Human Metric Indonesia

Myers Briggs

If your job is leaving you feeling bored, frustrated, uninspired, or burned out, you’re probably wondering what else is out there. Where can you find a career that makes you excited to get to work each day? Does your dream job really exist? It may seem overwhelming to try to find that perfect career, especially if you’re feeling stuck in your current one, but if you start small and do some hard thinking, you’ll find that a satisfying career is not so far out of reach.

1. Start positive. If you’re dissatisfied with your current job, it may be hard to identify the elements you like about it. Most people, though, enjoy at least a few aspects of even the dreariest job. You may hate your boss but love your colleagues. Or maybe you believe in the cause you’re working for, despite the dismal pay. Make a list of the things you like about your current job—these are your first clues about what to look for in a new one.

2. Think big. Now’s the time to make a wish list. What characteristics would make a job perfect for you? Would it be flexible hours, a cooperative team, more responsibility? Maybe you’d like a chance to work in a creative or artistic setting, or the opportunity to show your leadership potential. Don’t worry about whether these things are realistic or whether there’s a job out there that fits the bill (not just yet!). Make a list of all the factors that you’re looking for in a dream career.

3. Brainstorm. Compile a list of every job, no matter how farfetched, that you’ve ever thought you might like or be good at. Don’t censor yourself; once you’ve got a good list going, you’ll start to see patterns. Look for common factors in the jobs you’ve listed. Maybe your fantasy careers are all active, fast-paced physical jobs (like firefighter, forest ranger, and FBI agent), or they might involve caring for and helping others (nurse, teacher, counselor).

4. Test yourself. There are dozens of career tests on the market designed to help you discover your ideal career. While these tests range in quality, from novelty tests on free sites to scientifically validated tests provided only by psychologists, there are many excellent resources online. Look for a website that provides well-researched career assessments such as the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator or the Strong Interest Inventory, which will provide you with comprehensive information on appropriate careers for your personality type and interests.

5. Do some research. The Bureau of Labor Statistics provides a great resource for career searchers. Visit their website at bls.gov and click on the Occupational Outlook Handbook to view salary ranges, educational requirements, job descriptions, and growth projections for hundreds of careers.

6. Check with an expert. A career coach can help you further identify the elements of a career that will bring you lasting satisfaction. A knowledgeable coach can also suggest careers similar to ones you’ve come up with yourself, and help you decide which careers best fit your goals.

7. Start where you are. If it’s not practical for you to completely retrain for a new career right now, think again about what’s missing from your current job. Is there a different position within your current company that provides more of what you need? Could you keep your job title, but find a new company with a better work environment? You might even ask your boss about making changes in your regular responsibilities that would allow you to do more of what you enjoy. Changing careers is a major goal, and if you can start by taking gradual steps towards doing what you really want, you’ll find that your efforts pay off quickly in greater satisfaction with your work.

By Molly Owens

Myers Briggs

I’ve never been that big a fan of psychometric testing (the “science” of personality assessment), since Jim, Maria and myself were tested and found to be unemployable in any normal company due to a collective tendency to stroll along to the beat of our individual drums. So we retaliated by setting up an advertising agency named after a strange looking animal with no relevance to advertising on the 13th of the month in the middle of the worst recession in 20 years.

Which pretty much proved there was nothing odd about us, we like to think.

Nevertheless, as every one of Britain’s 100 largest companies and some 80% of all the rest, use some sort of personality test on prospective employees, we thought it would be a good idea to have a look at the subject. Especially as the Sunday Telegraph did a big article on it which we could cull and make ourselves look dead clever.

There’s no doubt there’s a backlash against tests in the USA, evidenced by a mass of lawsuits from people who claim their lives have been damaged by them, particularly by invading their privacy and casting aspersions on their integrity. The pronouncement by the American Psychological Association that the vital “honesty” tests to sift out the potentially dishonest have a particularly high error rate hasn’t helped, while a newish book, “Cult of Personality”, argues persuasively that most profiling methods are flawed and damage the interests of all involved - the idea that you can capture the essence of a personality in a 20 minute test is nonsense given how complex people are, how moods can vary while being tested and, more importantly, how honestly the questions are answered. Re the latter, most testing groups claim to have anti-cheating (”lie-scales”) measures built in which attempt to measure consistency by asking the same question in different ways. That’s all very well but not all lies are conscious - there’s substantial evidence that people see things differently according to mood, and even day-to-day, and one body of research suggests that people taking an identical test a second time will be given a different personality type up to 75% of the time.

