Personality Glitches You Don’t Want To Encounter

Aren’t people wonderful? Well, sometimes, but then again, sometimes not. Sometimes fear, or a need for control, or insecurity or even a scarcity mentality drives people into what I refer to as their Type “squared” – ie. accentuated in the negative.

During times of economic downturns such as we’re experiencing today, we see people hanging on more tightly to their cherished belongings, jobs, prestige, power, or whatever else… claiming their space with elbows rotating outward. This isn’t a pretty sight, and it goes against so much of what I believe and teach.

These are times when we see people hoarding resources, information, and working to rule. I know the temptation!

But this is also a time when we have to reach out to one another with abundance, believing that it will be returned to us, as the principle states. It is a time when collaboration and cooperation and the blending of ideas can make a positive difference, drawing us out of isolation and into creative solutions.

Each Personality Type chooses to respond from faith (abundance) or fear (scarcity). The faith expression of an Artisan (SP) freely serves in stylish abandon in actions that speak louder than words, but the fear expression can become nasty and vindictive. The Legalist (SJ) when faith motivated is a willing and careful servant seeking to serve with accuracy and good will. However, when fear or scarcity, or a lack of appreciation gets a grip on them, they become quite rigid,legalistic and unbending. The Idealist (NF), generally giving encouragement and emotional support with abandon, when pressed into a corner becomes emotionally immobilized and insincere, and the Rational (NT) who is aces at strategy, critical thinking and visionary imagination becomes log-jammed in their thinking.

In short, we all become ineffective when stressed, and are less than wonderful to be around. While faith keeps us expansive and open, a retreat into fear closes us off in ways that make us less than effective, and certainly not wonderful companions.

Listening to the nay-sayers of our present economic condition may seem realistic enough, but we must be careful not to allow their predictions to overwhelm us.

As people, we are resilient. We have a tremendous capacity for creativity arising from need. We are not alone in this universe. The One who has provided seed for the sower in the past is yet providing it still. We may have to adjust our lifestyles, our attitudes, our expectations and our ingenuity, but if we will maintain an eye of faith and band together, we will succeed.

If we work to put the strengths of our Personalities together, we can overcome our weaknesses.

Yes, there are some Personality glitches I don’t care to encounter. They are the cat’s claws that come out when we allow the stress of fear to dominate the beauty of our natural strengths. But there are also beautiful Personality expressions from every Type that enrich and add abundance to our lives, even in more difficult times.

My vote is for the beautiful people who believe in and live in personal abundance, even when the coffers are low. With their help, I will continue to endure.

About Leadership Development

It’s 3 a.m. and rather than lying awake counting sheep, I decided to write about what’s on my mind.

I really get passionate about learning about leadership, especially the kind that relates to the development of the inner person. After all, isn’t that the place where we are most empowered, and our greatest potential is developed?

I’ve been reading a book recently that is giving a more succinct expression to a lot of things I’ve believed in for a long while but hadn’t articulated so well. So has it got my attention? You bet!

I love those leadership models where you coach your team from modeling the values you want to see developed. And you empower them by bringing out the best in them, and using your power to enable them by providing what they need for the task and guiding from the sidelines as they make their plays from their training and inner rich resources. I love to see them working hand-in-hand, pooling strengths that will supersede working as lone rangers.

This model works on abundance, not scarcity, collaboration, not competition (except maybe with the team working beside you, or another business), community, not isolation. It values the contribution of each individual, and encourages an openness built on trust and respect. And most of all, it treats people as valuable resources, not things.

Isn’t it strange that on a tax statement, machinery is an asset while people are a loss? Somewhere along the line we’ve got it all mixed up. It’s time we began to see the incredible resource we have in people, even if we don’t get it right on our tax statements for a while.

One of the reasons I’m so passionate about Personality is because of the incredible light it sheds on our career choices and contributions to society. I was in my 20’s before I had any insight at all into the kind of person I am. I had little idea of why I responded to life the way I do, what motivated me, what type of perspective I brought to life, what I was especially gifted to do.

When it came to my areas of talent, I saw others as inferior to me, while I was just normal. And I saw myself inferior to a lot of people in other areas. As I began to study Personality, I began to see myself as talented in certain areas while others were just normal, and normal where others were talented. No longer was there a deficit sheet, but rather an opportunity for admiration, new respect and praise.

At one time, I thought I had to be good at everything or I was a failure. After studying Personality, I saw that I could be great at a few things and celebrate the greatness of others where I was just average. Instead of having to bluff my way along, which isn’t even honest, I could relax and let others shine as well.

I remember once when I was the leader of a volunteer group. There were a bunch of jobs I didn’t much like, but felt I couldn’t possibly insult any of my workers by handing them over to them. So I plugged along, hating it, and doing just a mediocre job. Now when you do that, you tend to invite the criticism of those who are talented in that area, because they can just naturally flow with that job because of their giftedness in that area.

Finally, one of my workers volunteered to do the jobs I hated. I was flabbergasted and quickly gave them the “pleasure’, which indeed turned out to be a pleasure for them, and a job done in a much superior manner to what I’d done. I was thrilled, because they just made me more successful, and allowed me to concentrate on those things that I do best.

That was my first conscious “aha!” to Personality-based team building, and it hasn’t been the last.

Understanding the special characteristics, needs and contributions of each member of a team and using this information strategically is one of the most successful manoevers a leader can make towards becoming great.

People are the greatest resources we can employ. In spite of the incredible advances of machinery in the Industrial Age, we have yet to discover a fraction of what we can gain when we tap the inner potential of the human individual in the Knowledge Age.

As the saying goes, “We are fearfully and wonderfully made.” The human spirit, released in passionate creativity and leadership for the well-being of the generation they serve, is a force that will go beyond all we’ve seen before if we will but tap that potential.

Leadership isn’t a position so much as it is an attitude, a readiness, a courage to confront the issues of life. We can all be leaders as we develop our inner understanding and potential, whether in our homes, our community, our workplace or the world.

It’s time for sleep. Greatness requires the balances of recharging our physical batteries with the pursuit of leadership. I don’t want to be “toast” tomorrow morning, so good night!