42: How to Gain Insight Into Personality, with Bonni Stachowiak

Bonni Stachowiak: Teaching in Higher Ed

Bonni is the host of the Teaching in Higher Ed podcast, Dean of Teaching and Learning and Professor of Business and Management at Vanguard University, and my life partner. Prior to her academic career, she was a human resources consultant and executive officer for a publicly traded company. Bonni is the author of The Productive Online and Offline Professor: A Practical Guide*.

Every leader will ultimately engage and develop people who have different personality preferences than they do. Too often, we lead others they way we would like to be led. In this episode, Bonni & Dave Stachowiak introduce the personality series and discuss ways that leaders can gain insight into the personalities of themselves and others.

Bonni and Dave both mentioned the book, Please Understand Me II by David Keirsey

Get clear on your own personality first

• Journaling
• Books
• Space for quiet/thinking
• Coaching
• Feedback from others and development reports
• Assessments

We tend to lead people the way that we like to be led – but often that’s not the other party’s preference.

Personality isn’t about good and bad or putting people into boxes – it’s about preference

There are a few models: Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI) and DiSC are the most popular

• They are both widely accepted models
• They both have fans and critics
• Neither one is perfect
• MBTI a bit easier to understand quickly – has a stronger network of control
• DiSC – less black and white – but very insightful

Things for leaders to be cautious of:

• Assessments are wrong – MBTI only gets all four correct 65%-80% of the time
• Beware people that tell you that assessments are the end all and be all of hiring and leading people (or that their assessment is perfect)
• Personality isn’t about good and bad or putting people into boxes – it’s about preference
• Any strength overused becomes a liability
• If you have someone come in to work with your team, have someone who is well trained, experienced, and just uses assessments as one data point

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