Today on The Bigg Success Show, we continued our conversation with Paul Tieger, who is an expert on personality types, creator of PersonalityType, and author of the best-selling book “Do What You Are”. Last time, we discussed how personality types can help you understand who you are and see your natural strengths and blind spots. Now let’s get back to the conversation …

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 Hear Paul talk with George & Mary-Lynn on The Bigg Success Show! Click the purple player to listen while you read: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

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Now Paul, George and I both took your free assessment. Then I went ahead and paid for the full complete profile. So I have my Career Profile here. When I look at the career paths that would make me happy, they all make sense because they’re in line with my natural preferences. I like how you list what my weaknesses are – those blind spots for which I need to be on the lookout. Again as I’m reading through it, I’m shaking my head in agreement.

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This report has your work-related strengths and your possible weaknesses. Another piece that’s very important is your career satisfiers. There’s a list of ten career satisfiers for each type. These are the things you need in a career to be juiced by it. The report never says that this is 100 percent true for you. What it does is say, “Okay, out of these ten things, which is most true for you?” You might find five of those things as most important, but knowing that is very helpful when it comes time to evaluate one job versus another.

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And even if you’re feeling a sense of dissatisfaction with where you are, to be able to look at this and say, “Well, that’s why. I don’t have this going on or I don’t have that.” I think this is so timely right now, especially as people are losing their jobs and being forced to find something new.

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You raise a great point because a lot of the jobs that people have now are never coming back. So even if it’s a job you love and even when the economy turns around, that opportunity may not be around in any company. So in this report, we give you many categories – probably about seventy or eighty jobs – that you can look at and say, “That’s something I never thought of before.” But they’re all things that are going to make sense to you based on the research we’ve done over many years. The other piece, that I’m really proud of and that really resonates with people, is that this report helps people approach a job search using their strengths and blind spots. I’m not a fan of generic advice. Everybody says in the career world that you have to go network. That’s true, but networking is a natural activity for extroverts but not for introverts. So we give introverts things to do that work much better for them. It’s a real customized approach to career counseling.

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Now Paul, I’d like to take our conversation in a different direction. Mary-Lynn’s an ESFP (Extrovert, Sensor, Feeler, Perceiver) and I’m an INTP (Introvert, iNtuitive, Thinker, Perceiver). Now is there any hope at all for us working and living together? The question really is – does this help you fill in gaps on your team if you’re a leader?

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Absolutely. My core business is called Speed Reading People. It’s a company that travels around the world training leaders – how to lead and manage – and sales people – how to sell and influence. We offer very prescriptive and practical advice about how to approach a person based on personality type. For example, if you are an INTP, you’re much more theoretical than Mary-Lynn is and you like to make connections. That was very clear to me from your first question. You weren’t talking about what is; you were talking about what might be. You were connecting and linking ideas. That’s what intuitive people do. So if I was talking to you about something and I said, “Let me tell you about my product.” If I gave you every detail that was on my spec sheet, your eyes would close and you would start to doze off within five or six seconds. Because that’s not what you want to know. You want to know the high concept. You want to know why it works and how you can apply it. So if I know that about you, that’s what I’m going to talk about. On the other hand, if I was talking to a very strong sensing type who really did want to know about all that stuff, then I would march them through the facts, the specifics, why it’s worked and where it’s worked in the past. It’s really about speaking the other person’s language. So that’s what speed reading people allows you to do.

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That’s really awesome. Especially since today, we have four generations in the workforce. As their leader, you have to get down to that individual level and relate to them one-on-one.

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We didn’t really touch on this … what is your definition of speed reading people, Paul?

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Speed reading people is quickly understanding a person’s core values and motivations based on observable clues like their demeanor, energy level, vocabulary, and body language. The goal is speed reaching people – understanding how to communicate with that person on their level. I just gave an example of this based on the detail-person versus the high-concept person. People are motivated by different things. If you, Mary-Lynn, are a feeling-type and George is a thinking-type, then you’re motivated by very different things. If you do a good job, Mary-Lynn, and I thank you and tell you how much I appreciate it, that’s going to mean something to you. What will make George happy is telling him that his brilliant idea really helped move the ball forward. In other words, people like to be reinforced for what their gifts are. The gift of an ESFP is somebody who is helpful in practical ways. That’s what they want to be reinforced for. It’s very powerful. I’ve been doing this for over 25 years and I still have insights every day.

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We can’t let you go without finding out what personality type you are.

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That’s way too personal! I’m an Extrovert – Intuitive – Feeling – Perceiving type. So you and I, Mary-Lynn, are similar in Extrovert, Feeling and Perceiving. People connect on dimensions with which they’re similar. That’s why the more similar people are, the easier the communication. The more different, the more challenging the communication. I didn’t say they don’t have a shot; they can really balance themselves out very well but it’s more challenging. So that’s my type and it’s really kind of a very entrepreneurial, counseling, artsy kind of person. And that’s what I do in my life.

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No wonder it’s been so easy talking with you!

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I found it very challenging!

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I found you very challenging!

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Well, Paul, I have to say that out of all you’ve said, the thing I was most glad to hear was that you could give a quick definition of speed reading people!

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You did fantastic. Because if you can’t give a quick definition of speed reading people, then we’d have to start questioning you!

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You are such a perfect example of your type! Which you don’t like to hear, because you guys like to be independent. So you don’t like to hear that there’s anybody else out there like you, but there are. Well, not quite like you.

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Thank goodness for them!

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What is your personality type?

You can find out by taking the free Personality Type Assessement we discussed today.

*Special Offer: To get a 10% discount on your full career report, use promo code: biggsuccess

We thank Paul so much for sharing his time and wisdom with all of us. And we thank you for the gift of your time today.

Please join us next time when we’ll discuss celebrating others’ bigg success. Until then, here’s to your bigg success!

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(Image in today's post from PersonalityType.com)