Getting to know you
Story and imagery by Petty Officer Etta Smith
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"I only wish I knew then what I know now,” said Chief Warrant Officer Troy Riedel, a certified Myers-Briggs Type Indicator administrator and Chief of the Coast Guard Leadership and Management School detachment in Yorktown, Va. “I could have done so many things better. This tool, like many others, can allow people to accomplish just that; better results.”
The Coast Guard uses a personality assessment, the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator, as a tool to teach its members about their personality types so they can learn how they may be perceived and how they can communicate better.
“Being a good shipmate begins when we better understand ourselves,” said Riedel.
Members of the Coast Guard encounter numerous personality types throughout their career. Whether conducting a fishing vessel boarding or living aboard a ship for weeks at a time, Coastguardsmen can benefit from taking the MBTI, said Riedel.
The more effectively people communicate with one another, the better the function as a team, ultimately improving performance,” said Joellen Mitchell, a performance analyst for the Coast Guard and a MBTI participant.
The MBTI personality assessment was originally designed for women entering the work force to replace the men who had joined the military during World War II, said Riedel.
“Their goal was to ‘best place’ the women (in job fields), based on their potential skill and innate interests,” said Riedel.
Katharine Cook Briggs and her daughter Isabel Briggs Myers created the MBTI in the 1940’s. Their research was based on Carl Jung’s theories about personality published in the 1920’s. Jung was a Swiss psychiatrist who founded analytical psychology, focusing on underlying motivations for behavior.
The MBTI continued to be improved and modified over the next twenty years to become the instrument commonly used today to help subjects better understand how their internal motivations may contrast with external perceptions of their behavior.
The MBTI is a tool used to identify elements of the subjects’ personality type based on their responses to a set of questions. The MBTI consists of 93 questions containing words or phrases and the subject chooses which words they identify with most.
“I was hoping to understand myself better and to get some insight into how others might perceive me, based on my personality type,” said Mitchell. “After the test, I have stronger self-awareness and better understanding of why I have a tendency to say and do certain things.”
Mitchell learned that when she interacts with others and is really passionate about the topic, the tone of her voice and her body language could be misinterpreted as angry rather than excited.
Mitchell said that learning about this possible misperception has helped her to be more aware when she is interacting with others.
Riedel had been administering the MBTI throughout the Coast Guard for about a year. He uses his personal life and his more than 23 years in the Coast Guard as a reference and an example of how the test results can be applied to everyday life.
“Believe me, I’ve made some mistakes over my lifetime,” Riedel said. “If I can help someone else by airing my dirty laundry to illustrate a point, I’ll do it. I’ve gotten some great feedback. More than one person has told me, ‘You saved my marriage’ or ‘I am a better father’,” Riedel said.
Riedel individually scores each MBTI he administers and then follows-up with a written personality profile that explains to the participant what their results mean and how they can apply those results to their life.
The Coast Guard uses a personality assessment, the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator, as a tool to teach its members about their personality types so they can learn how they may be perceived and how they can communicate better.
“Being a good shipmate begins when we better understand ourselves,” said Riedel.
Members of the Coast Guard encounter numerous personality types throughout their career. Whether conducting a fishing vessel boarding or living aboard a ship for weeks at a time, Coastguardsmen can benefit from taking the MBTI, said Riedel.
The more effectively people communicate with one another, the better the function as a team, ultimately improving performance,” said Joellen Mitchell, a performance analyst for the Coast Guard and a MBTI participant.
The MBTI personality assessment was originally designed for women entering the work force to replace the men who had joined the military during World War II, said Riedel.
“Their goal was to ‘best place’ the women (in job fields), based on their potential skill and innate interests,” said Riedel.
Katharine Cook Briggs and her daughter Isabel Briggs Myers created the MBTI in the 1940’s. Their research was based on Carl Jung’s theories about personality published in the 1920’s. Jung was a Swiss psychiatrist who founded analytical psychology, focusing on underlying motivations for behavior.
The MBTI continued to be improved and modified over the next twenty years to become the instrument commonly used today to help subjects better understand how their internal motivations may contrast with external perceptions of their behavior.
The MBTI is a tool used to identify elements of the subjects’ personality type based on their responses to a set of questions. The MBTI consists of 93 questions containing words or phrases and the subject chooses which words they identify with most.
“I was hoping to understand myself better and to get some insight into how others might perceive me, based on my personality type,” said Mitchell. “After the test, I have stronger self-awareness and better understanding of why I have a tendency to say and do certain things.”
Mitchell learned that when she interacts with others and is really passionate about the topic, the tone of her voice and her body language could be misinterpreted as angry rather than excited.
Mitchell said that learning about this possible misperception has helped her to be more aware when she is interacting with others.
Riedel had been administering the MBTI throughout the Coast Guard for about a year. He uses his personal life and his more than 23 years in the Coast Guard as a reference and an example of how the test results can be applied to everyday life.
“Believe me, I’ve made some mistakes over my lifetime,” Riedel said. “If I can help someone else by airing my dirty laundry to illustrate a point, I’ll do it. I’ve gotten some great feedback. More than one person has told me, ‘You saved my marriage’ or ‘I am a better father’,” Riedel said.
Riedel individually scores each MBTI he administers and then follows-up with a written personality profile that explains to the participant what their results mean and how they can apply those results to their life.
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Riedel said he sits down with participants to give them personal feedback about their MBTI results. He also addresses which other personalities may conflict with and how to avoid that conflict.
“I enjoy seeing the proverbial light bulb go off in someone’s mind and they say ‘Oh, that makes sense’ or ‘Yes, now I understand’,” said Riedel. “Self-awareness is a great thing.”
The insight gained from the MBTI can be useful for Coastguardsmen, both on the job and in their personal lives, said Mitchell.
“The better you understand yourself, what motivates you and why you react the way you do, then the better equipped you are to modify your communication to defuse a potentially hostile or sensitive situation,” said Mitchell.
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