Myers-Briggs Type Indicator, Article Review Example

The purpose of this leadership article called Personality Type and Leadership by Hagey (2009) was based on the principles of leadership within a military organization utilizing the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI). The MBTI is based on four types which are Extrovert to Introvert (E to I), Sensation to Intuition(S to I), Thinking to Feeling (T to F) and Judging to Perceiving (J to P). The primary theme of this article was based on the military using MBTI to help the potential leaders to capture the power of their own psychological type, which gives them a better understand on how to become an effective leader of men and women. This article introduces the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI) as a successful and effective psychological leadership tool used by the Armed Forces. The author explained that the MBTI has 16 different types that will share potential leadership qualities in form of a self-survey. This MBTI survey has helped the Army to promote men and women in the field, who require a strong leadership foundation to lead men in extreme military circumstances. It was clarified that the MBTI is not stereotypes but a proven method of examining the individuals own psychological type to determine the strengths and weakness of a leader. According to Atay (2012),” The Myers-Briggs personality type theory provides the framework for examining similarities and differences in personality traits” (pg.75).

This literature was based on the leadership theories of Carl Jung. Carl Jung created this assessment to identity different personality types. The MBTI Leadership Styles foundation was founded and implemented based on the psychological theory of C.G. Jung and Isabel Briggs Myers. The Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI) was used by the military to determine the level of leadership ability based on the results of the MBTI analysis. The article clearly explained how organizations should utilize the MBTI as a basis for building their leadership teams. This MBTI information can be beneficial in any business or educational climate that needs to build a strong leadership foundation.

The Myers-Briggs Type Indicator also referred to as the MBTI instrument was described by the author as an excellent tool, to determine the type of leader a Sergeant would make leading a team of men. The article explained that a person’s ability to lead could be learned from their unique personality’s base on family background, life learned experiences, culture, and genetic make-up. This valuable personality and leadership information can help an organization with improving communication and improving leadership teams, decision-making, addressing team conflict and developing effective leaders that can make decisions. According to Sunhi (2012),”Judgments involves all the ways of coming to conclusions about what has been perceived.” (pg. 278).

The authored shared how the military promoted leadership and management tools using the MBTI instrument to identify potential effective leaders. The military used these results to assist with promotions and developing effective leadership programs to help leaders understand their own personal leadership styles. In addition, it helps the military to discover some aspects of their MBTI results that show traits of leadership that come naturally. These results were shared with the leaders so they would learn how to improve their leadership skills.

The author did an excellent job of explaining how the Myer-Briggs Report works for the military. The Myers-Briggs Leadership Report combines a 4 letter MBTI types for all the persons on a given team and the results can assist the team and leaders with understanding how to function as a whole. The most important point the article made is many leadership test, programs and surveys only show the positive points about the leader, however, the MBTI helps the leadership address their personal weaknesses. The leadership can become more effective, if leadership is shown how to improve their weaknesses. The author made strong points concerning the MTBI sharing that the survey instrument could be used in conjunction with leadership and teambuilding exercises. These valuable exercises could help the military leaders be more aware of not just their individual preferences but also the overall team preferences in working styles. The learning exercise helps the military soldiers learn about and address internal team needs while harnessing leadership strengths. The military example has shown the effective use of the MBTI instrument. This MBTI instrument can help any organization improve communication, enhancing leadership potential and promoting cohesiveness between current leaders and potential leaders. Overall, the article pointed out the importance of the benefits of MBTI. The MBTI testing results will reach beyond the leadership teams, as they begin to understand more about themselves and the positive impact of MBTI on others.

References

Atay, S. (2012). The standardization of Myers-Briggs type indicator into Turkisk: An application on students. Journal of Instructional Psychology, 39(2), 74-79.

Hagey, D. K. (2009). Personality type and leadership. U.S. Army Medical Department Journal, 24-26.

Sunhi, B. (2012). Personality characteristics of South Korean students with visual Impairments using the Myers-Briggs type indicator. Journal of Visual Impairment & Blindness, 106(5), 287-299.