HIS IS THE LAST OF A SERIES of four articles exploring personality type as measured by the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator, and the impact personality plays in workplace interactions. We began with an identification of our energy source: introverts, who are energized by concepts, ideas, thoughts, and extroverts, who are energized by people and the world around them. Next we discussed the information-gathering function: sensing, a preference for focusing on facts and details, and intuitive, a preference for the figurative the big picture. Last month we identified the decision-making function: thinking, for those who prefer to be logical, detached and analytical, and feeling, for those who prefer interpersonal involvement with emphasis on decisions that promote harmony. We will now discuss the last preference as measured by the MBTI—our lifestyle orientation.

Judgers and perceivers

Judgers tend to create an environment that is structured, scheduled, ordered, planned and controlled. They are decisive, deliberate and able to make decisions with a minimum of stress. Judgers plan their work and work their plan. They tend to lead organized lives, have organized desks, files, homes, cars, etc. It is not unusual for the strong Judgers to be organized down to the money in their wallets—with the bills in descending order and all the faces on the bills facing the same way!

Perceivers, however, create an environment that is flexible, spontaneous, adaptive and responsive. They tend to keep collecting new information rather than making decisions. Perceivers usually have offices that look chaotic to the Judger. There may be piles of work, pencils and pens in disarray, books on the bookshelf in haphazard order—but to the Perceiver, this is not a problem. They know where everything is—it just takes a few minutes to locate it.

Hard to hide

The judging and perceiving preferences are the hardest to disguise. They are also the easiest of the preferences to detect, and they're noticed at an early age. Recently while waiting in line at the post office, I noticed a mother and her young daughter. While we were standing in line, the young child walked over to a poster that was hanging on the wall at an angle and straightened it! The fact that it was crooked bothered this young Judger-in-the-making.

As adults, we become somewhat more flexible than Judger and Perceiver children, yet this preference can create havoc in the workplace. Judgers finish the work on time and meet deadlines; Perceivers tend to take on more assignments than they can possibly accomplish and frequently miss deadlines, especially if they don't understand why it is important to have a task completed by a certain date.

Judgers tend to make snap judgments and decisions, sometimes without the necessary information. Perceivers, on the other hand tend to procrastinate and postpone decisions as long as possible. Judgers drive Perceivers up the wall with their continual need to have an opinion, a plan and a schedule for almost everything. Perceivers irritate Judgers with their constant changes, last-minute completion of projects (which are usually just as good as if they had been planned for months), and their easygoing nature.

Here's a story we tell in workshops to illustrate the persistence of Judgers: During a flash flood, a young boy is sitting in his house watching everything wash down the street—with the exception of a red hat, which gets to the corner of the house, turns around, and continues to come back and forth, back and forth. He shouts for his mother to come and see. The mother looks and responds, "Relax, dear, that's your father. He said he would cut the grass today, come hell or high water!"

Keep in mind that there are no right or wrong personality types, and we need both judgers and perceivers. Judgers need Perceivers to provide alternatives, and to add spontaneity and flexibility to life and work. Perceivers need Judgers to make decisions, outline the necessary plans and create the follow-through process needed on projects. The best-run workplace mixes both types—and doesn't let them drive each other crazy in the process!