The Personality of Leadership

 by: Jeff Earlywine

Have you ever wondered what type of person or personality makes the best leader? Most would consider the answer to that question to be the person that has the greatest success, the largest organization, or the best staff. Conversely, have you ever wondered how it is that a person with little drive or entrepreneurial skills ends up in a leadership position? You know the type person I am writing about, a person that couldn’t lead a dog on a walk, but has been given the responsibility of leading a large and well-established organization.

While I was in college I met a person that had skills and a personality type much different than I first thought. After serving in a very successful pastoral role for several years this person was offered the position of Bible Department President at Lee University. Part of his duties included teaching a full load of classes at the university. When he arrived to class on his first day he had a notebook for each student. A notebook full of outlines for lessons he was going to teach the entire semester. WOW! To say the least, I was impressed. I just knew that this person had to be the most organized person in the world.

Years later, however, I had the opportunity to work with his son, and I made the remark that he must have the most organized father in the world. His response was, “My dad is incredibly unorganized, but he makes up for it with his leadership personality. He knows the value of having a diverse team around him.” That statement, and learning experience, gave birth to this month’s edition of Footprints and Monuments.

Some people have an easier time developing their leadership skills than others. Most agree that certain personality types make better leaders. So the real question is, “What is your leadership personality?” Below are examples of different leadership personalities, as you read each one try to decide which best fits you.

• Powerful leader – this type leader is also known as the lion in the organization. He is a person that loves to be in the drivers seat. The strength of this leadership personality is good decision making skills, the negative is the tendency to be a morale killer. However, once people see his caring heart, they will learn to love and respect him, and will also grow from his challenges.

• Perfectionist leader – this type leader is also known as the beaver in the organization. She is the type person that keeps all the “T”s crossed and the “I”s dotted. A person with this personality type can easily handle the details of day-to-day operations, but can let the small stuff get in the way. Rest assured however, everyone that she comes in contact with will learn and grow from her wisdom.

• Peaceful leader – this type leader is known as the golden retriever in the organization. He is by far the hardest to motivate, and will frustrate most of the other personality types. However, this type of personality possesses the greatest amount of compassion. So much so that it will be very easy for others to share their innermost feelings with him.

• Popular leader – this type leader is known as the fun-loving otter in the organization. She is always ready to have fun, and will create a fun environment if one is not there. Her leadership strength is the ability to rally the troops to achieve the organization’s goals. Everyone loves to spend time with this type personality, everyone except the beavers. Fun-loving otters will often overlook the details that are important to making everything balance at the end of the day; or so beavers tend to think.

What type leadership personality do you have? What are your strengths and weaknesses? What about your leadership team, what are their leadership personalities? Next month’s addition of Footprints and Monuments will reveal how to have and evaluate the best leadership team around.