Psychometric fans, on the other hand, argue that the tests are not only a reliable guide but an acknowledgement that personality is critical in building a successful workplace. Which is why psychology has spent so long trying to crack the key to personality (and sold every resultant little fissure to business at every opportunity). The big break was the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI), the most successful test in the world, used by 89 out of the Fortune 100. Loosely based on Jung’s view that we all have a predisposition to a certain personality type, the 20 minute tests assign people precise personality designations - for example, you might be an ESPF (Extrovert, Sensing, Perceiving, Feeling) type. All good stuff, if we do indeed all fall into precise personality types, and we don’t allow for variable attitudes. For example, I’d answer one question about whether you’d rather work for a good natured, inconsistent boss (me) or a sharp tongued, logical one (Maria) with “It depends on the circumstances and why does sharp tongued rule out a good nature?”. Other questions to ponder are whether personality is set in stone anyway and whether all downsides are accounted for - most ad agencies would, for example, be desperate for E (Oy! I meant Extroverts) which is great, except E’s are prone to selfishness. While I also wonder whether looking for certain types leads to a dull, uniform workplace without any of the creative tension we all so know and love (”Write that ad in the next five minutes or I’ll thump you a good one with my menacing stick” - creative tension, as created by a certain member of Giraffe).

Given the disparate views, why have the tests become so popular? Mainly because of the pressure in the 1970’s for workplace equality forcing employers to look for more democratic methods of selection. They then became a fad in the 1980’s “Helping to make people in HR feel wanted” according to one expert (don’t even think of shooting the messenger) while in the 1990’s the cost of, and problems involved in, removing unsuitable employees finally entrenched testing in the workplace. So much so that two years ago we were all entertained by the sacking of Carl Filer, a star salesman at Britain’s largest DIY chain who was on the fast track until a test revealed the shocking news that his favourite colour was blue - resulting in his removal for lack of dynamism. Doesn’t beat the story of Prof Glenn Ellenbourg of New York who, on profiling the personality of a corpse using a test that gave credit for non-responses, found the cadaver had an IQ of 45 - and was likely to enjoy a good measure of popularity round the office.

At Giraffe, we tend to go by instinct when hiring, which may explain one or two little things that go on round here, and have never tested anyone else in our lives. So the 20 years Katharine Briggs, a Washington DC housewife, spent studying Jungian theory in order to understand what her daughter Isabel saw in her boyfriend, Clarence Myers - which is how the Myers-Briggs tests came about (See. You didn’t know that, did you?) - were pretty much wasted on us.

By Kim Jones

Myers Briggs

Most of us remember a day in our teens when our high school guidance counselor called us in for career counseling. She scrutinized and evaluated us, gave us tests with cryptic questions, and in the end proclaimed with some certainty that our career destiny was to become a fireman–or a stonemason, or a math teacher, or something equally mysterious. As baffling as this process was, if you’re the parent to teenagers, you probably find yourself wishing you could give them such definite career advice.

With so many career options in the modern workplace, it can be difficult for parents and teens to narrow down the choices. The good news is, those career tests your guidance counselor gave you have come a long way. Today’s career assessments provide an accurate, sophisticated, and time-effective way to help your child discover their career aptitude. Tests of your child’s personality, preferences, talents, and interests provide you and your teen with essential information as you make choices for college and beyond.

Do you know whether your child is a structured traditionalist, or a sensitive artist? Do they do their best work in solitude or on teams? One of the most widely used career assessments for teens, the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI®), assesses your child’s personality type on four scales: Extraversion/Introversion, Sensing/Intuition, Thinking/Feeling, and Judging/Perceiving. Based on these measures, the test results provide information on careers, industries, and work environments that are good choices for your child’s personality type. Knowing your child’s personality type is crucial to choosing a career path that will motivate, challenge, and satisfy them.

Extensive research has been done using the MBTI to correlate personality type with career success, so that once your child knows their type, they can benefit from the career experience of thousands of similar types. The test results will help them to understand the key factors for their job satisfaction, crucial stressors to avoid when choosing a career, and some common pitfalls they may encounter as they start on their career path. Although your child’s interests may change over time, their personality type will remain constant, and preparing your child with an awareness of their personality type will benefit them for the rest of their life.

