OMG! Your MBTI is ENTJ, too?

Confused by this post's title? Let me start by stating a hard and fast fact about professionals in the field of student affairs: we love acronyms. There's no denying it... Any program, group, meeting we can rename using 3 or more letters is like word gold.

The only thing we love as much as acronyms: typologies. Whoa, hold up.... What the heck, as us Utahans adore saying, is a typology? Let me use the acronyms in this post's title to explain.

The first is Oh My God. If you didn't get that you haven't interacted with teenager in the last 5 years, which I highly recommend. There is no better way to gain perspective on life than talking to someone in junior high...

MBTI is the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator. The MBTI measures four inherent preferences: where attention is focused, how information is received, how decisions are made and the method for dealing with the outer world. The second 4-letter acronym describes my results of the MBTI Indicator.

E = Extroverted (You're shocked. Richel? An extrovert?)

I focus my attention best on contact with others, social interactions versus someone who show preference for introversion who like to reflect internally on the outside world

N = Intuition

I use intuition to receive my information rather than those that are sensing and use their five senses to gather knowledge.

T = Thinking

Thinkers, like myself, use logic and reason to make decisions whereas feelers make emotionally-based decisions

J = Judging

I know where you're thinking... Judging? No one likes a judger! That's not really what this letter means. Judgers deal with the outside world by planning things but perceivers are more 'go with the flow' types.

Knowing your MBTI types, and those of the people you work/live/play with can help you in a variety of ways.... I use my MBTI to display my strengths and also work on my weaknesses. Because I am a big time J, I love to plan and organize everything... That isn't always possible in our fast-paced field! Each event I help with I try to assess, after the fact, how adaptable I was to each unplanned or surprise component and then brainstorm ways I could have done better.

Back to the original point.... We loooooove acronyms and typologies which means I probably have/will use them inadvertently in this blog or conversations. Solution? Check out my 'Vocab Key' page... For the non-student affairs readers and newbies alike. I am also considering a typology page with all my types but that may be TMI... Ha!

I am on-call starting Monday so stay tuned for stories from the front lines! Here's to hoping no live animals are discovered in the Halls...

R.