Last week, the Meltwater management team met in San Francisco for our annual Executive Leadership Training through Oxford University.

Meltwater’s objective is to become one of the top 100 software companies in the world within the next five years. This is a pretty incredible goal, so Meltwater is investing in external training from some of the world’s most respected educational institutions to make sure that we are prepared for the challenges ahead of us.

A major focus of this particular session was the concept of how personality affects behavior, and how to make the most of each individual’s strengths and weaknesses.

We started by learning more about our personality types, using theories developed by Swiss psychiatrist Carl G. Jung to explain the inborn tendencies we have that explain our personalities and behaviors. According to Jung, and the MBTI assessment that we used, people are usually one of the each of the following:

• Introverted (I) or extroverted (E)
• Detail-oriented (S) or focused on the big picture (N)
• Thinking (T) or feeling (F)
• Structured (J), or more likely to just “wing it” and see what happens (P)

Learning about ourselves was enlightening and entertaining, but I thought it might be interesting to further explore how the management team rated Meltwater Group as a company on each of these characteristics. Assessing a company’s personality can produce valuable insights into how it operates, and it can help to expose potential weaknesses.

An informal poll of about 90 managing and area directors found that Meltwater is:

Extraverted (E) – This was more or less unanimous. There is little doubt that we are a very talkative, sociable bunch. According to Jung, people who prefer extroversion tend to work out ideas by talking them through, learn best through doing or discussing, have broad interests, and readily take initiative in work and relationships.

Intuitive and focused on the big picture (N) – This was also very clear. We all agreed that Meltwater Group is much more concerned with larger concepts than minute details. In life, people who prefer Intuition are imaginative and verbally creative, move quickly to conclusions, are oriented to future possibilities, and trust inspiration.

Feeling (F) – Most of us voted that Meltwater is an “F” organization. Meltwater culture is very much oriented towards making sure that people feel nurtured, motivated and inspired. Especially in management, we spend a lot of time making sure that people feel that they are in the right place and here for a reason. People who prefer Feeling are empathetic and guided by personal values. They strive for harmony, positive interactions, and fairness. This is what we aim to achieve on a daily basis.

“Winging it” (in MBTI this is called “Perceiving”) (P) – We are absolutely a company that wings it. No company could sustain the incredible growth we have seen at Meltwater—without a good amount of flexibility. When people prefer Perceiving, they tend to be spontaneous, casual, adapt, and feel energized by last-minute pressures.

These four factors combined yield a personality type that is eerily reminiscent of our company culture and business model. Google “ENFP” and you will read about bon vivants who see life as a creative adventure full of possibilities. This personality type faces a unique challenge, however: If we have too much inspiration and not enough structure, it can be difficult to see how we are going to pull off the incredible goals we have set for ourselves. This can lead to frustration and potential derailment.

Although the managers in the training session felt that Meltwater is an ENFP organization, interestingly, the average Meltwater manager is actually not an ENFP type. The majority of us are Ts as opposed to Fs. We range from ISTPs (like my manager John, area director of the East Coast region, who is detail-oriented and rational) to ENTJs like myself, who tend to be structured and logical.

Ultimately, the strongest companies are those where the management is varied where we complement each other, question our decisions in an active debate, and learn from the strengths of those around us.

This combination will be the key to our future success; if we can continue to challenge each other and grow from our experiences, we should be able to bring a rebellious group of young innovators together and turn this company into one of the most successful software companies in the world. Fingers crossed that Carl Jung was onto something.