2: Personality Styles

Welcome: 00:00

Welcome to Mt. Nebo Leadership's Leaders Lift, a podcast for aspiring and existing leaders (which includes just about everyone). I'm your host Greg Cunningham and I look forward to being a part of your leadership journey.

Intro

Thank you for tuning into Episode 2: Personality Styles. This is part 2 of my knowing yourself series and is a follow up to Episode 1 on Motives. As I have stated before, knowing yourself is one of the most important things you can do as a leader. It is absolutely worth any time and effort you put into it and it will pay huge dividends. We started with motives and if you did any of the recommended actions from that episode, you will be able to build on that with this episode.

Today Show Outline

Here is what we will cover today:

• What is a personality style

• Why they are so important

• How your style is identified

• What you get out of an assessment

• Recommendations on what to do with the results

• Special offer

Pre-Roll

Before we get started, I just want to remind you that if you are interested in or focused on leadership, don't forget to subscribe to the podcast. You can also go to www.mtneboconsulting.com where we are regularly adding new content and resources to help you on your leadership journey.

Topic Intro: 01:26

Today we will be talking about personality styles. I'll explain what that means, why they are important and how to take advantage of the information you can get out of them. I'll wrap up by taking you through how I can help you if you have never taken a personality assessment or if you would just like to get a refresh.

I want to start out just by giving you some context as to why I believe these are so important. I was first exposed to the concept of personality styles in my first leadership role. This was when I worked for the mentor I have talked about in a couple of the early episodes. She had her entire management team go through a very similar process I take others through so that we could better understand ourselves and the rest of the management team.

Since then, I have used some form of this with every team that I have managed. Besides building trust (which I will cover in the team building series), this is possibly the most important thing you can do to really develop a high performing team.

So enough introduction. Let's go ahead and dive in.

What is a Personality Style: 02:10

First, what is a personality style. You may have heard this as personality type or something similar but I like to use personality style. There are a lot of different version of this, but at their core, they are all about helping us understand ourselves and others better.

The ones that I have found most helpful are based on the personality styles developed by Myers and Briggs. That in and of itself is super helpful but I also like the models that not only tell me what my style is, but also what my strengths might be, things that I need to be conscious of and possibly mitigate, how extreme I might be in my styles and loads of other useful information.

The assessment I use (we will talk more about that in a bit) also helps me better understand my communication style, how others may see me, my leadership style, how my style impacts relationships, how it may differ from my professional and home lives as well as a bunch of additional information.

A Word of Caution

Before I go any further, I just want to point out one thing that I wish I had better understood when I first started with this and that is that there are no right or wrong personality styles. Let me explain a bit.

When I first got my results, it was with that original management team. I had some pretty huge aspirations at that time as I have talked about in other episodes. So what I did was look at those whom I thought I wanted to be like and their styles compared to mine. That was a fruitless exercise because instead of embracing who I was, I tried to become someone else because I thought I would be a better leader if I was a different style.

There are a couple of reasons this was pointless. First, while some style combinations do better in certain types of jobs or positions, my thought that I had to be a certain style to reach my potential as a leader was completely false. The key here is "my potential". In order to reach my fullest potential I needed to be myself. Second, and it's related to the first, changing the core of your personality style is a very difficult thing to do. I'll explain more about that later.

With more experience in life and with these personalities styles, I wish I could have learned earlier to embrace the key aspects of my style and leverage them. It has taken me much longer to get to where I am because I kept fighting it.

Why This is Important

Onto our next topic, why are these assessments so important.

I think I have covered some of the things I have learned about myself and that you will be able to learn as well. As you take advantage of the knowledge you get, not only will you be able to be more deliberate in how you take advantage of your strengths and mitigate potential opportunities, but you will also be able to better understand others.

I have found that the more I understand my own style and styles in general, the better I can understand others. That information can help me improve my relationships, professional and personal, and help myself and others better reach our potential. Over time working with these concepts, you begin to almost inherently identify the styles of others and how you might best collaborate, partner or work with them. Beyond that, if you are a hiring manager, it's also another tool in your hiring toolkit that allows you to build diversity as well as a team that can compliment each other and not have key styles or skills that are missing.

If you inherit an existing team, understanding their styles can also speed up the amount of time it takes for you to mesh with the team and for the team as a whole to get on the same page.

Another area where this can make a difference. Understanding your style can also help you evaluate potential opportunities. I'm not necessarily saying that you could identify if a position would be a poor fit, even though that certainly is one aspect, but better that you could understand how a position may or may not mesh with your personality.

