So what started out as a seamlessly simple personality test, has turned into an investigation for the Senior Management Team at WINNS.
To explain. Karen Stillwell, the person in charge of Business Development at WINNS, was reading a book (as usual) about the 80/20 principle by Damon Zahariades.
Again, as per usual, Karen was making notes and the Myers Briggs 16 personality types kept being mentioned. Again, as per usual, Karen investigated further and one thing led to another and both Karen and Rob, the MD of WINNS ended up taking the personality tests to identify which of the 16 personality types they each were. Both were outstanded to recognise their own personality traits within the results.
Now comes Monday morning when all head Office Staff are in for Department Meetings, Sales & Marketing Meetings, Head Office Meeting and Business Development Meetings. I can feel you empathising there, but just to reassure you there is always cakes, thanks to Karen, and a constant supply of beverages, thanks to Keri, together with a large dose of banter, thanks to the enthusiasm of the team.
Still I digress. So there we are Monday morning and Karen discusses the personality test. Being the curious bunch they are, all wanted to take the 5-minute test (the quietest they’ve ever been first thing on a Monday morning). But here’s the rub (another literary reference just to give you a clue on the author of this blog). By no design or intent, Myers Briggs states that there are 16 personality types, divided into 4 groups; The Analysts, The Sentinels, The Diplomats, The Explorers. Within Head Office, all the staff fell into 2 groups, The Diplomats and The Sentinels. We have no Head Office personnel whose personality falls within the Explorer or Analyst groups. We have:
3 x Protagonists
3 x Consuls
3 x Executives
2 x Logistician
To be fair, 1 Head Office member was visiting clients so has yet to undertake the personality test, but we feel sure they will fall into one of the above groups.
So here was the question we all pondered for the day as we went about our meetings:
As our team is the strongest it has ever been, is it because we all fall into 4 personality types and those personality types are compatible?
Are these personality types best suited to our FM industry?
Should the next person we employ at Head Office have a personality type within the 2 groups not represented at present? As Verne Harnish warns in his book, ‘Scaling Up’, ‘We have a tendency to hire people like ourselves and end up with a company of lookalikes vs tapping the diversity of talent’.
Should we ask all candidates to take the personality test to assist us in gauging whether they could be a good fit for the company/industry?
Having read the strengths and weaknesses of each personality type and the different aspects, none could argue that they didn’t see themselves fully in the information that the Myers Briggs Personality Test provided. Which means, there is now a race (completely recognised but not verbally acknowledged) between Karen and Chris, WINNS Director of Operations, to provide some educated answers to the questions raised.
Not sure how that sits with Damon Zahariades’ 80/20 principle.
Please find the link to the Myers Briggs personality test below should you be curious about your own team.