A workplace is normally a mixture of people with different backgrounds. Using personality assessment tests with your current employees – and sharing the results with them – can help team members better understand each other, which is a win-win for all involved. When employees understand how their co-workers and managers prefer to communicate, the workplace becomes more comfortable and more productive.

Important step – choose a personality assessment test that identifies introverts and extroverts.

• Introvert or extrovert interactions
• Sensing or intuition to access information
• Thinking or feeling when making decisions
• Judging or perceiving view of the world

Being proactive and decoding the personalities in the organisation and understanding the different ways in which people see and understand the world can help people work together harmoniously. When employees have a strong grasp of the personalities of their colleagues, they can leverage each other’s strengths and sharpen one another.

• Utilise “extroverts” in positions where they can interact with people and promote the company’s outward image while using “introverts” for projects that require quiet attention.
• Encourage “sensitive” employees to focus on the human interaction aspects of their roles. Utilise “intuitive” employees in areas where they can read people and situations, such as in negotiating roles.
• Help “thinking” employees explore the portions of their jobs that require an analytical approach to problem-solving. Steer “feeling” employees into roles in which they can evaluate the unique and individual circumstances of work-related projects.
• Assist “judging” employees in identifying opportunities for quickly assessing situations and making immediate decisions. Employ the talents of “perceptive” employees in areas where they can remain open and objective to large quantities of information and make long-range decisions.

To conclude, conducting the Myers Briggs test on employees and knowing their individual strengths and weakness is crucial to building a strong team that can tap into their full ability.

Imagine a world where we all understood each other’s personalities, the reasons behind our actions, thoughts and feelings. As we have different physical characteristics, so do our personalities differ. Carl Jung stated in a Psychology Press publication in 2001 that “the meeting of two personalities is like the contact of two chemical substances; if there is any reaction, both are transformed.”
There are several personality tests. But, the most commonly used assessment by personnel consultants is the Myers–Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI). The MBTI identifies sixteen different types of personalities based on a combination of Extroversion-Introversion, Sensing-Intuition, Thinking-Feeling and Judging-Perceiving. The Myers-Briggs assessment helps you identify your preferred way of doing things in the following four key areas:

• Absorbing information
• Directing and receiving energy
• Decision making
• Approaching the outside world

Knowledge of our preferred way of doing things according to the MBTI helps us in the following areas:

• CAREERS – Knowing oneself and the type of environments you naturally thrive in help in your approach to career development.
• RELATIONSHIPS – Recognising the needs and preferences of those around you, will minimize the chances of others pushing your buttons or the chance of not being able to see eye to eye.
• COMMUNICATION – Understanding how people take in and express information, can help you speak to any subject at hand in a way that resonates more effectively with them.

Using Extroversion-Introversion, you will discover that an extrovert likes interactions and it energises them. The extrovert tends to think loudly. On the other hand, an introvert will be overwhelmed with too much talking. The introvert tends to think quietly, often thinking through things. So, when interacting with these two types, an extrovert would appreciate a significant level of exchange while an introvert would prefer that you explain things and leave them alone. This is how you can get the best out of these two different types of people.