Categorizing personalities into types has been embraced by major civilizations since ancient times. In every era, every culture and every walk of life, we as a people are consistent with formulating explanations for how people reason, react, and relate to others.
Greek culture identified people as belonging to one of four “humors”: sanguine, melancholy, phlegmatic or choleric. In the 1920′s, Carl Jung developed a theory of the four functions and two attitudes based on how people get their energy, gather information and make decisions. In the 1940′s, a mother daughter team made Jung’s abstract theories a part of mainstream culture by identifying two more layers of personality type and developing the Myers Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI) tool. In the 1960′s, school psychologist David Keirsey recognized that the Myers Briggs descriptions of 16 types was applicable to his own work which sorted people into temperament groups according to their observable behavior. Today, typology work is continued as a means to achieving career satisfaction, improved relationships, and a deepened sense of purpose and fulfillment.
How will identifying your personality type benefit you? It will give you the insight needed to:
- Describe your strengths in job or promotion interviews
- Assess where you can help your team the most and where the team as a whole is strong and weak
- Lead effectively by understanding yourself and others
- Resolve conflicts by using the objective lens of type
- Improve your communication with and understanding of others in your life
If you’re curious about your own type, here’s a Quick Personality Type Quiz to help you get started.
Do you want to live a more passionate life? Living a life full of passion is the culmination of three steps: identifying your passions, turning them into strengths through experience, and leading your life by using more of your strengths every day.
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