Work Styles - Personality Academy

I wholeheartedly believe an understanding of the four personality styles can help you navigate life with less conflict and more energy. Being able to identify your values, preferences, and ways of operating at work and at home can help you find greater satisfaction in life. For a long time now, I have been strongly opposed to using personality assessments for pre-employment screening and I have openly discouraged the use of personality assessments for career matching. Each of the personality styles may find fulfillment in various fields of work depending on their unique combination of strengths and passions.

My own personal experience with Career Matching using MBTI results

My first introduction to Carl Jung’s psychological type theory was on career day in fifth grade. The entire class took the MBTI and was matched to a profession. It was, well… it was all wrong. It indicated that I was an ENFP.

I suppose, as a fifth grader, I wanted to be outgoing, compassionate, and spontaneous. They seemed like good values to have. But the information proved to only confuse me and not really help in any way, so I disregarded it.

When I took the MBTI self-assessment again as a teenager, I received more accurate results. The results indicated I was an INTJ. This made sense! The information provided finally seemed worthwhile and has been valuable to me in both my career and home life. Being typed as an INTJ personality has helped me understand my true nature – my TRUE NORTH.

While I do strive to be flexible and use this knowledge to grow and learn, I clearly have natural tendencies. I am able to identify the driving needs and values that energize my behavior. This helps explain my aversions and affinities to certain aspects of life experiences. Not only can I be more compassionate with myself when I find myself grasping and avoiding, but Carl Jung’s psychological type theory has provided a vocabulary that I can use to explain my point of view to others to help smooth over any misunderstandings that arise.

While aspects of our personality may continue to evolve and grow over our lifetime, I do believe that being able to inventory your needs and values from time to time via a personality assessment can be an indispensable tool for navigating life. Being able to recognize the personality style patterns in yourself and others can provide some amount of guidance throughout your academic and professional career.

I plead with everyone who reads this to please proceed with caution and avoid applying the results of any personality assessment too strongly towards predicting behavior of employees in the workplace. Upon meeting a lady for the first time, she asked what I did for a living. When I told her that my mother is Mary Miscisin, the author of the book Personality Lingo, she exclaimed “Oh we do that personality test every year at my place of employment. My employer uses the results to determine who is going to be the leaders and who is going to be the followers.”

Of course, I tried to explain that any of the personality styles can make good leaders. I cringe at the thought of all the ways that a good personality assessment might be misused by employers. I can only hope and pray that the employees find a way to get something useful out of the experience. I implore the reader to please be responsible with your use of any personality assessment.

There seems to be no stopping the popularity of personality assessments for helping students choose a major of study or field of work. After receiving a multitude of requests for personality training material offering career guidance, I must answer the call.

The Work Styles Handouts and Slides found here are my minimalist approach to career guidance for teens and young adults. Please understand the difference between career matching and career guidance. This Work Styles training material is NOT intended to match anyone to a career path. This Work Styles training material is NOT intended for use as pre-employment screening. This Work Styles training material is NOT intended to provide employers with information to profile their employees.

This Work Styles training material is intended to provide the individual user with some insights into the behavior of themselves and others. It is intended to help you better comprehend and discuss how you see the world and how you interact with others.

If you are interested in formal instructions on how best to facilitate a personality program, I highly recommend you acquire the Personality Lingo Personality Test Mini Kit or better yet study the Basic Training Kit to earn the designation of a Qualified Personality Lingo Presenter .