Personality types and feedback methodology
An additional aspect that could assist if providing and receiving feedback in a team setting is to better understand how our unique personalities come into play. Possibly by introducing a tool such as the Meyers Briggs type indicator (MBTI) or Strength Deployment Inventory (SDI) would assist in approaching others on the team in an effective way. What may work for one personality type, may not work for another type. This would help move the team or individual in the appropriate direction.
Hi Brian,
Your suggestion to utilize specific personality type tools is interesting. In your opinion, how could we gain access to reliable versions that are also a cost-effective? The precision offered by the Myers Briggs, when conducted by a trained professional, is an invaluable insight for that employee, and those who are going to manage him or her.
This is related to one of the topics that I liked & disliked about this training: The four personality types that were discussed.
On the one hand, I do like that the training explicitly acknowledged that what can be a great approach and build trust and engagement with one person can completely backfire and build defensiveness with someone else. Being a competent communicator & leader requires us to be able to adjust our messages so they have the greatest chance of being received as intended.
On the other hand though, I felt that the categories offered, are overly vague and leave a lot of room for people to not really fit any one category at all. This has to be true if we are going to describe the gamut of human potential with four categories-- to be "true" the net needs to be pretty wide.
-- Especially since the criteria are subjective and relative in nature. While in a given scenario, it one thing to say that an employee is "indirect" but that maybe relative to you, or his or her team, but in-fact he or she may not view themselves in that way. This makes assigning roles less than a science, which could lead to less than desirable results.
Does anyone here know of any other systems that are still generally applicable, but offer a more precise methodology for understanding which groups a person might belong to?
