Introduction
Certain actions of a person as a professional, a leader, or a social agent can be influenced by his or her personality type. According to Carl Jung’s theory and Isabel Briggs Myers’ typology, it is possible to determine a variety of personality types with reference to four different aspects that should be combined (“Jung Typology Test,” 2019). This paper is aimed at describing how a specific personality type can influence leadership traits realized in healthcare environments and explaining particular aspects that form this personality type.
The Relationship Between the Personality Type and Leadership
The results of completing the Jung Typology Test have indicated the presence of the ISFJ personality type, where there are minor preferences of introversion over extraversion, feeling over thinking, and judging over perceiving. Furthermore, there is a moderate preference for sensing over intuition (“Jung Typology Test,” 2019). This personality type is appropriate for a healthcare setting because these people are interested in serving other individuals’ needs.
They want to help others and understand their demands because of their developed “sensing” and “feeling” dimensions (Waite & McKinney, 2018). Careers in the fields of health care or social work are suitable for people with this personality type. Therefore, it is possible to assume that they can demonstrate effective leadership skills that are associated with nurses’, healthcare providers, and social workers’ responsibilities. These individuals perform their tasks accurately, and they develop supportive relationships in the workplace (Tananchai, 2017). In this context, being sympathetic and patient-oriented can enhance leadership in healthcare facilities.
Still, focusing on the idea of leadership in healthcare settings and the necessity of representing developed communicational and organizational skills to lead other people, it is possible to state that these individuals can experience difficulties. Having the ISFJ personality type, people can act as introverts, avoiding communication with large groups of people, but they are good at cooperating within small groups (Waite & McKinney, 2018).
Thus, these people can become successful leaders if they improve their skills in delegating tasks, choose a supportive leadership style, demonstrate their empathy, and supervise individuals or small groups. From this perspective, it is almost impossible to ignore the fact that this personality type is perfect for working in a healthcare setting. Therefore, some leadership skills can be improved along with selecting an appropriate leadership style that is comfortable for a person.
Four Aspects of Personality
It is necessary to discuss four aspects of the determined personality type in order to understand how they affect a person’s leadership abilities. Being mainly an introvert means focusing on a person’s inner psychic activity and feelings rather than on external objects and communication (Tananchai, 2017).
In the context of working in a healthcare environment, this feature can mean that an individual prefers to concentrate on his or her own feelings rather than on interacting with others and the outside world. The preference of sensing over intuition means that, in spite of being an introvert, a person likes collecting information from the outside world, referring to other people’s actions and words (Tananchai, 2017). Therefore, these people are recommended to work in health care: they pay attention to patients’ words, feelings, needs, and interests.
They are being focused on feeling rather than on thinking means that a person tends to analyze information and react to it with reference to one’s emotions and feelings, r subjective values. Such persons are usually good at understanding other people’s moods (Waite & McKinney, 2018). In this case, logic and analytical thinking are used for decision-making rarely. Judging over perceiving is selected by these people because they prefer to organize their life after making some judgments regarding different events and processes (Tananchai, 2017).
They do not like to improvise; therefore, it is possible to state that the reference to judging seems to balance a person’s reliance on feelings (Tananchai, 2017; Waite & McKinney, 2018). These individuals analyze situations and make rational conclusions referring to their judgments, and this aspect allows them to assess different events appropriately and select effective solutions to organize their life.
Conclusion
The ISFJ personality type has been determined after conducting the Jung Typology Test. This result indicates that an individual with this personality type is an introvert, who refers to sensing and feeling and chooses to make judgments regarding reality. While discussing these findings in the context of leadership, it is possible to state that people with this personality type are often ideal candidates to work in the fields of health care and social services.
Still, more attention should be paid to the development of their leadership skills if they are expected to take supervisory, administrative, and managerial roles. The details related to each of the four aspects of personality have also been described in the paper. It is possible to note that people having this type are sympathetic, empathetic, caring, supportive, responsible, friendly, positive, and persistent. Therefore, they can easily develop their careers in the fields of nursing and healthcare while sharing the principles of the patient-centered approach.
References
Jung Typology Test. (2019).
Tananchai, A. (2017). The personality of students studying the social etiquette and personality development course by Myers Briggs Type Indicators (MBTI) theory. ASEAN Journal of Education, 3(2), 81-87.
Waite, R., & McKinney, N. S. (2018). Personality typology: Understanding your preferences and striving for team effectiveness. ABNF Journal, 29(1), 8-16.