Myers-Briggs Type Indicator® (MBTI®)

The Myers-Briggs Type Indicator® (MBTI®) assessment is a questionnaire used to measure and describe people’s preferences for how they like to focus attention, get information, make decisions and orient their lives. Created by  Katherine Briggs and Isabel Myers, mother and daughter, the MBTI® instrument was designed to make Carl Jung’s theory of psychological types understandable and useful in everyday life. 

The MBTI® provides a versatile measure of personality that looks at eight personality preferences people use at different times. These eight preferences are organized into four dichotomous scales, which are illustrated below. After more than 70 years of research and development, the current MBTI® tool is the most widely used instrument for understanding individual personality differences. 

The MBTI® assessment gives individuals a framework to better understand themselves, their motivations, strengths and potential areas for growth. It will also help them to appreciate those who differ. Understanding and appreciating these differences in the way people prefer to function can greatly enhance the effectiveness of how people work together and relate to one another.

Important Facts About the MBTI® Assessment

• Describes rather than prescribes; it delivers back to your client in an organized form the preferences they indicated when answering the questions.

• Considers all preferences equally important and valuable.

• Describes preferences, not skills or abilities.

• Is well documented and researched with hundreds of scientific studies conducted over a 70+ year period.

Reasons why the MBTI® Instrument is so Popular

• The official Myers-Briggs Type Indicator® is not a test, so there are no right or wrong answers.

• It sorts people into 16 broad, easy to remember personality types. Each type has its own strengths and challenges.

• The MBTI® tool looks only at normal behaviour. It does not measure or detect psychiatric disturbances, trauma, intelligence or maturity.

• Individuals can share their results or keep them confidential.

• The MBTI® instrument gives results that are practical and can be used in everyday life.

The MBTI® Tool Measures Four Personality Areas

The MBTI® Shows 16 Personality Types

With the MBTI® tool, natural preferences in these four areas are sorted into one of 16 distinct MBTI® personality types. Understanding these personality types provides clients or employees objective insight that they can use to enhance their professional and personal relationships, as well as their direction, focus, and career choices.

Know your MBTI® 4-letter Type? Download your MBTI® type head by selecting the image below.

Why Use the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator® (MBTI®)?

The MBTI® assessment is one of the most widely used communication profiles used across the globe to improve interactions and promote engagement in the workplace or individual lives. 

• The MBTI® profile identifies the different ways people act and react, make life choices, relate to others, and make sense of the world. 

• Ability to understand and reduce conflict in the workplace.

• Knowledge of your personal and work style, its strengths and development areas.

• Greatest understanding of your own MBTI® Type and appreciating the differences of other Types.

• Improved communication effectiveness and creating meaningful connections.

MBTI® Assessment Uses

• Leadership Development - Successful leadership is critical to today’s organizations. The MBTI® instrument offers valuable insights for your organization’s leaders, it deepens leaders’ understandings of their personality type and the types of those they are leading to help them manage better, provide more meaningful feedback, and improve individual and team performance.

• Team Development - When people understand their own preferences and can recognize the strengths others bring to a team, the entire team functions more efficiently. MBTI® instrument helps your clients or employees understand how their personality types relate to their contributions and effectiveness as team members.

• Career Development - Many aspects of choosing and managing a career a related to an individual’s personality type. The MBTI® Career Report explores preferred work tasks and work environments – as well as most popular and least popular occupations for a client’s type – and offers strategies for improving job satisfaction.