About the Author
Laura is a freelance writer and ghostwriter focused mainly on mental health, wellness, and self-care. She received her master's degree in Expressive Therapies from Lesley University but discovered she is far too much a Thinker and Judger to be a therapist. She now uses her knowledge of psychology and human behavior to connect with people via words. Her Introvert self is much happier with this arrangement.
I am the first-born child of two introverted Thinker-Judgers. Our summer vacations were planned in detail months in advance, right down to what time we’d leave the house. And I was right there in the thick of it, making packing lists and choosing activities that I’d write down in a spiral-bound notebook.
My younger brother likes to think he’s more spontaneous, but he’s as much of an ISTJ as my parents and I are. Typology definitely runs in our family. The question is whether it’s nature, nurture, or coincidence.
Categories:
Personal Growth,
Personality, Family, and Friendships,
Science and Research,
INFJ,
INFP,
ENFP,
ENFJ,
INTJ,
INTP,
ENTP,
ENTJ,
ISTJ,
ISTP,
ESTP,
ESTJ,
ISFJ,
ISFP,
ESFP,
ESFJ
Do you remember when Ambiverts became “a thing” on social media? People latched onto this “new” descriptor (which has actually been around since 1927), grateful to know that they didn’t have to decide whether they were introverted or extraverted. They felt like both, so they could be both.
I have a complicated relationship with collaboration. I’m an ISTJ, so of course I’ve looked at the research. I know that companies with collaborative cultures are more likely to be top performers, and that people are more focused when they’re primed to work together. I get why collaboration matters.
“I’ll never be able to delegate. I just don’t have the personality for it.”
Well, yes and no. Or, more specifically, no and yes. Delegation phobia, as I like to call it, is definitely rooted in personality. My ENFJ friend has no problem with it. She recently told an entire meeting, “Someone needs to write these thank-you letters, and I’d prefer it not to be me.”
The DISC personality assessment is all over the working world. Companies use it to test person-team and person-organization fit. Managers take it to figure out their leadership style. It’s so well-known as a business tool, it’s easy to overlook how useful it can be in figuring out relationships.
I made the connection when I first took the DISC assessment last year, and it explained so much about how I interact within my social circles.
I’ve always been a perfectionist. In fifth grade, when I knew nine out of 10 answers on a science test, I tried to look up the answer for the tenth question before the teacher noticed. I ended up in the principal’s office, all because I couldn’t deal with getting a 90 per cent instead of 100 per cent.
I’ve lost count of the number of times that people have told me not to be “such a perfectionist.” I never thought much about what the word meant, except to occasionally wonder why it was always used as an insult.
When I took the DISC personality assessment, I thought it couldn’t tell me anything about myself that I didn’t already know. I’ve taken lots of personality tests and they’ve all been informative and helpful, but this one… well, it blew me away.
See, I’ve always been a bit of a professional misfit. The DISC told me why. Turns out, I was looking at my strengths as weaknesses.
A few years ago, I found myself at a professional crossroads. I had been on the wrong path, fit-wise, for a while, and it was starting to take a serious toll on my mental health.
I knew was an Introvert in a field made for Extraverts, but I didn’t know what else was wrong or what kind of career would suit me. So, I took a couple of personality tests.
THE FINE PRINT:
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