Red, yellow, lion, D, C. What do these things have in common? Why, they're personality types, of course! In my short life I have undergone multiple personality tests. They are an almost magical window into the unknown world of me, or anyone else, and yet, they use a simple and accurate method to analyze your deepest desires. You. Unlike horoscopes and bogus personality tests that ask your favorite color, real personality tests ask you to describe yourself in unique ways and by thinking of different situations. And what I find interesting is that the three legitimate tests I know of end up with four basic personality types. Now, I don't know if a Lion and Red and i are all the same thing - I get more confused allocating the animals out. So I am going to talk about a personality system I took last summer, DiSC, because I am most familiar with it, and because my family members have also happened to take this test.
In one sentence or less, the personality types in the DiSC test are:
D - Leader, impatient, results oriented, fast paced decision maker.
i - Politician, personable, chatty, people oriented
S - Loyal, kind, nice, friendly
C - Logical, wants the correct answer.
Note that the i and S personality types are people oriented and describe people that most of us would want to be our friends. The outer two are more results oriented, and they describe traits that many of us would see as key to success. Remember that.
Now, the DiSC test can actually create infinite personality types, but there are 12 main ones. Each person has a most dominant and second most dominant personality trait. For instance, my mom is a CS - Logical but also really nice. The infinite number of traits just depends on the person. Some people have almost even traits - where all four are either high or low. Some people have dramatic differences between their first trait and their second. There is a graph I filled out for myself, but just imagine each trait being assigned a number, and the higher the number, the more of that trait you have. But the 12 main ones are the combinations of the strongest and second strongest trait for any given individual. And that is what we were asked to look at when learning about our personalities.
So if there are 12 traits, we end up with 2 traits being predominantly results oriented (non-social), and 2 traits being predominantly people oriented - DC, CD, iS, Si. Assuming that personality traits are evenly distributed across the population (which they very well may not be) that results in 1 in 6 having very few people skills and 1 in 6 being incredibly people oriented. When I think of this, it makes sense. Most people are just normal, but get a group of friends together and you will ultimately have one wallflower and one social butterfly (unless the group is of 12 people, in which case you will have two of each, and so on).
Now, I wanted to blog about this, because I want to bring it up later. In addition, I think it's important to be aware of the different personalities and what they bring to the table. Their strengths and weaknesses. I think everyone should participate in a personality study (not just the test - there should be some formal or informal learning ABOUT the different personalities as well, not just your own) at some time in their life. Many companies promote these as well. But your personality types affects how you see the world. I, unfortunately, am of the 1 in 6 with double no-people-skills personality whammy. DC. That is not an excuse for me to be rude or anything, but it helps me understand some of my difficulties in working with people. I also wish more people would attempt to understand the DC's and CD's.
When I was learning about the DiSC personalities, our instructor divided us into groups by strongest trait, so I was with the C's (my test was wrong the first time I took it, but my CD numbers are similar). It was fun working with like-minded people to answer the instructor's questions. (I also had fun pointing out when my C's were acting like D's "Let's just answer the question and keep going." Because I was at a training for accountants, there were quite a few C's that had strong D traits and, I assume, vice versa). Right before this exercise I had been complaining to a friend that the i's ruled the world. Even though we all went through these nice little personality sessions, at the end of the day we were all expected to talk to each other and behave like i's. During show and share my worst fears were confirmed. When asked how their personality group could change and be aware of other personality types, the i's said, "We don't change for other people. Other people change for us."
A year later, I am still exhausted by this mentality. Being an i is a self-perpetuating talent. At some point you were accepted in a large peer group, you developed skills for engaging with lots of people (I think i vs. S may have a little to do with those who prefer a large circle of friends vs. a smaller circle). And now you will always have a large circle of friends because you have a sort of magnetism. You are popular.
I wonder if there was ever a time where the "popular" or "admired" personality type was a D or C. I think, perhaps, during the times of the Greek philosophers C's were admired and respected. D's or Di's are probably in their prime in times of war - when great leaders need to take charge. (Now a Di or iD is probably a politician, and you can see how respected those are). And some personality traits are gender linked, too. I don't think there are more female S's than i's, but if you have the people personality, I think women are expected to behave more like S's, while men are expected to behave more like i's.
Ultimately I have never walked away from a personality session without being cognizant that it takes all four types to really get anywhere - whether we have that in people with two strong traits or a mix of one strong trait for everyone. I just wish the world at large would begin to recognize the contribution of the D's and C's.
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