Fact File

Politicians and personality

People say that councillors must be mad to do a job that can be frustrating, stressful and thankless. New research suggests that while they may not be mad, they are certainly different from people who are not councillors.

'Politicians and personality' is a report looking at the character traits of councillors compared with the general population and managers. It was commissioned by the Improvement and Development Agency (IDeA) and used the Myers Briggs Type Indicator, one of the most widely used personality profilers.

The data was collected from councillors attending the IDeA’s flagship Leadership Academy for comparison with existing research on the other two groups.

You could use MBTI with your Council Group to help you understand how to work most effectively together and how to use each other strengths and differences to best effect

Download a copy of Politicians and personality publication (PDF, 44 pages, 245KB).

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