Myers Briggs and Your Boss

How Feeling and Thinking MBTI types can clash at work

© Joni Rose

Mar 28, 2007

You’re a Feeler and your boss is a Thinker or vice versa. You do not see eye to eye on anything. Learn how to cope.


When I work with supervisors and their staff, I often see clashes that can be traced back to a difference in Myers Briggs Type Indicators (MBTI). The differences in personality types can cause misunderstandings as people tend to want their boss or subordinates to be like themselves. Learning to appreciate the difference by understanding the personality traits of your opposites can make a world of difference in corporate climates.

Problems often arise when T or Thinking and F or Feeling types work together. If you have a feeler for a boss, and you are a T or Thinker, you’ll be frustrated by their lack of concern for results in the form of concrete stats. They’ll be too busy giving you the warm and fuzzy appreciation that you feel is a waste of time and energy. You’d much rather they got down to work and made some practical changes. You also wish they’d fire the under performers and stop letting their feelings get in the way of the job getting done. You may argue with your boss or at least find yourself in long debates.

If you have a thinker for a boss and you are a feeler, you’ll feel upset by their cold approach to things and lack of words of appreciation and encouragement. You believe that they don’t care how you feel and your job satisfaction is unimportant to them. You take their words personally and their candid approach can be hard to take. They seem to focus on all the flaws in your work or in a process.

Learning to understand that your feeling boss is great at motivating and encouraging team work and generally making the climate peaceful and calm may help you appreciate them more. Understanding that your thinking boss is stat conscious and can bring resources your way by supplying positive stats to the powers that be, may make you see them in a different light.

If you have comments or suggestions on this blog entry, please start a discussion

If you liked this blog entry, try:

Feelers and Thinkers at Work

Sensors and Intuitives at Work

Extroverts and Introverts at Work

Myers Briggs and Career Training

In Praise of Introverts

Copyright © 2007 Joni Rose and Suite 101. All rights reserved. Any unauthorized use will constitute an infringement of copyright.


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