Date: 09.10.2017
Class number – 02
So I was excited with my own personality test results – E(38%)N(44%)F(31%)J(47%). Let me boast a bit 😛 the description says “ENFJs are the benevolent ‘pedagogues’ of humanity” whoa I had no clue of what pedagogues mean!. I google it. Tada!! I am going to be a kind and well-meaning teacher. It was exactly the work I got into by an accident and realized that it was my life’s meaning and came to IITM to do Ph.D. So what I thought about my destiny is a well-suited one for me.
I was puzzled about how the variations in personalities of my fellow classmates is going to make any difference.After all we know that each individual is unique and are one of a kind. So with the start of the class I realise that there is a trend and our behaviour necessarily follows the same. So these tests are not 100% accurate, nevertheless it gives us a chance to see how our day to day decision making and the choices we make can be characterised and generalised for the benefit of an individual and through this benefitting the organisation too.
Since I am from an engineering background I was unaware of the MBTI test, others were seemingly clear about the test. This test I think helps to clear the misconceptions we have perceived about anyone in our workplace. We can benefit from it if we have to manage a team. As a leader, I need to know the best and not so best traits of my team so that I exploit their traits and make them do what they do at ease. Before all of this, I have understood that people are unique and that I cannot predict anyone accurately. People are dynamic and the dynamics are determined by an innumerable number of factors. Whatever preferences and patterns we find are not to be judged by anyone since each individual is at their best when they are allowed to be whom they are.
During the class, I could see that each were proud of their own test results though some were intrigued to see unexpected outcomes. Since the test is not built on a continuous scale, we are completely judged on a dichotomy and that may not be comfortable to many, including me. I have got the result as an Extrovert. So extroverts derive energy from people, love social gathering, never intimidated by crowd whereas introverts derive energy from self and don’t prefer crowded and social gatherings, thinking and retrospection is prevalent.
I feel I am more ambivert because I am my crazy self only with my close group, others find me silent. My own parents have told me that I would never get friends since I am reserved and moody.
They would never know what I am capable of :-p.
So there is no hard and fast rule to divide people, all humans are made for a purpose and that can’t be altered by any manager. The differentiation between sensing and intuition category is how the person gathers the information. The facts, data, and present reality is of importance to an S but deeper meaning, longer window of perception is salient to an I. If we see from a decision-making point of view, our panel should have both an I and an S, so that we get hold of both the facts and also the long-term issues and hidden agendas. As we know that it’s important to plan ahead but not at the cost of our present.
The thinkers and feelers are almost on the lines of the previous category. What affects me? How do I evaluate, can be determined by what type they are. Here also it’s understood that we could shift from one to another based on the situation. When I was working as a faculty in NIT Warangal, I always wanted to be fair, did not want to show prejudice or allow any preconceived notion to affect me when I evaluate. Even when students get mischievous, though I am an F, I think based on facts and decide.
The last criteria judging vs perceiving, is based on the planning and execution of activities. Here as a manager we need to be more careful since we will have both they types in our team. We have to assign the appropriate kind of activity and make sure that we don’t have any last minute clutter. Even in this category I think I am somewhere in between because I plan ahead and start and work as per schedule, then I get so proud and high 🙂 for doing that, that I gift myself some free days or time and I end up doing some portions at the last moment 😀
At last, what we need to know is that the world is a noisy place. Humans are the noise. And humans don’t have an option but to work with humans. Where, as a manager, we need to understand the noise and master it to convert it into a symphony.
Reflective Journal 