Unlocking the Secrets of Personality Types – Part 4

Published July 08, 2010 in Psychology by Sharon Harris

Everything you’ve learned in parts one, two, and three can help you tremendously when speaking one-on-one. However, sometime you might have to speak to a group. Have you ever been nervous while talking to groups? Knowing personality types can help communicate better.

Talking to groups

Note: Knowledge of "types" is most useful when speaking one-on-one to people you know well enough  to make an educated guess about which type they are (or who have shared this information with you).

However, here are a few tips on using type when speaking to audiences:

1) If your audience is composed of people from a specific organization or profession, you can make some good guesses about the type of the majority of the audience. For example, a group of environmentalists is probably mostly Blue Cards. Accountants are likely to be Gold Cards. Skydivers, Orange Cards. Computer programmers, Green Cards.

2) For a general audience, sprinkle comments throughout your talk that will appeal to each type.

3) It is estimated that around 70% of Americans are "sensing" types (Gold Cards or Orange Cards). This means that they prefer to think concretely instead of abstractly. So, keep discussion of abstract concepts to a minimum and give plenty of specific examples.

Truly all types can -- and should, in my humble opinion! -- be libertarian. And you can help them find this out if you take the time to learn about the different types and how to communicate with each.

Finding out more

How can you begin to learn more about these ideas? I highly recommend Life Types by Sandra Hirsh and Jean Kummerow for understanding all 16 personality types. I guarantee that one of the chapters will describe you! It's an easy-to-read, logical, interesting, and fun book that you will refer to over and over again.

I also recommend reading Please Understand Me II. The book explains the theory in detail and includes a short test to help you establish your own type. Its author, David Keirsey, was the one who developed the system of combining two of the four preferences to form four possible "temperament types" (NF, NT, SP and SJ) which we refer to as Green Cards, Blue Cards, Gold Cards, and Orange Cards.

It takes some study to obtain a useful understanding of type, but it's an investment that will pay off handsomely. You'll learn that using "types" is practical, logical, relationship-enhancing, and fun -- thus appealing to all types!

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