by Beth Miller

Created on: October 17, 2009

Myers Briggs- Identifying Type through Emails and Voice Mails

In our high tech world, often we never meet the people we work with face to face. The majority of our interaction is over the internet or phone line. Without the ability to see a person's body language and facial expressions we loose up to 60% of the meaning of a communication between two people.

Non-verbal cues are as or more important than verbal cues. The subtle circumstances surrounding how we say things may matter more than what we say. Malcom Gladwell, The Tipping Point

Understanding personality types using Myers Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI) can help to enhance communications especially in situations where body language can't be observed.

In our January/February 2009 e-newsletter, we provide a high level overview of the four preference pairs in the MBTI. Below is a reminder to those who are new to MBTI:

E/I Preference:

Extraversion (E), are those who prefer to focus on the outer world of people and activities, or

Introversion (I), are those who prefer to focus on their inner world of ideas and experiences.

S/N Preference:

Sensing (S), are those who prefer to absorb facts and data that are real and tangible. They tend to focus on the past and present.

Intuition (N), are those who prefer to absorb information by seeing the big picture, focusing on relationships and connections between facts. They tend to focus on the future.

T/F Preference:

Thinking (T), are those who prefer to look at the logical consequences of a choice or action. They are more objective than subjective.

Feeling (F), like to consider what is important to them and to others involved. They are more subjective than objective.

J/P Preference:

Judging (J), are those who prefer to like to live in a planned, scheduled, and orderly way, seeking to manage and organize their lives.

Perceiving (P), are those who prefer to live in a flexible, spontaneous way, seeking to experience and understand life, rather than control it.

Now how do you identify the type you are communicating with in an email or voice mail and modify what we write and say to adapt to the language preferred by the person receiving the message?

Tips to Identifying Type in Emails and Voice Mails

In emails, notice the length, punctuation, words, ideas, and data. And voice mails, listen for lots of tonal inflection and excitement

You are communicating with an E if:

the email contains a lot of explanation points, a lot of words, run on sentences, and

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