those of others.
He agreed. He agrees.
Hackston says that people often describe lightbulb moments. They are able to say things such as, Now, I understand why that person doesn't get along with me; That is why I do this under stress.
However, the MTBI's mainstream impact is deceptive because most psychologists believe that it is deeply flawed, if not meaningless.
It is not supported by clinical psychology because neither Jung nor Briggs and Briggs Myers have tested their theories against controlled data or experiments. It uses false binaries to analyze people, even though most people fall somewhere on a spectrum. The results are inconsistent and inaccurate.
Even when compared to other personality tests, the MBTI is regarded as dubious. For example, the Big Five grades five traits on a spectrum and is proven to accurately predict behavior. Despite being far more scientifically sound, the Big Five is not as impactful or interesting as the MBTI.
Myers-Briggs Company vigorously defends its validity and reliability, but only within a certain scope. Hackston says there is a lot to be criticized. Hackston says that there is a lot of criticism.
Hackston says that type does not give a complete picture about a person's personality. Hackston also points out the influence of culture, age, and upbringing. It's not an excuse and it's not a label. It is a way for people to think about their own identity and the identities of others.
Hackston says that the MBTI does not predict job performance or behavior. We can all act against our innate preferences just like it is possible to function with our nondominant hand. Hackston says that although the Myers-Briggs Company prohibits the use of its questionnaire in recruitment and selection, Hackston acknowledges that it depends on whistleblowers to report it. While we do everything to make sure it is not, once people learn about type, it can be tempting to view the entire world in that way.
The company's intentions are largely irrelevant. Only the tool is trademarked and not the underlying theory. Hackston says that this was a mistake by Briggs Myers: We have no control over type discourse.
The internet provided a platform for the MBTI to spread their ideas. PersonalityCafe.com has accumulated more than 10 million posts since 2008. Today, the conversation continues on Facebook and Reddit, with more than 10m posts since 2008.
The common language of type has been used to understand almost everything. The MBTI Coffeehouse Facebook group debated which plant each type of personality should be. One response was that INFP stands for hedge bindweed. It can be beautiful if it is allowed to bloom but they are not welcome in most gardens.
This congenial, sociable navel-gazing is evident. Discussion of personality is more than any other interest, except perhaps astrology which has recently become relevant on social media. It allows you to connect with others while being most concerned with yourself. It is a mirror of the social web that aims to confound identity and community.
David Ryan Polgar is a tech ethicist who founded the non-profit organization All Tech Is Human. He says that in the past 30 years, we have come to view the internet as all-knowing and a source of truth through crowdsourced knowledge. He says the same about the MBTI: It makes sense that it would appeal to those who are looking for a simple, clean narrative to explain our messy, modern-day lives.
The internet can be a trap if it doesn't provide us with a way to make sense of our lives.
Google will search for the type of information you are looking for. It will give you a variety of advice, from what movie to watch to how to lose weight in an ENTJ to what film to see. We will lose ourselves in Jaws' heroic quest, but we will struggle to find relatable characters in Saw.
It highlights the essential contradictions of human nature. While it can increase empathy for others, it also can entrench us in our differences. We may seek to be reassured that we are not the only ones.
Sincerely, I'm considering leaving it all behind. This was a post by r/MBTI users five years ago. They wrote that the forum was filled with people who insist on their superiority over other members or justifications for their mistakes.
MBTI. Cognitive functions. Typology. Typology.
Emre knows that Briggs Myerss indicator was created with earnest intention. It has been hollowed out in mass culture. This label can be displayed on your dating app profile, or applied to the characters of Game of Thrones.
She says that the MBTI is a way to self-make: ask yourself who you are and what type of person you want to be. Both are supportive of the creation of a type of self that is saleable to large corporations.
The MBTI was the one that instilled the notion of work as our identity in 1940s America, long before modern hustle culture made it explicit.
Although the Myers-Briggs Company prohibits the use of its assessment in an unethical manner, the logic behind people sorting has been replaced by the increasing use of data in human resource management. Emre, who is the executive producer of HBO Max Documentary Persona, reveals that sophisticated psychometric testing is used in order to streamline hiring and filter candidates.
Many unsuccessful applicants don't know they are failing, which allows them to be used as an analytics tool to help discriminatory hiring practices like screening for mental illness.
Briggs Myers would have been horrified. Emre says that type meant more to Emre and her mother than just job satisfaction and productivity. Emre also said that it was a way of liberating oneself from the rigid roles of mother and wife through the creation and maintenance of new identities.
She says that personality tests are often defended with the same passion as discussions of faith. Questions of scientific validity, however, are somewhat irrelevant.
You can't help but be critical of their exploitative nature. People gravitate towards them for the different reasons that they provide something missing in their lives and their way of thinking about themselves and what they want. That is what I believe is important.
I've never had an authentic, paid-for assessment and am curious to find out what my official results will be. I am now ready to dive in with Hackstons' guidance.
I navigate through the questionnaire online, selecting between either-or questions or pairs of adjectives (convincing, touching, hearty, or quiet).
After nearly an hour, my words lose their meaning and I feel more tightly wound. My type is finally revealed. It's not the CEO type ENTJ which I have spent hours on and held for years, but the more pragmatic ESTJ. Sensing versus intuition, more down-to earth than blue-sky thinker.
Despite myself, I feel alarmed. Hackston said that the results suggest that my processing of information, including whether I seek deeper meaning or stick to facts, is less important than my preference towards extroverted thinking.
He says that the MBTI isn't a test that has a right or wrong answer. It is a process to help you determine what type of personality you are.
