Caregiver, Lover, Sage, Jester

When reading about my four primary archetypes I definitely felt that the first three are right on, depending on the situation.  Each of them had at least one sentence that describes exactly how I am.  As the Caregiver it says,  "in most of your relationships, you act like a caring parent who creates nurturing environments where people can heal or grow".  This is exactly true!

As the Lover, it says, "you like and live all sorts of variations on the love story".  Every time I hear a love story, either through music, movies, or books I love it.  No matter how its told, a love story will always be my favorite story.  "You would prefer always to be passionately in love with someone who returns your affections, but you alsofall in love with cherished activities, the vocation that is your calling, children, pets, beautiful surroundings, and material possessions."  This is also true, I love planning events, I love my dog, I love going to Lake Tahoe, and other beautiful places, and enjoying the scenery and everything it has to offer. 

The sage is my most prominent archetype when I am planning events or working. The best excerpt from this writing is, "as a leader, you are (or could be) excellent at dispassionate analysis, planning, evaluation, and making well planned decisions. When others are panicking, you can detach, see the big picture, or take the long view and know what to do. You have a calming influence, and under your leadership events move forward at a measured, sane pace, so that you know that the right thing is being done in the right way." 


Although the Jester was one of my top four I do not feel like that matched with anything right now in my life.  Sometimes I may have a "playful" outlook, but I feel that the Jester sounds more like people are not aware of their surroundings and don't know when it is proper to make jokes and have fun.
 

What Archetype Am I?

When I was first reviewing the 12 PMAI Archetype's I thought that I was most likely to be Caregiver and Lover.  My initial feelings on this are because, as you can see in my blog post and some of my quotes, that I love love.  I love caring for people, figuring out their problems, loving others, and enjoying life and nature.  When looking at just the images of the archetypes I thought I related most to lover and orphan.  Lover, because of the obvious heart, but orphan because of the tear.  This shows strong emotions, which I can relate to. 

On the other side, I do not see myself as being "destroyer".  This word seems repulsive to me, but also it shows no emotion or relationship.  It is all about cutting your losses and getting on with it.  I agree that this does need to happen, but there are better ways to handle situations that how it is described here.

**It is better to have loved and lost, 

than to never have loved at all**

Humans are ambitious and rational and proud. And we don’t fall in line with people who don’t respect us and who we don’t believe have our best interests at heart. We are willing to follow leaders, but only to the extent that we believe they call on our best, not our worst.

~Rachel Maddow

Is Trait Based Leadership Theory a Good Thing?

There is always the argument that “leaders are born”.  Depending on the person this may be true.  If leaders truly are born then it is a good thing because they will have less to develop than those who do not naturally have what it takes to be a great leader.  On the other hand, some of the most successful leaders, for example Alexander the Great, have extraordinary mentors, Aristotle, which teach them what they were not born with.  Also, trait based leadership suggests that there is no room for people to develop into leaders, you either have the traits or you do not.  There is no room for those that don’t.  While this is a well researched theory I think that it leaves too many great leaders out of the picture; those who weren't born with leadership traits.

The leader always sets the trail for others to follow

People ask the difference 

between a leader and a boss. . . 

The leader works in the open, 

and the boss in covert. 

The leader leads, and 

the boss drives.

~Theodore Roosevelt

Admirable Traits

A leader who exemplifies openness, fairness between employees, and a clear vision is very admirable.  In one of my classes we spoke about managers, or leaders, who have an “open door policy”.  This means that people can come to them about whatever they want to talk about or need and the leader will answer them honestly, because they don’t want to hide anything from their employees.  Openness is a great way to gain trust and respect from your employees, it may be a harsh truth, but if they know that you will always tell them the truth then they will be much more inclined to tell you the truth in return.  

This also goes hand in hand with fairness.  No leader should be known for taking favorites in an organization.  The main purpose of a leader is to help all of their employees succeed and you cannot do that without fairness.  

Leaders who can paint a picture for their vision of the company and execute it will be successful in the organization.  It is very difficult to get your employees, and superiors “in” on an idea if you can describe the vision clearly.

 

If your actions inspire others to 

dream more, learn more, do more and 

become more, you are a leader.
~John Quincy Adams

Leaders create trails for others to follow...

The writing below is how my leadership style is viewed through someone else…

Sarah Terwilliger is a leader who leads by example.  She strives to be a role model in everything she does.  She believes a leader should show people the way and inspire them to succeed.  She values the relationships she builds with her team, peers, and superiors.  Networking and learning from and about other people will help her to see their strengths and weaknesses.  In turn, she can lead them to follow in her footsteps.  All of her famous leaders stood up for what they believed was right even when the world was telling them they were wrong.  Sarah wants to create a vision for success.  From studying a “scout” leader, Sarah learned that it is important to do research and she values planning.  As a team player she is willing to learn from everyone and try new methods.  She will set a trail for her people to follow.

I thought this story pinned my leadership style on the dot.  I have never been able to describe the way I am a leader to anyone before this.  But now it makes sense and everything that the writer described about me is truly how I feel when leading others.

If your actions inspire others to dream more, learn more,

do more and become more, you are a leader.
~John Quincy Adams