Understanding the MBTI
Before using the MBTI in a coaching or leadership practice, it helps to understand exactly what it is and how it works. The MBTI is a psychometric questionnaire designed to measure psychological preferences in how people take in information and make decisions — not to measure skill, intelligence, or fitness for a role. It was created by Katharine Cook Briggs and her daughter Isabel Briggs Myers, building on the typological theories first proposed by Carl Jung. Sixteen personality types emerge from four dichotomies covering how a person directs energy, gathers information, makes decisions and approaches structure — a framework coaches can use as a shared, non-judgemental language for discussing behaviour.
Carl Jung's research
Jung identified four psychological functions — sensing, intuition, thinking and feeling — each experienced in either an extraverted or introverted form, giving eight distinct preferences in total. Applied in coaching, the MBTI provides an insightful way of understanding a client's personality type, and the reasoning behind decisions that might otherwise seem puzzling. Having a client complete an official MBTI assessment, ideally administered by a certified practitioner, gives you a structured starting point for a conversation about their preferences, blind spots and natural strengths — insight you can then use to adapt your pacing and language to how that individual actually processes information, rather than relying on a generic coaching template.
Applying the MBTI in Coaching
In business organisations, the MBTI can be used as an executive coaching tool to support managers in several concrete ways. It can help them build genuine self-awareness, understand their default leadership style under pressure, improve how they communicate with colleagues who think differently from them, and reduce the stress that comes from repeatedly clashing with people whose preferences differ from their own. A manager who understands that a direct report processes decisions through Feeling rather than Thinking, for instance, can adjust how they deliver feedback — leading to fewer misunderstandings and a more productive working relationship.
The MBTI can also help identify potential areas for growth and development. If a colleague is an introverted thinking type, for example, they might excel at logical, structured decision-making but struggle to notice and manage their own emotions, or to read the emotional undercurrents in a team meeting. Naming this pattern explicitly, without treating it as a flaw, gives coach and client a concrete, non-judgemental starting point for development — whether that means building emotional vocabulary, practising active listening, or simply pausing before responding in emotionally charged conversations.
The MBTI and Leadership Development
The Myers-Briggs Type Indicator can also play a vital role in leadership development more broadly. Understanding one's personality type helps leaders identify their default leadership style, recognise how that style lands with different team members, and notice the specific situations — a tight deadline, an unexpected conflict, an ambiguous brief — where their natural preferences might work against them rather than for them. That awareness is often the first real step towards more deliberate, adaptable leadership.
A leader who is a "Thinking" type, for example, tends to be highly rational and logical in their decision-making, weighing options against clear criteria and moving quickly once the facts are in. A "Feeling" type leader, by contrast, weighs decisions more heavily against personal values and impact on people — sometimes taking longer to decide, but building stronger buy-in along the way. Neither approach is superior; each carries real strengths and real blind spots. Understanding these preferences lets leaders lean into their natural strengths while consciously working on the gaps their type tends to leave — a Thinking-type leader, for example, deliberately checking in on team morale before announcing a decision. Because self-interpreting MBTI results can be unreliable, we strongly recommend seeking guidance from a MBTI practitioner.
Leveraging the MBTI for Team Contribution
The MBTI is also an effective tool for maximising team contribution as a whole. By gaining insight into each team member's personality type, leaders and coaches can assign roles and tasks that align with natural preferences and strengths, rather than forcing everyone into the same working style. This doesn't mean pigeonholing people into fixed roles permanently — it means starting from a more accurate picture of how each person actually works best, then building projects and meetings around that reality.
Individuals with a preference for "Sensing", for instance, are typically detail-oriented and practical, and often excel in roles demanding meticulous attention to detail and a hands-on approach — quality control, operations or implementation, for example. "Intuitive" types, by contrast, are usually big-picture thinkers who thrive in roles involving strategy development, innovation and long-range planning. A well-balanced team usually needs both: the Intuitive types to spot the opportunity, and the Sensing types to work out exactly how to deliver it. Recognising this complementarity, rather than favouring one style over the other, is often what separates a genuinely effective team from a merely busy one.
Other publications on the same topic
- 16 Personality Types Test
- How to choose an MBTI Consultant
- Team building activities with MBTI
- MBTI for team building: a few tips
- Myers Briggs Type Indicator: MBTI Characters
- Myers-Briggs Type Indicator: What Does Introvert Mean
- Myers-Briggs Type Indicator: MBTI Chemistry
- Rare Personality Type: MBTI
- The MBTI Test
This article was written by Marc Prager.