Every person is unique with a different set of experiences, skills and ambitions.
Research shows there are four core personality types each with four sub-types. While a person’s experiences, skills and ambitions change over time, personality is remarkably stable.
Learning about your personality will help you understand your needs and preferences.
This will enable you to make choices which enhance your level of career satisfaction.
Optimists make up about 15% of the global population. There are four types of Optimist: Motivators, Mentors, Guides, and Facilitators. Optimists live to explore their ever-evolving capabilities and to help others maximize their potential.
Optimist types share a number of characteristics. They are often idealistic, intuitive, and authentic. Optimists believe deeply in the potential of others. They are also often loving, kind, trusting and spiritual. Optimists share a passion for creating meaningful relationships with others and with their environment.
In their professional lives, Optimists excel at helping to transform organizations and the people within them. They are energized by the prospect of learning new things and by growing. With Optimists, what you see is what you get. Optimists have a deep sense of authenticity and integrity. Their innate commitment to growth and development often make Optimists highly effective educators and innovators.
Optimist Guides make up about 3% of the population. Guides combine an innate sense of right and wrong with an ability to take positive action to make things better. They derive their energy from helping others. Guides take real pleasure in seeing people fulfilling their potential.
Guides are sensitive to injustice, whether at work or in the broader world. They work tirelessly to alleviate suffering. Guides have a quiet conviction. They are relentless in supporting causes, rather than working for personal gain.
Guides possess a vivid imagination and are very creative. They create harmony among people through their sense of morality and empathy. Guides are compassionate and have a talent for communicating to people’s hearts.
Guides find it easy to build personal connections with other people. However, it will take longer for others to get to know them as they are reserved by nature. Guides don’t tend to share personal thoughts and feelings which can be frustrating to some.
Guides take great care not to offend or hurt other people’s feelings and are highly sensitive to personal criticism. They are likely to become exhausted in the face of conflict and need time alone to recharge their batteries. Guides are capable of driving themselves to the point of breakdown when serving others and need to be careful not to neglect their own needs.
Guides thrive when they feel their creativity and insight are valued. They make significant contributions to causes which have personal meaning for them.
Guides use their empathy and imagination to resolve personal and interpersonal challenges. Their creativity makes them skilled negotiators, counselors and advisors.
Guides are adept at analyzing complex social, political and people problems. They are able to glean deep insight into the root causes of issues. Guides can see past what people say to understand their motives. This enables them to facilitate honest and open dialog, resolve conflict and identify solutions.
Guides transmit honesty, altruism and passion in everything they say and do. Others find themselves inspired by their understanding of people and situations.
Guides have both the vision and the ability to implement complex projects. When they get behind a person or a cause, they are determined, energetic, and passionate. Others view them as a force of nature.
Guides aim to make the world a better place and work tirelessly to support the people or causes that they believe in. They are not self-serving and have little desire for status or public profile.
Guides expect others to be as considerate of their feelings as they are for the feelings of others. They can be overly sensitive to criticism, especially if their values or motives are questioned. Others may be surprised at the strength of their negative response.
Guides are hard to get to know and are reluctant to share their feelings or personal information. This can make it more difficult for them to integrate into a new team or group. It takes a long time for a Guide to trust someone enough to open up.
Guides see a vivid picture of what they want to achieve. They often reject solutions which fall short of their ideals. A Guide may abandon or reject a good enough solution in pursuit of something which is not realistic.
Guides pursue their vision relentlessly and may become impatient with tasks which don’t feel are relevant. They may struggle to be productive and motivated in environments which seem to have no particular mission or vision.
A Guide’s reserve, sensitivity, and relentless drive cause them to expend tremendous energy. This can mean they have little opportunity to restore their personal reserves. Without careful attention, a Guide can be prone to stress and burnout.
Optimist Guides enjoy work that allows them to use their ingenuity, empathy and ability to communicate to help others.
Guides like to work in organizations which foster autonomy and growth. Guides are not well suited to companies which demand compliance with rigid rules and guidelines. They work best in an environment which allows them to engage directly with the people and ideas that matter to them.
When working with colleagues, Guides tend to be more concerned with team harmony than the output of the group. They value cooperation and enjoy working with people who share their concern for others and values. Guides are generally able to sense conflict before anyone else and tend to act as peacemaker to resolve interpersonal disputes.
Work gives you meaning and purpose and life is empty without it.
Guides are likely to be popular work colleagues because of their kindness and concern for the well-being of those around them. Less scrupulous types may overload Guides with work, knowing that they will be dedicated to getting things done. The demands of others can become overwhelming. Guides need to carve out time and space for themselves to restore their energy and increase their resilience.
Guides are most productive if they have autonomy, mission-driven goals and scope for personal learning and growth. They can be demotivated if their organization takes actions which contradict its mission or their sense of fairness. Some Guides benefit by reframing such actions in the broader strategic context. Others periodically examine their beliefs to determine if they are best served by maintaining them or whether they should be altered based on the situation.
Optimist Guides are articulate communicators both in writing and face-to-face. They can appeal to emotion but are also adept at using data and analytics. In this way, Guides are able to be highly influential and popular and can rally people to a cause. However, most Guides prefer to talk to people individually or in small groups, rather than to large crowds.
Guides have well developed listening skills, empathy and a strong desire to help others. This makes them excellent counselors and coaches. Guides will be sought out by those facing problems and they view it as their mission to support others.
