You function continually in the realm of the possible and when absorbed in your latest project, you can think of little else. With an energy level sometimes exhausting to behold, you are virtually tireless in the pursuit of your latest goal- as long as your interest in the project holds.



You are a devoted explorer of a world where peering through the mists of the far horizon is your primary interest. In your quest for new ideas, adventures, and absorbing projects, you continually learn that your goal loses its attractiveness after you solve the major challenges and problems, or as soon as it degenerates into a predictable routine. When the end is in sight and your interest wanes, it can be difficult for you to muster enough self-discipline to see the task through to completion.



You are a terrific initiator who often artfully hands over half-completed projects to a “detail oriented” colleague or associate to finish. But the dedication and self-confidence you exhibit are infectious and therefore you tend to have devoted followers. You have the ability to be a guru for those who lack your talent, perseverance and personal drive- you are well suited to lead.



You tackle an amazing variety of problems with ease; the breadth of your interests is your strong point. Being able to exercise this variety, flexibility and versatility in your nature is the primary key to happiness in your life.

As a Thinker, you are an independent character, who can feel good about yourself with or without approval from others. Many individuals with your personality style enjoy a role as a renegade. Even though you are probably your own best critic, it will be very valuable to solicit and listen to the opinions of others whom you respect before high-tailing it off to your next all-absorbing project. People contain tons of useful information, even though you may find it difficult to find others who can keep up with your quick mind and rapid-fire ideas.



When you are not actively recruiting followers to work on your latest cause, or when you are being consumed by your current interest, your impersonal attitude toward people and short attention span in human relationships can make you appear outwardly cool and distant. You value logic over sentiment and it is sometimes impossible for you to appreciate how others value emotion. You do, however, have the necessary personal and communication skills to connect with people when you want. Even though you might not employ them often enough, you do know the value of eye contact, body language, a little recognition and a fond personal address when speaking with someone.



In the working world, you will find that your Extraversion is an asset when dealing with both variety and action. In tasks requiring quick decisions and fast action, you reign supreme. However, you must constantly be on guard not to act too quickly, particularly without thinking things through completely before you dive into action. If the nature of the work itself is slow, or if it involves long term projects, you may need to devise a few tricks to ward off boredom. Otherwise, your efficiency may suffer.



You may have already found it to be helpful to surround yourself with a few “practical types”- people who look at things with their Sensory capacity. While you may find this difficult- since Intuitive people usually prefer the company of other, like-minded souls- you will probably find their counsel valuable. An Intuiting person with a Sensory type partner may achieve more than the Intuitive alone, since facts and details will not be overlooked along the way.



You are an Intuiting person, who scans the horizon searching out the possibilities in a situation, rather than staring down at the pavement. This quality prepares you well to be an inventor, explorer and visionary. Your interest lies in new ideas and theories and you bring together a great deal of energy, patience and fortitude when digging in to solve new problems.



Your Perceiving side is open to changing situations. In fact, you may even enjoy tasks requiring repeated revisions. Diversity at work is enjoyable and you have no trouble shifting gears from one assignment to another. On the other hand, your Perceiving nature may instigate too many changes without being asked, revising when unnecessary. If you are not careful, many of those self-started activities could wind up in a desk drawer, first postponed, then forgotten.



Your inner world is one of thought, analysis and concentration. You are a Thinker, with your mind constantly going like a busy computer. In love with learning, fascinated by the very concept of intelligence, your Type seems to have an inner drive toward performance and a highly self-critical nature that continually drives you toward self-improvement. You are able to develop considerable detachment from your own work and to subject it to the same scrutiny you apply to all intellectual matters.



You are also supremely self-confident and your intellectual ability provides the substance you need to accomplish virtually anything you wish in life. Periodically, however, you are plagued by the recurring thought that you are somehow on the brink of failure and that you might not achieve your personal goal this time. You are a tough taskmaster and critic of yourself. You need to learn to give yourself a break.



Your outgoing personality prefers working with human companionship. You may wish to think long and hard before accepting a job or work assignment that forces you to work in isolation. Choose a job that lets you use your abilities to understand, predict and explain reality. Just try not to get so caught up in the world of ideas that you miss out on directly experiencing life.You may often find yourself living more in the future than the present.



Being an inventor or a promoter may attract you and, most likely, in whatever work you choose, there will be a bit of the inventor/promoter in whatever you do. Watch out for times when life forces you to work at a job that demands you make detailed observations and keep track of facts and figures. You will do better to target yourself towards work that involves the big picture and bold concepts, not details and precise facts.



