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The Place where the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator® Community Meets
 

   

   

"MBTI is the Most Important Personality Assessment in the World--for the Most Important People in Your Life"

MBTI Executive Team Survival Plan
for Senior Managers

 
Strategies to Choose, Build and Deploy Your Inner Circle Using MBTI

 

Bill Gates, Microsoft; Meg Whitman, E-Bay; Steve Jobs, Apple; N. R. Narayana Murthy, Infosys Technologies, India; Warren Buffet, Berkshire Hathaway; Oprah Winfrey  


As a CEO, You Can Use MBTI to Create a Powerful Executive Team
 

As a CEO or senior executive, the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI) can be one of your most powerful tools in forming your inner circle.

It can provide a competitive edge both in forming your executive team and managing high performance people.  MBTI type dynamics will be a powerful determinant of your team's success or failure--whether you are aware of it or not. 

MBTI type dynamics predict how well you will  function together as a team, while knowledge of MBTI will help you manage key department heads and executives productively.

Different MBTI Personality Types Gravitate Toward Different Professions

Outside of education, experience, and ability, MBTI dynamics are the key factor.

Here's why:

Different MBTI types tend to excel at and gravitate toward specific roles in organizations.  Often people who fail on executive teams are talented people who are simply cast in the wrong roles.   [See MBTI Types in Professions].  

Type diversity is also important to have in your inner circle, since different MBTI types have different skills, different problem solving styles and different perspectives in looking at issues.  

Most executive teams begin with a certain amount of type diversity.   Your CFO will almost always be a different type from your VP of sales.  Even so, if you aren't careful, the natural tendency to "hire in your own image" can result in an Executive Team that is dangerously alike in its thought patterns which we have seen in many organizations.

 Diverse Teams Experience More Conflict, Better Decisions and Outcomes

Type diverse teams come to decisions less quickly and with more conflict, yet they consistently make better decisions and get better results. This is due to the fact that different types instinctively represent important points of view and approaches that are critical for success. 

Type Preferences--What You'll Get and What You'll Miss in Various Type Preferences

Here are some of the "trade offs" you'll get with the 8 MBTI preference pairs you'll likely have represented on your team.

 The Upsides and Downsides of the Different Preferences in Your Inner Circle

Extroverts


Extroverts, the Upside:  The Extroverts on your team will "think on their feet" and come to decisions quickly.  They will draw their energy from the people around them.  They will engage quickly with people in and out of the boardroom and have a good sense of the general "mood of the crowd," the "word on the street."

Extroverts, the Downsides: They'll also be more apt to dismiss data and be guilty of the old business syndrome of "ready, fire, aim."  They can be easily distracted by people and events and concentrate on those issues that give them the opportunity to interact with others, as opposed to activities such as planning and record keeping where they'll need to go into their offices and close the door for several hours. 
 

Introverts


Introverts, the Upside:  The Introverts have the ability to concentrate on an issue and are usually less distracted.   They are comfortable working alone for lengthy periods of time.  They are focused and tend to drill down into an issue.   Therefore, the quality of their research may be better.  They are likely to think through a decision before implementing it.

Introverts, The Downside:  Introverts may be more attuned to what they've read than what they've heard.   They may sometimes not be as available emotionally or physically as you might want at critical times.  They may take longer to make decisions and longer to reverse them as circumstances change. 
 

  

 Sensors


Sensors, the Upside:  Sensors are people whom you can usually depend on to take care of the details.  They are most often aware of the status of projects,  the resources available, and the steps to implementation.  They are often the financial and operations people.  They frequently manage people and resources.

Sensors, the Downside: Sensors may lack conceptualization skills in untried areas where there are no standard operations procedures.   They may be uninterested in theory and become demotivated in discussions about blue sky possibilities.  They may not function well in areas where there is no prior experience.

