While I almost always enjoy Canadian Headhunter, this time I just plain disagree. Here’s an exerpt from a recent piece in which Michael talks about the 4 core kinds of leaders, as characterized by if they want to dominate people or achieve status (or both):

Type———————–Dominance Drive——Status Drive
A: Dominant Boss————-high——————high
B: Ambitious Professional—low——————-high
C: Informal Influencer——-high——————-low
D: Reluctant Leader———-low——————-low

According to this chart, I would seem to be an Ambitious Professional (if I had to pick between a desire to dominate and achieve status, it’d definitely be status); described as such:

mbitious Professionals are Tough Achievers who like to compete and win but have no interest in managing people. For example, faceless technocrats running investment banks and science-based firms or creative people who head up media firms.

However, I do love working with and managing people, so this obviously doesn’t apply. So, I’m likely a Dominant Boss, right

Political leaders and many business leaders

Yay! Except that I still don’t agree that I have an innate drive to dominate or lord over people. My drive to succeed isn’t because I want to manage, after all.

Personally I’m of a different school of personality profiling (one of those things I just ‘picked up’). One of the most interesting (and accurate, when I sampled it with 200 candidates, only 2 declared their results wrong. A 99% accuracy rate is unheard of in profiling circles).

I believe that you are portions of multiple personality types. Imagine there were several different personality ‘types’:

Influencer: Someone who loves to have fun, be with people and get them excited. Social butterflies, the life of the party, charismatic leaders.
Responder: Someone who ‘just cares’. Very loving, nurturing, aware of people’s feelings, etc.
Doer: Someone driven by action. Generally by lists of tasks. They feel fulfilled by getting through those lists, often behind the scenes.
Shaper: A planner. High level, great at dissecting an objective into measurable steps and goals.
Contemplator: A thinker. You know the kind. They’ll be totally quiet and then just have a genius idea out of nowhere.
Mover: A motivator. A flag bearer. A leader, though often because of the desire to keep motion they encounter a lot of conflict.
Producer: A patient planner, very giving. Often very good at making money.

I’m sure reading down the list you can see yourself in multiple categories. Just like any profiling system. The system I’ve started subscribing to recognizes that you are each of these.

It’s called Life Languages. The concept? Each ‘profile’ is a language. As you go throughout your day you will tend to communicate more (and more effectively) in 2-3 of these languages, generally with one dominating the others.

Me? I’m a Shaper > Contemplator > Doer. I’m really good at planning, high level, thinking up creative ideas and motivating people, but I also want to see things done.

My wife is a Responder > Doer > Influencer. She’s the best mom and wife because she loves to love people, often by serving them. She also loves to have fun and meet new people. A wonderful person to know.

If you really are into knowing how you function, and how you’re likely to succeed, I’d suggest having a look (at least) at the website if not investing in the test (which you can take on-line and have the results mailed to you, for a nominal fee – no I’m not associated).

And, for people like Michael and other Recruiters? Take it to understand yourself, then go on the course so you can understand those you are reviewing. The course is free when you take the test, and is well worth the price of the test alone. It’s amazing how adept you can become at spotting people’s personalities. This will enable you and your peers to better place them and help them find jobs they love.

Enjoy!