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 Mentors make up about 2% of the population. Mentors are warm and expressive. They are able to see the potential in everyone they meet and inspire them to achieve more than they thought was possible. Enthusiastic and concerned for others, Mentors make powerful communicators. These attributes make them effective in teaching, community organization and politics. A Mentor’s fluency in sharing facts and feelings makes them highly influential. They are capable of motivating others to work together to achieve extraordinary goals.
Mentors radiate confidence, authenticity and a genuine belief in people’s potential. They have a magnetic quality. They enjoy helping others and are sensitive to their feelings and needs. This can have a downside. Mentors can pick up negative moods and feelings to such an extent that it can affect their own attitude. Additionally, Mentors hold strong beliefs and will speak up when they feel the need to take a stand.
Mentors are not afraid to take criticism when supporting causes they believe in. Because they are assertive, Mentors often take on leadership roles. Their convictions and optimism help individuals and teams achieve a better future.
Mentors are open to all opinions, whether they agree with them or not. They are strong team players who welcome alternative views and disagreement as long as they are constructive.
Mentors are reliable and hate the idea of letting anyone down. They are likely to schedule tasks and commitments ahead of time to make sure that they meet their obligations.
Mentors are skilled at reading the needs and emotions of other people and reflecting this in what they say and do. Exceptional communication skills, combined with their deep concern for others, gives them a magnetic quality which is inspiring.
Mentors like to do good things for others. Their warm and engaging communication style draws people to them. Once they identify a need or cause, they will work tirelessly to support it.
Mentors may not seek power for themselves, but they are often asked to represent others. Those who follow them will find their altruism, belief in people, and communication compelling. They will stand up for team members and commit all their energy to achieving the team's goals.
Mentors are sometimes surprised by objections which contradict their beliefs. They can take it personally if their views are not accepted and may earn a reputation for being idealistic or naïve.
In their desire to do good, Mentors can spread themselves too thin, compromising their ability to deliver. They may neglect their own needs, leading to stress and low work satisfaction.
Mentors take the plight of others to heart and try to fix problems that are not solvable. They may internalize these “failures” to the extent that they undermine their self-confidence.
Mentors can become overwhelmed if they feel that they have failed to live up to their ideals or have not been able to help. This can undermine their confidence.
Mentors think things through thoroughly. They are able to anticipate the many consequences of a certain course of action. Because Mentors are sensitive to how decisions may impact others, they may struggle to make tough choices.
Optimist Mentors are enthusiastic, warm, dedicated and collaborative. They fit well into a wide range of workplaces and are likely to be successful in their chosen career.
Mentors are quick learners, organized, good at multi-tasking and will work hard to achieve their goals. They can be spontaneous and look for variety and work which enables learning and growth. Mentors may be dismissive of processes and can be defiant in the face of instructions or corrective feedback. Mentors may prioritize an agenda driven by their internal beliefs rather than the less exciting parts of their job. Highly effective Mentors use tools to increase their receptivity to different ways of doing things. Techniques such as identifying where things can be compromised, practicing flexible actions, and setting goals for mental stretching can help increase their receptivity.
Work gives you meaning and purpose and life is empty without it.
Mentors prefer a fairly settled work routine so they can plan ahead and make sure that they meet their obligations. They have high standards for themselves in this regard but will be more generous towards others if they let them down.
Mentors are likely to be seen as a go-to person and others may take advantage of their good nature by burdening them with extra work. They are eager to please and prefer to avoid conflict, so they are likely to rise to the challenge. Mentors will tend to accept additional responsibilities without complaint. If they become overwhelmed, they will be unable to meet their own high ideals and deliver on all their commitments. This may trigger stress and insecurities. Some Mentors can benefit by using techniques to respectfully decline requests for their time in order to preserve relationships and maintain their capacity to perform.
Mentors are popular and trusted colleagues who work well as part of a team. They are kind, interested in others, open to ideas and suggestions. In turn, Mentors often provide helpful advice and counsel. They make natural mentors and coaches. Mentors need to take care not to take this too far or risk appearing to preach or meddle in other people’s concerns. This can become challenging to relationships if it is unwelcome.
Optimist Mentors are genuinely interested in others. They actively connect with new people and put in the time and effort to build and maintain relationships. Mentors will talk to everyone and are fascinated by alternative perspectives and beliefs. They are likely to build the closest relationships with people who share their thoughts and ideals. Additionally, Mentors to maintain more superficial relationships with those who do not.
