No one person has a monopoly of good characteristics. Attempts to list the qualities of the ideal manager, for example, demonstrate why that paragon cannot exist. This is because many of the qualities are mutually exclusive, for example:

Although no individual can encompass all these and other desirable qualities, a team often does.

A powerful aid to team development is the use of the Myers Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI). This is based on an individual s preferences on four scales for:

• giving and receiving energy ,

• gathering information,

• making decisions,

• handling the outer world.

Its aim is to help individuals understand and value themselves and others, in terms of their differences as well as their similarities. It is well researched and non-threatening when used appropriately.

The four MBTI preference scales, which are based on Jung s theories of psychological types, represent two opposite preferences:

• Extroversion Introversion: how we prefer to give/receive energy or focus our attention.

• Sensing iNtuition: how we prefer to gather information.

• Thinking Feeling: how we prefer to make decisions.

• Judgement Perception: how we prefer to handle the outer world.

To understand what is meant by preferences, the analogy of left and right handedness is useful. Most people have a preference to write with either their left or their right hand. When using the preferred hand, they tend not to think about it, it is...