For your bookshelf

I'm currently reading The Art of SpeedReading People - how to size people up and speak their language, by Paul D Tieger and Barbara Barron-Tieger.

It's an easy to read and accessible look at the Myers Briggs personality types. Previously I've found books about MBTI a bit dull and treacle-like, but this one takes you through what each of the four Myers Briggs elements mean and then has a section for each of the individual types, including tips for communicating with them and 'attention grabbing phrases'.

Whenever I read my profile (ISFJ) in these things I always look enviously at all the 'E' profiles and wish I was entertaining, witty and the life and soul of the party instead of quietly friendly and helpfully 'nice' (and therefore easily taken advantage of by others, says this book cheerfully - great!)

It's a good read compared to others I've come across, anyway, and Tieger & Tieger seem to have written other books on how MBTI relates to anything and everything from careers to relationships.

Sue

 

Comments

[Alex M]

So what are the best bits so far Sue?

[Liam]

That reminds me of the Woody Allen joke... he'd been learning about speed reading and had just read War and Peace "it's about Russia..."

I was chatting to someone this afternoon (who promised she'd post sooner or later) and I rather banged on about my opinion that things like Myers Briggs/Belbin/Insights etc etc can be about as useful as having your palm read. (sorry S I probably was a bit boring on the subject).

My argument is that although these tools can give you some useful insights into how other people tick, a lot of people wear their types as a sort of badge which they see as defining and final.

There are two problems. Firstly, the generalisations are really misleading (for example - I'm not sure Sue would ever let me take advantage of her for a moment although the book says otherwise!).

Secondly, isn't the issue about how you work with the cards you are dealt? We all need self awareness but I'm not sure that many people don't surrender under the weight of their own classification and close down the chance to grow. It's not the nature of the demon that counts - it's how you choose to deal with it that matters surely...

Maybe I'm cynical, but I am a Scorpio....

Liam

[Sue Dewhurst]

Really? A Scorpio? Oh dear ... (joking on that front. I've read several times that Sagitarrians are long-legged athletic and adventurously sporty types - not exactly the most accurate description of me I've ever seen).

I think there are many things in life that can be used helpfully or unhelpfully and tools like MBTI are no exception. The point about most of them is that they refer to PREFERENCES - e.g., put somebody in a high stress situation, and what type of behaviours will they naturally revert to. (MBTI stands for Myers Briggs Type Indicator, hence the expression 'reverting to type') - but that's not to say you can't behave in other ways, and of course we mostly learn to do exactly that to operate successfully in different environments.

However, I think they can give very helpful insights into behaviours and facilitate useful conversations. One person in a previous team who was the only invert (aside from me) in a team of extroverts, was worried that they were all better comms people than her, because they could always think of instant solutions in our team meetings but she couldn't think of them until afterwards. We talked about how introverts often need time to think things through themselves to come to conclusions, whereas extroverts love developing ideas through discussion because they get their energy from other people. It made me remember to send pre-reading out for the meeting so she had chance to think things through in advance so she then could input to the discussion.

Just one example of many I could name.