“I am not just a personality type”
I went to a Networking event recently and we had a wonderful conversation with one of the lovely ladies there. We were sharing what we are doing in our professional lives, one topic led to another and we started talking about Personality types. I shared to her how passionate I was as a leadership development and team coach about the different models existing out there, about all this research and work available. And then, I also recalled one of the reactions I have received on one of my first personality type workshops I facilitated for a team many years ago: “I am not just a personality type. I refuse to be put in a box, I am so much more”...
When I am thinking about this instance and this person, I am full of compassion with regards to what she expressed and to some extent, I agree with her point of view. A person is full of surprises, there are so many factors that form once behaviours and beliefs and we live in such an evolving world. I often surprise myself as well about how I react and may not be able to associate it with any of the 16 personality types (aka MBTI), my profile in the DISC model or any other personality tests I have taken.
There is a concept that I absolutely love called Internal Family Systems (IFS) that looks at the individual's personality in a very dynamic way, as the composition of different parts and those parts can be very different from one another showing up in various circumstances.
As I explore this further, another popular saying comes to me: “All models are wrong, but some are useful”.
Although, my deep belief is that everyone is unique, that people can not indeed be put in boxes and that they can't just be profiled, all existing concepts and methods give us so many powerful lenses to deepen our understanding of one another and I truly enjoy combining them not only in my 1:1 coaching but also in a team context.
Understanding your personality type can give you many powerful insights and build further your self-awareness. You are also empowered to see what works for you and what is not serving you from those models. And when you share this information with other people in your team, it really opens a lot of room for understanding, better collaboration and healthy conversations. It encourages people to communicate what their preferences are, to show vulnerability, to trust and be trusted. It is an occasion to identify so many similarities amongst the team members and opportunities to unify the team. It also offers the occasion to gain awareness of our differences, leverage on each other's strengths and support each other better.
So, cheers to all the knowledge out there and to flexible personality workshops, inspired by different models as a means to gain the most valuable insights and at the same time, providing the freedom and awareness to get out of the box.
