Further into our hour-long sitdown with Dr. Nick Grant, after we sorted through the basic fundamentals of the Myers Briggs Type Indicator test, we got into some of the heavy stuff about how your personality type figures into everyday interactions and business success.
For instance, Nick revealed to us that the sequence of letters in a person’s MB type can also serve as the key to an effective sales sequence. Introverts and extroverts have a pretty predictable split with how they react to high-touch, energetic sales pitches compared to more low-key and reserved sellers. And for the judging versus perceiving types, there’s going to be a hard split between completing the deal exactly as it was expected with no “one last thing” questions or details (the sales dynamic preferred by J types) compared to P types who are always open to new possibilities and options, and thrive on an elongated sales interaction.
When OMB host Ray Seggern and Nick turned to the topic of small businesses and how the personality types play into family businesses, he said there’s often a delicate and tricky dance when it comes to the transition between generations for long-established companies.
That’s because adding a business component to the parent/child dynamic can create a dual relationship where the participants can become “boxed in” by trying to serve two competing roles or interests.
As much as possible, he said, the family and business roles need to stat separate and be rigidly defined to minimize misunderstandings.
Another common problem small business entrepreneurs frequently face is overcoming “imposter syndrome,” which often results from feeling like we don’t meet the expectations hard wired into us by parents, teachers and other authority figures early on in life. Nick said that as we grow those outdated expectations lose their relevance, and the question of letting go of that baggage to embrace a new value system can create feelings of being phoney or inauthentic. The truth is, it’s those limitations and imperfections that make us real human beings, and being comfortable with the unique person you’ve become is essential to connecting with customers and other business people.
“When things get stressful our ancestors show up whether we like this or not,” he said. “You get downloaded with your parents’ reactions from before you were born.”