To discover the best career for your child, it is also important to understand how their interests, hobbies, and favorite activities can inform their career choice. The Strong Interest Inventory®, a well-researched and widely used career test, assesses your teen’s interest level in six major career categories: Conventional, Investigative, Realistic, Artistic, Enterprising, and Social. Then, it matches your teen’s test scores with the interest profiles of successful professionals to rate the careers that are the best match for them. The Strong Interest Inventory results can help your child to understand the day-to-day tasks that certain jobs require, and how their interests match up with possible careers.

Both the Strong Interest Inventory and the Myers Briggs Type Indicator can be taken with the assistance of a qualified career counselor. You may choose to visit a counselor in your area, or you can have your teen take these tests online. If you feel your teen may need ongoing coaching, it may be best to visit a counselor in person. However, many families find that it is most convenient to access these career tests for kids online.

However you decide to take the tests, you can ensure you get the most out of the assessment by reviewing and verifying the results with a qualified counselor or coach. Both the MBTI and the Strong are designed to be interpreted and explained by a professional with training in the use of the assessments. Your counselor or coach will help you to make sense of the results and apply them to your teen’s individual situation, and will assist you in planning the next steps for your child’s career exploration.

The sheer variety of career options today is astounding. Your teen has a dazzling, and sometimes overwhelming, array of choices. With so many options, teens and parents will benefit from using the excellent personality and career tests that have been developed to help students choose a rewarding career. Not only can these assessments provide much-needed direction, but they can help steer your child towards a career that will challenge and satisfy them for many years to come.

By Molly Owens

Myers Briggs

Can you improve productivity, facilitate effective communication, and create a team that works like a well-oiled machine? You can if you learn how to recognize the resources that are already present in your organization. If you work in a large department, you almost certainly already have:

- A talented project manager

- A forward-thinking visionary

- A gifted public relations expert

- An infallible detail-watcher

- A critical analyst

Do you know who’s who? And more importantly, are you using their natural talents to their best advantage? Too often, organizations neglect to acknowledge their employee’s natural strengths-strengths that have nothing to do with education or experience. Your employees each have distinct personalities that make them naturally gifted in certain job environments, and frustrated and unproductive in others. To harness the power of your employee’s innate gifts, you must know what those gifts are!

Myers-Briggs Type at Work

The Myers-Briggs Type Indicator is the most widely used personality assessment in the world, and has been researched extensively in relation to success at work. It can help workers choose the job that’s best for them, but even more powerfully, it can help employers create an environment most conducive to their workers being productive and efficient. By identifying your employees as one of sixteen different types, you’ll see:

- How deadlines can be either a source of stress, or of inspiration

- Why privacy and quiet are as important to some employees as action and teamwork are to others

- Where your employees naturally turn their focus-the future or the present-and how you can put each perspective to good use

- What your employees’ priorities are when making a big decision, and how you can use differing perspectives to create positive and innovate solutions

Myers-Briggs and Teamwork

But that’s not all you can do with the Myers-Briggs. In fact, the most powerful application is improving communication throughout an entire team, as each member learns more about the different styles they’re working with and how they can better relate to their unique colleagues. Through learning about personality type, team members begin to understand that their differences don’t need to be a source of misunderstanding and frustration-they can be a source of strength. Team members that learn about their own type and their colleagues are able to:

- Create clear and positive communication

- Jumpstart effective cooperation

- Harness natural talent just waiting to be put to work

- Put their unique styles to work to create a versatile and powerful team

Applying the Myers-Briggs to YOUR Organization

The Myers-Briggs is widely available, including a convenient online format that allows your employees to take the assessment at their convenience, from any computer with internet access. Your employee then receives a detailed report that explains their type. Many different types of Myers-Briggs reports are available, and you can choose from the simplest to the most comprehensive according to your organization’s needs. You can even choose a report that analyzes the personality of your team as a whole!

Understanding Your Results

Once your team has completed the testing process, it’s time to put that information to work! Your first task is to understand the personality types. Each type is identified by four letters, indicative of four separate personality scales:

- Extroversion/Introversion: Do your employees get their energy from external sources (i.e. working with others) or internally (i.e. quiet individual work)?

- Sensing/Intuition: Are your employees more in tune with concrete facts and details, or possibilities, meaning, and the “big picture”?