 

Intuitives


Intuitives, the Upside: Intuitives are very often found in the ranks of senior managers.  They  are good at seeing things from 50,000 feet.  They often see issues from the perspective of the future, where ideas and events are headed.  They can be excellent at pattern recognition and issues that require abstract thinking skills.

Intuitives, the Downside: Intuitives fly so high in their minds that they can miss the details at ground level.  They can be dismissive of historical data that charts past performance.  They can be inattentive to the details of projects when they are past the conceptual stage.  They often do not think in sequential terms and may become resentful when having to explain details.
   

  

Thinkers


Thinkers, the Upside:  Business and organizations are populated by Thinkers.  They base their decisions on logic, fairness, and business outcomes.  They can make the tough decisions that are often critical in organizations.

Thinkers, the Downside:  Thinkers can be quite unaware of the feelings of staff and customers.  When they are aware of feelings, they can consider them irrelevant--too messy and time-consuming.  They can miss subtleties in social situations and alienate people who are critical to their own success.  They may be indifferent in some situations to the impact of their own behaviors.
 

  

Feelers


Feelers, the Upside: Feelers can generally read social situations better than Thinkers and because of this should be included in any CEO's Inner Circle.  Often Feelers are under-represented in senior management and because of this the serious impact of many organizational decisions upon the workforce, customers and other constituents is not properly evaluated.  Having a Feeler on the executive team can help avert such organizational catastrophes. 

Feelers, the Downside:  Feelers may find conflict difficult to handle.  Some business decisions may be difficult to make because of the interpersonal dimension.  Feelers can be "thin-skinned" and overly sensitive to criticism. 
 

  

Judging


Judging, The Upside:  You probably will not lack for team members of the Judging preference because they are the backbone of organizations.  They come into business with the assumption that accomplishment is planning and that planning is both long and short range.  They live by daily to-do lists and forward plans.   Few teams could survive without a number of people from this preference.  They are the people who keep the project from "falling off the tracks."

Judging, The Downside:  Team members with a Judging preference may not recognize rapidly changing events that require improvisation.    They may cling to plans that are out of date.  They tend to micromanage subordinates.  They can be a major source of guilt and negative "oughts" and "shouldn'ts" in an organization.   They can become immobile in a crisis involving physical catastrophe (unforeseen violence, natural disaster, etc.) 
 

  

Perceiving


Perceivers, the Upside.  Perceivers have the ability to work well in fluid situations where performing under pressure is the key.  Perceivers adapt well to rapidly changing organizations and situations.  They exhibit calm in the face of a storm.  They are legendary for managing looming deadlines.  They can be excellent at seeing a window of opportunity and taking advantage of it.  They have the ability to perform a critical task many times until they master it.  They can be invigorated by crisis management.

Perceivers, the Downside.  Perceivers have the reputation of causing a great deal of organizational stress.  They do not feel the Judger's motivation to begin early and if forced to do so will often not do their best work .  They do not require day-to-day status reports and often do not choose to give them.  Those who depend on them for information--such as financial people and administrative staff--often report major stress from their relationships with perceivers.

  


 How to Learn to Use MBTI Types on Teams
Let's take a look at some typical members of an executive team:  CEO, CFO, VPs of operations, sales and marketing.  (Note: Please use the Interactive Type Table above to reference the MBTI types we refer to here.)

Of course you usually won't be able to pick all the members your team.  You'll "inherit" members of your inner circle who wind up there for many reasons.  As one of your first acts be sure to have an MBTI session in which you convince everyone on the team the importance of taking and using MBTI and using it as a tool.  You'll need to share your MBTI type with each other.  An MBTI program for an executive team can in a few hours give your team a powerful tool for managing and choosing their own key direct reports. 

Human Resource Departments and Training Departments must have a thorough knowledge of MBTI types and and how to apply MBTI with teams.

You cannot legally and you should not choose team members based on type, but knowing the type of the person you are thinking about including on the team can be very important for the team's ongoing success.

