The personality test, 16 personality types

Forget standard results. We translate your personality type (MBTI, Big Five, 16personalities) into tough career strategies for managers.

We will not only show you, like You are - but how you use this knowledge to survive on the job.

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Professional diagnostics instead of an internet horoscope

Hand on heart: The free „16 Personalities“ test is a good icebreaker. But would you base your business strategy on a free tool? No. Then why build your own career?

Why the standard test is not enough for executives:

• Pigeonhole thinking: It squeezes complex people into 16 rigid boxes. However, the reality of a manager is dynamic.
• Lack of depth: He tells you, like They are, but not what drives you (your motives).
• Scientific weakness: In academic psychology, the MBTI is considered outdated. The gold standard is the Big Five model.

The 16 personality types in the executive context

Each type brings specific strengths and risks to the boardroom or management:

• ISTJ (The Logistician): The rock in the surf. Structured, fact-based, extremely reliable. Risk: Often blocks agile change processes by sticking too closely to the rules.
• ISFJ (The Defender): The loyal integrator. Keeps teams together during mergers. Risk: Avoids tough, unpopular decisions.
• INFJ (The Advocate): The value-based visionary. Leads with absolute integrity. Risk: Can burn out in highly political, toxic environments.
• INTJ (The Architect): The cool strategist. Analytically brilliant, sees the big picture. Risk: Often comes across as arrogant or unapproachable to emotional teams.
• ISTP (The Virtuoso): The crisis manager. Runs into top form when the going gets tough. Risk: Quickly loses motivation in quiet day-to-day business.
• ISFP (The Adventurer): The flexible adaptor. Very good sense for moods in the team. Risk: Shy of conflict in tough negotiations.
• INFP (The Mediator): The Purpose-Driver. Leads through purpose and culture. Risk: struggles with hard KPIs and redundancies.
• INTP (The Logician): The system thinker. Recognizes errors in every business plan. Risk: Gets lost in analysis (analysis paralysis) instead of implementation.
• ESTP (The Entrepreneur): The deal maker. Loves risk, excellent in negotiations. Risk: Often ignores compliance and long-term risks.
• ESFP (The Entertainer): The networker. Charismatic, gets employees involved. Risk: Lack of controlling and lack of focus on details.
• ENFP (The Campaigner): The change manager. Inspires the masses for new visions. Risk: Starts 100 projects, but only completes a few.
• ENTP (The Debater): The innovation driver. Radically challenges the status quo. Risk: Wears down his team through constant discussions of principles.
• ESTJ (The Director): The implementer. Ensures iron discipline and clear processes. Risk: Micromanagement and lack of empathy.
• ESFJ (The Consul): The team player. Builds strong, loyal networks. Risk: Often gets passed over by louder types in promotion rounds.
• ENFJ (The protagonist): The charismatic leader. Develops high-performance teams. Risk: Often takes criticism of his strategy too personally.
• ENTJ (The Commander): A born CEO. Focus on maximum efficiency and growth. Risk: Runs over employees and ignores warning signals from the team.

Do you already know your type? Get the executive dossier

Have you already taken the free online test and know that you are an INTJ, ENFP or ESTJ, for example? Use this knowledge strategically for your career now - with a Executive Coaching in Frankfurt, that builds on your personality profile.

Ask for our Free leadership analysis for your personality type an. No general psychology, but hard-hitting business evaluation:

• Decision-making: How your type performs under high pressure.
• Power & Politics: Where your natural blind spots are in conflicts.
• Team dynamics: How to manage employees who are the exact opposite of you.

„See for yourself what you can expect: 33-page sample report with character analysis, motive structure, skills profile and specific recommendations for leadership, communication and negotiation.“

Your profile. Read by the elite

A test report is just paper. The crucial difference is, who evaluates it with you.

With us, mentors such as Heinrich von Pierer (Ex-Siemens CEO) or Urs Meier (FIFA) Your profile. We translate the psychological data into political strategy:

1. Power dynamics: How do you use your „high tolerance“ in tough negotiations without being eaten up?
2. Leadership: As a dominant „red type“, how do you manage a sensitive Gen-Z team?
3. Crisis resilience: What does your neuroticism score say about your stress resilience? More about Mental coaching

Background knowledge: The basics of the MBTI (Myers-Briggs)

For all those who want to delve deeper into the theory of the 16 types - regardless of our executive approach:

16 Personalities: clearly explained!

The 16 Personalities Test (NERIS Type Explorer®) is one of the world's most widely used online instruments for personality self-assessment. Participants answer a series of standardized statements in approximately ten minutes; participation is free and currently available in nearly fifty languages.

