I reconnected the other day with an old friend. My husband and I shared a great meal and a wonderful visit with Alex, and one of the topics was self discovery, directed at identifying our strengths, weaknesses and inner hero. We talked about how our management style is affected by our personality type. Understanding the different personality types can also assist us in choosing people that our business would benefit by hiring. He asked us four different questions and proceeded to give us the results. His assessment of me was spot on. My personality type is ISTJ (introvert, sensor, thinking, judging). I got a bit concerned with the judging part, but he assured me it meant I don’t like loose ends. My friends and co-workers would generally consider me organized and prepared. Well, I had to agree with that. My inner hero is a Beaver. Beavers are smart, busy and hard workers. And they are generally good with money. They value tradition and gravitate toward procedures that they know work. They are easily frustrated by inconsistencies in others, especially when others do not keep their word.
A few years ago as a team building exercise, we had all the pharmacy staff take a similar assessment. The reason we did it was to open their mind to recognizing we each have different personality types. Knowing who others are on a deeper level will help to create and maintain better relationships, in all aspects of life. For example. when interacting with someone who is more timid, those that are aggressive need to be a bit more gentle than might come naturally to them. On the flip side, those who are more timid need to be aware of the more aggressive personality type and not take things personally if they come on a bit strong. It was particularly eye opening to me because pretty much every pharmacy technician I had hired was a certain type in general. Hmmm, not sure if that was a good thing but they all seemed to be succeeding! Take your own assessment at Zodian.com.
Much learning does not teach understanding. — Heraclitus
