Here is a reason why you must know yourself, your personality type, and your leadership style. You must know these things because if you don’t, you are likely very inefficient and will never reach your full potential. How’s that for a reason? Let me say it again, if you don’t,  you will NEVER REACH YOUR FULL POTENTIAL.

Are You Caught in a Personality Trap?

Why is that? Well, simply put, you will be living your life with one leg caught in the trap that has been set for you. Do you remember the traps that I described in the FREE Animal Leadership Implementation Guide I sent you when you took the Animal Leadership personality test? (If not, take your free test here  www.animalleadership.com and get your guide too.) Well, each one of the four personalities, the Bear, Wolf, Eagle, and Horse, have a trap set for them. Let’s use a real life example of the Bear’s trap.

Recently I have been working with a leader who is a Bear personality. Being a Bear he is self-assured, quick to take control of the direction of the group, and gets frustrated when people don’t follow his direction. This last part is the Bear’s trap.

Different Personalities, Different Traps

Each personality has it’s trap. As a Wolf personality I have my strengths, but my trap is lack of organization and follow through. I know this and I work at it. The Bear’s trap is getting frustrated when people don’t want to follow their leadership or when challenged.

So, in the case of the leader I have been working with, he is very frustrated that some of the people he leads (and he is an accomplished leader), have different personalities and leadership styles. It is actually past the point of frustrating him, and is undercutting his ability to be the leader he could be.

You see, you cannot be a highly effective leader by pushing others to be like you. But rather, you must look to foster the strengths in others in order to grow your own strengths.

The good news is that such leadership strategies can be learned. If learned, they will not only help you as a leader, but in sales, in making friends, even in being a parent. So I encourage you to think about your leadership style and personality type and see where you can improve. If you haven’t already, go to www.AnimalLeadership.com and take the personality test and review the FREE implementation guide. Then let me know what you learned and how you will aim to become a leader who helps bring out the best in others.

Keep leading,
Rad