Personality seminar opens Canadian Rental Mart

Suzanne Price of Seneca College facilitated the MBTI seminar.

Mar. 9, 2010 – Knowing the differences between communication styles can help you in all sorts of ways. That was one of the key points delivered during the Myer-Briggs Type Indicator seminar that took place today at the DoubleTree International Plaza Hotel. The seminar was the first official event of the 2010 Canadian Rental Mart.

The seminar was delivered by Suzanne Price, program coordinator of Pre-Media/Media & Communications Fundamentals at Seneca College. Price is a certified  MBTI consultant through Psychometrics Canada.

The Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI) assessment is a questionnaire designed to measure preferences in how people perceive the world and make decisions. The preferences themselves were extrapolated from the theories of Carl Gustav Jung.

The MBTI is one of the best-known personality assessment tools, and is certainly one of the most widely used. As many as two million assessments are administered annually.

“When you’re going through life, you sometimes feel the need to change to be more like others,” said Amanda Wellnitz, executive director of the Canadian Rental Association (CRA). “Often we ask ourselves, ‘Why am I the way I am?’ One of the things this seminar teaches is that it’s okay to be the way you are, and it’s okay for others to be like they are. You’re not meant to be like others. Our differences complement each other.”

One of the fundamental bases for the MBTI is the idea that people prefer one thing over the other, rather than a bit of both. The preferences indicated are polar opposites. You can think of these as being sort of like up and down, or backwards and forwards. You can go in either direction, but not both.

Facilitator Suzanne Price likened the different personality aspects to a rainbow of colours. No aspect is better than any other. Instead, all are needed for balance.

“The funny thing is, we’ve got at least two people with each trait on the CRA Ontario board,” said Jeff Campbell of St. Thomas Rentall. “I think that balance has helped us to see every side of the situations we have to deal with.”

The seminar also included discussion groups, with the groups determined by various personality factors. The groups were asked to explain how people with their particular traits solve problems and make decisions. Findings were then presented to the other groups.

The Canadian Rental Mart seminar series continues tomorrow with the Dri-Eaz Seminar “Profiting from the Restoration Market” presented by Mark Wierda, senior account manager with Dri-Eaz Products. For more information on the seminar, please click here .

The Canadian Rental Mart continues today and Wednesday. Attendance is free for rental professionals.