Essay Sample on Personalities in the Workplace

Introduction

Personality is the difference in thinking patterns, behavior and feelings that exist between different people. Sixteen personality types have been identified so far. Characters have a substantial impact on the working environment. Personalities influence the interactions among employees and their productivity. Organizations are encouraged continuously to have a diverse workforce that incorporates all the characters. There are conflicting opinions on the use of personality tests in the workplace. Still, that has not stopped scientists from trying to come up with better ways to administer personality tests. One can take a personality test at Hummanmetrics.com for free. As a result, my personality test from the site revealed that I belong to the INTJ category.

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Personality Summary

Introverted Intuitive Thinking Judging, also known as INTJ is one of the sixteen personality types that is associated with scientific behavior. Individuals that have INTJ personality tend to display analytical thinking, which is part of scientific traits. However, their preferred mode of living is internally focused. In that state, they act based on their intuition. They would occasionally initiate the second mode that is external. In their secondary mode, they deal with issues using rationale and logic.

The Scientist, as people with the INTJ personality type are referred to, have a preference for strategic planning. They dislike acting under impulse and make plans in advance. People with this kind of personality also live in a world of ideas. They are excited by new ideas and seek to grasp a deeper understanding of these ideas or theories. Their excitement to concepts and theories makes them almost indistinguishable from INTPs also known as thinkers (Gjurkovic and Snajder 94). However, it should be understood that while they are quick to learn new ideas, their interest is in the application of the concept rather than the mere knowledge of it. As one would expect, they value knowledge, competence, and intelligence. They hold themselves and others to high standards. They apply the same line of thinking to their expectations. They always have high hopes for themselves and those around them. Their interest in ideas keeps their mind in a constant search of new information and seek to make use of the information.

It should also be understood that the INTJ group are introverted and their thoughts and images are highly individualized. The individualized form of their ideas, images, and feelings makes it difficult to transfer them to other people. As a result, INTJ's have a hard time expressing themselves or speaking about their feelings, plans and thoughts to other people. INTJs' excellent strategy ability gives them effective leadership skills in situations that require objective thinking and adaptability.

Strengths and Weaknesses

INTJs have specific strengths and weaknesses that suits them in particular situations. This personality relates to my perception of my character by describing the INTJs as internally focused. I practically live inside my head with little interest in what is going on around me. My head is always swarming with ideas and theories about random objects and elements in life. I also tend to take special interests in new ideas and very interested to know more about them. I have plans for the next fifty years and try to fit every action I take within that plan. Therefore, I find myself relating to the INTJs personality because of their strategic planning.

Specific strengths come with possessing the INTJ personality. As INTJs we tend to be adaptable and flexible to change. Our ability to adapt to the evolving situations emerges from our lust for knowledge and new ideology. We see issues from various perspectives and keep an open mind when approaching problems. As a result, we survive and even thrive in highly fluid industries such as information technology that is always changing. Our strategic thinking ability combined with our imaginative mind makes it possible to make changes to our strategic plans as we move along. Another area of strength for INTJs is our fast learning ability, which could be utilized for high-pressure situations with tight deadlines. For example, while working as a sales representative, there was a time when the client suddenly changed the details of his order in the last minute. To make the matter worse, he needed the commodities urgently. I decided to divert the requests of another customer who had ordered similar but nonurgent items. I could have asked the previous customer to make a fresh application because he had violated the terms of the sale agreement. Then I would end up with a disgruntled customer. So I used my imaginative mind to come up with a solution that was satisfactory to everyone involved.

Nevertheless, INTJs do not always excel in all situations. INTJs boast of high confidence, and this comes off to most people as arrogance. Additionally, we as INTJs are too judgmental especially to those who used emotions as a basis for making decisions. When it comes to working ethic, we are perfectionists, and that strains the relationship that we have with other people, especially in the work environment. However, none of these imperfections is more controversial that the issue we have with authority and authority figures (Depression Alliance n.p). INTJs naturally have a problem with rules and would question the reason for every law or regulation that we come across. As a result, we tend to perform poorly in tasks or jobs that require high adherence to the rules or submission to some form of authority. For example, as a sales representative, my supervisor gave me an above average performance although I had worked hard during that year. When I approached the supervisor, he gently explained to me that my performance was not that good. I was confident that my performance was excellent and took out my frustrations on the manager. I was fired for gross misconduct, but I learned my lesson. I should have investigated the reason behind his remarks. As an INTJ, it is wise to reduce my self-confidence and acknowledge the fact that I can come up short sometimes.

Personality Tests and Leadership

Managers can use the results of employee performance tests to create a highly productive work environment by helping them build diverse teams. The personality type enables the manager to identify the various types of personalities among his or her employees (Johnson par.3). Using this information, they can create a team that contains employees with all or most of the personality types. Teams that have diverse personality types are likely to perform better than teams with single personality types because diverse groups have access to a vast array of talents. They are also less susceptible to challenges because they have a personality to counteract every situation that may come their way.

Personality tests could also build communication within the organization because it gives the manager better knowledge of how to deal with his or her employees. The personality test enables the manager to understand the character of the employees better and know how to deal with them. As a result, there is a less likelihood of conflict between the manager and the employees.

Conclusion

The personality test has revealed that I have similar traits to the INTJ personality types. INTJs relate to the perception I have of my personality due to their enthusiasm for new ideas and theories. The willingness to learn and an imaginative mind makes us suitable for situations that require some high adaptability and innovation. On the downside, INTJs are overconfident, and we come off as arrogant. Generally, managers should conduct personality tests because it would help them relate better to their employees and know how to arrange their task teams to be all inclusive of all personality types.

Works Cited

Depression Alliance. INTJ Careers: A brief guide to the best ones. 2018. Website. 19 February 2019. <https://www.depressionalliance.org/intj-careers/>.

Gjurkovic, Matej and Jan Snajder. "Reddit: A goldmine of personality prediction." Proceedings of the Second Workshop on Computational Modeling of People's Opinions, Personality, and Emotions in Social Media (2018): 89-97. PDF.

Johnson, Callie. How to use personality assessment tests to improve workplace culture and communication. 1 May 2018. Website. 19 February 2019.