- Thinking/Feeling: Do your employees place higher value on logic or values when making a decision?

- Judging/Perceiving: Would your employees prefer to work in a structured, scheduled environment, or one where they’re able to work spontaneously on a variety of projects?

The four scales are evaluated individually and combined to create the Type, for instance, ENTJ would signify Extroverted iNtuitive Thinking Judger.

Putting Your Team’s Results Together

You will likely have a wide variety of personality types on your team, so your next task is figure out how they work together! You may already have an idea about how differences have caused conflict (or inspiration!) on your team, but there are some common themes that arise in most workplaces that you should be aware of. Differences tend to play out in predictable ways when people of different types are joining forces:

- Extroverts and Introverts Working Together

When Extroverts and Introverts are on a team together, they will have different ideas about how best to get the work done. Introverts need frequent time alone to collect their thoughts, and appreciate a quiet space to work on individual projects. Extroverts need time with their colleagues to talk things out. They’ll be happiest and most productive if they work in an environment where they have easy access to colleagues to bounce ideas around. Having a balance of both types on a team will keep the team functioning most efficiently. The Extroverts on the team will help to motivate the team to meet and coordinate plans and goals; they can help articulate the company’s vision and ensure team members communicate with each other. The Introverts can help ensure that meetings stay efficient, and are often the employees an organization relies upon to complete important tasks independently and reliably. Although the structure of some organizations requires more of one work style than another, both styles make important contributions to an effective team.

- Sensors and Intuitives Working Together

Sensors and Intuitives often find themselves working on a team together, and because of their different ways of seeing the world, are able to complement each other to create a well-rounded work force for an organization. Intuitives are the visionaries for an organization; they see possibilities, long-range goals, and up-and-coming trends. They’ll ensure you’re in tune to your organization’s mission and keep you looking to the future. Sensors are talented at keeping your day-to-day functions running smoothly; they’ll be sure the deliveries are made on time, the appointments are confirmed, and the projector is in the conference room before your big presentation! It’s absolutely essential for any company to have both types on board; without vision, a company can get stuck in mundane detail and fail to grow and thrive; and without the detail-oriented, practical contribution of Sensors keeping things in order, a company can become disorganized and fail to get things done.

- Thinkers and Feelers Working Together

Thinkers and Feelers will prioritize differently when making a decision. Thinkers rely on logic, critical analysis, and cause-and-effect explanations when a choice is to be made. Feelers will consider their personal values, the feelings of the people involved, and their gut reaction to things when decision-making. The importance of Thinkers to an organization is fairly obvious-they can weigh the consequences of various choices and come to the most logical conclusion. In making financial and business decisions they are invaluable. However, Feelers are an undervalued but important asset to a team as well, because of their ability to tune into the emotions and personal issues that can interfere with team efficiency. They can help determine how corporate decisions will affect employee morale, for instance, or give insight into conflicts that are keeping co-workers from cooperating effectively. A team that includes Thinkers and Feelers works best when both styles are utilized, allowing the team to come to a decision that takes both the logic and facts of the situation and the human element into account.

- Judgers and Perceivers Working Together

Type differences for Perceivers and Judgers come out most when planning and managing projects. Perceivers tend to like to complete tasks spontaneously, when the mood strikes, and are more satisfied by starting a new project than finishing an old one. Often they’ll save tasks for the last minute because they actually work better under pressure. Judgers like to plan and schedule, and work best when they know what they’ll be doing from one day to the next. Judgers get satisfaction when they see a project through to completion. When the two types work on a project together, these differences can cause irritation and conflict over how best to manage the workload. However, they can also be extremely useful when you use each person’s strengths. Perceivers are great at getting a project off the ground and responding to last-minute changes during the process. They’ll be challenged rather than frustrated when a project must suddenly take a new direction. Judgers are great at scheduling and keeping things on track. They can set realistic deadlines and watch progress to ensure tasks are completed on time.

Enlisting Your Team for Positive Change

It’s a great idea to have a meeting once everyone has their results, to discuss how to use the information you have about your strengths and weaknesses to create a more efficient and productive team. You’ll want to learn more about how your employees interpreted their results and what their results meant to them. You’ll also want to know if they discovered or reinforced any ideas about how they could be doing their job better. A few possible questions for discussion:

- Do you feel your results were accurate? What parts do you feel were most significant?

