Back in Episode 22 I introduced the idea of the four personality types that I first heard described by Gary Smalley years ago.
The four types are Lion, Otter, Beaver and Golden Retriever.
There are certainly tons of assessments these days for personality, mindset, strengths, and how we relate to the world. But this is still one of the simplest and one of the most profound that I’ve seen.
And along with helping us understand more about ourselves and those we do life with, they are also helpful in the workplace, helping us to understand our team members and how to work well together.
This week, we’re going to dig into each of the four. And today’s focus will be on the Lions.
As you might expect, the lions are the natural leaders, the ones who will step into a room and take charge.
They have no problem speaking up and are great at charging forward with a plan.
We need lions in our organizations. And you might very well be one yourself.
We need their strength, their courage, their ability to hold steady, set a vision and bring others along with them.
Like with lions in the wild, there is often no question who the lions of your organization are.
They are often confident, vocal, decisive, tenacious and driven.
They are a vital part of giving a team a path forward and paving that path as they go.
As with the other personalities, lions also have weaknesses and blind spots.
Lions can sometimes roll right over others, especially their soft-spoken golden retriever colleagues.
They can be prone to not really listening well or taking others views into account.
Because they are able to come into a situation, quickly assess, and make decisions, they may not take the time to understand the work that has already been done or decisions that have already been thought through. And this can sometimes leave others feeling invisible.
Their natural opposite is the people and feeling-centric golden retrievers.
You get the picture.
Every organization needs each of these personalities to thrive. And they need to understand who they have on board to really figure out how to work best together, see each other’s blind spots and leverage the strengths that each person brings to the table.
So maybe you could start to make up a list of the different personalities on your team today.
Starting with the lions… which shouldn’t be hard.
Just listen for the roar.
Thanks for listening to today’s episode. I’d love hear from you about today’s topic or just in general. You can shoot me an email at shawn@shawnwashburn.com or head to shawnwashburn.com/contact and you’ll find links to connect with me on social media as well.
