When we started DailyLook I asked my psychologist friend to administer a professional Myers-Briggs test to each of the founding team members. It was important to me that we understood not only ourselves but each other because it’s critical to our company’s success. It was quite interesting and helpful to learn how each of us prefers to communicate, in addition to learning why we work well in various ways.

According to the test I am Extroverted/Intuitive/Thinking/Judging (ENTJ). The most valuable lesson from this is that it helps me understand the type of leader I am. I have a strong tendency towards decisive action and execution, which is an important characteristic in a CEO. But this trait can also be one of my greatest weaknesses. Sometimes I am not in tune with others’ feelings and I can be too blunt or critical.  Running a fashion company is very different than say a software or services company, and I have to constantly keep this in mind so I can be a better leader for our team. It’s all about self awareness.  

Knowing myself and my senior leadership team better will be progressively more important as each of our jobs increases in complexity and responsibility. In addition, we’re adding members to our team as DailyLook scales up. Those new additions will have to complement and adapt to the existing personalities on the team.

Being that we are a creative AND data-driven company, I believe that we need to build teams that are in a healthy state of tension. I can’t do that if I can’t identify the right people; tools like the Myers-Briggs test help me accomplish that.

Beyond just learning about myself, I’ve also invested time into genuinely learning about the 16 other personality types. It has helped me to quickly understand and assess what individuals can work together to have a winning result. Over time, I continue to invest time in understanding strengths and weaknesses in people.

Another tool I’ve used is Strengths Finders, which helps identify your personal strengths amongst 32 characteristics.  My #1 strength is Achiever, and it explains why I can sustain endless energy to execute day in and day out. Like Myers-Briggs, Strengths Finders also helps me pick the right leadership composition to build a winning world class team. 

If you want to be an entrepreneur and grow to become a CEO, it’s incredibly important that you know yourself to a fault and understand others for what they are now and what they could be.  I recommend that you start with Myers-Briggs and Strengths Finders.  Both have helped my personal growth incredibly during this journey.