Psychological Type and Leadership

OBJECTIVE
To examine the relationship of psychological type and leadership behavior of counseling directors in colleges and universities.

METHODOLOGY
The sample involved 110 counseling center directors from the United States and Canada. There were 14 men and 17 women in the U.S. sample and 52 men and 27 women in the Canadian sample. On average, the respondents had been working in the counseling field for 15 years, and serving as administrators for about 6.5 years. Typically their centers employed a staff of 10 professionals and clerical personnel. Respondents completed the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI) and the LPI-Self.

KEY FINDINGS
No significant differences were found on the basis of nationality for the Myers-Briggs and hence were not tested for with the LPI. Enabling had the highest average scores, followed by Encouraging, Modeling, Challenging, and Inspiring.

T-tests were used to ascertain differences between the two opposite preferences from each of the four scales on the MBTI and their mean scores for each leadership behavior. Between extroverts and introverts, the only statistically significant difference by leadership practice was Encouraging the Heart (higher for extroverts). Challenging the Process was the only leadership practice significantly different between those with an intuitive preference (higher) versus those with a sensing preference. On the judging versus perceiving dimension, Modeling the Way was higher for those with a judging preference. There were no significant differences by leadership practices between the thinking and feeling preferences. Interview data (N=21) confirmed these findings. No differences by demographic data were presented.