Many authors have described four
basic personality styles but each has used different names and developed
slightly different descriptions and analysis.
My two favorites are Florence Littauer and Robert Rohm because they
define the styles better and provide more details for understanding the four
personalities.
Florence Littauer wrote Personality
Plus: How to Understand Others by Understanding Yourself. Robert Rohm calls his book Positive
Personality Profiles. While
Littauer’s names for the four types sound like they are from feudal times, her
analysis of each personality includes a way to overcome our personal weaknesses
and a path to improve our relations with others. Dr. Rohm has a simpler approach that is
easier to understand but harder to put into perspective.
No matter who we are,
we have something to learn from each of these types. ~Florence Littauer
Before you read a very brief
description of the four types, you need to answer two simple questions. Please don’t belabor these answers. Go with your gut and choose the one that fits
the most, even if it’s only 51% to 49%.
It may very well be different at some other time but go with what you
think today at this moment.
First, are you more of outgoing or are you more reserved? Do you think of yourself as an extrovert
or an introvert? Do you love to be
around people and express yourself or are you more comfortable on your own or
watching the party from a quiet corner?
Second, are you more task oriented
or more people oriented? Do you focus on
getting things done or do you worry about how everyone is getting along? Do you take an apparent consensus as a firm
decision and run with it or do you check to see if anyone’s feelings might be
hurt if they don’t get a chance to say something?
Now put those two together to determine which quadrant you are in. Outgoing, task-oriented people are in the "D" quadrant. Reserved, task-oriented are "C"s. Outgoing, people-oriented are the "I"s and reserved, people-oriented are the "S"s.
The following table summarizes the
terms and my short description of each personality type:
YOUR ANSWERS
|
LITTAUER
|
DESCRIPTION
|
ROHM
|
Outoging/Task
|
Choleric
|
Doer, always right
|
Dominant
|
Outgoing/People
|
Sanguine
|
Talker, fun
|
Inspiring
|
Reserved/People
|
Phlegmatic
|
Watcher, get along
|
Supportive
|
Reserved/Task
|
Melancholy
|
Thinker, analyzer
|
Cautious
|
Before you get hung up on these four types, I have used this
with many groups of people and they are pretty accurate. The point, however, is not to stereotype
people but to understand that we respond to events in different ways. It doesn't mean we’re better or worse, just
different. Understanding the four types
helps us accept the different ways that people act.
When we judge or
criticize another person, it says nothing about that person; it merely says
something about our own need to be critical.
~Anonymous
That’s the first rule of relationships: seek first to understand, then to be
understood. If we can accept that others
act differently than us, it is much easier to accept them as they are and build
a relationship from there. If this makes
sense and you wish to learn more, buy one of those books.
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