Alone we can do so little. Together we can do so much.
In team settings, a Guide can readily identify possible areas of friction. They use both empathy and imagination to identify ways to restore harmony. Guides generally try to avoid conflict, finding it emotionally exhausting. However, their unique combination of skills allows them to easily navigate relationships at work. Because of this, Guides are often called upon to help address issues between people.
Guides are careful not to offend or upset people and expect others to demonstrate the same consideration for their feelings. They can be easily hurt by less sensitive personality types. This is especially true if a Guide’s mission or values are called into question. Using techniques to reframe critical input can help some Guides respond positively and maintain their relationships.
Guides do not seek power or status. They build the strongest relationships with those who share their values and beliefs. Although sociable, Guides are not drawn to friendships based on frequent contact. Instead they look for authenticity. Guides are energized by opportunities to discuss philosophical issues, their mission and values. It typically takes others a good deal of time to get to know a Guide. Some Guides actively practice relationship building techniques to nurture a network of support for their goals.
Although Optimist Guides prefer to work behind the scenes, they can make highly effective leaders. They lead by example and will guide their team as a first among equals. Guides are skilled at managing team dynamics, look after the welfare of their team, and readily identify and resolve areas of conflict.
Guides inspire team members by communicating a compelling vision of the future. They also provide them with the coaching and development they need to do their jobs effectively. Guides readily identify team strengths and give people a high degree of autonomy, trusting them to work out the details for themselves. This approach doesn’t work for everyone. For example, more concrete types will appreciate a more hands-on leadership approach. Learning how to flex their management style to the needs of other personality types can boost team morale and performance.
Guides tend to focus more on people than on tasks. Depending on the nature of their leadership role, they may need to delegate the task of defining project goals and managing execution. The most effective Guides use tools to align team objectives to organization goals, monitor performance, and hold people accountable. If this is not possible, using simple project management hacks could enhance their productivity.
If your actions inspire others to dream more, learn more, do more and become more, you are a leader.
Guide leaders are adept at identifying and recognizing people’s contributions. They motivate team members by recognizing them in a way which that aligns with their individual preferences.
Although they prefer a relaxed leadership style, Guides have little tolerance for those who lack commitment or do not respect others. They use empathy to understand such lapses and coach people to achieve the standards. This approach does not always work, particularly when low motivation or a values conflict is a root cause of performance issues.Learning to flex their approach to delivering real-time feedback and coaching with clear and specific examples can help in these situations.
In times of transition, Guides prefer to understand the rationale for and potential impact of changes. They must understand the change conceptually before they commit their support. They can become frustrated and demotivated if they feel their team or mission are being compromised. Once they are on board, Guides can serve as powerful agents of change. They can create powerful risk mitigation strategies by anticipating people’s responses to change. Guides can also play a valuable role by reducing conflict and reaching agreement in times of turbulence.
As leaders, they guide their team members through the transitions that enable organization change. They do this by focusing on both their needs for emotional support and personal development.
Optimist Guides possess a strong capacity to help others develop and grow. They take great pride in working with people to help them maximize their potential. They build strong bonds with others based on their ability to listen and provide counsel on personal problems or challenges.
Guides look for causes to support rather than just a job. As a result, they need to understand how their organization helps others. Guides will be most motivated by roles and organizations that align with their values. They will also seek roles that allow them to use their creativity, interpersonal and communication skills to help others.
Roles in counseling, teaching, life coaching and psychology are a great fit for Guides. They may also enjoy working with charities or other social support agencies. A Guide might also find satisfaction in artistic pursuits. These can include roles that tap their creativity and ability to communicate such as writing, music, photography, design or art. These careers will also be attractive because they provide a degree of autonomy.
I attribute my success to this - I never gave or took any excuse.
Guides work best in environments are personal and egalitarian. They thrive on the opportunity to build long lasting personal relationships. Guides also have a keen appreciation for the appearance of their surroundings. Organizations that reward uniqueness, serving others, and group efforts are likely to resonate with them.
Working in rigid, hierarchical organizations may be more of a challenge. Guides tend to be demotivated by work which does not align with their values. Similarly, they may not appreciate situations where they lack autonomy. Their compassionate and supportive nature means that their leadership capabilities may be overlooked. They may be better off establishing their own business where they can spend more of their time supporting a cause that they believe in.
Guides can have tremendous positive impact in the world. Their ability to sense injustice combined with their desire to help others makes them true campaigners. They truly have the ability to make the world a better place.
Too often, we leave our growth to random chance. That can be frustrating because we can’t always grow as fast as we want (or need) to! While experience can be a great teacher, there is no substitute for learning proven strategies to maximize our potential.
Optimist Guides have tremendous capabilities. They also share some common challenges. Possible areas for growth for Guides include:
Build stronger relationships with the people who matter most
Strengthen your ability to deliver results through others
Provide others with insight in a way which helps improve their performance
Set up people and teams to drive accountability and achieve measurable results
Deliver critical project outcomes on time and on budget
Be strong and productive in times of stress and uncertainty
Learn from feedback to strengthen your performance and effectiveness
Establish a bold vision for the future and create clear plans to achieve it
Adapt your interpersonal approach to build rapport and influence others
Civil Rights Leader
Feminist
Recording Artist
Primatologist
Philosopher
Author