E60: Michael Segovia on Why Your Differences Are Your Greatest Leadership Superpower

Dr. Reda Othman sat with Michael Segovia, Principal Consultant at the Myers-Briggs Company and a 38-year practitioner of personality type science, to explore how leaders can use the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator to understand themselves more deeply, communicate across difference, and build teams where people don't just coexist — they thrive. Michael brings a rare combination of personal vulnerability and research-backed insight, making this conversation as practical as it is memorable. Michael opens with a childhood moment of feeling profoundly different — and how that early experience became the lens through which he now helps organizations recognize and celebrate the very people they're at risk of sidelining. He also walks through a striking real-world example: a high-performing INTj leadership team that consistently left their own meetings having each reached a completely different decision — not because of dysfunction, but because their shared preference for introverted intuition meant they were each processing internally rather than collectively. The result was confusion that looked like conflict but was actually a type dynamic hiding in plain sight. This episode is essential for school leaders, executive teams, and anyone responsible for building alignment across a diverse leadership cabinet. Key Takeaways Discover why "feeling different" in a leadership context is not a weakness to manage but a superpower to deploy — and how great organizations are built by leaders who learn to celebrate what they don't immediately understand. Learn how the MBTI Step Two report moves beyond four letters to reveal why two people with the same type can communicate and lead in completely different ways — and why that matters for team cohesion. Understand how stress doesn't reveal character flaws — it exaggerates personality preferences, and knowing your type gives you a roadmap for what happens to your leadership when pressure hits. Apply the practice of "flexing" — adapting your style not by abandoning who you are, but by stretching intentionally toward what the person in front of you actually needs. Recognize the "mini-me" trap: how organizations unconsciously promote leaders who resemble the leaders already in power, and what that costs in innovation, inclusion, and team effectiveness. Learn to ask your team the simplest question most directive leaders never ask: "What do you need from me — and am I giving it to you?