About a week ago, I saw a Facebook post from an old friend of mine. She had just taken a free personality test online that labeled her an ESFP, or “The Performer”. She went on to describe some qualities, ironically from a leadership perspective, saying that she hoped her subordinates had viewed her as someone as inspiring and resourceful. It didn’t take long to realize she had take a version of the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI). So, as a lover of ridiculous, mindless, Facebook quizzes, this was a no-brainer. As a student of leadership psychology, this just became the best homework ever!
Naturally I took the assessment. It provided me with a personality type of INFJ – “The Counselor”. About one week later, as part of the reading, I also took the short 8 question assessment in the Northouse text. To my surprise, they did not come to the same conclusion, so I decided to do a little digging on the type determined by the text. Turns out, I’m closes to an ESFJ – or “The Provider”. I wanted to see what that meant in terms of leadership, so I asked Google to help me out.
According to the analysis and research on the ESFJ type from Truity.com, I am “eager to take charge and get things done in a structured, orderly way. [I] use my communication and organizational skills to coordinate and move [my] team steadily along toward a goal. [I]want my employees to feel appreciated and cared for so that they can be cooperative and productive.” When it comes to teamwork, Truity.com says I am “most effective when their teams are cooperative and free of conflict. [I[ often do well at bringing everyone together, and may be distracted from the task at hand if there is conflict or competition between team members.” Why do I mention all of this? Because I think it’s fascinating and quite accurate. However, according to the 16Personalities assessment I was an INFJ. Also accurate? Yes, in some areas.
So, what does this mean? First, I have to ask, how can they be different – it’s only been one week? As you may recall, one of the problems with the psychodynamic approach to leadership is the reliability and validity of the MBTI (Northouse, 2013, p.340). David Pittinger pokes holes in the reliability of the MBTI. According to him, the MBTI scores low in “test-retest reliability”. What this means is that you would typically test a person on two separate occasions, from several weeks to several years apart. The expected result of a highly reliable test would mean that their personality would not change over time. “Several studies, however, show that even when the test-retest interval is short (e.g., 5 weeks), as many as 50 percent of the people will be classified into a different type” (Pittenger, 1993).
Does this mean at the Sweet 16 of personality types is totally useless? No, I don’t think so. It’s pretty interesting to get a glimpse into your personality. However, I also wouldn’t, and don’t, use these results as an end all and be all of who I am and what I’m meant to be. For example, I believe I’m both an extrovert and intravert, just to varying degrees that are oftentimes related to outside situations. As the psychodynamic approach suggests, this is valuable insight, but nothing is expected as an outcome of learning about it other than personal acceptance.
Read more:
ESFJ Careers: Top Jobs for ESFJs, Work Style and ESFJs as Leaders | Truity http://www.truity.com/personality-type/ESFJ/careers#ixzz3QWv2aTny
Pittenger, David. (1993). Measuring the MBTI…Coming Up Short. Journal of Career Planning & Placement. Retrieved from: https://fortunedotcom.files.wordpress.com/2013/05/mbti.pdf
Northouse, P.G. (2013). Leadership: Theory and Practice. Los Angeles: Sage Publications.
Lauren N Padgett says
Great post!
I have been fascinated with the MBTI since I was first introduced to it in middle school. Our entire 8th grade class had the opportunity to take an “official” MBTI assessment and to review the results with our guidance counselor. Way back when, I scored INFP – Introverted, iNtuitive, Feeling, and Perceptive – the Idealist in every way. It fit! I was young, carefree, a dreamer who lived inside myself.
Toward the beginning of my college career, I took the test again, first on Facebook, and then, doubting that particular app’s validity, on another free test online. Both times, I scored INFJ, just like you. My P had morphed into a J – Judging – and I was suddenly the Couselor, just like you. Again, it fit! For who I was at the time in my life and in my relationships to those around me, I was a helper, a motivator, a caretaker.
Finally, just recently I took the test a third time, now on the 16personalities.com site that you sourced. Unsurprisingly, I had changed again – now an INTJ – the Mastermind. More surprisingly, this type still fit! Who I am now – in my work life and school life, with my rapid growth and advancement and ambition, I am more Thinker than I’ve ever been.
I explain all this to give my thoughts on the concerns regarding the MBTI’s reliability. My experience with it has shown that personality is a fickle thing. Though some of who we are is stable (I am and have always been highly Introverted), much of it changes as we mature and develop as people. I would hope I would not score the same as I did in 8th grade; I have grown through my experiences and become a different person in so many ways. I don’t think my changing affects the test’s reliability–it only speaks to its specificity in picking up the subtler changes in my personality over time.
Thanks for the great post!
-Lauren
Holly Maxine Mcnabb says
I love your post! How awesome to turn a FaceBook post into homework! I have a lot of faith in the MBTI as a part of structuring teams and their leadership. It is by no means the only measurement I have used for personality assessments within my teams and leadership structure, but it has been one of the most consistent. I have taken a version of the MBTI® (not necessarily the same version each time) and each time my results have been the same: I have been scored as an INTJ. That said, what I have noticed over the years is that the percentages of strength have increased for me.
Humanmetrics.com has some helpful information about how to view the strength of the dimensions. In reviewing the types, descriptions, and scores of our management team, I noticed that on the dimensions when the percentages were closer to zero, the less “true” the explanations were for the personality type scored by each of us. I think that taking those percentages into consideration will help in understanding the stronger versus weaker dimensions of personality for someone.
Someone on one of my teams asked, “is my score good?” There is no “good” or “bad” type for anyone, each one just helps gain a deeper understanding of ourselves and how we can use our best innate characteristics to help us learn, teach, and communicate.
As far as how tools like the MBTI® helps us analyze leaders, I think the common denominator is as you stated, not an “end all and be all”. Northouse (2013) discusses how knowing someone’s traits does not necessarily mean that individual will be a good leader; and, even if they are a good leader in one situation, that might not be so in a different one. All of these different things continue to remind me that describing, analyzing, and understanding great leadership is a very complex process.
Humanmetrics.com. Retrieved on February 2, 2015 from http://www.humanmetrics.com/cgi-win/jungtype.htm
Northouse, P. (2013). Leadership: Theory and practice (6th ed.). Thousand Oaks: SAGE. (pp. 19-41)
Colleen Schafer says
I have seen these “quizzes” come across my Facebook feed as well, I rarely do them. However with your blog I decide to find a personality test and take it to see my results. I found the 16 Personalities test at http://www.16personalities.com. After about 10 minutes of questions my results appeared….ESFJ. The brief description from the result gave me the following traits: respect traditions, enthusiasm, social skills, and caring nature. As I read on I could see how my views can align with the personality strengths given. However, I found that the weaknesses are not all very accurate of my personality. This site gave a very detailed summary of this personality. My full results http://www.16personalities.com/esfj-personality. I am now intrigued to see if I repeat this next week if my result would differ, thus I have saved the site and will retake to cure my own curiosity.
I agree this should not be used as a definitive answer to guide you to a career, however it does provide a good insight to some of the characteristics that you may have and that could make or break you as a leader. This gives you the self-awareness that psychodynamic approach discusses in our chapter and lesson readings. Again, helping us understand more about our strengths and weaknesses as a leader.
Great post.
-Colleen