There are 16 personality types that make up a person’s preferences and the way they approach life. Being in the ice cream consulting business, I believe the types can be a useful tool and metric offering you the ability to recognize where your strengths and weakness lie.
In business, understanding your personality type may be able to prepare you for a job or business you want to start. First, let me clarify that when I say “weakness”, it does not suggest a flaw or failing, rather an observation of your tendencies and approach in a situation. An example of this, a shy and introverted individual is looking to pursue a commissioned sales position, may not the best fit for a successful career. However, the same individual may excel extremely well in a cold calling by phone position , generating and qualifying leads for another sales person to close the deal, face-to-face with the customer.
Your personality test results may state you’re “less strong” in certain personality attributes, so if you planning to start a business, you may consider taking on partner with stronger attributes that you in certain areas of the business. Right now, the way you are interpreting this article, is based on personality type you are today. The personality evaluation takes a snapshot of where you are in your life/career cycle today and types can change every year or so.
According to Carl G. Jung’s theory of psychological types [Jung, 1971], people can be characterized by their preference of general attitude:
- Extraverted (E) vs. Introverted (I),
their preference of one of the two functions of perception:
- Sensing (S) vs. Intuition (N),
and their preference of one of the two functions of judging:
- Thinking (T) vs. Feeling (F)
The three areas of preferences introduced by Jung are dichotomies (i.e. bipolar dimensions where each pole represents a different preference). Jung also proposed that in a person one of the four functions above is dominant – either a function of perception or a function of judging. Isabel Briggs Myers, a researcher and practitioner of Jung’s theory, proposed to see the judging-perceiving relationship as a fourth dichotomy influencing personality type [Briggs Myers, 1980]:
- Judging (J) vs. Perceiving (P)
All possible permutations of preferences in the 4 dichotomies above yield 16 different combinations, or personality types, representing which of the two poles in each of the four dichotomies dominates in a person, thus defining 16 different personality types. Each personality type can be assigned a 4 letter acronym of corresponding combination of preferences:
| The 16 personality types | |||
| ESTJ | ISTJ | ENTJ | INTJ |
| ESTP | ISTP | ENTP | INTP |
| ESFJ | ISFJ | ENFJ | INFJ |
| ESFP | ISFP | ENFP | INFP |
The first letter in the personality type acronym corresponds to the first letter of the preference of general attitude – “E” for extraversion and “I” for introversion.
The second letter in the personality type acronym corresponds to the preference within the sensing-intuition dimension: “S” stands for sensing and “N” stands for intuition.
The third letter in the personality type acronym corresponds to preference within the thinking-feeling pair: “T” stands for thinking and “F” stands for feeling.
The fourth letter in the personality type acronym corresponds a person’s preference within the judging-perceiving pair: “J” for judging and “P” for perception.
For example:
- ISTJ stands for Introverted, Sensing, Thinking, Judging
- ENFP stands for Extraverted, Intuitive, Feeling, Perceiving
I’m an ENFJ so I better understand the best approach for different situations in my business. I recognize that in a year or so the results may be different and that’s ok as long as I calibrate my approach. Try the test for yourself, it only takes a few minutes and can be fun as well as surprising. My only advice, is Do Not over think a question or comment and choose the answer that first comes to you.
I took the test on www.16personalities.com, a free service that I found very easy to navigate. Take the test and utilize the results, your business deserves it.
Contact Darryl, he can help your business improve no matter what your personality type is.
- Ethics In Using Madagascar Vanilla - November 21, 2023
- Money To Start Your Business - July 9, 2023
- Top 25 Common Myths About Ice Cream Co-Pack Manufacturers - April 22, 2023