Empowering career search and enrichment



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 Written by Catherine Rains

I was recently teaching the MBTI® Certification course in Kansas City, and after 2 hours together on the first day of the course, I asked the group to guess my MBTI preferences. Much to my delight, they guessed 3 of the 4 letters wrong. They might have guessed incorrectly because some in the room were just beginning to learn type, however many in the group already knew type quite well prior to the first day and they guessed wrong as well. They couldn’t pick up my type because I was only showing them one of my preferences, which is the one they picked up correctly. I was purposely flexing my type to the opposite of my preferences because it was appropriate to do so. In that situation, I needed to present complex material in a verbal, enthusiastic, concrete, linear, objective, timely and structured manner because that is what was required of me for those two hours.


So did the class fail at guessing type? Actually they demonstrated that they could already pick up type accurately, assuming the person they were guessing was showing their true type. When I am asked to guess someone’s type, which often happens when people find out I teach type, I always begin by saying I can accurately guess assuming they are showing me their best fit type. All I can really do is look for behavioral cues that would indicate a person’s preferences, and if they aren’t behaving in a way that would indicate their type, I will also guess incorrectly. So when guessing type, we need to be careful because all we can really do is look for behavioral cues, and then make a guess based on what we are observing.

So what is the value in guessing type? We’ll explore this question next week, but I would love to hear your perspective on this in the meantime. What do you think?

*It is important to understand that you cannot assess a person's type based merely on type cues; having the person take an assessment and giving them a proper interpretation is always recommended. The point of the blog is to try to understand how to pick up on certain type cues when in the absence of giving someone an assessment and self-verification, such as in a job interview.

Written by Jim Larkin

What do you do to teach your students that their behaviors are not restricted to the definitions associated with their best-fit type?

One process that is often used when interpreting the Myers-Briggs® (MBTI®) assessment in a group context is using the Type Table to allow the group members a chance to see who shares their type and or even just one, two or three of their 4-letter type preferences. The Type Table is a great way to allow everyone to gain insights into their own preferences as well as the preferences of their friends or group.

Yet one common “pitfall” in trying to use the Type Table is that individuals feel trapped or labeled when they put their type in a “box” in the Type Table. One way to get around this response is to use the following activity which is included in the recently released MBTI® Practitioner’s Field Guide: “Sixteen-Room House Analogy for the Type Table”. This activity will help you explain type to your students and it should only take between 5 to 10 minutes.

Here is what you will need:

- Blank type table (you can purchase this, or simply draw it on a flipchart sheet)
- Flipchart and markers

Now tell your students that you know that many participants feel a little uncomfortable at this point because they feel like they are being “boxed in” once they are asked to sign in to their chosen best-fit type box. Let them know that this is not what type is about. Now simply draw a “roof” and a “chimney” above the type table once you have filled out each “room” with the 16 types (much like this example of a type table). You can then have your students enter their names to their corresponding box.

Next week in my last blog, I will provide some cues and advice on how this simple exercise will aid in helping to engage your students to better understand type.