What is your natural leadership style?
We all get a little temperamental sometimes, don’t we? However, most people don’t realize that when we become temperamental we revert to our true nature or temperament. According to Robert Hogan (the personality guru), up to 50% of our personality is genetic and is set at birth and we call this our “temperament”. It is the foundation on which the house of our personality is built and manifests itself in well-defined behavioral tendencies and moods.
Temperament is generally divided into four main types first used by the ancient Greeks, sanguine (fun loving), choleric (doers), melancholic (idealistic), and phlegmatic (rational). In an easy-to-remember system developed by Greg Hicks, the four temperaments can be represented as four animals:
The Fox:
* Fun-loving, optimistic, down-to-earth, and focused on the here and now
* They pride themselves on being unconventional, bold and spontaneous
* Make playful companions, creative parents and problem-solving leaders
* Excitable, trust their impulses, want to cause a sensation, seek stimulation, value freedom and dream of mastering action skills
The Beaver:
* Obedient, cautious, humble and focused on credentials and traditions “Doers”
* They pride themselves on being reliable, helpful, and hard-working
* Make loyal companions, responsible parents and stabilizing leaders
* They are concerned citizens who trust authority, join groups, seek safety, appreciate gratitude, and dream of meting out justice
The dolphin:
* Enthusiastic, idealistic, trust their intuition, crave romance, seek their true self, appreciate meaningful relationships, and dream of wisdom.
* They pride themselves on being loving, kind and genuine
* They tend to be generous, trusting, spiritual, and focus on personal journeys and human potentials.
* Make intense companions, caring parents and inspiring leaders.
The owl:
* Tends to be rational, pragmatic, skeptical, autonomous, and focused on problem solving and systems analysis.
* They pride themselves on being resourceful, independent, and strong-willed
* Make reasonable couples, individualizing parents and strategic leaders
* They are level-headed, rely on logic, yearn for achievement, seek knowledge, appreciate technology, and dream of understanding how the world works
Learning about temperament helps us understand the “glories” and the “pitfalls” of our natural leadership style. This, in turn, will help us learn how to be more effective in leading others with different temperaments.