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How to Boost Your Professional Effectiveness (Part I)
By Nancy Wallace, TSA Career Coach
Have you ever wondered why some of your work relationships are easier than others? Do you often feel misunderstood or like you "march to the beat of a different drum?"
If the answer is yes, you may find that the Myers Briggs Type Indicator® (MBTI) personality assessment can help you appreciate differences in human behavior, and help you pinpoint your unique strengths and areas for growth.
The MBTI measures four primary ways people differ from one another. These differences are referred to as "personality preferences." Just as most people have a preference for right-handedness or left-handedness, so too do people have a favorite way of perceiving information and making decisions; a favorite source of mental energy; and a favorite way of relating to the outside world.
The four personality preferences measured by the MBTI are:
Extraversion (E) or Introversion (I): The focus of your mental energy is either the outside world of people and activity or the inside world or thoughts and reflection.
Sensing (S) or Intuition (N): Your preference is for trusting information that is clear, tangible, factual, and represents here-and-now details; or information that is abstract, conceptual, big-picture, and represents imaginative possibilities for the future.
Thinking (T) or Feeling (F): Making decisions in an objective, logical, and analytical manner, paying attention to tasks and results; or in a value-oriented way, paying particular attention to the impact of decisions and actions on other people.
Judging (J) or Perceiving (P): Favoring a style oriented towards closure, organization, planning; or an open, adaptable, flexible style of relating to the things and people found in the outside world.
The combination of preferences results in your MBTI type. Understanding type helps individuals and groups make more constructive use of differences to promote effective cooperation, and enhance understanding of motivations, natural strengths and potential areas of growth. In short, the MBTI can help you boost your professional effectiveness and identify your personal pathway to excellence.
When you understand your type preferences, you can approach your own work in a manner that best suits your style, including how you manage your time, how you solve problems, how to best approach decision making, and how to deal with stress.
Knowledge of type can also help you deal with the culture of the organization as a whole and the specific dynamics of your airport or office; the development of new behaviors and skills; understanding your participation on teams, and coping with changes in the workplace.
Are you interested in learning more about your preferences? Contact the TSA Career Coaching Service and request a Career Coach to administer and interpret the MBTI for you. There are two ways to contact the TSA Career Coaching Service:
- Visit www.tsacareercoaching.com/contact.cfm to e-mail us, or
- Call anytime (24 hours a day, 7 days a week) Toll Free: 1-866-619-3697 (TTY callers: 1-800-877-8339 and request 1-866-542-9096)
For suggested reading, please see Resources of the Month below.
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