Implications
How did that seem to you? You can of course go back to the start and answer again. If you answer differently you will come up with a different type – the measure is based only on what you say because nobody else can know your personality as well as you do. Make a note of the outcomes in your workbook.
How might you use the sort of information that is generated by these types of personality exercise?
Firstly, it can be used as a guide to suggest new career directions. Although, as we’ve indicated, there are relationships between type and occupation, personality is more often used to direct people towards the right specialism within their role or sector, or to suggest a direction that is an offshoot from their current role. It’s for that reason that doctors and other medical staff are offered such personality instruments as part of their career and professional development.
Secondly, it can help people understand better their own preferences and why aspects of their current or previous roles can be problematic. For example, a person with a strong preference for thinking strategically and imaginatively might find it tiring and difficult to constantly pay attention to close detail, whereas another person might find this easy. Understanding these tensions means we can try to change them.
In the last section we also discussed uniqueness. Some of the personality types are much rarer than others, and therefore might find it easier to identify and develop unusual combinations of strengths and characteristics. Again, it is only possible to do this consciously once understood.
This section has only given a flavour of how personality type works. It often takes people years to be sure of all the insights from type theory. It’s hoped that this will have got you interested enough to want to explore this further.