Emotional intelligence and personality are not the same thing, but they work very well in tandem. What I have observed for more than 9 years working with both is that the different MBTI types find some aspects of emotional intelligence easier than others. Each is normal because we all have our own way to deal with our emotions internally (intrapersonal skills) and expressing them openly with others (interpersonal skills). Though, I would love to cover all the 16 personality types here, I cannot. That would be an entire new book. We will cover only the five personality types that find emotional intelligence a challenge, hence, they are more difficult to manage and deal with as they can be very disruptive in the workplace environment and they are ESTJ, ENTJ, ISTJ, INFJ, and INTP. Therefore, we will cover the types in the areas more relevant in the workplace—traits, strengths and weakness, workplace behaviors and how they can improve their intrapersonal and interpersonal skills, for example, emotional intelligence:

• Intrapersonal skills: This includes self-awareness, self-regulation, emotional self-control, flexibility, motivation, achievement, resilience, and well-being, and stress management
• Interpersonal skills: This includes empathy, energy, social skills, tolerance, persuasiveness, and the ability to lead

I am sure that you will identify some of your colleagues, and even yourself, in the traits of one or more of these personality types. Yet, if you do not know your MBTI type, I advise you to do an online test or hire an expert to profile all your team members. Learning about how your MBTI personality type's emotional intelligence is moulded can help you use your strengths or manage your organization/team to your advantage.

The next chart will give you an overview of the 16 MBTI types:

Each personality type describes how you mentally process information, depending on sensing, intuition, thinking, and feeling preferences. The combination of these processes and whether or not your type is primarily introverted or extroverted define in the long-term how you receive your energy (Introvert(I) versus Extrovert(E)), how you gather your information (Sensing(S) versus Intuition(N)), how you make your decisions (Thinking(T) versus Feeling(F)) and what kind of lifestyle you feel more comfortable (Judging(J) versus Perceiving(P)).

The following figure helps us to better understand these dichotomies:

Once you have learned about your Myers-Briggs personality types' emotional intelligence and intrapersonal and interpersonal strengths or weaknesses, you will obtain a greater sense of how you process your emotions and the emotions of others, and how you can develop these aspects of your emotional intelligence to further yourself professionally and personally.