Having had a few new people join the KBC team recently, we thought it would be a good idea to get to know each other better, so last week we downed tools for the morning and a specialist took us through our Myers Briggs profiles. Revealing or what!
For those who’ve never heard of Myers Briggs personality types, this is a system developed by two ladies named Myers and Briggs, based on work by Jung, that categorises people according to whether their innate preferences are introverted/extroverted, sensing/intuitive, feeling/thinking, judging/perceiving. All you have to do is answer a bank of questions and, pow, you’ve got a label that explains why you act like you do. I’m an ENTP, apparently, which is good as it means I’m perfectly suited to my current roles of team leader and entrepreneur. Other ENTP people were Alexander the Great, Alfred Hitchcock and Thomas Edison, so I’m in good company! Not sure about being likened to fictional characters like Bugs Bunny and Doc Brown though.
But seriously, as a tool to create better team dynamics, I was impressed. There were a few surprises in there, but mostly with our new recruits. For the rest of us there were some lightbulb moments, as we recognised traits we were familiar with, and it was a great opportunity for us to openly discuss what really irritates us in the work place and be told what probably irritates others about our own behaviour. Compromise is the name of the game.
We also worked on our personal values and those we want KBC as a company to work by, and I’m proud to say that we chose Integrity, Passion, Creativity and Teamwork as our four core values.
Thanks go to Annabel Shilton of MD Hub for taking us through everything and navigating what could have been difficult waters for some. We’ve come out of it a stronger team, ready to face the challenges of the future together.