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Hi Reader,

Your team-building retreat astrologer has arrived

"I'm sorry Sarah from Accounting, but Mercury is in retrograde AND you're an ISFP, so clearly you can't handle the quarterly reports this month."

Myers-Briggs is horoscopes for people who think they're too smart for horoscopes.

The research is clear. MBTI has about as much scientific validity as reading tea leaves.

Stein & Swan demolished it beautifully:

🔹 It's based on Carl Jung's theories (which, spoiler alert, weren't exactly empirically rigorous)
🔹 No evidence for 16 distinct personality types exists in actual data
🔹 The "true type" concept is circular reasoning at its finest

But here's what really gets me.

We're using this to make hiring decisions. And team assignments. And leadership development plans.

It's like building your org chart based on zodiac compatibility.

We love MBTI because it tells us what we want to hear that we're special, that our quirks are "just our type," and that understanding ourselves is as simple as four letters.

The reality is that leadership is messy, context-dependent, and can't be reduced to whether you're an "E" or an "I."

The finance director who "can't be creative because she's a TJ" - She might revolutionise your strategy if you stopped boxing her in.

The marketing leader who won't challenge ideas because "ENFPs are people-pleasers" - He might be your best strategic thinker if you gave him permission to disagree.

Instead of personality theater, try this approach:

Actually observe how people behave in different situations.

· How do they handle pressure?

· What brings out their best thinking?

· Where do they get energised?

· What makes them shut down?

Stop letting pseudoscience masquerade as leadership development. Your people deserve better than corporate astrology.

If you're ready to ditch the personality theatre and build real leadership skills, let's talk.

Your wingwoman

Catherine