Why was the MBTI® Personality Inventory a success at Discover Financial Services? The Leadership Program at Discover was a success because of many factors: (1) Commitment and support of the Executive Management Committee, the HR Management Team, and the Leadership and Learning Management Team. (2) Ensuring the MBTI® personality inventory was presented in a practical way rather than theorical. (3) Expertise of Amy Heirman and Todd Wilhelm in designing the two day workshop and instituting an internal MBTI® personality inventory certification program. (4) Using the MBTI® personality inventory according to the ethics established by Isabel The Executive Management Committee comprised the first attendees of the workshop. Through their participation, they saw the value of the program and the MBTI® to the company leaders and became supportive of the effort. In fact, one Senior Vice President became a facilitator for the workshop, going through the same internal training and certification process as other facilitators. Discover’s journey to excellence took almost two years in the making. The Human Resources and Leadership and Learning Development teams committed the extensive time, energy, and people and monetary resources to make this program a successful venture. Two internal consultants, Amy Heirman and Todd Wilhelm, with the help of an external consultant, Leona Haas, designed a two day workshop. The theory of the MBTI® was used in their development of the program as well as the practical application of the MBTI® . Their two day leadership program was very experiential and designed to allow the participants a clear understanding of how to validate their type and how to use the MBTI® in a practical way. The MBTI® was presented in the workshop with the introverted and extraverted functions instead of just the functions of Sensing, Intuiting, Thinking, and Feeling. In addition to the MBTI® , participants received a 360 feedback instrument that was based on competencies developed by members of the Discover family. A major part of the success of the Leadership Workshop was correlating the MBTI® to the Discover leadership competencies. All the competencies were correlated to the eight Jungian mental processes. An important point was the 360 feedback instrument was used for development and not performance. By correlating the individual competencies to the Jungian mental processes, the feedback was not perceived to be negative. Following the work of Harold Grant’s type development by age and Dr. John Beebe’s sequence of eight, the majority of the participants found they received high marks on dominant, auxiliary and often the tertiary. Additionally, there was a high correlation to receiving the low scores on the 7th and 8th processes. In using Dr. Beebe’s theory, participants were provided practical ways to develop those competencies that were found in their unconscious. For example, one manager that preferred ENTJ found that she did not score high in the competencies correlated to Extraverted Feeling. The facilitators provided the manager concrete, practical ways to help her develop her 8th process, Extraverted Feeling. Another manager who preferred ENFJ, offered to help coach this manager and publicly offered during the workshop to help anyone that needed help developing Extraverted Feeling. Thus, the 360 was viewed as a positive way to develop the processes usually found in the unconscious. In the planning and execution, there was never any leaning away of the dreams of Isabel and the ethical values of Kathy Myers (co-guardian of the MBTI® and daughter-in-law of Isabel). Attendance was limited to 20 participants with at least two to three facilitators so the workshop participants could receive individual time in helping them find their validated type. Facilitators made themselves available before, after, and during the workshop to help participants. If a participant was still unclear on their type, meetings were arranged with a facilitator after the program to ensure everyone had the help needed in determining their validated type. At no time was the workshop compromised because of time constraints. Discover’s leadership design process was actually a two step process. One was the workshop and the other was the facilitators who would deliver the program. The program was designed to focus 90% on the individual and then 10% on the participant being part of the Discover Leadership team.  DISCOVER
FINANCIAL SERVICES LEADERSHIP DEVELOPMENT II WORKSHOP Read about the Award-Winning Program... |
||
| Articles Index | ||
back to top |