One example here is that if you lean towards using intuition to make decisions, a position where each decision must be completely backed by data could be a challenge.

The final area I want to cover today is that when we better understand our style, we can better understand how we make decisions. Similar to what I mentioned above, styles can help you understand if you make decisions based on data, intuition or even emotion. Our styles can also help us understand our triggers which is also important to understand in relation to decision making.

How your style is determined

If this concept is new to you, I hope you are intrigued enough that you are wondering how you can figure out your personality style. The good news is that it's pretty straight forward. You simply take an assessment.

The assessments I use are a series of statements that you basically respond as to how accurate you feel those statements do or do not describe you. They only take about 15 minutes and then you get a great report. You first take the personal or core assessment. If you are in a professional leadership position or hoping to be, there is a specific workplace assessment that takes your style specifically as it applies to the workplace. The combination of the two are extremely powerful. And I strongly recommend both as I have found personally, that I am slightly different in my core styles at work vs. at home. I'll explain a bit how that is possible later in the episode.

In a couple of episodes I have talked about how impactful doing honest self assessments can be. In the case of the personality assessments, being honest with yourself is critical as well. It's not that there are any right or wrong answers and you really can't cheat. However, there are a couple of tendencies that most everyone sees that can skew your results. Remember, the most important thing is getting an accurate set of results.

The first tendency is to answer the questions as you would like to be or think you should be. For example if one question said I am a creative person and that is something you have always aspired to be but just don't do well with a blank page (this is me), then you may have a tendency to say that statement is more accurate than it really is. Don't focus on aspirations but focus on current reality.

The second tendency comes after you have a better understanding of the different styles. This relates to what I said about my initial results and wanting them to match a specific combination of styles. With what I know now and with as many assessments as I have taken, I could probably manipulate my answers to get just about any result. But that doesn't do any good because I would be trying to work with inaccurate results.

So that's it. Answer 15 minutes worth of questions honestly and you get some amazing information. Later in the episode (or you can check out the show notes) I'll give you information on how I can help you get an assessment and get you started on this part of your journey.

Mid Roll

Just a quick reminder that if you are enjoying this episode to hit that subscribe or follow button in your podcast player. That will ensure you get the latest episodes as they are released. You can also visit our website, for additional resources or follow mtneboconsulting on LinkedIn or ldrslft on Instagram. If you are interested in getting your own personality style report, stayed tuned for details on discount special I'm running for my personality style package. Or you can go to our website and click on coaching services (links in the show notes).

Common Questions: 09:42

How Accurate Are the Assessments

When I work with folks on this, there is always a couple of questions that come up. First, how accurate are these assessments and second, do the results ever change.

On accuracy, I don't worry so much about how accurate every single thing is in the report. There are always some pieces that I question or that at make me wonder. But the reason I don't worry about it is that even if I disagree with some pieces, there is so much information in the report that I always can identify things that are of use. That could be additional insights into how I react in specific situations or a strength or opportunity that applies to a current situation.

My point here is that anyone that honestly answers the questions on the assessment is going to find plenty of information that will help them learn, grow and move further down their leadership pathway.

The second question that comes up is do the results ever change. There are a few situations that I have found would change the results of an assessment. Major life changes (like marriage, kids, etc.), long periods of intense stress, major losses, and even taking on a opportunity that is very unfamiliar to you can modify the results. How much they change that really depends on how extreme your results are in any area. I'll explain that in more detail in a bit.

Those two questions then lead to another which is, how often should I retake an assessment. I don't think there is any real right or wrong answer. For the most part, your results will stay pretty stable. If any of the situations I mentioned above apply to you then it might be a good idea to do a refresh. Beyond that, there are some pretty simple ways you can get an update beyond paying for a full assessment.

If you have never had a formal assessment and sat down with someone to go through it, that would be my first recommendation. If it's been a while and you are in a different position or phase in life, I would recommend another. If you are just looking for a refresher, reach out and I'll give you some options.

What You Really Get Out of an Assessment

Let's next talk about some of the details of what you get out of the assessment. Here I'm going to talk specifically about the assessment tool that I use for myself and my clients.

My main report is about 19 pages long and my supplemental workplace version is another 13 pages. There is a decent amount of overlap but as it says in it's name, the workplace report is much more work oriented and that's why it's also a separate assessment. If you only get one, you need to do the main one.

The main piece of information that everyone seems to focus on is the four letter personality style. I do believe that it's super important, but I think the more you get into some of the details I'll explain in a bit, the better off you are. For example, I'm and ESFJ or at work an ESTJ. I know what each of those letters means in general but you have to get in and look closer to understand how it really applies - and in my case, why the first letter may or may not be correct.

