Know yourself - personality and type

Personality comes after character in importance but can have an important bearing on your level of self-awareness.


Knowing if you are an internal or external processor will be of help to you and you need to know how others tick with this issue, too. An external processor deals with information by talking it out. Internal processors on the other hand sit quietly and think about things and come back with a well-thought out, cohesive plan. Guess which I am! If you’re part of my team I could come out with something that sounds like my conclusions on a particular topic – especially as I’m a very persuasive leader and as team leader I have a measure of authority that goes with that! However it’s probably just me thinking aloud and my team get that now – most of the time!

And what about leadership styles? Authoritarian, persuasive, consultative, democratic and laissez-faire – each of these might be appropriate in different settings – or inappropriate! In a critical situation like a fire, you don’t want democratic leadership. (‘Let’s have a meeting about this – shall we leave the building? Let’s vote on that!’) My leadership style is persuasive. I pretend to be consultative but actually I’m not. In the context of my eldership team I’m at my most consultative but I’m definitely not democratic...

Character and personality – there’s a difference! And character is more to do with the fruits of the Spirit.