Do You Even Know Who You Are?
Reality television, sports and anything that can be classified as “pop-culture” is lost on me. I don’t know what a Drake is and I haven’t seen a movie in a theatre in almost a year.
Those things simply don’t interest me—which means I’m terrible at bar trivia. My preferred entertainment revolves around technology, all things internet and, well, personality tests. No, I can’t explain why. It simply is what it is.
Years ago, I had an employer who had everyone on staff take the Myers-Brigg personality test. The test itself was created by a mother-daughter duo who based their constructed personality types off of Carl Jung’s theorized psychological functions. It isn’t about pinpointing who you are as a person (that would be ridiculous) but more about helping you understand the personal preferences that underpin your interests, needs, values and motivations.
The test provides a framework for how to understand people. It lets you know how they take in information, what they do with the information once they have it and how they prefer to put information back out as they interact with their external world. Everyone does things differently—and the Myers-Brigg test helps identify patterns and major facets to better group types of people.
If we can understand the traits and patterns from the diverse personalities we work with, we can better identify strengths and weaknesses to better collaborate. Knowing if someone is introverted or extroverted helps us understand people’s attitudes when it comes to their energy levels. If they are sensing or intuitive speaks to how they perceive information. Being a thinker or a feeler identifies how a person makes decisions and judgements. And, whether a person is a perceiver or a judger let’s us know how they relate to the outside world.
At Black Sheep, better knowing and understanding each other helps make our internal culture “click.” We work hard, we work together and we work for the good of others. Knowing a thing or two about how the night owls and early birds of the office prefer to work helps us make sure we are working for each other, too.
People tend to underestimate the importance of knowing themselves. I’m not saying that a personality test will explain every facet of who you are, but it can provide some interesting insights. Take a hot minute and get to know yourself a little better and tell us what personality type you are. Interested in knowing how part of the flock is broken out? Here is a quick glimpse into what Black Sheep is made up of:
