

Often, discord is less to do with what is being presented than how it is being presented. They can help to shed light on office clashes, tensions, misunderstandings and relationship difficulties. When translated into the working world, they can denote how a person likes to be communicated with, and what strengths they bring to a team or a project.

The letters stand for different personality traits or attitudes. Myers-Briggs is perhaps the best known of the typology tests, but what do the results mean, and how do you use this tool at work? You may well have taken a Myers-Briggs test at some point in your career, or heard other colleagues talking about their test result, which (in shorthand) is expressed as four letters, such as: ENTJ or INFP. Jung categorised personalities into ‘types’, and psychologists and management theorists quickly spotted their potential for improving the way we understand and get along with family, friends and colleagues. They are great at communicating and enthusing others, but are not always great at actual delivery of tasks.Most personality tests, including the best-known, the Myers-Briggs Typology Inventory, are based on the work of psychologist, Carl Jung 1875-1961.

And I’ve got a fancy watch too.Įxpressive people are sociable, talkative and comfortable with others. They may come across as dominant and brash. They often take the lead and are quick to action. They may be brilliant at generating ideas or solving problems, but they may also over-analyze and get stuck in “analysis paralysis”.ĭrivers are often strong personalities who are motivated and sometimes forceful in their efforts to reach their goals. We look at them each briefly below.Īnalytical individuals are constantly analyzing, looking for pros and cons and asking questions. These are presented as colors and are quite similar to personality types produced by other personality models. The dimensions used by Merrill and Reid are basically: are you introverted or extroverted and do you prefer people or data.īased on these categories, the Merrill-Reid model produces four different personality types: Analytical, Driving, Expressive and Amiable. This makes it quite easy to visualize as a 2×2 matrix. Merrill-Reid social personality styles approach categorizes people on two axes.
