For a better cooperation – MBTI in practice

Categories: All articles, here at acondasPublished On: 23.10.2022

Expert interview with executive coach Dragan Milicevic

Dragan Milicevic is a qualified executive coach and personality development expert – helping top executives and their teams unlock their potential for success. In his work, he applies the latest developments in neuroscience and positive psychology. In addition, his professional experience is based on his work as a head trainer & coach at leading management consultancies as well as insights from his time as a competitive athlete.

As part of our strategy meeting, we had the opportunity to do a training with Dragan and spend a day with the Myers Briggs Type Indicator [link]. Afterwards there was time for our questions:

How can we best use the results at acondas and integrate the new knowledge into our daily work?

The results of the MBTI give me information about what my preferences are and those of my counterpart. This allows me to adjust my communication and behaviour, thus ensuring smooth cooperation. For example, if I know that someone is more introverted, I give the person some time to react to what I say before I continue. Or I may address them directly and ask for their personal perspective. If I know that another person is very planned and structured in their own work organization and has difficulty reacting spontaneously to changes, then I should inform them in good time about changes, e.g. in the project or process flow, so that they can adjust accordingly.

Can it happen that my type does not correspond to my role in the company? How do I deal with this?

At this point, I think it is important to say: there is no better type. The test does not measure ability, likelihood of success, intelligence, skills, maturity, or mental health.

The result of the MBTI provides statements about what I direct my energy toward, how I make decisions, and how I orient myself to the outside world. However, the statement only concerns a preference on a scale and few of us are exclusively one or the other. For example, an extraverted person will expend less energy giving a presentation to a large audience than an introverted person. Will they deliver a better presentation – you do not know. The test does not say anything about that.

But what I do know is that I will have to expend significantly more energy in such a case than in a role that matches my preferences. The question for each individual is: How big is the difference between my type and the expectations of the role?

Can my personality type change?

According to the Myers-Briggs theory, personality type is innate and does not change. However, the way we show our type to the outside world can change. As we grow older and more mature, we develop different facets of our personality type or learn to better manage our strengths and weaknesses. A radical change in personality type, however, could only be brought about by drastic events such as severe trauma, for example, as a result of an accident or psychosocial factors.

My self-perception and the perception of others show a deviation at one point – what does that mean?

This does not necessarily mean something negative if there is a discrepancy between one’s own and external perception. We all know: Certain situations require certain behaviour. Behaviour that may not correspond to my personality at all. It can therefore happen that my colleagues assess me differently because the work context demands certain behaviour from me. At this point, however, it should also be noted that contrary behaviour leads to a high expenditure of energy in the long term and consideration should be given to whether something can be done about the situation.

Thank you very much for the interview!

If you have any questions about the MBTI test in the acondas team or about our consulting work, please do not hesitate to contact us at info@acondas.com.

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