With more than 100 million completed tests, the platform provides an enormous data corpus that is continuously used for standardization and quality control.

Methodologically, the procedure combines two recognized concepts: the factor structure of the Big Five model and the dichotomous type logic according to Myers & Briggs.

The Big Five model describes personality along five continuous factors (openness, conscientiousness, extraversion, agreeableness, neuroticism) and provides graded levels rather than either-or categories.

The dichotomous type logic according to Myers & Briggs, by contrast, assigns answers to polar preferences (e.g. E vs. I) and condenses them into concise type codes. 16Personalities measures on a scale but communicates the results as types. The method thus combines differentiated measurement with high comprehensibility.

On this basis, five bipolar axes are formed, which are combined into 16 profiles (e.g. “INFJ-A”, “ESTP-T”):

o Energy (extraversion | introversion)
o Attention (intuition | sensory system)
o Decision (feeling | thinking)
o Lifestyle (Prospective | Planning)
o Identity (Assertive -A | Turbulent -T)

The resulting profiles combine recognisability with sufficient differentiation for practical interpretation. The developers explicitly position the test as an aid to reflection and communication, not as a diagnostic seal of quality.

Self-report methods are subject to response tendencies, situational influences and cultural factors. Results should therefore be regarded as probable patterns of preference.

When used correctly, the tool provides support Career counseling, team development or personal development Coaching, However, this presupposes that users contextualize typological statements and regularly compare them with real behavior.

MBTI: Den Myers-Briggs-Typenindikator besser verstehen

The Myers-Briggs Type Indicator analyzes how we process information, make decisions, and interact with others. It describes these personal tendencies in four categories, thus creating a picture of our thinking and behavior patterns.

From this we can conclude what motivates us or how we successfully interact with others.

The preference pairs, which represent opposing personality dimensions, can therefore be composed in different ways. This results in 16 different types.

Even though the test leaves no room for intermediate results, it is important to us to recognise that you cannot put a person in a box. Even within one type, everyone is a little different. The four categories are:

1. Energy source:
   • Extraversion (E)Focused on the outside world, loves social interactions and activities, draws energy from interacting with others.
   • Introversion (I)Focused on one's own inner life, prefers fewer but deeper interactions, draws energy from being alone.
2. Type of information processing:
   • Sensing (S)Prefers concrete information and details, is practice-oriented and focuses on the here and now.
   • Intuition (N)Prefers abstract information and patterns, is idea-oriented and future-oriented.
3. Decision making:
   • Thinking (T)Makes decisions on the basis of logic and objectivity, often guided by facts and analysis.
   • Feeling (F): Makes decisions based on values and personal convictions, often oriented towards harmony and relationships.
4. Lifestyle:
   • Judging (J)Prefers planning, structure and organization, likes clear decisions and a planned lifestyle.
   • Perceiving (P)Prefers flexibility, openness and spontaneous decisions, likes to keep options open.

A combination can then lead to ESFJ or INFP or all other types. Feel free to think about where you would classify yourself. The test will then serve as a mirror. 

16 Personalities: Are there alternatives? What can personality tests do?

Big Five (OCEAN model): Five basic dimensions of personality, including extraversion and neuroticism. This is our preferred tool in executive coaching (via LINC Profiler) as it is scientifically more precise than the MBTI.

DISG-Modell: A popular test in a professional context that divides behavioural styles into four areas (dominance, influence, steadiness, conscientiousness). It helps to reassess situations.

For private individuals, such tests can provide valuable insights into their own personality and interpersonal relationships.

Companies use them for team development, to define roles, overcome communication barriers, and improve collaboration.

Even when hiring a new employee, choosing the right person for the company is helpful. In coaching, it usually helps us to stimulate reflection.

It is a tool that the customer can use themselves.

It promotes self-awareness and gives us the opportunity for a new perspective. 

Big Five Personality Test against 16 personalities

The Big Five test is more scientifically sound and examines personality traits in greater detail. The MBTI, on the other hand, places more emphasis on personality types and is particularly easy to understand in everyday life. The Big Five is suitable for in-depth self-reflection, while the MBTI is better for quick orientation and practical application.

The Big Five test places greater emphasis on understanding and utilizing one's own characteristics in comparison to others. The MBTI test, on the other hand, categorizes you into a specific group and then provides you with all the necessary information about that group.

This way you get to know yourself in detail, but not the correspondence with other types and people. 

With MBTI you understand yourself and your type.

With Big 5 you recognize your place in the world and the connections that arise from it. 

