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This set of four Personality Types, clearly similar to the four temperaments of antiquity, is taught to the sales
personnel of a prominent international company. It is used in marketing to evaluate an office manager and quickly determine the most effective pitch to make a sale.
The first table shows the four types and their respective descriptors. I've correlated each type with its ancient equivalent in
the second table, which summarizes the types and suggests the appropriate pitch for each. Judgments of type and selection of the
pitch should take place, it is said, within the first eight seconds of contact.
Study of the four temperaments reveals that most people evince characteristics of two or more, rarely just one. The same
applies in this typology. Nonetheless, the schema presents useful categories and descriptors that might provide insight.
Apply the schema to yourself first, see if it works for you. Perhaps one of the four types will seem more "dominant" than the others.
Maybe three will seem strong and the fourth will not appear to apply. Simple schemata of this sort sometimes enable us to sort
observations and facilitate preliminary, chiefly intuitive insights, but no such schema is definitive in the evaluation of personality or
intrapsychic dynamics. Any attempt to fit oneself or others into a static mold is inevitably problematic.
Even so, it's an interesting exercise. If you'd like to learn more about these four types, read the descriptions of basic strengths
and weaknesses developed by Peter Urs Bender.
The Four Types at Work...
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