Look out if life corners you into an overly bureaucratic institution. You will be interested in ideas, research and development, inventive marketing or promotions- and you will pursue your interests by thinking less about the rules, procedures and chains of command and more about the end goal. When you find that perfect job, employer or co-workers, you will be valued for the glittering bundle of intuition you provide as a catalyst to innovation and creative solutions.



Life craves people like you and institutions need people like you, although both may give you a hard time now and then. Even if you personally never get the pleasure of seeing your ideas put into action, the probability is good that your innovations will eventually trickle into the mainstream. In the long run, you will be wise to choose a career where you have autonomy over your work and where you have the fellowship of other creative, like-minded people who also admire ideas and prefer to work in less structured and non-confining organisations.



Contributions to an Organization



Each of the sixteen personality types has their own styles, strengths and blind spots. The following items are the more obvious skills and talents you bring to an organisation, group or relationship. These are your strengths. Strengths often can turn into weaknesses if over-used and over-relied upon. But used well, these strengths and talents can contribute to your success in career and relationships.



Is confident, dynamic, energetic and sparkling to be around.

Views work as one stimulating and adventurous challenge after another.

Brings infectious humour and dynamism to tasks.

Delights in troubleshooting and conquering major problems.

Inspires self and others to go beyond stated goals.

Thinks conceptually and is skilled in analysis.

Generates creative ideas and is highly innovative.

Ingeniously discovers new methods and processes.

Is extremely flexible, versatile and embraces ambiguity.

Finds start-up projects exciting and routine processes boring.

Likes achievement.

Seeks to become more and more competent in work.

Delegates details of the vision and its implementation to others.

Brilliantly perceives market trends, future designs and products.

Goes for, and is excited by, the big picture.

Is alert and outspoken.

Encourages and rewards risk-taking.

Easily takes initiative and instigates change.

Is loyal to the movers and shakers of an organisation.





Your Leadership Style

Each personality type has its own leadership style, strengths and blind spots. The following highlights your approach to leadership, provides clues as to how you will act in a leader role, and pinpoints some of your leadership qualities.



Acts as the visionary for a group or organisation.

Persuades and inspires others with enthusiasm and imagination.

Can readily become engrossed in a project that interests them.

Prefers to ignore standard or traditional paths in accomplishing long-term visions.

Prefers precision and is irritated by inefficiency, errors and extraneous information.

Is enlivened by formulating theories and constructing models or systems.

Excels in crisis situations, seeing them as challenges to be overcome.

Is unafraid to take risks.

Promotes and rewards independence in employees.

Values ideas, energy, willpower and ingenuity in others.

Does not give and receive praise easily.

Easily takes the initiative to get a project going.

Believes power and authority are granted by competence, not title or tenure.

Expects to be obeyed, not questioned.





Your Communication Style

Effective communication is composed of two elements: how well you listen, and how you express yourself. Good communication skills are at the heart of success. Being aware of how we communicate, how others communicate and how we prefer others to communicate with us, is a significant step in achieving this objective. Your personality style has its own communication strategies that are more effective for you than other’s communication styles.



Speaks with passion and commitment.

Replies quickly, thinking on his/her feet; displays wit and word play in speech.

Prefers talking in person, not in written reports.

Likes brevity, succinctness, objectivity and mental exactness.

Detests excess information or material; may keep topics short.

Talks about, and is attracted to, insights and unusual approaches.

Frequently debates the pros and cons of various options, either internally or with others.

Offers presentations that can be highly complex and detail-oriented.

Will consider a schedule, but avoids and resists tight timetables.

Is persuaded through cool, logical analysis.

Persuades others through compelling explanations.

Sees the big picture and future destinations and presents these first.

Talks continually of larger possibilities and alternatives; presents information as always tentative, adaptable and changing.

Likes to discuss future challenges.





Problem Solving Style



Different people solve problems in different ways. Based on your personality type, you will probably use the following methods and skills in problem solving:





Loves to find ways around obstacles.

Wants the rationale behind the data.

Unceasingly questions all the possibilities in seeking alternate solutions.

Attempts to find other situations similar to this problem.

Is sceptical of information until it is validated.

Focuses on understanding and comprehending the entire situation before examining the specifics.

Wants to know if there are greater implications beyond the obvious.

Debates the pros and cons.

Seeks to understand what is alluded to by the facts and compiled information.

Begins by looking at the big picture, next applies logic, then considers the impact for people and finally looks at the facts.





Stress Profile



Stress plays a significant factor in our abilities to be effective at work and have healthy sustainable relationships. The greater the stress, the harder it becomes to maintain quality work and quality relationships. Each personality type has strengths and blind spots. Under stress, blind spots emerge and people rely on their least favourite functions to operate. Below are a few clues as to how stress affects your particular personality type (Note: you and one other type have matching patterns in manifesting and managing stress, so you may find someone with an almost identical profile).



