How Your Temperament Affects Your Leadership Style.

Your Temperament And Leadership.

In my previous post on “The Role of Temperament In Leadership”, i did assert that different leaders with a specific temperament are needed at different times to solve a particular problem or achieve a specific objective. And no two individuals can lead in the same way or achieve the same goals using the same approach. The goal may be similar for different temperaments but the approach towards realizing them will always be different, courtesy of the influence of a person’s temperament on his style of leadership. I also stated that no particular temperament can be said to be the best or can succeed on its own in leadership, because the weakness of each temperament will be a major factor and could pose a very great challenge to a person’s success as a leader. But in this post, we’ll be considering how different persons being controlled by the temperament they’re born with, leads and the result of their leadership style.

A typical sanguine leadership style is a permissive type of leadership, where everyone does what they like. Rules and standards are oftentimes neglected and taken for granted without any consequence. Some persons loves to work for or with him because he’s a happy-go- lucky individual who never wields the big stick as long as he’s happy and excited. A sanguine is never thorough nor meticulous about anything he does, and his lack of discipline often makes his employees or subordinates develop an unserious attitude to work. Dereliction of duty is not uncommon for him, and he could abandon his duty post just to have a chitchat. This consequently makes him achieve less as a leader and his surbodinates less productive. He may never observe how badly he’s doing until it’s time to take a quarterly stock or appraisal of his performance. He’ll then lash out in explosive anger at his surbodinates, but sooner or later, his quick and explosive ire wanes and business continues as usual. For a sanguine to succeed as a leader, he needs to be more serious and discplined, and take daily stock of activities in his domain to know how he’s performing, or he could work closely with a more disciplined temperament as his personal assistant.

Apart from being domineering and bossy, a choleric is a disciplined, determined, hardworking and productive personality. His leadership style is rather more motivational and forceful. He will always be seen motivating, encouraging and patting his team members on the back to do their best so they can achieve their goals. A choleric detests laziness and unserious attitude to work, and he’ll not hesitate to express his displeasure and disapproval, should he notice any docile or lackadaisical attitude from any of his surbodinates. Those who tends to slow him down or do not work at his own pace will often get his backlash. No other temperament can be pushy and ruthlessly ambitious when it comes to achieving their goals more than a choleric. You cannot work for or with a choleric without being productive. For him, you must justifiably earn every penny you get. This character makes Cholerics achieve more as a leader, and makes anyone working for or with him very productive. However, inspite of the fact that he realizes his goals in the end, a choleric would have stepped on everyone’s toes in the course of achieving his goals.

A melancholy is a detailed, intelligent, disciplined, perfectionist and very analytical personality. Beyond all these, he’s also a self-sacrificing individual. He’s a meticulous and sacrificial leader. And no other temperament comes close to a melancholy’s level of self-sacrifice when it comes to achieving a common goal and objective. He’ll often be seen carrying the burden of the whole team on his shoulders alone, just to make sure his team achieves more. His conscientious nature does not allow him to disappoint you when you’re counting on him to deliver. He’s the first to arrive the office and the last to leave, just to ensure that everyone is on track. He could sacrifice his resources, energy and time and will even go out of his way for the team to accomplish and realize their goal. A melancholy’s hard to satisfy attitude and his perfectionist tendencies often makes him doubt what others have done until he puts a final touch to it. No temperament is capable of perfectionism more than a melancholy. Although not as ruthless and aggressive as the choleric, but a melancholy is often irritated by the unserious and undisciplined attitude of any of his surbodinates or team member. Even though he may not speak out about it, but he’ll often frown at it and could also bear inner resentment against them, and may also decide never to work with them again. Melancholies after all achieves their goals, more often without any error, but they would’ve gotten themselves drained in the course of doing that.

Though very gentle, gracious, calm, quiet and efficiently organized individuals, phlegmatics are often docile, indecisive and ill-motivated personalities. As their names implies, the phlegmatic’s leadership style will be fraught with sluggishness in taking decisions and docility. He’s the type of leader that often hesitates in making a decision and stand by it, very little pressures, challenges or subtle appeal could easily make him change his mind or rescind his decision. Procrastination is also not uncommon for him. He’s a reactive leader who always waits for things to happen or watch them happen, and sometimes gets so bastardized before he could seek advice or summon his team members or subordinates to discuss the way forward. The fear of facing pressures, challenges and criticisms makes him unwilling to stick out his neck, or take the bull by its horn to achieve set goals and objectives. He’s often considered for leadership because of his gentle, quiet, calm and humble nature, but he more often fails as a leader because of indecision and lack of motivation. Although he is a very good manager of humans and resources, and an efficiently organized and patient personality, but phlegmatics needs to up their game in being more decisive and proactive in order to succeed as a leader and achieve more. Some persons enjoys working for or with him because of his humility and calm nature, but since he’s a passive leader, it often affects their productivity and his success in leadership.

Do not forget to leave your comments, questions and suggestions on this post. Also subscribe to this blog with your email and join other subscribers in receiving more updates on this topic. Thank you.