Nelson Mandela, Mother Teresa, ...Ryan Lamb?

Thirty minutes ago I thought leadership inventories were stupid.... Okay, maybe that is a little harsh. My problem with these tests are the binary responses. How can a piece of paper or a computer algorithm nail down the dynamic facets of my personality with 70 yes or no questions? It just doesn't seem right. There just is no room for shades of gray when taking a test like the Myers Briggs. What if my answer isn't "yes," but instead "maybe," or "it depends?" 

So back to thirty minutes ago, I sit down to take the Myers Briggs for a business ethics class that I am enrolled in at Fisher and per usual I am unimpressed by the parade of yes or no questions on my computer screen. Then I hit "score it" and guess what!

The first sentence in my description begins "Beneath that quiet exterior..." ERRRRR. Wrong. You are the weakest link, goodbye.

Quiet is about the last word anyone who knows me would throw out as a descriptor. The little people inside the microprocessor of my computer really should consider refusing to process leadership inventories. Honestly, it's a waste of space on the internet. 

But analyzing the results is part of an assignment and so I must continue soldiering on. 

Apparently I am an INFJ. Whatever that means. 

The results tell me that I am similar to Nelson Mandela and Mother Teresa. I guess that is sort of cool.

"Strongly humanitarian in outlook." - Okay that does sound a bit more like me. Helping others is one of the most important pillars of my value system.

"INFJs [take] a disproportionate amount of responsibility in the various causes to which so many of them seem to be drawn" - Can I get an Amen?

"They are, in fact, sometimes mistaken for extroverts because they appear so outgoing and are so genuinely interested in people." - Okay now this is interesting. Tell me more. 

"On the contrary, INFJs are true introverts, who can only be emotionally intimate and fulfilled with a chosen few from among their long-term friends, family, or obvious 'soul mates.'" - Holy Brutus Buckeye, did I just learn something about myself?

So I stop here to reflect on what is actually a pretty ground shattering revelation. According to the analysis of my Myers Briggs, I'm not actually an extrovert. This is pretty shocking stuff. My entire life I have pretty much always considered myself an extrovert. I am always one of the loudest of my friends. I am a goofball. I love to talk. No seriously, I LOVE TO TALK. I love it so much that I don't even stop talking when I go to bed at night. Ask my brothers, my parents, or my roommates. 

But here is the deal, here is something that I haven't always understood about myself: After the day is through and my work is done, nothing makes me happier than to sit down and read a book or watch the latest episode of Survivor (yes I still watch, and you should be watching too). On the weekends nothing makes me groan more than the mention of going to a house party where I know a grand total of five people. Talk about awkward. That's not exactly extroverted I suppose. 

So what Myers Briggs says on the subject is that I am actually a giver. I want to help people and I am sincerely interested in how others are doing. Relationships are incredibly important to me. This is all a part of the "Feeling" aspect of my personality. However, at the end of the day, or the week, I need a break from people. I need to unwind in my own world. 

I guess after all this what I have to say is that...maybe...leadership inventories don't really suck. Sure they are flawed. But thanks to a series of seventy yes or no questions I just figured out something about myself that I have been trying to understand for years.

That's kind of cool.

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The same league, eh? You can take the Myers Briggs test here and find out which future saint or anti-apartheid activist you are most like.