Triggers:

Being overextended and over-committed.

Neglecting needed food and rest, creating physical exhaustion or illness.

Doing detailed methodical step-by-step work over extended periods.

Continually managing episodes of red tape, bureaucracy and ‘senseless rules.’



Characteristics

Begins to lose their enthusiasm, optimism and energy for life – it is no longer fun.

Starts to withdraw and becomes depressed, sad and despondent.

Turns very picky, finicky, irritable, rigid and crabby.

Verbal skills decrease and talking with others becomes difficult.

Grows overly emotional, believing no one understands or cares about them.

Becomes exceedingly analytical, literal and insensitive toward others.

May obsessively clean, organize files, checkbooks, calendars, or create detailed to-do lists.

Escalates small issues into major problems.

Takes narrowly focused data and erroneously projects it into a vague and gloomy future with few choices.

Physical sensations, real or imagined, are spun into a horrible and serious illness.

Leads to self-neglect and if prolonged, eventually becomes ill.



Gaining Equilibrium

Doing meditation or taking some time out to reflect.

Being left alone by others so their episode can ‘bottom out.’

Taking relaxing walks in nature.

Exercise, sleeping more, eating better foods, or having a massage or bodywork.

Talking to others without judgement or advice being offered.

Analysing events and determining priorities with a close but neutral friend.

Unobtrusive help with details.



Lessons

Taking better care of themselves physically.

Recognizing their need for solitude and quiet time by themselves.

Appreciating the management of details and developing better organizational skills.





Motivators

People are usually most effective when their environment matches their preferences and work style. When a good match is not present, it will be more difficult to achieve results. Below are some of your work preferences and key characteristics that you look for in work, or that you try to avoid. These key characteristics also indicate how you would typically like to be managed or related to. If you find these comments of value, it might be very worthwhile to share and discuss this section with your manager.

Looks for moments to foster independence in others.

Needs freedom to manoeuvre, unfettered by rules, regulations and procedures.

Revels in designing plans and projects, building theoretical and conceptual models and overcoming limitations.

Enjoys the absence of routine and bureaucracy.

Emphatically resists being over-controlled and over-managed.

Does not respond to coercion, pomp and assigned authority.

Excels in situations where trouble-shooting and change are necessary.

Soars in environments where change, flexibility, risk and competency are present.

Prefers working in start-up and entrepreneurial phases of a project, not in the implementation.

Appreciates opportunities to use his/her conceptual skills and creativity.





On a Team

Some people work well on teams, others work best on their own. Understanding the personality types of team members provides information about how individuals are likely to carry out their work and interact with each other. Given your personality preferences, the following are the strengths and possible blind spots you will most likely bring to a team:



Supplies clear ideas and inventive new insights.

Contributes elevated degrees of enthusiasm and energy.

Provides analysis, solutions and identifies opportunities.

Brings different viewpoints and information to the table.

Questions and examines different pathways and possibilities.

Dares the group to go beyond the status quo.

Focuses on future possibilities, not current limitations.

Sometimes presents too many possibilities and concepts, possibly overwhelming others.

Is apt to grab the limelight with so much energy and enthusiasm.

Irritates others by editing everything down to a theoretical model.

Becomes frustrated with others who do not look at new prospects or fail to have a “can-do” attitude.

Wants others to be able to discern the trivial from the important.

Can be irritated by others who do not think abstractly.





Learning Style

For many years it has been known that different personality types have different ways of learning. Knowing how a person learns is a big advantage for structuring on-the-job training or classroom instruction. Once again, you may find this section valuable to share with your manager. Your learning style is as follows:



Is passionate about learning and enjoys competition and stimulating environments.

Suffers in highly structured, rote and fragmented learning situations.

Needs to grasp the model inherent in the material before proceeding.

Finds future-oriented theoretical questions and essay exams the most appealing.

Is easily bored once the major problems or challenges are solved to his/her satisfaction.

Enjoys challenging instructors and classmates.

Learns through participating in discussions plus questioning and challenging others.





Opportunities for Growth

As we have said before, each person has his or her strengths and blind spots. Sometimes strengths are over-used and become blind spots. We tend to simply ignore other modes of being as we rely on our favourite preferences. When our strengths are over used, they can become our only tools, possibly becoming irritants to others, or blocking out other possibilities and choices that we may have when responding to situations. As we grow and mature, it is important to pull back from our favourite ways of doing things and build skills in the areas of our least favourite preferences. We thereby become a more balanced and versatile individual. The following suggestions address some of your more obvious blind spots and are areas to pay attention to if they have been ignored up to this point:

