What's your type?
By John van der Steur
I love doing the following exercise with people to help them determine their type. We usually get it in 15 minutes or less.
First, I ask them to fold their arms. Yes, like this. Go ahead, try it!
Now have a look, which arm is up. Your left or your right?
If I asked you to do this 10 times, I bet that 9 out of 10 times the same arm would be up.
Now, try to put the other arm on top…
Is this awkward, strange, hard perhaps? Even though there is no physical limitation, there is a preference, one that is quite persistent.
It is the same in your personality. You have access to all polarities of the personality, but only use roughly half of it consciously & consistently. The poles you feel most comfortable with, you feel you trust and rely on the most are the ones you use consistently and develop the furthest.
Have a look at the four functions below and ask yourself:
Which one you prefer the most and which one the least?
Which one is easy and natural?
Which one is effortless?
And which one is a struggle, a drain of energy, and perhaps slow…?
Now take a moment to write down your preference. Which one do you use and rely upon most? Which one is second, third and fourth?
Take a pen and a piece of paper, and make a note somewhere.
1 - ............
2 - ............
3 - ............
4 - ............
Your strengths are usually a combination of 1-3. Your blind spot is nr. 4 and the polar opposite of your nr. 1 function.
Take a moment to reflect on how you use (or avoid) these functions in your daily life. Like most people, you are likely to discover the impact is enormous. And hopefully, you have found a way to use your strengths in your personal and/or professional life.
Do you want to know if you got it right?
As a next step, find out how whether you get the same results when you take our 15-minute personality assessment tool here>>
A personality profile with your preference graphs for each of the four colors will be sent straight to your inbox.
One more thing, you might find it takes several iterations to find the right fit for your personality. This is due to "Type Falsification", something we all suffer from to a greater or lesser extent when we try to adapt to and belong in our environment.
The goal, as Carl Jung said, is to "Be true to yourself. Be true to your type."
Click below to take the online type indicator I developed (will take 15 minutes or less of your time and the results will be sent straight to your inbox):