How Cincinnati's elected leaders score on the Myers-Briggs personality test can explain a lot about what's going on at City Hall.

Luken

        In the lexicon of Jungian psychologists and management consultants, Mayor Charlie Luken is an ISTP — introverted, sensing, thinking, perceiving personality.

        City Manager Valerie Lemmie is almost his exact opposite, an ENTJ — extroverted, intuitive, thinking, judging.

Lemmie

        “The likelihood is that they would sit down and annoy the hell out of each other,” said Robert E. Matson of the Weldon Cooper Center for Public Service at the University of Virginia. “But Charlie was smart enough to say, "Boy, do we need someone like that running City Hall.' ”

        Mr. Matson served as a facilitator for a two-day retreat for city leaders at Hueston Woods State Park in Preble County, where members of the City Council compared their personality test results and planned their vision for the city.

CHARACTER STUDY

Cincinnati city leaders recently took the Myers-Briggs personality test to prepare for their retreat this weekend at Hueston Woods State Park. Here are the results of those tests, with explanations of the letter-coded types below:    Mayor Charlie Luken (ISTP): “Cool onlooker, quiet, reserved, observing and analyzing life with detached curiosity and unexpected flashes of original humor. Usually interested in cause-and-effect, how and why mechanical things work, and in organizing facts using logical principles.”    City Manager Valerie Lemmie (ENTJ): “Frank, decisive leader... Usually good at anything requiring reasoning and intelligent talk, such as public speaking. Well-informed and enjoys adding to her fund of knowledge. May sometimes appear more positive and confident than her experience in an area warrants.”    Councilman Paul Booth (ISFJ): “Quiet, friendly, responsible and conscientious.”    Councilman John Cranley (ENFP): “Warmly enthusiastic, high-spirited, ingenious, imaginative.”    Councilwoman Minette Cooper and Councilman James R. Tarbell: (ENTJ): “Frank and decisive.”    Councilmen David Crowley and Pat DeWine (ENTP): “Quick, ingenious, alert and outspoken. May argue for fun on either side of a question.”    Councilman Chris Monzel (ESFJ): “Warm-hearted, talkative, popular, conscientious, born cooperator.”    Councilman David Pepper (ISTJ): “Serious, quiet, thorough, orderly, matter-of-fact, logical.”    Vice Mayor Alicia Reece (ESTP): “Good at on-the-spot problem solving... dislikes long explanations.”    The Myers-Briggs personality test categorizes people according to four sets of traits:    Extroverted (E), focused on other people and the outer world; or Introverted (I), focused on the inner world of ideas and impressions.    Sensing (S), focused on the present and concrete; or Intuitive (N), focused on the future and abstract.    Thinking (T), based on logic and objective analysis; or Feeling (F), based on values and subjective evaluation.    Judging (J), planned and organized; or Perceiving (P) flexible and spontaneous.    SOURCE: Myers-Briggs Type Indicator

        Councilman David Pepper, whose personality test identified him as the “organizer” of City Council, arranged the retreat. He hopes a better understanding of the personalities will help the once-dysfunctional City Council corral its differing personalities and leadership styles.

        The Myers-Briggs test, a sort of scientific astrological sign, has long been used by management consultants in corporate cultures like Procter & Gamble. Few upwardly mobile young executives don't know their type — and those of their co-workers, their boss, and their boss's boss — by heart.

        Some council members — notably Alicia Reece and John Cranley — have problem-solving personalities that make them most impatient with explanations of why things can't be done. That may explain why they're often the most critical of bureaucracy.

        Bureaucracies can have personalities, too. Cincinnati City Hall has an SJ, or sensing-judging personality, Mr. Matson said.

        Those personalities are loyal and reliable — but also traditional and resistant to change.

        That may help to explain the friction between City Council and the city administration that's been the hallmark of City Hall gridlock for years.

        Understanding that can help elected leaders figure out how to fix it, said Mr. Luken, whose personality test suggests he's more interested in the practical and concrete than abstract ideas about cause-and-effect.

        “I think council tends to think that if people just worked harder and rolled up their sleeves ... that things would get done,” Mr. Luken said. “But these traits have been ingrained in people over years and maybe decades. The system has created this environment.”

        That may be why Mr. Luken selected Ms. Lemmie, whose Briggs-Myers test pegs her as a “frank, decisive leader,” as his city manager.

        The Briggs-Myers test is old hat to Ms. Lemmie, who's attended enough management seminars to know exactly what her type means.

        “I like to change things, and that sometimes means I get out ahead of others,” she said. “I am more than willing to push it to the wall. I can push so hard that I can break it.”

        Away from City Hall's ubiquitous television cameras and protesters, the retreat gave council members a rare opportunity to talk candidly about their personalities, their motivations and their frustrations.

        Saturday morning's session was so cathartic that Councilman Jim Tarbell implored an Enquirer reporter not to enter the meeting — required to be open under the city's charter — for fear that council members would no longer feel free to talk openly.

        But even in front of reporters, they had a candid conversation with Ms. Lemmie about her speech to the Greater Cincinnati Chamber of Commerce last month, in which she said business leaders should listen to those pushing a boycott of downtown.

        Council members agreed that they value having Ms. Lemmie speak out — as long as she recognizes that the mayor and council, not the manager, set policy for the city.

        The council didn't reach a consensus on what exactly the manager's role should be. Most council members seemed to reaffirm the manager's role as the chief executive officer of the city. But Mr. Cranley, for one, sees the manager's role eclipsed by the stronger mayor system.

        Ms. Lemmie also told the council that it's important that she be given flexibility if the stronger mayoral system is to work.

        “If I fail, the bureaucracy will think that the old (weak mayor) system is what will prevail,” she said. “They're not necessarily out cheering for my success. That's why I have to build a team.”

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