LEADERSHIP AND MANAGEMENT INSIGHT – Embrace, build and utilise difference in teams using MBTI

Leaders and human resource managers are seeing the benefits of customer and regulator demands for greater diversity in the workplace. Aside from gender and cultural diversity there is also a benefit in having diversity in the way team members think and approach work.

Embracing difference and diversity in teams is good for business. Your staff will better reflect your customer base but you will also have people who are more predisposed to and better at certain functions than others.

Understanding the differences within teams helps you build diverse and complete teams. Acknowledging and celebrating the contribution of differences within teams creates greater mutual understanding and respect for each team member. That foundation is a strong basis for a higher performing team.

But how do you identify and understand difference?

One solution is using the Myers Briggs Type Indicator. MBTI® recognises and identifies individual differences in people’s cognitive processes.

For team members, their managers and peers to know if someone is an: extrovert or introvert; sensory or intuitive; a thinker or feeler; and if they judge or perceive helps them to understand why they behave in a certain way and the tasks to which they are better suited. For leaders and managers, realising that a staff member has a different MBTI to them can help them to understand why that staff member doesn’t always think or act in the same way that they would.

Forsythes Training has expert trainers in MBTI. Our short workshops can be done at our training centre or at your workplace. View our workshop details here.

Combined MBTI assessments with training in emotional intelligence and use of Human Synergistics tools and you give managers and leaders the skills to embrace, build and utilise difference to create high performing teams. When developing customised programs we use either MBTI or Human Synergistics or both tools, depending on our clients’ needs. Talk to us today about your needs. Call +61 2 4922 0122 or email training@forsythestraining.com.au.