MBTI personality type
Myers-Briggs Type Indicator
What is MBTI?
- Four-dimension, 16-type personality assessment
- Understanding 'different,' not 'wrong'
- A conversation starter, not a label
The first thing that changes after adopting MBTI is the tone of conversation in meeting rooms. When 'Why won’t that person make a decision?' becomes 'They like to gather more information before deciding,' blame turns into a request. The key point: it is a tool for changing how people make requests, not for changing personalities. The moment team leads start delivering the same instruction differently to different people, follow-up emails and repeat meetings are the first to drop.
The four axes describe preferences, not abilities. Just as a right-handed person can still use the left hand, an I type can present well and a T type can be fully empathetic. A formal assessment reports not only the four-letter type but also a preference clarity index showing how strong each preference is. A low score signals that a letter may change depending on the situation. Free online tests use different questions and scoring, so they are separate tools and often give conflicting results. If the goal is to predict job performance, remember that other tools are built for exactly that purpose.
To get results in an organization, a few operating conditions apply. Leave disclosure of results up to each individual, have a certified professional handle the interpretation, and don't end the workshop with an introduction to the types; close it only after documenting 'three lines of collaboration rules for our team'. A workshop where people only compared types and went home turns into lunchtime small talk within two weeks. What should remain is not a table of types but an agreed way of working.
The most common misuse is applying type to personnel decisions. The moment lines like 'He's a P, so we can't put him in charge of deadlines' or 'She's an I, so sales is out of the question' show up in a staffing meeting, MBTI stops being a language of understanding and becomes a baseless reason for rejection. The test publisher itself states that it should not be used as a screening criterion for hiring, promotion, or placement. The second misuse is self-defense. When 'I'm an F, so I'm bad at feedback' becomes a refrain, the type turns into an alibi for postponing growth. At the start of a workshop, make clear that a type is an explanation, not an excuse.
Eun-a ChoExpert in communication, stress management, career development, and Gen Z/Millennial training
John KimCEO of Nanum Consulting and author of B2B Marketing Design| Category | MBTI | DISC |
|---|---|---|
| Focus | Inner personality type | Outwardly visible behavioral tendencies |
| Category | 4 dimensions · 16 types | Four types (D·I·S·C) |
| Strengths | Self-understanding and communication | Workplace communication and sales |
| How to use it | Team understanding and self-reflection | Customer-type service and leadership |
Developed by mother and daughter Katharine Cook Briggs and Isabel Briggs Myers from Carl Jung’s theory of psychological types, it took shape as an assessment in the 1940s.
Let’s look at a hypothetical case: Company A, a B2B SaaS firm with 140 employees and annual revenue of about KRW 32 billion (≈ US$23,941,300). The engineering division and the customer success team had clashed for over six months over how to handle requests. 38% of customer request tickets were being returned for 'unclear requirements,' and average turnaround had stretched to 9 days. Instead of reorganizing, leadership decided to first try a 3-month communication improvement program.
- Kim, a manager on the organizational culture team, interviewed 12 people from both departments one-on-one, and the same remarks kept coming up: 'We fight whenever schedules come up' and 'I explain it three times and they still don’t get it.'
- The company ran a formal assessment, and a certified specialist led a 3-hour interpretation workshop. Sharing results was made optional for each person; 8 of 24 chose to keep theirs private, and no one made an issue of it.
- The head of development said, 'So asking us to lock requirements three days before the deadline wasn't pressure; it was your safeguard,' and the customer success team lead replied, 'Your long background explanations must have sounded like nagging to you.'
- The workshop didn’t end with type talk. The two teams agreed on a three-line request form (deadline, priority, request background) and built it straight into the ticket template.
- In the same session, HR documented a principle that types are never cited in evaluations or role assignments, and agreed to cut off any remark in meetings that starts with 'Because I’m an ENFP...'
- Six months later, the ticket rejection rate fell from 38% to 16%, average processing time dropped from 9 days to 4.5 days, and cross-department repeat inquiries went from 22 to 9 per week, less than half the earlier level.