Two of Kind: On the Third Degree

They are two of kind; they are so… different.  They are same.  They are different.  He is the father, and she, the daughter.

Can they have a relationship?

They are alike in a fundamental way: they have the same Temperament and Type.  Different in other ways: male versus female, different generations, and different life experience.

Competitive.  Contending.

Two Crafter Artisans.

Co-stars in the hit movie, Paper Moon, the daughter, 10 years old at the time, Tatum O’Neal, won an Academy award for her performance, as a tough-kid in a father-daughter grifter team in the Depression.  She was the youngest actor to get an Oscar ever.  They were inseparable at the time, when Ryan O’Neal took care of her, because her mother and his ex-wife, Joanna Moore, was an alcoholic, and neglected to take care of  her.

“We were a team,” “we were very close; I was closer to her than any of my wives,”  Ryan O’Neal has said.

But then it all changed.

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How Different Types Deal With Stress (2): Guardians

This entry is the 2nd in a series of 5 where Keirsey Temperament expert Edward Kim addresses a reader’s question on dealing with stress.   The first article is linked here.

Each of us deals with stress differently.  Taken to the extreme, each of us has our different ways of “going insane” so to speak.  Depending on your temperament (Artisan, Guardian, Idealist, or Rational), you may be triggered differently, and you may behave differently from others who are of a different temperament.

Jobs are scarce.  Your stocks are not what they used to be.  Bills are piling sky high.  You owe more money on your home than what you paid for it.  These are difficult times.  Our reactions to financial stress depend on the way we understand and approach the world.  Each temperament has a natural pitfall they will tend to gravitate toward, and that they should try to avoid.  In today’s article, we will be discussing the Guardian.  If you are a Guardian, then this article will hopefully be of help to you.  If you are not a Guardian, chances are that you know many Guardians (they represent about 40% – 45% of the general population—reading this article may help you understand a friend, and enable you to assist in their time of need.

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A Brilliant Mistake

If I have seen further, it is by standing on the shoulders of giants. – Issac Newton

isaac_newton

Isaac Newton was a reasonable man as long as he didn’t have to suffer fools.  This attitude made him appear as both an arrogant man and a humble man at the same time.   This is not surprising, for he is one of the iconic examples of the personality temperament, called Rational, in particular a Mastermind.  Masterminds are not concerned with ideas, for their own sake, as much as the Architects, but rather are interested in ideas for their use and utility in reality.  And Newton had no use for useless or wrong ideas, and for those people who could not see what was obvious to him.  However, Newton saw far — farther than anybody else in his age. But he did make a mistake, a brilliant mistake in a form of simplification, and with that, he, and notably his followers, opened up the world to reason and the scientific revolution.

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Politics and Temperament: Why President Obama Should Love Idealists

As I wrote in yesterday’s entry, we surveyed more than 1800 people last over the past weekend who had completed the KTS-II to find out how the different temperaments sort out when it comes it current politics.  We focused on the current budget debt ceiling impasse between President Obama and Congressional Republicans.  One thing stood out strongly: President Obama, and anyone thinking of retiring some day, should wish for more Idealists.

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Politics and Temperament: Who You Vote for May Be in Your Genes

We have run many surveys over the past 12 years, querying tens of thousands of people who have completed the KTS-II as to their political leanings.  Besides accurately predicting the outcomes of the 2000, 2004, 2006, 2008, and 2010 elections, the results have been consistent in terms of the makeup of the electorate: politics and temperament have a very strong correlation.  According to Pew Research, about 32% of the population identifies themselves as Democrats, 25% as Republicans, and 37% as Independents.  Our survey mirrors Pew almost exactly, at a national level – but the real interest to us comes as we look at the breakdown of each of the four temperaments.  Take a guess before jumping ahead: which temperament is most likely to be Republican?  Which is most likely to be Democratic?  How about Libertarian, Green, or Tea?

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Avoiding Presentation Melt-Down: Presenting Effectively to the Big Boss

No matter what career you have chosen, at some point you are called on to make a presentation to “the Big Boss”. Whether you’re in a corporation, academic setting, non-profit, or government organization, you will be asked to make a presentation about your project, research, team, or class, etc, to the CEO, VP, Director, Principal, or Department Head – someone who has a great deal of impact on your future within the organization.

Most people called upon to make these presentations are reasonably competent in their area of responsibility or expertise. They usually work hard to put together a presentation that, if not captivating, does a good job of explaining what they are working on, and what results they have achieved or are planning. Yet, more often than we would like, the results of the presentation are less than we hope for. Sometimes, the results are catastrophic – the presenter ends up receiving a public dress-down from the Big Boss, or receives less direct feedback that their presentation (and therefore future career prospects in the organization) didn’t measure up to the Big Boss’s standards. Most of the time, the presenter is left mystified as to why this disaster occurred – after all, they were well-prepared, knew their material, had well thought-through conclusions, and a well-crafted presentation.

The key is to know something about the Big Boss’s personality, and just as importantly, about yourself. A prime cause of presentation melt-downs lies in the difference between the two: in key areas you are speaking the equivalent of a foreign language – without knowing it.

The following links are to a series of articles I wrote that are featured in our newsletter this month that directly address the issues each temperament faces in presenting to bosses different than themselves.  Hopefully, after reading your specific article, you will be armed with information that will make your next presentation to the Big Boss your best ever.