As a project manager, one of the most important things you need to manage is your project team. A good project team can make the difference between a project going well and failing outright.
Understanding your team’s dynamics and its members strengths and weaknesses is no easy task. Thankfully MBTI can help. MBTI stands for the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator. Derived from Carl Jung’s typological theories, MBTI is a personality assessment tool, used by many Fortune 500 companies, that groups people into one of 16 different personality types.
Encourage your team to find our their MBTI type, either for free online or through an in-person test given by a professional, to gain insights on how to best manage your project team, given everyone’s unique personality.
Maximize your project management by knowing and understanding your team’s MBTI types in the following ways:
Increase Team Chemistry
The MBTI test assesses a person’s type through establishing four mental preferences. First, it determines how how the individual derives energy–whether through interacting with others, as an extravert, or through their own ideas, as an introvert. Second, it distinguishes how one thinks–whether one is stronger with ideas and theories, as an intuitive, or with rules and practicals, as a sensor. Third, it analyzes how one makes decisions–through feelings or logic. Finally, it looks to see whether the person favors structure and organization, or prefers to keep things open-ended, to determine judging vs perception.
Through understanding your team member’s unique preferences, you can manage each person in the way most effective for them. For example, send introvert’s a meeting’s talking points before the meeting begins so they can collect their ideas, by thinking them through to themselves in advance. Exchanging small talk and pleasantries before a project discussion with a person who favors logic might not be necessary, but someone who decides through feelings might find it rude if you don’t.
Amplify Strengths and Mitigate Weaknesses
Understanding your team’s MBTI types provides a clearer picture on how your project team functions overall. Increase team productivity by delegating according to an individual’s inherent strengths and weaknesses.
For example, intuitives are great at handling the big-picture and thrive on brainstorming more effective project processes. Sensors, on the other hand, carry out detail-oriented tasks with precision. Project falling behind a deadline? Call on team members who thrive in the last-minute environment rather than the ones who stress when things go off schedule.
Become More Productive
Project managers who use MBTI to help aid in management decisions work with a team’s dynamic instead of against it. Everyone has strengths and weaknesses, and as a project manager your job is to understand them in order to make decisions best for your team.
With MBTI, project managers learn more about the individuals behind their project team, and consequently, uncover how the team will function best overall.
Do you know your MBTI type? Does the personality profile sound like you? Have you ever used MBTI to help your job as a project manager? How has it worked? Let us know in the comments below.
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