These four letters represent what I call your default or fallback behaviors. These are the ways you are most likely to act or behave when either under stress or when you are not consciously trying to behave differently. I want to stress that these are default behaviors. And the reason to stress that is that while they may be your default, you can mitigate them when they may not be the best approach. It takes some work and practice but it can be done.

One example here is the difference between F and T in the third letter. F is more feeling based and T is more logical. If you are a logical person, that doesn't mean you don't have any feelings but it may mean that you have to work harder when a situation requires you to be more sensitive.

Now the second thing that you get in the main report is how much you lean towards each of the letters. This is a key piece of information as it could tell you how difficult it may be to take on the attributes of the opposite letter or how extreme you may take the letter that shows in your results.

Let me talk through my E letter. When I first took this kind of a test, I was an I. That means I'm an introvert. Now you can see in both of my results above that I'm an E. So that means I've completely changed right? Not really.

If you were to look deeper into my results, you would see that I’m 51% E and 49% I. So really there is no difference between those two. That means that depending on what is going on with my life when I take the assessment, I could go either direction.

I have definitely found that to be the case over the course of my career and in my personal life. I can adapt to either being introverted or extroverted depending on the situation. Most people that would see me at work would think I'm an extrovert. I'm comfortable speaking to people, working with teams, in front of a large group, etc. But what they don't see is that those activities are much more draining on me and I need to have time to recharge my batteries as an introvert would.

I'm going to do a whole shorts episode on introvert vs. extrovert so watch for that episode to drop and that will give you a better understanding of what I mean.

On the flip side, I have one of my letters that I'm so far on one side that I don't know how it would ever switch.

Now back to this specific report. As you go down through each of the letters, in addition to how extreme you may be, you also get an explanation on what it really means to have that letter. You are also given some information on what the other side means.

For example, one of the categories under introvert vs. extrovert is how reserved or expressive you might be. Those of you that know me know exactly which of those two I fall into. My report explains what it would mean to be on either side of that sub category.

As the report dives into more about your main type, you get additional insights into how others may see you, how your communication and leadership styles may be impacted as well as your style when you are part of a team. You also get insights into relationships and how your style could impact your personality at work.

In another section you can explore when you would potentially excel, what your strengths might be and what potential pitfalls you may need to be aware of. You'll also see how well you align with other letter combinations as well as what types of careers might be a good fit.

In the workplace report, you get similar information but it's all centered around the professional world. I like one section where it talks about how you help your team but then also points out how you may irritate others. Leadership, communication, conflict and decision making are some of the other topics addressed.

So hopefully that gives you a really good idea of what you get out of this assessment. I hope you also see the value. If you are ready to dive in and get started, I'll share in just a few minutes how we can work together on this or you can go to www.mtneboconsulting.com and click on coaching services. You will want to look for the personality package.

If you want to hear more about my own personality style, I'll be dropping a bonus episode for premium subscribers later in February where I do a bit of a deep dive into my own type. My hope with that is that if you understand the insights I have gained from my own style, you will see how making this a regular part of your leadership journey would make a difference.

What to Do With the Results: 17:19

I thought I would start off with something fun you can do with the results. You can do a search on the web and find the personality style for almost any celebrity or fictional characters. Harry Potter, Star Wars, LOTR, Star Trek, the list goes on and on. Almost anything you can think of is out there. Harry Potter, Star Wars, Star Trek, LOTR, etc.

For example, ISTJ is what I was the very first time I took an assessment. In the fictional world that would be Alastor Moody, Spock or Darth Vader just to name a few. Maybe that's why I have so many Darth Vader items in my office.

Ok, now onto more serious topics.

For your first pass through the report, just focus on absorbing the information that you find. Don't focus so much on initial reactions such as what you may disagree with. You will most likely have a bunch of "that makes sense moments" and at least a few "I don't know about that" moments. That's fine. Just don't get hung up on them.

After that initial review, then go and start to identify the things that you believe are the most important for the here and now. This is something that could easily change over time. For example, if you just started a new job and one of your potential pitfalls is that you may jump in too quickly, that's a key piece of information that could help you have a smoother transition. If you are reviewing new opportunities, then the section on careers might be worth extensive study.

As you do that second pass, I'd also start paying attention to strengths and opportunities. You want to understand what your inherent strengths are so that you can continue to develop and improve them. As for opportunities, those you want to be aware of so that you can work to mitigate them or at least know when they might show up. Another example is if you identify that you are very expressive then you know that if you are under stress or something else puts you into default behavior mode, you may tend to dominate conversations or meetings. Sometimes that can be good but like most anything, moderation is usually best.

