Many tests have been developed to identify your personality, perhaps the best-known of which is the Myers-Briggs Personality Type Indicator. Using a series of questions, it identifies your personality and categorizes it into one of 16 types, revealing surprisingly accurate insights into who you are. Each type has four components, or dimensions, which can become complicated when you begin to explore the 16 types. But if you understand a few principles, you can learn to identify certain cues – body language, speech patterns, appearance, and interests – that will give you a better understanding of how and why people think and act the way they do.Learning how to quickly identify personality types is a valuable skill.
It can help you know your employees, recognize their natural strengths, and find the best communication style to make yourself understood. It can also help you quickly identify potential clients’ preferred communication styles so you can talk to them effectively and get the results you want.
Here are the four dimensions:
Extraversion/Introversion – This is the easiest component to identify. Extroverts are energized by being around people, whereas Introverts are drained by being around people and need to be alone to recharge their batteries.
Sensing/Intuition – This category is responsible for the greatest difference in how people interpret the world. Sensory people are drawn to hard information and practical explanations. Intuitives focus on psychological workings of human relationships and make “gut” decisions.
Thinking/Feeling – Thinkers are more logical and analytical, Feelers are more sensitive and empathetic. In the U.S., the population is split 50/50 between Thinkers and Feelers; however, 65 percent of men are considered “Thinkers,” while the same percentage of women are considered “Feelers.”
Judger/Perceiver – This dimension is most easily explained through an illustration. If you are very organized, like things resolved, and have a neat desk, you are probably a Judger. If you like things open-ended, have difficulty making decisions, and have a generally messy desk, you are a Perceiver.
As a personal example, I once interviewed an employee whom I will call “David.” During the interview he was polite, on the quiet side, and gave thoughtful answers to every question. He had previous retail experience and spoke in great detail about what did on the job. He used phrases such as, “I felt like I was doing a good job,” and described his goal as “making people happy.” The (emotional) verbal cues he used identified him as someone who wants to please others and that needs affirmation. The detail with which he spoke about his previous job indicated that he was a stickler for details and routines.
I ended up hiring him, and after working with him a short time, he demonstrated exactly what his cues had shown: very detail-minded, a stickler for neatness, very routine-oriented, and good at providing customer service.
But David liked to talk, and if I asked a question about his work he would describe every detail about a situation. I, on the other hand, just wanted a straight answer to my question. His propensity for over-explaining things could have created a situation where I would have been apt to avoid talking to him. By understanding that his need to explain details was his way of understanding a situation, I learned to be very specific with my questions so that he wouldn’t deluge me with unsolicited details. And if I wanted to talk to him about general business issues, I knew that I needed to do it at a time when I could genuinely listen and consider everything he had to say. As a result, my working relationship with him was strengthened from knowing his tendencies and him knowing mine.
If getting the results you want from your customers and coworkers is important to you, then using their preferred way of communicating (not yours) is the key to creating valuable personal relationships with them. Using this process to analyze their personality types will put you in the position to get the most out of all of your daily interactions. The bottom line? Learning how to read people is a valuable business skill. To learn more, I highly recommend the books: The Art of Speed-Reading People by Tieger & Tieger and Please Understand Me by Keirsey & Bates.
Richard Rejino is the executive director of RPMDA and account executive at Madelene Crouch and Co., Inc.
