How to Understand Personality
More and more I am being asked to help individuals and businesses to reach their full potential. Understanding personality types has been a great tool to assist me with the development of their team, culture and connection, which leads to happier employees and better overall productivity & profitability.
Health & Wellbeing
Understanding ourselves is a great pathway to understanding others more, and vice versa. Interacting well with others is a necessary and important skill. It's often been said that a business's greatest asset is their people. Their health & wellbeing is important to consider.But how do we effectively use this resource if we don't understand each other fully? Do you ever wonder why or how some people do some things?Well I always have, I love learning about others, it helps me to learn about myself. I developed CARE based on my quest to understand more. Connection, awareness, reflection & expansion. When I work with a business, my "CARE assessment" is a great starting point, to determine the strategies and tools that I recommend, to help them achieve their goals and vision.
Understanding others
In my early 20's I first learnt about the differences in people via their personalities. Various books. American author and relationship counselor John Gray: Men Are From Mars, Women Are From Venus, "Personality Plus" by Florence Littauer. It showed four temperaments, distinct types of personalities sanguine (enthusiastic, active, and social), choleric (short-tempered, fast, or irritable), melancholic (analytical, wise, and quiet), and phlegmatic (relaxed and peaceful).Wow did I think myself fortune to be a "Sanguine" - the fun, outgoing and happy "temperament" compared to the others. That was the extent of my understanding at that time, but even then it seemed very narrow for me.
Ayurveda - Dosha knowledge
When I was introduced to Ayurveda over ten years ago, also known as the "Knowledge of Life" (the traditional Indian holistic and preventative medicine, recognised by WHO), I began to see people in a different light - a more holistic approach considering their physical, mental and emotional traits. The three constitutions - Vata, Pitta and Kapha, talked about dominate dosha and being balanced or out of balance with one's true constitution.Ayurveda was music to my ears as it focused on preventative medicine and encourages individuals to follow the laws of nature - keeping in rhythm with nature about how we live our lives and do our daily duties. This helped me immensely as a Life Coach, understand people better - why some people functioned better at certain times of the day than others and why different types of food, exercise and relaxation could have different results on people's physical and mental bodies.Interestingly the 5 elements that are a foundation of Ayurveda can also be seen to have a relationship with the temperaments, see right: Elements & temperament
Historical to Modern day
The more modern assessments strongly emphasised the value in all the "types" with all people having special skills and talents to offer our society. I related well to this respecting the value of all individuals and the refinement of the "ancient temperament names" which allowed I believe, greater scope for people to see their full potential rather than the "short-tempered" or "irritable" descriptions!Little did I realise that although this was a new concept in understanding people more deeply for me, personality and temperament has been studied and evolved over many years, starting with Greek physician Hippocrates (460–370 BC) who developed it into a medical theory. With many of the modern day forms having their origins from Carl Jung’s work on archetypes, Psychological Types, which formed the foundation for the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI) assessment, and the Keirsey Temperament Sorter. A new perspective was taken and temperament was further refined into: Artisan (SP), Guardian (SJ), Idealist (NF), and Rational (NT). See below for some more detailed information including DISC and Wealth Dynamics.
Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI)
Myers-Briggs are a mother and daughter who refined the work by Swiss Psychiatrist Carl Yung, developing MBTI.The Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI) has been immensely useful in my private and business coaching and understanding how to get the best out of people. From the first of the four initials you are either an "I" or an "E" and if we truly understand this - then it's not about who is the happier person or who is the excellent listener, as the earlier less detailed studies have focused on.All the traits have merits and value in our society - the good and the bad - it's no longer the outgoing, fun person who we should strive to be!You can take the quick and popular Prelude character analysis here. Drop me a line to let me know which type you are!Excerpted with permission from the MBTI® Manual: A Guide to the Development and Use of the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator®Favourite world: Do you prefer to focus on the outer world or on your own inner world? This is called Extraversion (E) or Introversion (I).Information: Do you prefer to focus on the basic information you take in or do you prefer to interpret and add meaning? This is called Sensing (S) or Intuition (N).Decisions: When making decisions, do you prefer to first look at logic and consistency or first look at the people and special circumstances? This is called Thinking (T) or Feeling (F).Structure: In dealing with the outside world, do you prefer to get things decided or do you prefer to stay open to new information and options? This is called Judging (J) or Perceiving (P).
Keirsey
David Keirsey expanded on the ancient study of temperament by Hippocrates and Plato, and uses the names suggested by Plato: Artisan (iconic), Guardian (pistic), Idealist (noetic), and Rational (dianoetic).The 16 types correlate with the 16 personality types described by Briggs and Myers. Keirsey has been able to further classify, simply and make more interesting the Keirsey four temperament types, as below:The Four Temperaments
As Concrete Cooperators, Guardians speak mostly of their duties and responsibilities, of what they can keep an eye on and take good care of, and they're careful to obey the laws, follow the rules, and respect the rights of others.
As Abstract Cooperators, Idealists speak mostly of what they hope for and imagine might be possible for people, and they want to act in good conscience, always trying to reach their goals without compromising their personal code of ethics.
As Concrete Utilitarians, Artisans speak mostly about what they see right in front of them, about what they can get their hands on, and they will do whatever works, whatever gives them a quick, effective payoff, even if they have to bend the rules.
As Abstract Utilitarians, Rationals speak mostly of what new problems intrigue them and what new solutions they envision, and always pragmatic, they act as efficiently as possible to achieve their objectives, ignoring arbitrary rules and conventions if need be.
DISC
Marston's work was the foundation of the DISC assessment. Marston, after conducting research on human emotions, published his findings in his 1928 book called Emotions of Normal People in which he explained that people illustrate their emotions using four behavior types: Dominance (D), Inducement (I), Submission (S), and Compliance (C).In 1956, Walter Clarke, an industrial psychologist, constructed the DISC assessment using Marston's theory of the DISC model, and today it has been used by more than 50 million people since it was first introduced in 1972.Interestingly, DISC was developed for use in businesses when needing to choose qualified employees.
Wealth Dynamics
Roger Hamilton created Wealth Dynamics, a breakdown of eight Wealth Dynamics Lighthouse which starts with an understanding of who you are and where you are as an entrepreneur or investor. You can take the quick and popular BMTI Prelude character analysis here. Which type are you?Together we can start to discover how to reach your full potential, through Personalised Coaching and Business Health & Wellbeing Coaching, drop me a line and let's begin today: gabrielle@bebliss.com.au or +61 (0) 418-576-075 Please note: Images taken from online free stock, with much gratitude