Let me be honest and straightforward: this was not my favorite model when I first learned about it. Until, that is, I went through the certification to become a trainer and I fell head over heels in love, despite it being more complicated and intricate than the other models used and discussed in the Leadership Institute. The MBTI provides a deep understanding of your personality traits, natural skills, and tendencies while highlighting skills you have learned along the way. As an added bonus, this understanding isn’t tied to any life role (work, parent, child, friend, etc.). I, for instance, have a slight preference for extraversion with a lot of introversion tendencies. However, I usually come across as highly extraverted, as I learned to act more extraverted because my sister was very shy growing up and I wanted to balance it out.
The MBTI focuses on your innate personality preference, organized into four dichotomies:
- Extraversion vs. Introversion (E –I)
- Sensing vs. Intuition (S – N)
- Thinking vs. Feeling (T – F)
- Judging vs. Perceiving (J – P)
Your preferences in each category, when combined, are your type. For example, if I had a preference for Introversion (I), Sensing (S), Feeling (F), and Perceiving (P), my type would be ISFP. This type gives me insights into how I interact with others, process information, come to conclusions, and approach the outside world. Understanding this will allow me to know my strengths and weaknesses as well as those of others. As a leader, applying that knowledge effectively in different situations and with different people is essential.
-Lotte Mulder earned her Master’s of Education from the Harvard Graduate School of Education in 2013, where she focused on Leadership and Group Development. She’s currently working toward a PhD in Organizational Leadership. At ASCP, Lotte designs and facilitates the ASCP Leadership Institute, an online leadership certificate program. She has also built ASCP’s first patient ambassador program, called Patient Champions, which leverages patient stories as they relate to the value of the lab.
Yin and Yang
Who would have thought that our personality is made of contradicting elements?
I truly enjoyed the MBTI course, it was an eye opener of who I am and a trip inwards. Knowing who we really are, our talents, comfort zones and blind spots will help us become better leaders.
So now I know and after all these years (on a personal or professional level) that I am an “ENFP,” these four letters mean that I tend to be extraverted, intuitive, feeling and perceiving. I do agree with the assessment as it reflects who I am and decided after taking the course to put my Middle Eastern Ego aside and not challenge the blind spots.
ENFPs see new possibilities in people, situations, tasks and projects at hand. We tend to have high energy and flexibility. In my line of work, being the Chief Quality Officer at MedLabs Consultancy Group in Amman-Jordan, I find these personal traits very critical to our success as a company to ensure the highest compliance in implementing quality standards throughout our network of laboratories spanning four countries and exceeding 50 in total. Being a people’s person is a great asset in order to touch the hearts, minds and souls of our staff to sustain these quality standards, being 150% convinced rather than simply following the rules. We are trying to “personalize” Quality and Safety, this can only be accomplished through connecting with each staff member and it requires inspiration, a trait that is “built in” ENFPs.
Looking at the blind spots, I find that we tend to get overexcited about projects, juggling many at the same time and loosing track of priorities in the hope of making a difference. Guilty as charged.
I am learning to take one project at a time, see it through completion and start the next one in the pipeline, this gave me and my colleagues a breather and time to reflect if the road that we are taking is indeed the correct one.
So now I am asking myself, what if I did not have the great opportunity to be part of the ASCP Leadership Program and I have missed out on MBTI? What if I did not realize that I am an ENFP? What if I could not appreciate the blind spots?
The simple answer is: I will be a classical leader in it for the title, with little contributions and not much of a positive effect on those who are around me. My job will be stale, with no spirit and dull, so I guess Yin and Yang actually works.
-Nael M. Soudi holds a bachelor degree in Microbiology from State University of New York at Plattsburgh (USA). He completed both his Master Degree in Molecular Biology and a postgraduate program in Cytotechnology at Johns Hopkins University (USA). Mr. Soudi is a certified Practitioner in Health Care Quality (CPHQ) and a certified consultant and inspector with the Healthcare Accreditation Council. He is also certified by the International Academy of Cytology (IAC) and the American Society of Clinical Pathologists (ASCP) – Cytology. Mr. Soudi is fully licensed by the American Society of Clinical Pathologists and the College of American Pathologist (CAP) as a Certified Inspector. He is a frequent presenter at regional and international conferences discussing topics in Cytology, leadership, accreditation and healthcare quality.
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