Leading with Personality

Published by Angela | Filed under Personalities

Last week I enjoyed doing a small Personality Workshop for twelve wonderful women. They are the Women of Purpose Sectional Reps for the Pennsylvania - Delaware District of the Assemblies of God.  I especially enjoyed the workshop partly because it was a small group and I was able to be flexible about the content according to their questions and needs.  Being a Sanguine I love flexibility.  The other reason I enjoyed it was because they were so eager to learn.   Of course, on my way home I thought of some things I wished I had shared  such as:

• Any Personality can be a leader but their style of leadership will be different.  Different is not good or bad; it’s according to what is needed for the organization or group at the time.  

•  If an organization needs direction and purpose they want a Purposeful Choleric at the helm to cast vision and activate or equip the group.  They will keep the group working toward the goal and make sure they have what’s needed at their finger tips to get the job done.  They are not easily discouraged or distracted so they can keep the group organized and focused on the goal.

• If the ministry has had a lot of conflict and disharmony a Peaceful Phlegmatic will lead with an easy going style.  A Phlegmatic has the raw ability to mediate problems and help people come to solutions while keeping things on an even keel.  They will not stir up controversy or cause waves but calm and restore harmony through their one on one relational style.

• If the ministry has a the vision and inspired followers then they may need the help of the Strategic Melancholy Leader who analyzes, accesses the situation, counts the cost and can come up with the order needed to effectively reach their goal.  They won’t waste time or money under the Melancholy leadership.  The Strategic leader may move more slowly than the Purposeful Choleric but they will move well.  They will be well planned and organized and have thought about everything. 

• Sometimes the organization needs someone to inspire and motivate them and who better than the Popular Sanguine leader.  This leader makes work feel like fun.  They energize the troops by communicating the vision in exciting colorful word pictures.  Their enthusiasm and high energy draws people to want to follow them which makes them excellent recruiters.  Their flexibility keeps them working in spite of challenges and set backs.

• Sometimes people think that certain personalities can’t be good leaders but that is not true.  Each Personality has their strengths and weaknesses in leading and they need to be aware of those so they can work at leading from their strengths.   They also need to know the different personalities so they can adjust their expectations and style of leading to better suit their group.  It may mean that the leader will need to step out of their comfort zone in order to lead their group more effectively.  This may cause some internal conflict but we ‘”an do all things through Christ who strengthens us.”

•  The enthusiastic Sanguine and purposeful Choleric personality combination does normally make a very good leader but they will need a Melancholy to help with the details, strategic planning and keep them on schedule and a Phlegmatic to observe and give feedback on their team. 

• We need to think in terms of leadership teams instead of lone rangers.  We need one another and the results of the synergy of a complimentary, well thought out team under God’s leadership is greater than the results of any one person no matter how great they are.