What Kind Of Leader Are You?

You are a leader if someone is following you. This could be as
simple as one person watching you and following your example and
encouragement, to being a leader in your home, your community, your
workplace or even your nation. Leadership can take many forms, but
typically it often involves managing people- one of the most
difficult of all tasks. It means coordinating and motivating the
actions of others to achieve a common goal. A leader has to
establish that goal, and gain the willing agreement of others to be
governed by and work together towards that goal.

The style of leadership taken by any leader is usually predetermined
by the personality and motivational values of that person. They are
who they are, as a personality, and that has a strong influence on
the way they lead and communicate with others.

The study of personality traits has been on going for centuries, and
there is a great deal of agreement in the conclusions and findings
of personality characteristics. In this article I am going to refer
to the different types of personality in color form, adopts the
categories applied by Linda Berens and Don Lowry.

Every personality type has particular talents and skills that lend
themselves to good leadership. Any form of leadership however, is
greatly enriched and enhanced if it is able to draw on the strengths
and characteristics of the other styles.

A leader who has a strong Gold personality type is personally
committed and dedicated to the goal. They work hard, and expect
their team to do the same. They lead from a place of belief that the
work is important, and has to be done right. Gold leaders value
tradition- the ways of the past are proven ways, and so do not take
well to new ideas unless they are well proven to have potential.

Leaders with a strong Blue personality are motivated by their
commitment to the people involved, and a strong sense of community.
They have a democratic style of management, valuing the input of
employees and team workers. Blue leaders tend to see the big
picture, and have the ability to inspire others with the vision.

The strong Green leadership style also sees the big picture as well
as the complexity of detail. Green leaders excel in strategy. They
bring intellect, ingenuity and design into the leadership role. They
research and analyze facts and concepts, constantly looking for
improvements for working smarter rather than harder. Facts and
information are all important to the Green leader, and they pay
little attention to the value of feelings and relationships.

Action is the focus of the Orange leader. Administration and
organization exist to make action possible. They are great
troubleshooters. The Orange leader leads by example, setting the
standard to follow. Orange management style can be quite
authoritarian and abrupt as they are impatient with opposition, and
expect their directions to be followed. Above all Orange leaders
welcome change believing that the old ways can always be improved
on. A new project represents, adventure, a challenge and potential
fun, all of which the Orange personality thrives on.

Every leader has a combination of all four personalities, but one
will always be the stronger, more natural way to operate in. A
leader's style may also be a blend of their main strength, combined
with their second strongest style. A wise leader will understand
the strengths and weaknesses of their personal leadership style and
use those team members with different styles to bring balance and
greater efficiency in meeting the shared goal.

Barbara White
www.livingbeyondbetter.com

How To Change Your Attitudes
Copyright 2005 Kathryn Williamson

What type of person grabs your attention and motivates you?
Usually it's a person who is very passionate about what he
or she is doing. She's on fire and her excitement floods
the room she is in. When she talks something inside you
gets stirred - the desire also to be passionate about
something. Anything! You don't want to leave her presence
because you hope that some of that passion will rub off on
you.

When you find yourself stuck in a boring situation (whether
it's your job or other circumstances), how do you change
things? How do you get some hope and passion into your
life? How do you find a meaningful purpose for your
existence? How do you get out of the rut of negative
thinking and pity parties?

To change our attitude requires us to do several things.
First, realize that we choose our attitude. Even though our
situation may not change, our outlook changes when we have
the right attitude. We choose to change our attitude even
though our mind tells us different. How many times do we
listen to the negative thoughts instead of what God says
about us? We can only have one thought occur at one time,
although the thoughts can come very fast. So if we choose
to think on the positive promises of God, then we don't
allow the negative thoughts to dominate. When we choose to
believe God and act accordingly, our new attitudes take
root deep in our heart, making our choices automatic.

Second, our new attitude becomes permanent when we change
our underlying false beliefs. Many times we believe the
negative thoughts in our head and allow ourselves to
meditate upon them because, believe it or not, it feels
good! Some of us have beaten ourselves up mentally for so
many years that we don't have any other way of thinking. We
actually believe these lies and don't do anything to search
out whether or not they are true.

If we want to change, then we have to take responsibility
for our thoughts. We must do whatever it takes to uncover
the truth about ourselves - from God's perspective. We
don't turn to others to get their opinion of us; we turn to
God and find out what He thinks about us. God created us
and provides great promises for our future. But sometimes
there are things we must do to have many of these promises
fulfilled in our life. Whenever we come across a promise
from God in the Bible, we need to look at surrounding
Scripture to see if there is something we need to do before
God will fulfill the promise.

How we view ourselves improves greatly just by consistently
reading the Bible. We gain an understanding of how much God
loves us and how His love is unconditional. We don't have
to do anything to earn God's love, just accept it. Once we
experience God's love, we find ourselves loving others with
the same type of unconditional love.

Third, we become who we hang around with! The five people
we spend the most time around influence us, whether we want
them to or not! But there is one Person we can hang around
with whose influence will override the negative attitudes
bombarding us from these individuals. And that is God. By
spending more time reading the Bible, praying and asking
the Holy Spirit to reveal spiritual things to us, and
meditating upon what we learn, we can keep our attitudes in
proper check. This is great news because this is something
we can do without having to wait until we find positive
people to hang around with.

Fourth, we must identify what stirs our passion and begin
formulating a plan to utilize that passion on a consistent
basis. We may not be able to support ourselves in a
full-time job doing our passion, but we can find ways to
increase how often we do that item, thereby improving our
attitude..

Our first step is to ask God to reveal to us the specific
purpose for which He created us. This doesn't have to be
some major influence. God uses all of us in concert to
accomplish His overall purposes. No matter how big or small
your purpose is, when used in conjunction with the purposes
of others, the whole picture develops and no part is more
important than the other.

Discovering our passion and using it on a weekly basis
makes a major impact on our overall attitude. The new
knowledge we learn from God takes root in our heart from
our actions. When this happens, a lot of our underlying
self-pity dissolves as a by-product. But we need to be
consistent in operating within our passion; that is why I
suggest doing it at least weekly.

Here's an example from my life. I knew that I enjoyed
helping people overcome their problems and also sharing
God's love with them. Even though I didn't have all the
answers (and still don't!) I began volunteering as a lay
counselor on a Christian-based crisis hotline. At the time
I started I was going through a major depression and
dealing with many other problems. However, within four
months my life took a dramatic turnaround and I no longer
was down in the dumps. I was totally surprised by such a
quick change. My momentum stirred me to continuously choose
the right attitude.

By volunteering once a week it also gave me the motivation
to get through the things I was struggling with each week.
One key point is that I chose to volunteer at a time when I
was most vulnerable (Saturday nights). I later added
another shift to volunteer to cover another vulnerable
time.

Through the years of doing this crisis counseling God began
to mold and shape my vision for what He wanted me to do for
His glory. I now write books teaching people how to apply
biblical principles to their daily living. What I do
coincides with what others are doing with their passion.
Together we make a difference in this world for Jesus
Christ.

I encourage you to make the right choices, learn God's
truths about who you are because of your relationship with
Jesus Christ, spend more time with God than with negative
people, and find your passion in life so you too can impact
this world for God's glory!


About the Author:

Kathy Williamson teaches biblical principles to help people
overcome their problems and discover God's will for their
lives. Her book, teachings and ezine can be found on her
website at http://www.wisdomforliving.org