Quick Guide to the 16 Personality Types and Teams: Applying Team Essentials to Create Effective Teams

As individuals, we are each complex and adaptable, and one’s behavior may not reflect natural preferences but rather the demands of the situation and the ways one has developed. This Quick Guide to the 16 Personality Types and Teams is a booklet for those who want to maximize the performance of their team through a better understanding of the interrelated influences on team dynamics and team success. It is written to help create a multidimensional awareness of one’s contributions to a team and to give readers the tools to understand the talents, contributions, and perspectives of others.

This booklet describes the sixteen personality types within each of the Team Essentials™, including how they are likely to behave on a team, and offers suggestions for forging relationships and communicating effectively with each type. Worksheets are provided to help your team apply the basics of effective teamwork—Team Essentials™. Mapping the Team worksheets are provided to view team diversity using four different models: Type Preferences, Temperament, Interaction Styles, and Cognitive Dynamics. The booklet includes a comprehensive case study for each model, using an example of a project team to help teams get started.

Linda V. Berens, Ph.D.
Linda V. Berens is the director and founder of Interstrength® Associates (formerly Temperament Research Institute and TRI), which provides organizational consulting and interventions as well as certification of trainers in the Interstrength® Method. She has qualified thousands of professionals to administer and interpret the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator® instrument, the most widely used personality instrument in the world. Linda is an adjunct faculty member in the Organizational Leadership program at Chapman University and has spent over twenty-five years helping individuals and teams recognize their strengths, transcend their weaknesses, and work together better. Linda is recognized internationally for her theoretical contributions to the field of psychological type and for developing user-friendly training materials for practical application of understanding individual differences.

Linda K. Ernst, M.S.
Linda Ernst is President of Training Resource, an independently owned training and consulting company. Since 1983, she has conducted hundreds of custom designed in-house workshops for a wide range of industrial and organizational clients. She has experience designing and facilitating workshops using the MBTI for personal development, management development, team building, and for trainers. Linda is a co-author of The Guide for Facilitating The Self-Discovery Process(R). Linda has extensive preparation in adult learning theory, workshop presentation methods and instructional design. As an instructional design consultant, she has helped organizations develop courses in topics that include leadership development, quality improvement, and communication skills for managers, consulting skills for trainers, and using type dynamics to facilitate teams.

Melissa A. Smith, M.B.A.
Melissa Smith is a consultant and trainer specializing in management and organization development. She has designed and delivered numerous skill and management development programs, coached executives to improve group process and personal skills, and assisted organizations in planning and implementing culture changes. A skilled professional development trainer, Melissa has extensive experience designing and facilitating workshops using MBTI. Her methodology, which is based on action learning principles, is designed uniquely for each client and is tailored for a specific purpose and output. She co-authored The Guide for Facilitating The Self-Discovery Process(R) and is a master trainer of trainers.