We all have different temperaments. Knowing our own and others can improve working together and getting important work done. 

Most experts agree that leadership is the single most important factor in the success of any organization. Libraries of books, thousands of coaches, and scores of organizations exist to help people become better leaders. Tomes decry the lack of leadership in all areas of life. An Arab proverb is said to read “Better an army of sheep led by a lion than an army of lions led by a sheep.”

Leadership can be taught, and it can be useful to identify each individual’s natural temperament, understand the strengths and weaknesses of that temperament, and help the leader perfect what is good and improve what is bad. There are dozens of ways to characterize personality, including the Myers-Briggs (introvert-extrovert, thinking-feeling, sensing-intuiting, and judging-perceiving), Types A and B, Animals (bear-monkey-dolphin-owl) and others. One of the most famous is the Temperaments (choleric-sanguine-melancholy-phlegmatic). Each model has strengths and weaknesses, and Temperaments model is commonly used.

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