Today’s Buzz is by Will Hampton – connect with him on LinkedIn and Twitter!
What I’m Watching: Game of Thrones (aren’t we all?)
What I’m Reading: “Laughing at the Devil. Seeing the World with Julian of Norwich,” by Amy Laura Hall
What I’m Listening To: The Joe Rogan Experience podcast with journalist and author Graham Hancock.
Who am I? I’m a sucker for personality tests, for starters.
If you were working in a professional gig in the early 2000s, you were likely asked (required?) take the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI) inventory. I took it as part of my participation in a fantastic professional development program devised for us govie types.
According to the MBTI, I’m an INFP, aka The Mediator aka The Healer aka The Idealist. INFP stands for Introverted, iNtuitive, Feeling, Perceiving.
According to Truity.com, INFP “indicates a person who is energized by time alone (Introverted), who focuses on ideas and concepts rather than facts and details (iNtuitive), who makes decisions based on feelings and values (Feeling) and who prefers to be spontaneous and flexible rather than planned and organized (Perceiving).”
Yep, that’s pretty much me.
The nice thing about the MBTI is it helps you understand yourself better, and, if it’s taken by family members or co-workers, helps you understand them better, too. Could be that annoying co-worker isn’t deliberately trying to get under your skin, it’s just their personality type clashes with yours. Understanding = more effective teamwork.
Last week, I ran across a similar type of test, this one created by the creative types at Adobe Create Magazine. It’s called Creative Types, unsurprisingly enough. I took the test, and it turns out I’m a Dreamer.
The Dreamer is “deeply emotional and intuitive, with a vivid imagination — the quintessential idealist and romantic. The inner world is always where you’ve felt most at home. You’re happy to roam your mental landscape of thoughts, emotions, and fantasies …”
Again, pretty spot on.
What Creative Type are you? Your co-workers? Take a few minutes this Monday to get to know yourself and your team better than you did last week. You’ll be glad you did. At least, that’s my idealistic fantasy for you!
Will Hampton is the Communications and Marketing Director for the City of Round Rock, Texas.