Should my client retake the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator?

People often ask this question when their client self-selects a Myers-Briggs Type Code that differs from the one that was reported on the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator.

The answer is No. It is not necessary to retake the MBTI®.

Why not? Wouldn’t they then get an official, perhaps computer-generated report, that proves that it is their type? Not necessarily. And what’s the point anyway?

The goal is for them to identify their type. You can help them confirm their type by guiding the client through a self-selection process and then confirming type by reading any number of excellent type description booklets out there.

The Myers-Briggs Type Indicator® is exactly what it’s name says it is. An indicator. It indicates that the reported type code is one contender for the individual’s best-fit type. It is your job to help them determine best-fit through a combination of conversation, exploration, and the reported type. Once the fit is identified, there is no need to retake the MBTI.

Reasons why reported type may not be best-fit type:


  • The MBTI was administered incorrectly. Perhaps the client was directed to think about the work context when answering the items. Instead, the client should take the MBTI with the mindset that there are no external expectations imposed. The client would answer in ways that are “true to you” or “your shoes-off self”.

  • The client falsified the answered. Why? Perhaps the company or manager were known to give preferential treatment or recognition to those with particular preferences. It would not be difficult to figure out what the answers were that would be “acceptable” to those in power.

  • The client is regularly called on to use the skills associated with a preference at work or other contexts. He chooses the answer on the instrument that corresponds with what’s top of mind or what his current work calls for. It may not be his innate preference.

  • The client is developing another cognitive process. Theory would hold that as one approaches age 12, 21, 35 he is naturally drawn to explore a yet undeveloped process. So at 21 an ESTP (Se, Ti, Fe, Ni, etc.) would be encountering his 3rd function Fe. He may begin to notice what another person needs to be content and seek to satisfy that need. Or he may begin to say thanks more often or give positive feedback.

  • He is playing with building skills in that preference since some part of his life demands it. For instance, his innate preference is Feeling, but he is required to use Thinking preference when making decisions that affect his down-line at work. See previous article on that issue.

  • The client answered the MBTI® items when rushed, ill, stressed, distracted, or disinclined.

  • There is no such thing as an measurement-error free instrument. Despite the rigorous reliability and validity tests that the MBTI® has passed with flying colors, it is not perfect.

  • It is imperative and ethical to help your client self-select his preferences before you give him his MBTI® results.


Suggestions to guide client’s self-selection process

  • Walk your client through the preference choices.

  • Define preferences and cognitive processes accurately

  • Describe the differences within each dichotomy (E-I, S-N, T-F, J-P) using unbiased positive language.

  • Provide real world positive examples.

  • Ask open-ended questions to surface the client’s understanding, usage, comfort level with, and satisfaction when using that preference.

  • When your client provides an real life example, describe what preference or cognitive process it is consistent with.

  • Learn other models that will help you help your client to identify type. Consider Personality Dimensions a newly developed version of Temperament and “Interaction Styles”:http://www.megellis.com/index.php?id=15.

  • Deepen your understanding of type development, type dynamics, the role of the inferior function.

  • Do not tell what you think best-fit type is. Let your hypothesis guide your questions. It’s a discovery process.

  • Only the client may determine best-fit type code.

Meg Ellis Executive Coaching, Myers-Briggs Type Theory



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