Those are just a few of the ideas related to your professional life. Let's spend a few minutes talking through what to do if you are looking to apply this in your personal life.

I have actually had all of my family take some version of these assessments. That helped us understand some of our personal drivers and simply knowing who was an introvert vs. an extrovert really helped with our relationships. So if you are not in a professional leadership position, this can still help you there.

If you are just looking to apply this to your own family vs. an organization where you have a more structured or formal leadership position, here are my recommendations:

First, go through and understand yourself as I mentioned above. The strengths and opportunities review is also good. But then I would recommend you spend more time in the how others may see you, communication and relationship styles. Then I would also be sure to understand the other personality styles. Why do I say that? Well, at least when you have younger families, I'm not sure a formal assessment like this is necessary. There are some other simpler assessments you can fill out on their behalf, but because you are filling it out, it may not be as accurate. But if you understand the other styles, you may have a better idea of where your kids might end up.

Just one caution here - I'm not sure making assumptions about your spouse is the best idea. If you are going to do an assessment for personal reasons and want to actively use what you learn, then you may want the key adults (or even older teens) in your life to go through it as well. If you don't have them do the assessment, at least make sure they have some context for what is going on. Too many times I have found that when I try and apply some of things I learn at work in my home life but don't give any context, they end up backfiring.

All that being said, I have found is that on about my 3rd pass or so through my own report, I am able to start identify for each family member where they most likely fall. Then I can look at how my style and theirs different or are similar (it's funny how often the similarities cause more conflict than where we are the same) and that helps me to know better how to interact with them and build relationships.

Eventually when you have done this enough, you are able to start seeing the various styles in other people you interact with regularly. It can become an almost unconscious mental assessment and adjustment on your part. That will take time but if you really want to be a top tier leader in any aspect of life, it's worth investing in being able to do this.

With all this study of your assessment, you need to be writing down your insights and starting to build a plan. Reading, learning, etc. doesn’t do nearly as much good unless you make a deliberate decision on how to use the new knowledge. A good plan would include what strengths you want to continue to enhance, what pitfalls you want to watch for and ideas for how to mitigate them. I would also start identify the most important folks in your life or sphere of influence (family, team members, peers, bosses, etc) and how you can improve your ability to collaborate with them based on what you have learned. That is one of the key ones for our professional lives. If you are leading a team, I would strongly recommend each team member get an assessment so you have the more formal report to use. Armed with that information, you can work on your individual relationships but also understand the teams strengths, gaps, areas of potential conflict.

Another very powerful tool is to share your own results with those key relationships in your life. Help them understand who you are and let them know how you plan to improve your relationship and where you know you struggle. That's a great thing to share with family or your team. I have found that this kind of openness with my team helps improve trusts and makes it ok for them to share some of the same things with me.

How To Get An Assessment: 23:50

It's just about time to wrap up but I want to close with some information on how I can help you work through your personality style. As I said, I have been working with these for quite some time, including with a fortune 500 company. I've gone through these exercises with every team that I have lead since I had my first assessment years ago.

One of the coaching packages I offer is a Personality Styles Consultation. The package includes two assessments (the main one and the workplace specific version) with their accompanying results as well as a 30 minute coaching sessions where we talk through your results and can work together to start building the plan I mentioned should be part of every assessment.

If this is something you are interested in, you can go to www.mtneboconsulting.com and click on coaching services. There you will see a description of my main package as well as more explanation on what to expect and how much time you will need to commit (not much). In conjunction with this episode, I'll be running a limited time special where you can get the package for $99 instead of the regular $125. Simply go to the page and fill out the form (direct link in the show notes) and I'll be in touch with more details. Just mention in the goals section that you would like the Episode 2 special.

If you are interested in something other than the standard package (tests for a team or multiple individuals, tests without consultation, etc.) you can fill out that same form and just indicate what you are looking for in the goals section.

If you are interested in this and just don't have the budget, fill out the form and send it in and let's talk about some other options.

Wrap Up

Thanks for sticking around through the end of this episode. I know it was a lot of information. This a topic that I'm very passionate about. It's also one of the things that has absolutely made a difference in my career and in my life in general. I know that if we work together, it can make a difference for you as well.

Your key takeaways:

Knowing your personality style is not something that happens by chance.

Being honest in your assessment will determine how much you can get out of the report.

Understanding your report will allow you to build a plan and to better understand others.

If you are ready to get started, just go to the link in the shownotes and let's get going.

Post Roll

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Thank you again for tuning in. Now go out there and keep lifting.