- How does your position use the strengths of your personality type? Are there strengths you have that are not being taken advantage of?

- Have you noticed difficulties in your work that are reflected in your personality type description? What adjustments could be made in your position to better accomodate your unique type?

- What differences in thinking have you noticed with various people on your team? Now that you have your results, can you see how differences in type affect your team when it comes to communication, project planning, or other functions?

- Do you see any type of thinking being preferred or priveleged when your team works together? Does one type dominate? Is this effective, or would the team work better if it took more perspectives into account?

- What are the areas where our team agrees on how to do things? What are the areas where we disagree?

- When our team disagrees on how to go about something, how can we use our differing perspectives to find the best solution?

A Powerful Tool for Organizational Change

Congratulations on your interest in improving the way your employees work! The human resources you have at your disposal are great and varied, and once you access the talent you already have, you’ll find your team is able to achieve a new level of understanding and effectiveness.

By Molly Owens

Myers Briggs

Have you ever wondered why your spouse, coworkers, or children seem to think so differently from you? You may not understand why they make the decisions they do, or why they place such importance on things that seem inconsequential to you. It is possible to understand the answers to all these questions. The secret lies in the theory of Myers-Briggs personality type.

In the 1960’s a psychological theorist named Katharine Briggs had many of the same questions you do. She wondered why some of her family members had such logical, linear thinking processes, when she herself was more likely to take values and feelings into account when considering an issue. In her research with her daughter Isabel Briggs Myers, she looked into this question and others, and discovered four central aspects of personality. Each one of us can be classified as either:

• Extroverted/Introverted—Do you get your energy from being around others, or from spending time by yourself?
• Sensing/Intuitive—Do you see the facts, or the possibilities?
• Thinking/Feeling—Do you make decisions with your head or your heart?
• Judging/Perceiving—Do you like to have things planned and scheduled, or keep your options open?

Our classifications on each of the scales is combined to make a four-letter type, for instance, ENTP, or ISFJ. There are sixteen types in all, encompassing all possible combinations.

With so many possibilities, you can imagine how much potential for misunderstanding there is with those around us! If we marry, or parent, or even work with someone who is very different from us, we can become increasingly baffled as to how their minds work. The key to unlocking the mystery and understanding those around us is to first understand yourself.

Where do you think you fall on the scales listed above? It can be difficult to decide, but fortunately the creators of this theory have also created a scientifically validated assessment that can tell you where you fall. This personality test is called the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator and is the most accurate and efficient way to identify your own type. Most recently it has become available in an online format, which allows convenient access to anyone wishing to discover more about themselves. The official Myers-Briggs Type Indicator can be used to produce several different types of reports, from basic to detailed, all of which you can refer to as you learn more about your own Type.

Once you have discovered your Type, you can begin to think about how others may differ. If you are an extrovert, you may be surprised when others want to leave a social gathering or end a conversation before you do. It doesn’t mean they’re unfriendly or not having a good time; it’s just that introverts rely on their alone time to recharge. If you’re a Thinker, you may mistrust people who seem to make decisions based on their “gut” or their feelings rather than logic. But turn this around and you’ll realize that your own decisions may seem cold and uncaring to someone who is a Feeling type. There is no right or wrong; only individual preferences.

The world is made up of many types, and this is for the best! We need people who are gregarious, and those that are content to live much of their lives independently. We need visionaries with their heads in the clouds, and people who will take care of all the details. We need planners, and people who fly by the seat of their pants; when making decisions we need both someone to remind us of the logic of the situation and someone to help us do a “gut check.” Learning more about personality types can help you appreciate all the variation you’ll see around you. Most importantly, it will help you use your differences to everyone’s benefit.

By Molly Owens

Tipe kepribadian

MBTI mengandung empat preferensi dasar (Index), seperti dalam teori Jung, yang langsung berhubungan dengan cara orang mempersepsikan sesuatu dan mengambil kesimpulan tentang hasil persepsi itu (judgment) … pelajari lebih jauh

MBTI

Tujuan dari MBTI ini adalah membuat teori tipe kepribadian C.G Jung (1921-1971) lebih mudah dimengerti dan digunakan untuk kehidupan orang banyak. MBTI ini berdasarkan pemikiran Jung mengenai persepsi, judgment dan sikap yang digunakan oleh setiap tipe yang berbeda dari individu … pelajari lebih jauh