INFJ

Idealist/Counselor/Teacher

That's me.

At least according to the personality tests and leadership style exercises I did recently.

Monday was one of those perfectly busy days that are full and yet not taxing. All my fellow Northwest Ohio VISTAs met in Findlay for our quarterly meeting.

The most interesting part was talking about personality types and leadership styles.

For personality types, we all took the Myers-Briggs Personality Test. I came out an INFJ, which did seem pretty accurate.

The first letter, E or I, refers to the source of the person's energy (not necessarily how outgoing the person is) -- extroversion (E) for those who need to talk things through and introversion (I) for those who need to think things through.

The second letter, N or S, refers to how the person receives information -- Intuition (N) means the person can see the big picture and future possibilities while Sensing (S) means the person tends to trust the establishiment and the tried and true.

The third letter, F or T, refers to how the person makes decisions -- feeling (F) for those who consider others before making decisions and thinking (T) for those who use the logical choice.

The last letter, P or J, refers to the person's personal life -- percieving (P) for those who are flexible and enjoy surprises and changing plans, and judging (J) for people who like structure, routines and to-do lists.

I'm pretty strong to the one side in my first two letters, but the last two -- although they always stayed the same each time I've taken this test -- are closer to the line between the two so I'm probably more in the middle on those, especially the last one.

We also talked about leadership styles and divided ourselves into North, South, East and West styles.

North people are assertive, quick deciders and focused on the bottom line. South are supportive, nurturing compromisers, sometimes to the point of valuing the needs and wants of others above their own. East are visionaries who see the big picture or future possibilities and like to experiment and take risks. West people are careful and objective, weighing details and all sides to an issue before moving forward.

We each chose primary and secondary leaderships styles and then talked about the strengths and weaknesses of each, how to work best with each type of person and why each type is necessary and plays an important role in getting things done.

I identifed as a West person primarily and South secondarily. Interestingly, several people said they didn't see me as a West person. So I don't know if they don't know me or if I don't know myself or if I'm somehow projecting a different style than I really am.

This quiz I found later puts me as East, followed by West, South and North. I suppose most people have bits of each. I know I have parts of West, South and East -- but not really North. I don't see much of that one in me at all. Who knows.

An interesting activity was planning a mock vacation with our fellow types. The South person drew a picture of mountains. The Wests also drew a picture, a map of the U.S. for our random camping roadtrip -- with a specific destination (Mexico). And the Norths had no pictures, but a detailed itinerary of their European vacation -- what they were doing, when and where. (There were no East people in our group.)

We also talked about volunteer recruitment, conflict management and resume writing. Plus, we ate pizza and delicious brownies, and had a fun holiday white elephant gift exchange.

Long day, but enjoyable overall.