If you ask someone to describe an IT department or company, most people outside the IT sector will have a mental image of studious, bespectacled technology nerds who spend their time solving software problems with one hand and conducting online debates on the virtues of the different Star Trek series with the other.

The truth, as always, is more complicated. Like any other business or department, IT contains a mix of personality types but, just as in any other sector, some types are more common than others. Fortunately, psychologists have saved us the trouble of trying to measure this subjectively by inventing personality inventories, or “psychometrics”, to do so.

The Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI) is one such tool that is commonly used to identify peoples’ personality preferences. It looks at how they like to relate to others and the world; how they think, decide and live. It covers 16 types of personality and provides a four-letter description as a snapshot of the person’s type.

More information on these can be found on the web, but research has found that the two most common personality types in IT are the ISTJ and ESTJ type combinations. The former are, broadly speaking, quiet, serious, logical and orderly people. The latter are practical, matter-of-fact and enjoy organisation.

This fits with most people’s idea of what IT workers are like. But those are also very common types in the world at large. There are a lot of ISTJs and ESTJs in management roles and in professions like finance and law, for obvious reasons.

To drill a little deeper, the research shows further that the people who are disproportionately attracted to the IT profession are what Myers-Briggs calls the “NT” types: Theory-oriented individuals who seek to understand the principles by which the world works. They are people who are sceptical, precise and who focus on competence and knowledge.

No major surprise, but what it also highlighted was that people with the opposite, “SF” preferences are much rarer in IT. Understanding and friendly individuals who focus on warmth and concern for others are few and far between.
Some might argue that these traits are unimportant when dealing with a recalcitrant server. But they matter when the client who owns it demands a solution.

Managers often instinctively recruit people in their own image, and IT is no different. But this can lead to problems, particularly in the more service-oriented parts of the business. The key is to ensure a mix of personality types.

Problems also arise when managers assume that everyone already working for them has the same preferences. An IT firm might be populated by people with an ISTJ preference, including the boss. They then naturally assume that everyone will appreciate the same management style they prefer.

Things may not be so easy for the two ENFP individuals who also work there. They see details as drudgery and may lament the lack of collaboration in the team. But they are just as valuable to the firm as their colleagues, because they offer a worldview that is more open to possibilities and looks more at the impact of their work on their customers.

Good managers will understand that how they see the world is not necessarily how the members of their teams do. Giving only process-driven jobs to someone who can’t stand detail is a recipe for disaster. What’s more, for a sector that can live or die by the strength of its project teams, personalities are key to how people work together.

Rob Bailey is a managing consultant at international business psychology group OPP