I joined Morgan McKinley five months ago, with over 12 years' IT recruitment experience.
This is a company that has been on my radar for some time now as it is a well-known leader within recruitment and a business that invest in developing talent.
In September I was invited to partake in a 12 month Development Programme for senior consultants. This programme is designed to develop senior consultants and provide us with the relevant tools and knowledge to support us on our journey of becoming future leaders.
I was excited to attend the first masterclass of the programme: Your Personality Type (MBTI). This session focused on the Myers–Briggs personality type - a self-report indicator that gives us an insight to how we perceive the world and how we make decisions both on a personal and professional level.
Initially this sounded daunting and a little like a test but it was actually a lot of fun - especially when you are doing this in a group setting. I am normally very good at judging people but I have to say during the course of the day I was totally thrown off and really surprised by some of my colleague’s preferences. The purpose of this masterclass was to allow us to get a better understanding of why we do what we do and to highlight the importance of adapting our style to effectively communicate, engage and build long term relationships.
What I discovered as part of this masterclass is that I am an ESFP – Extroverted Sensing with Introverted Feeling!
Basically this means I am a lover of life, living in the present finding enjoyment in people, food, clothes, animals and activities. Would I disagree with this? No. In fact it is scary how accurate it is. If you are like me you will find yourself making decisions based on your personal values. We are interested in people and new experiences, we actually learn more from doing rather than studying therefore we have a tendency to jump into things.
What I learnt…..
The importance of adapting my style to build long-term relationships - I am an extrovert and like to be spontaneous and make quick decisions however an introvert likes to take time to reflect and make a decisions based on careful reasoning.
It’s important to connect and engage with individuals to understand what motivates them. Recognising this will help build better long term relationships with our contacts. I know I recognise my strengths and realise the importance of investing time in further developing these rather than focussing on my weaknesses. For example as I am a “P” (perceiving) ,I’m excited and open to try new things and new ways of working. By being aware of this I need to make sure I stretch myself and get involved in driving business initiatives where possible as I can add value. I also need to be mindful of not taking too much on and over-committing my time.
I hope you found these takeaways useful. MBTI is a great tool and a fun way to explore your personality type with your peers. I am already looking forward to attending our next masterclass on the resilient performer so stay tuned for further blogs!
If you are interested in hearing more about opportunities within Morgan McKinley please contact Michelle Donohoe at mdonohoe@morganmckinley.ie.