I’ve always been fascinated by people. In fact, my college psychology courses established the understanding that we mostly tend to do similar things while typically resistant to changing ways.
Accountability meetings declare that understanding and recognition is a huge step towards improvement. From decades of working with comms, here’re personalities I see (did I miss any?):
- Juggler. In a feeble attempt to keep up with all the requests, they start various plates spinning. Their constant “busyness” rarely gives them a sense of accomplishment.
- Procrastinator. No matter how busy, “something” always seems to be priority over urgent tasks. “I’ll just check facebook for 10 mins; THEN, I’ll crank out that content” is regularly internalized.
- Bulletin Nazi. People are fearful of this person as they wear a robe of grammar rules, typo spectacles, and deadline alarms. However, they accomplish a ton of things with a long wake of wounded suppliers.
- Chatty Cathy/Charles. They feed on interactions and meetings in an attempt of keeping up with all that’s going on and understanding the needs of others. Unfortunately, little time is left to accomplish those needs since their time is eaten up by “one more story”.
- People Pleaser. There’s so many requests and desires by so many people surrounding them. Their treadmill of expectations is set on an unachievable uphill incline. The more given, the more expected.
- Strategist. Somehow their workload is managed and prioritized properly with goals set and met. Their level-headedness creates a perfect calm with each interactions. Other name? Communication unicorn.
- Creative. They dread doing anything the same way twice; so an attempt is made to be unique in all accomplishments. They discover this is almost impossible to accomplish 100% of the time so they divert to procrastination while waiting for a creative spark to overcome them.
- Dreamer. Closely akin to a Creative, they love blue-sky thinking while resisting boundaries or standards. They often create houses of brands rather than branded houses and often live in a perpetual “what if” holding pattern.
- Encourager. This church comm exhausts themselves trying to model what they’re desiring from their leadership. People enjoy their presence and kindness all while depleting their positive energy.
- Take-Out Window Operator. “How can I help you?” is uttered almost as much as “do you want ______ with that?” This personality tends to listen to others more than their inner communication high standard. This blind, service-oriented servant feels like they’re one ketchup packet request from a breakdown.
So, which is you? Perhaps there’s a better description as we prayerfully attempt to communicate to our congregations and communities or maybe you’re a combo special.
No matter who you are, assess whether it’s sustainable and adjust your personality as needed. Either that, or you’ll sadly find yourself a “former communicator”.
