EIQ AND PERSONALITY >> TEAM

At Informed Talent Decisions we use the Myers Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI) for Team Interventions
The MBTI is one of the most widely used personality inventory in history. After more than 50 years, the MBTI instrument is used for understanding individual differences and uncovering new ways to work and interact with others. More than 2 million assessments are administered to individuals-including employees of many Fortune 500 companies-annually in the United States alone. The MBTI family of tools is available in 16 languages.

The instrument is used for measuring a person’s preferences , using four basic scales with opposite poles. The four scales are: (1) extraversion/introversion, (2) senate/intuitive, (3) thinking/feeling, and (4) judging/perceiving. The various combination of these preferences result in 16 personality types. Types are typically denoted by four letters-for example, INTJ (Introversion, Intuition with Thinking and Judging) – to represent one’s tendencies on the four scales.

Utility

• Improve individual and team performance
• Nurture and retain top talent
• Develop leadership at every level of an organization
• Reduce workplace conflict
• Explore the world of work

At Informed Talent Decisions we use the Belbin for clarifying team strengths
During a period of over nine years, Meredith Belbin and his team of researchers studied the behavior of managers from all over the world. Managers taking part in the study were given a battery of psychometric tests and put into teams of varying composition, while they were engaged in a complex management exercise. Their different core personality traits, intellectual styles and behaviors were assessed during the exercise. As time progressed different clusters of behavior were identified as underlying the success of the teams. These successful clusters of behavior were then given names. Hence the emergence of nine team roles. These are:

Action –oriented roles – Shaper, Implementer and Completer / Finisher
People-oriented roles – Co-ordinator, Teamworker and Resource Investigator
Cerebal roles – Plant, Monitor, Evaluator and Specialist

Results from this research showed that there are a finite number of behaviors or team roles which comprise certain patterns of behavior which can be adopted naturally by the various personality types found among people at work. The accurate delineation of these team roles is critical in understanding the dynamics of any management or work team.