 Subunit 2.4, Myers-Briggs type indicators and personality types within teams. So this section is going to focus on what kind of team member are you and how do you fit into the broader team in general. Personality type and psychological type are terms commonly associated with the personality development and inventory known as the Myers-Briggs type indicator. The four letters are derived from four pairs of preferences. So as you go through and you've done your Myers-Briggs assessment in the pre-work from the last unit. So here you're looking at these four letters and what do they mean? So let's look at the first pair, introvert and extrovert. So it indicates whether energy is received from an inwardly world or from an outwardly world. So you've seen many people who like to work alone on their projects and get great satisfaction in being kind of a solo performer and other people who really receive energy from working in larger teams. And that's just a sense of what, again, how you best work in a group. Another one is sensing an S or intuition an N. This identifies how information is gathered. How do you get information from the external world and how you make decisions. Next one is thinking a T or feeling an F. And this is an indicator of how judgments and decisions are made. And again, remember that each one of these is trying to identify how you work when you interact with others and when you do problem solving. This is going to help you in understanding how you fit into a team. So the final one is whether you're judging J or perceiving a P. And this determines the way a person deals with the outside world. So here you see an image that kind of consolidates all of these and gives you some examples of people who are in these categories. And so if you combine all those four attributes and look at personality types that fit in each one of those four attributes, you can see anywhere here from George Bush to Marilyn Monroe and Robin Williams and kind of where they fit in this world. And you're going to have a discussion here. There's going to talk about the fact that he's an INTJ. And you can see how an INTJ, people like John F. Kennedy and C.S. Lewis fit into a team and how they best can contribute. So my personality type is very different than John's. I'm a project manager and system engineer. I'm an ENFP and ENFP you see Robin Williams and Bill Cosby. Boy, that doesn't sound like a good engineer at NASA. Actually, there's a lot of attributes and being someone who is extroverted and likes to bring people together and do problem solving that are really valuable as a system engineer. So you'll find system engineers fit in a lot of these different places on the Myers-Briggs assessment. And again, it's really trying to find out where you fit in, where other team members fit in, and then how you work together because the interaction between an ENFP and an INTJ has to happen a certain way. There's going to be certain ways that a John Mather will perceive the world that's different than mine. But again, on a big project, you're going to try to come together to solve a problem. I've been very interested in psychological types and curious about my own. I've taken the Myers-Briggs test a couple of times and I didn't get exactly the same answer twice. But I tend to fall in the same box as most scientists, which is a pretty small fraction of the total population. I think they said about 3% of us are in this little box called INTJ, that's what they call it. So it's primarily intuitive, a little bit introspective as compared to people-oriented thinkers and able to judge things. That's how we like to approach the world. So scientists are, for the most part, very intuitive. But some of us also say, well, I've got to go get data. So I tend to be middle of the road about a lot of these things, and so it gives me flexibility. Well, I never took the Myers-Briggs personality test. But I did take a test, a 4D test, part of the 4D training that we went to, that has been going around here at NASA for a couple of years now. And my personality type was a logical decider and directing. You know, Mike's personality type using the Myers-Briggs type indicator would most likely be an ENTJ. These are folks that are good at being frank and decisive leaders. They eliminate inefficiency and they strive for goals with thorough planning and organization. Gosh, those are key people to have on a team, especially in the role of system engineers. Well, I think that the way the assessment came out is the way I'd like to be viewed as. I hope I am a logical decider and I hope, you know, in my role as the lead, I have to be directing. So I think that I was actually quite pleased with that. My personality in working with a team is to be curious and interested in what other people are thinking. Because even though everybody thinks I'm a famous scientist, nevertheless I know that I don't know what other people know. So I usually approach a meeting thinking, if I'm talking, I'm not listening and I'm not learning. So my approach to groups is to work with people and then try to make sure that they know what their job is and encourage them to do it their way. I'm not a very directive person. I don't think that I know what other people should do. I think most of the time if the people are the right people for the job, they already know what to do. So that's how I work with people. People say that I'm a modest person, which isn't completely true. I'm proud of what I've done and I know that I can do some things very well. But usually I know in a group situation I'm not the person who can do everything well. So I step back a little bit. I don't push myself on telling people what to do. There's a lot of benefits of the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator. Its ability to recognize one's strengths, preferences and areas for growth and improvement. Also an awareness and appreciation of other different personality types. Because again you want to be able to improve your communication and interpersonal skills between you and all the team members to make sure again that you've kind of taken into consideration the way that they perceive the world and the way that they like to do problem solving and interact with others when you communicate with them. I think when I'm in a team environment I do notice somewhat that different people have very different personalities. I'm very glad for the variety because some of us are good at some things and some are good at other things. I'm particularly good at sort of visionary kinds of things and other people are good at making things happen. Other people recognize better than I do what people's conflicts of interest are, whether you can trust what they say or whether they're only able to think for their own particular interests. So the utilization of the Myers-Briggs Type Indicators as a leadership tool for hiring and staffing, career planning and problem solving, team building and enhancing teamwork. If you're going to be a leader you're going to have to get to know your team and leverage the talents or avoid the deficiencies in each. The team that I got now is diverse and it's an excellent team. I'm very pleased with it. Within the system and engineering orgs there are types that are very tedious and methodical. You definitely need them. They're the ones that check to make sure there are no mistakes. There are those that are creative and designing and those are the ones that you get to solve the problem when it arises. There are personalities like myself who have to apply the pressure to make sure the team doesn't get stuck somewhere that it keeps moving. Even if you make a mistake or two, right, if you still get it 90% right and you don't make any mistake that can't be fixed later, you keep the pressure on and keep things moving. So, you know, having a team with all those diverse types is essential and leaders learn how to leverage it. A good leader has to learn how to leverage that. So now click on the icon to read the characteristics of the 16 Myers-Briggs Type Indicator personality types and make sure to answer the discussion form, post and collaborate with your peers.