Assignment Description: Assignment: reflect on the MBTI (Myers-Briggs Type Indicator) assessment and in-class discussion. What was most meaningful to you? How might you use this information in your internship search and/or the workplace?
Reflection Paper
Since getting my MBTI results and doing the exercises in class, I have not been able to stop thinking about the results. My friend and I were talking last night about how your perception of yourself is constantly changing. Who know what I don’t know about myself? I feel that the results of the MBTI test have in fact taught me something about myself.
As I mentioned in class, I found it very difficult to choose between judging and perceiving. This showed in my results. Through the exercises in class, I had decided that I was perceiving, but my results came back judging. Thus, I had to choose between ENFP and ENFJ. By the time we had finished class, I was leaning towards ENFP. While I consider myself a practical person, one of my strongest values is on discovery. I like to plan, but I leave room for adaptability because I enjoy the unexpected and I love to realize new ideas. However, when I read over the hand-outs, my opinion switched. ENFPs are describes as free spirits, flaky, and unfocused. They are also likely to give up on projects, not take challenges seriously or be undisciplined. I disagree with all these points. I love a challenge and I have good follow-through. I don’t like to give up and I hate being a flake. So when I read the ENFJ description, I saw that they like clear expectation and love to be productive. They prefer to appear capable, organized and in control and usually follow through with their actions. This description fits my habits and values far more than the ENFPs. So, while I do love discovering new ideas, I guess my process of discovery is fairly structured.
Yet, this difference on organizational habits was not the biggest factor in me choosing ENFJ. Supposedly, an ENFP is someone who doesn’t let road blocks get in his or her way and can very easily establish a report with anyone. While I like to think I possess these qualities, in truth I’m very passive aggressive. My friends used to call me Petty McPassive Aggressive Patterson to my annoyance. For me, the issue isn’t that I can’t address conflict, but that I’m very concerned with harmony and I do care a lot about what people think of me. This disposition completely lines up with an ENFJ. This is why, in class, my first reaction to the thinking vs. feeling exercise was to give up my position on the trip to Hawaii. In my effort to make everyone happy, I often end up sacrificing my own feelings and thus I’m seen as passive. On the other hand, ENFJs are supposedly good diplomats. This seems somewhat contradictory, but I do know that people see me as someone who can be objective and see multiple sides of an issue (my tendency to balance again), thus I can make a good mediator.
However, none of this was what changed my perspective of myself. I have always been a talker, especially in class. I have a hard time not participating and I often worry that I talk too much in class. For years I’ve been trying to stop myself from over-sharing. Last quarter I gave myself a challenge to only speak once on each topic. However, I never knew why I needed to talk so much. Now, after looking over these personality descriptions I see that ENFPs “need to talk about their ideas…to make them real.” This deeply resonated with me. I know that I talk out ideas, but I had not realized that perhaps I needed to verbally validate my ideas. I had always worried that I was one of those people that just loved to hear themselves talk, but when I think about it, it comes down to my need to share, discuss and get responses. I still don’t think it’s a good thing to dominate a conversation (hence why I want to take facilitation training), but at least I know that this need to talk is an essential part of me. Perhaps I don’t need to fight it anymore.