http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z1tK4–YtuU

A video I posted on YouTube which showcases a wonderful ESFJ received the following comment.

I test as an ESFJ. However, I can also be an ISFJ depending up on the situation. Anyone else feel like this?

Because this idea comes up so often I wanted to address it. So here goes the short answer and the “more than you asked for” response.

The Short Answer
The Myers Briggs Type Indicator assessment inventory sorts your responses so that the end result is one preference or the other. Think ON or OFF – like a light switch you are either this/ or you are that. This means that for each of the four preferences you are either Extraverted or Intraverted, Sensing or Intuitive, Thinking or Feeling, Judging or Perceiving. (BTW the official MBTI tool has been tested for reliability and validity whereas the quizzes you can find free online may not be reliable.)

Of course we all use all of aspects in these pairs. We simply have a preference for one of each pair. Your environment, interests or life experience may call on you to develop the other side of the preference pair but that doesn’t mean that you switch from being one type to another. That is you don’t go from being ESFJ one day to ISFJ another, You are still ESFJ – only one with more versatility.

If you are still with me and want to know why this matters read on…

More Answer Than You Asked For
In the 4 letter code that describes your type eg ESFJ the 4 preferences work together like the ingredients in a recipe.

Just as flour, sugar, eggs and butter mix together to produce cookies, cupcakes, or tarts. Once these are mixed and baked you can’t go back and switch from one raw ingredient to another.

What the 4 letter code does is identify the order of the use of the functions. For instance the dominant function for the ESFJ is Extraverted Feeling. Feeling indicates that people with this preference make decisions based on values and the effect on the people. When Sensing is Extraverted as it is with ESFJ the focus is on the outer world – deciding if something is acceptable or will work for others.

Contrast that with ISFJ who has a dominant function of Introverted Sensing. Those with a preference for Sensing prefer to take in information using tangible experiences and data. When Sensing is Introverted as it is with ISFJ the person will first review past experiences and what detailed information will allow them to accumulate all the known data.

You can see that there is a different kind of energy between and ESFJ and ISFJ . They will focus their time, energy resources in different ways that go well beyond sometimes being a little more Introverted than Extroverted.

Fascinating stuff if I do say so myself!!!

This is a true story. A colleague who happens to be aware of the MBTI and her preference for Introversion has designed her life to have an apartment in the city and a weekend retreat that she escapes to for 3 to 4 day weekends whenever possible. She is also not shy about requesting some quiet if she finds herself in extraverted overwhelm.

She told me about a recent car trip with her very clearly extraverted boyfriend who realizing that she was at the end of her rope after three days of facilitating client work was trying to accommodate her need for some quiet. He couldn’t just shut up for the life of him. She was incredulous that he went on and on and on about his intention. His attempt at silence was deafening.

If the cartoon is not visible in this post you can see the cartoon here: http://www.personalityplusinbusiness.com/2011/for-extraverts-dialing-it-down-may-take-a-moment.html

MBTI quote from my Facebook wall

This quote popped up on my Facebook wall a day after I listened to an interview MIchael Bungay Stanier did with Meg Wheatley in Michael’s Great Work Interview Series. This quote on it’s own is sufficient. If we could accept that our gifts are unique and valuable that is a great stride forward for many.

The thing that made this leap of the page for me today is what Wheatley had to say about the interpretation of the word “gift.” What makes it a gift is the giving. So we are further responsible not only to acknowledge the gifts we have but to make use of them by giving them to the world. They aren’t a gift if we don’t use them to benefit others.

Just think about it for a moment.

If you have dominant function of Extraverted Thinking, for example- you can cut through the clutter, see what needs to be done and put the systems in place. If you Introverted Feeling is your dominant function you understand the values at play, what matters most in the situation and how to work to bring accord. When we all contribute from our gifts, everyone and the system itself benefits.

The admonition from Meg Wheatley is to understand that utilizing our gifts is not always about personal gain but that it is important to share our gifts because we were given them and in a sense they are not ours to hoard or squander.

Have you done some good today?

A NOTE if you are on FACEBOOK
There is a cool app by CPP that delivers weekly tips for your type http://bit.ly/FacebookMBTITypeTipsApp. Here is the scoop about the page that it comes from:

This page is the Official Myers-Briggs Type Indicator® (MBTI®) Facebook Fan Page created by its publisher CPP, maintained with care, and devoted to providing a great little community for everyone who loves the Myers-Briggs (MBTI) assessment. The page is updated frequently with information, tips, ideas, and the general thoughts of its admin Leah Walling

My passport had expired and I was very happy to find the application form online. I was even happier to discover that there was a short form that didn’t require a guarantor. As far as I could tell all I needed to do was fill out the form, supply signed photos taken by a photographer who did this kind of work and include my expired passport and my Visa information to cover the fee. The whole process took part of a day and the application was in the mail.

A few weeks went by and it seemed that the process was taking longer than required but I wasn’t concerned as I had registered the letter. Imagine my dismay when the postman delivered a rejection notice highlighted in several areas in bright yellow marker.

I had failed to copy my name exactly as it appeared on my expired passport. I had written Sandra M Maureen instead of Sandra Mary Maureen and it set off alarms. In addition I added a line at the beginning of the M’s in my signature that were straight instead of curved as in the passport signature. HORSE-FEATHERS!!! I have always had handwriting that was more linear and vertical when note-taking and more flourished and slanted when relaxed and feeling expressive. May be I should be worried about having multiple personalities but in the moment I had a a few choice words run through my mind for the overzealous bureaucrat that couldn’t see that Sandra M and Sandra Mary are the one and same ME whether signed with a curved M or straight M.

I even had the same outfit on when I had my photo taken then and now… not everyone has a lime green silk jacket, for heavens sake. Most women I know are clothes hounds and don’t have the same wardrobe for years and years.

So I have made up a story about this person who spends their day looking at details to ferret out I don’t know what – spies, terrorists, illegals – and it is a sad tale. I admit to being abysmal at filling out forms but I pray that I never reincarnate as a bureaucrat stuck at a desk with a yellow highlighter in hand. ENFP’s were not designed to be good at forms. They are not our cup of tea in any way shape or form. (No pun intended). While there is no love lost for bureaucrats in my life, I might not mind coming back as someone who can rant at the passport office like this woman who is my new hero..

Here’s a wee story. This one happened to occur in a pottery class.

There is a local storefront that has a display of hand built and thrown pottery tempting people to wander in to see and touch. Once inside you notice that just behind the display is a working studio with people hunched over a lump of clay creating bowls and cups and other treasures.

There is something primal about clay. Just getting your hands into the mud and water allows you to go to another place that takes you away from the clutter of your mind. Indeed you need to be able to let go and center yourself before you can hope to center clay on the potter’s wheel.

A friend was telling me about seeing this scenario and signing up for classes hoping to partake in this engrossing creative environment. Unfortunately someone with a preference for Extraversion who also happened to be asleep to her behaviour and its impact on others also signed up. She was loud and chatty. She simply saw silence as a void to be filled and kept a loud stream of noise going throughout the class.

Now it is easy to see how Extraverts can be disruptive. I am sure that many polite people in the class wanted to scream “BE QUIET!” However any behaviour taken to the extreme or inappropriate to the circumstances can have a negative impact on others. I have also met people who complain about living with those who don’t talk, those who over-analyze, those who are impulsive and on it goes.

We create our own reality.

I have heard that phrase many times from teachers, and have embraced the idea behind these words. What I pay attention to becomes what is real for me. I suppose the trick is to recognize the implications of my filtering system and to recognize that there is so much to pay attention to that multiple realities are possible and quite possibly equally valid to my own.

Developing the capacity to observe ourselves and increase our awareness of the context in which we are operating – well what can I say – it is the ideal answer. Now the trick is to get everyone else to buy in so that we can all make our pots in a an environment where centering is easy.