Mentors are articulate and charismatic and may be asked to act as spokesperson for various groups. They excel at facilitating dialog between people. Mentors excel at incorporating different viewpoints and arguments into a unified course of action.
Alone we can do so little. Together we can do so much.
Mentors develop strong views about what other people should do. They expect their help to be acted on and can become frustrated, overbearing, or condescending if it is not. While many appreciate their warmth, optimism and kindness, some can be overwhelmed by the intensity of a Mentor’s support. Learning how to take a step back and reframe the situation from other perspectives can help some Mentors to handle such challenges and preserve relationships.
Mentors build strong and satisfying relationships at home and in the workplace. Nothing pleases them more than seeing someone that they have helped flourish.
While they work well as an employee and part of a team, Optimist Mentors shine in leadership roles. Their expressiveness and ability to understand people’s motivators helps them build committed teams.
Mentors can sometimes pursue projects or initiatives that are partially or completely unrelated to their objectives based on their personal interests. Mentors can sometimes be more interested in their personal development than driving results. Effective Mentors mitigate this tendency by using tools to align team objectives to organization goals, monitor performance, and hold people accountable.
Mentors give their team members freedom and encourage them to have a say in decisions. Their democratic approach may not always be the most effective. It can result in projects going off track or failing to meet deadlines. Learning to adapt to the supervision needs of other personality types can help some Mentor leaders provide better direction to all their people. It can also increase individual satisfaction and overall team performance.
If your actions inspire others to dream more, learn more, do more and become more, you are a leader.
Mentors prefer to act as a coach or mentor to members of their team. They are passionate advocates of self-development. They can become frustrated with team members who reject new ideas or do not put in the effort to develop new skills.
Mentors dislike conflict and are likely to give corrective feedback indirectly or in general terms. This can be missed or misunderstood. Mentors who deliver feedback well can be some of the most powerful coaches. Many Mentors experience difficulty communicating emotionally difficult messages. Most can benefit by learning to deliver real-time feedback and coaching with specific behavioral examples to ensure their message is clear and actionable.
Mentors lead best in stable, democratic environments that allow them to nurture relationships. They seek opportunities to develop new skills for themselves and their team members. Mentors will welcome change which provides these opportunities. In times of change, their optimism and care for their team will be invaluable in maintaining morale and performance. They may be less concerned about tasks and processes during periods of instability. Learning to balance their team’s satisfaction with organizational performance can increase their effectiveness.Some Mentors can benefit by using tools to drive accountability based on a balanced set of performance metrics to focus on the key elements of performance in changing times.
Optimist Mentors are genuinely interested in people and are drawn to roles which allow them to help others. They enjoy the social aspects of work including meetings, working on teams, or dealing with customers and other stakeholders. Mentor’s emotional intelligence and ability to build strong networks lends itself to a wide range of career options.
Many Mentors assume roles as teachers, counselors or advisors in many fields such as education, social services, health administration, or government. In these positions they can use their strengths in exploring the problems and motivators of others to help them realize their potential. Roles in sales, event management, marketing, customer support, human resources or politics can also be a good fit. Some of the best motivational speakers and educators are Mentors.
You can find Mentors in most industries including law enforcement and emergency services. Some Mentors struggle with tough people decisions and, in these fields, they should carefully consider the type of role they want. Their sensitive nature means that they may experience significant stress in certain situations. Mentors interested in these fields may want to consider support or management roles.
I attribute my success to this - I never gave or took any excuse.
Mentors work best in environments are personal and egalitarian. They thrive on the opportunity to build long lasting personal relationships. Mentors 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.
Mentors tend to find the detailed work of analytics or working with systems and processes taxing. Working in rigid, hierarchical organizations or working alone may be a challenge. Mentors 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.
Mentors are wired to pursue growth and authenticity. They are at their best when they can focus on helping others grow. Their charisma, dedication, and sociability make them popular and effective in a wide range of roles and organizations.
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 Mentors have tremendous capabilities. They also share some common challenges. Possible areas for growth for Mentors include:
Communicate and act with confidence
Enlist key stakeholders and accelerate change
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
Respond openly and positively to suggestions, requests, and ideas
Be strong and productive in times of stress and uncertainty
Adapt your interpersonal approach to build rapport and influence others
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