MBTI test: what the four letters mean

The four letters stand for different trends:

• E/I for extraversion or introversion
• S/N for sensing (facts) or intuition
• T/F for Thinking or Feeling
• J/P for judging (structure) or perceiving (spontaneity)

These combinations form 16 unique personality types and show how we experience and react to the world. If you now look at these individually, you can gain further insights.

The test itself is based on the type theory of the Swiss psychoanalyst Carl Gustav Jung.

He included this in his work in 1921. Psychological types He presented his theory. He described two basic orientations of consciousness (extraversion and introversion). In addition, he mentioned four functions of thinking and feeling (thinking, feeling, sensing, and intuition).

He suggested that people have different psychological preferences in perception and decision-making that lead to recurring personality patterns. 

Katharine Cook Briggs and her daughter Isabel Briggs Myers wanted to turn this into a systematic questionnaire.

They had noticed that many people in their day chose a career path that did not suit their preferences at all. So they expanded on Jung’s theory to develop this very test. In 1943, Briggs and Myers published the first version of the MBTI. Today it is one of the best-known personality tests in the world.

It serves this purpose in a wide variety of contexts and thus helps people move forward.

The reliability of the test naturally depends on the honesty of your answers. The 16 different personality types are matched precisely to your answers. This helps you to understand your personality better.

Whether extroverted or introverted, practical, spontaneous and flexible, or sociable and charming – in the end, it is up to you what conclusions you draw. 16Personalities can help you with this and is available free of charge. 

With us, you will learn how to use this knowledge and apply it profitably.

We can advise you on the advantages of each test. We will also explain what your personality type means. There is no right or wrong. Acting in an adapted way is our motive – adapted, that is, to your unique personality. Would you like to find out more?

Are you facing a major challenge in life?

Don't know what to do next? You're welcome here. Book a free initial consultation now!

Background: the 16 Personalities test and the 16 personality types

The theoretical basis for many personality tests was laid by the psychologist Carl Gustav Jung. Later, Katharine Cook Briggs and her daughter Isabel Briggs Myers took up his typology and developed the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI) from it.

It divides people into 16 types. Whether you use the original or take the modern 16 Personalities test, the aim is usually to understand your own personality better.

Myers-Briggs, MBTI and the four basic dimensions: how your personality type is formed

A classic test examines your preferences in four basic dimensions. These determine your particular profile:

1. Extraversion vs. Introversion: Are you oriented towards the outside world or more inwards?
2. Sensing vs. Intuition: How do you process facts and information?
3. Thinking vs. Feeling: Do you decide more analytically or empathetically?
4. Judging vs. Perceiving: Do you prefer fixed structures or spontaneity?

The 16Personalities platform uses this basis, offers its service free of charge and adds a further scale to the model (Assertive | Turbulent).

In the end, every user is assigned to one of 16 types, similar to what the psychologist David Keirsey did.

From the MBTI test to 16 Personalities: what the type codes mean

Whether you take a free personality test or the original, the result is a type code. An ISTJ is considered particularly reliable, an INFJ visionary. An ENFP often contributes creative ideas and acts spontaneously and flexibly, while an INTP gets to the bottom of systems and an ENTJ naturally takes the lead.

Assigning people to one of 16 personality types by means of a test is popular. The descriptions often sound accurate, but sometimes merely general. Researchers often explain the popularity with the Barnum effect: the type descriptions are worded so vaguely that almost everyone recognises themselves in them.

Alternatives to personality types: Big Five and DISC

In a business environment, pure type tests reach their limits. A practice-oriented model is DISC, which looks at dominance, influence, steadiness and conscientiousness.

However, it is above all the Big Five model (OCEAN) that is psychologically sound and empirically supported. It does not force people into rigid types but describes five main dimensions on a continuous scale: openness, conscientiousness, extraversion, agreeableness and neuroticism.

In professional assessment, instruments such as the NEO-PI-R or the Bochum Inventory for Job-Related Personality Description (BIP) are used for this. They capture individual personality traits far more precisely and reliably than a simple type inventory could.

Frequently asked questions about profiling

Here you will find answers about tests and profiling. Even though the Myers-Briggs approach is popular, for executive coaching we always recommend scientifically sound methods that make real potential measurable.

About the author

Tim S. Tabrizi is an executive coach and the owner and managing director of Ihr Coaching Institut in Frankfurt am Main. As a certified executive coach (ICF, DBVC) with more than 20 years of experience, he leads a network of 35 coaches across Germany. LinkedIn profile | Ihr Coaching Institut on LinkedIn

About the author: Tim S. Tabrizi, owner and managing director of Ihr Coaching Institut. Executive coach and expert in personality assessment for leadership development. LinkedIn → | Profile →