Enterprise Initiatives

I am currently enrolled in an executive MBA program and my current class is about Leadership. As part of our group project we are working on we took the Jung Typology Test (personality test) to get our Meyer's Briggs indicators. After answering the questions on the test you get graded in four areas:

1. Extroversion vs Introversion
2. Sensing vs. iNtuition
3. Thinking vs. Feeling
4. Judging vs. Perceiving

I am a ENTJ which means I scored higher for the following (Extroversion, iNtuition, Thinking, Judging). These four letter codes then map to certain personality types which fall into four distinct temperaments:

1. The Guardians - 40-45% - administrators and conservators
   
2. The Idealists - 8-10% - mentors and advocates
   
3. The Artisans - 35-40% - entertainers and operators
   
4. The Rationals - 5-7% - Engineers and coordinators
   

Within each temperament there are four types. The four types of Rationals are:

1. Architects - Their major interest is in figuring out structure, build, configuration -- the spatiality of things.
2. Field Marshals - organize their units into smooth-functioning systems, planning in advance, keeping both short-term and long-range objectives well in mind.
3. Inventors - have an eye out for a better way, always on the lookout for new projects, new activities, new procedures.
4. Masterminds - natural brainstormers, always open to new concepts and, in fact, aggressively seeking them.

As I read through the information, I found it interesting that only 5%-7% of the world falls into the Rational personality type. And within the Rationals, only the Field Marshals prefer to manage. These are the Chief Architects which represent only 2% of the population. Masterminds tend to stay in the background and only insert themselves into leadership roles when they see others fail. Masterminds represent only 1% of the population. If you combine the Field Marshals and Masterminds you only have 3% of the population that represent the characteristics of a Chief Architect. Enterprise architects fall into the inventors and architects types which make up only about 3-5% of the population.

To make a long story short, it takes a special breed of people to fill the role of an architect. And many of these special people have no desire to take on the leadership tasks that make up a Chief Architect. Why do I bring this up? Well, so many companies are looking at investing in SOA. SOA requires an enterprise architecture which requires architects. There is already a shortage of "real" architects and SOA is going to make those resources in more demand. That's good news for architects (demand) but bad news for companies (supply). Companies that can't distinguish between architects and architect wannabees are going to be in for a rude awakening. If you want to know if your candidate is a real architect or not, read this article from Zapthink and test your candidate on his/her understanding of what SOA really is.

Take the test and see what your personality is. I am a Field Marshal.