What Types Might Function Well in Your Inner Circle?

Let's look at typical roles that lead organizations.  They typically include CEO, COO, CFO, Human Resources, Sales, Marketing, Operations, and Research and Development.  Consider these MBTI types in key inner circle positions.

CEO.  If you need hard charging visionaries, ENTJs and ENTPs can function effectively.  ENTJs are great strategists but can sometimes be ineffective in the human element.  ENTPs can be great change agents and spokespeople but their "gut" can sometimes overrule what the data says. 

On the other hand, ISTJs can be successful in running organizations that need a steady hand.  They are often the obvious leaders of financial organizations.  Manufacturing and retail are good fits for the ISTJ CEO.  They can, however, be "stumped" in situations that require an organization to radically change direction or reinvent itself. 

ESTJs can be exceptional at maximizing efficiencies and creating logical, crisp structure and process.  They can, however, sometimes be undone by their own haste and tendency to sometimes see things too much in "black and white."

INTJs can be effective leaders in scientific or technical organizations.  They can guide organizations in a time of developing a product and bringing it to market, but can be aloof and detached.  

COO.  If you're grooming a successor to the CEO, then what we've said applies.  If their career path is as a COO, an ISTJ or and ESTJ can be very effective.   The ESTJ is a master implementer and can be geniuses at organizing and deploying people and things.  They are often not interested in theory. 

CFO.  Many CFOs are ISTJs.  This type populates the accounting industry and civil law, and they are often found in the board room.  They enjoying making their best contribution in work that they have themselves produced may not be as successful in situations where they are asked to lead change.   ESTJs who are successful accountants can be effective CFOs, as can ENTJs and INTJs who are accounting professionals.  They will tend to take a more global and general view.

Human Resources.  If you want your human resources professional to be the "human face" of management, dealing with performance issues, grievances, employee morale and training, you will often find ENFPs, ENFJs and ESFJs to be very effective.   Compensation and benefits often draw ISTJs and ESTJs. 

Sales.  Different types of sales require different kinds of sales approach that are best represented in different types.  A stable group of products often play to the strengths of an ISTJ or an ESTP.  They can be challenged, however, when the issue is to define a changing customer and market.  There you may find an ENTJ or ENTP better suited.   If you are doing customer interfaces, an ESFP often develops instant rapport with a customer.  They may be conflict averse, however, and can focus more on human relationships as opposed to systems.  An ENFP or an ENFJ can gain an uncommon feeling of loyalty with a customer.  ESFJs and ESFPs can be great team leaders. 

Marketing.  There is probably a no  more consistently visionary role than marketing, where an organization is dealing with branding, positioning and repositioning a product or service.  This often attracts one of the Intuitive MBTI types including ENTPs, ENTJs, and INTJs.  

Operations.  Here we are dealing in a domain that plays to the strengths of the Sensing types.  ESTPs, ISTPs, ISTJs and ESTJs are often well-suited for senior operations positions.   Intuitive types can be successful, but may find it difficult to stay engaged with day-to-day operations issues.  Putting a type that is attuned to details and energized by process improvement is often a better approach on an executive team. 

Research and Development.  Two of the likeliest types to place in  this role are the INTJ and INTP.   They are both often drawn to science, technology, and research.  The INTJ usually wants a practical outcome and the INTP is an intense researcher.  Both can be incisive in their analysis.  As we stated earlier, the INTJ can be aloof.  The INTP always sees the flaw in any plan and is quick to point it out; when they are wrong this behavior can prove irritating to the team.  When they are right, they can save a plan because they saw what nobody else wanted to see.

Managing Organizations Using MBTI as a Tool.

A CEO's job of managing is incredibly complex and subtle.  Not all of your board members, direct reports, stockholders or constituents are necessarily your friends.  Finding a method to negotiate is critical, and the MBTI is your best tool.  It creates mutual respect, because it creates mutual understanding and helps define mutual interests.