We can generally place the type of person you are in 4 personalities: Driver, Analytical, Expressive, and Amiable. Each of us falls under only one of the listed types. We hold to that type and live our lives within its bounds.
We do not change types except 
in times of great stress. Over the next few days, I’ll cover one of the four types of personalities and explain to you exactly how they think and most importantly, make decisions.
Then, as you begin to understand how to tell the personalities apart, I’ll teach you the ability to allow yourself to become versatile in any selling situation, won’t that be great? Now I want you to focus on a guy like Simon Cowell as we talk about Drivers.
Personality Type: Driver (Let’s do it now)
People who fall into the Driver personality type tend to be very controlling and possibly demanding. They know what they want and they aren’t afraid to let you know. They normally have little to no emotion and make decisions quickly and assertively.
To quickly sum up the characteristics of a driver:
- Demands control or will take it when available. Looks for opportunity to be ‘in charge’.
- Will get things done, likes goals and achieving them. Frames life as a sequence of I did this.
- Straight to the point, looks for the bottom line. Dislikes complexity or ambiguity.
- Little patience for the small details that aren’t clearly in line with goal seeking.
- Doesn’t like situations where they have no say in what’s happening.
- Appears to be arrogant and standoffish. Can seem overly aggressive, especially in the heat of a project. Will see people as ‘obstacles’ or ‘allies’.
- Can appear as Alpha male/female type
Drivers may appear intimidating, however, you must remember to put your emotions aside and not take things personally. Since I would say that I’m an extreme expressive, I find myself to be a very emotional person. By emotional, I mean that I pretty much wear my mood on my shoulders. When I use to work for Mike Ferry, the best trainer and coach from the Real Estate industry, my team leader was a very arrogant driver. He always wanted things done his way or the highway. Our communication was so one sided that I would constantly get mad by just talking to him. However, later, as I began to understand the way people work and make decisions, I realized that it wasn’t his fault for being such a prick, it was mine. Since I wasn’t communicating the way he wants to be communicated to, our personalities clashed. Remember, it’s not about you, it’s about the person in front of you.
How to deal with a Driver:
When presenting information to a Driver, avoid graphs, power point presentations, charts, and lists of data. Keep it short, simple, and sweet.
Expressive Personality Type:
Prevent yourself from going off on a tangent. If you absolutely must tell a story, give them the point of the story first. Otherwise, they’ll keep thinking about what your story is supposed to lead up to and quickly become annoyed by it.
Analytical Personality Type:
Drivers are general very annoyed by analytical people. An analytical should obviously avoid stories, details, numbers, etc. If you must give them stats, give them the end results, not the entire formula that led you to that answer.
Amiable Personality Type:
Drivers usually love amiable people because amiable people aim to please and do whatever the driver tells them to do. Amiable people, just remember to stick to the point, and speak up!
Are you a Driver? If not, what experiences have you had when dealing you dealt with Drivers?
Nice AJ. I've heard of these 4 personality types before when someone mentioned driver in a coaching call (a reference to me, idk) but I didn't know what it was so looked it up. have interested in hearing your own thoughts in your own words interpretation of these categories. I've also have greater familiarity with Satir categories — leveler, blamer, computer, distractor, placater.
However, i still have difficulty pinning myself into one of those 4. I think I like the permission to be expressive and amiable TO other people, but I want people to treat me like a Driver. Does that make sense ? Does that even factor? You want to act OUTPUT expressive/amiable but INPUT you want people to interact the way people should interact like a driver? Basically a driver in nice sheep's grandma amiable expressive nice clothing? haha. interesting. good post. caught my eye for a minute.
You can, it's called versatility, the ability to interact with any type of personality. Remember, it's not about you, it's about the person in front of you. You seemed like more of an analytical when I met you.
Philleas is driver. Verne is strictly analytical. I fucking HATE bloggers whom only blog. detestable. I can be expressive, am the least ‘amiable’. Pretty certain women I like are ‘amiables’ because said femmes likely have qualities I may lack.
Also, you ‘never met me’ (you met a husk) and never will. TRUE oauth oath. c’est vrai!
TBH this blog disgust me. It’s one of the tackiest, hoakiest pieces of shit I’ve ever seen. You should be ashamed of self for mimicking crap baby-boomers. I did that for awhile, but finally accessed (and unearthed) identity when saw this australian woman (just a photo; never met her) whom jolted me out of mancave.
I’m disgusted with a)this blog. It’s the tackiest, most superficial piece of shit I have seen.
I did over 790 blog posts, but did 20minutes-240minute podcasts (over 200). It’s not rewarding to read nor (from experience) write such tacky shit. It’s so bloated biz usa. I detest business. And i certainly do not fancy usa. Your blog post in 2009 was what got me to go to mindframe. then from there i made myself get a ticket to aus or uk and chose former. Thought about that causality. If I hadn’t seen 2009 blog post (—> mindframe —-> ticket) how much different (better? worse?) woudl life be? hhmm would I have gone to aus at all? probably not. I remember you talking about going to india or something with your gf in 2009. Dont’ really give a fuck. Don’t really want to be wasting my time on this shit blog. I really like making liferecordings though. those are quality. Your blog posts are just so fucking tacky and repulsively mimicking. I regurgitated knowledge (like hard sciences, rmp, and whatnot) but at least I wasn’t trying to be all hokey and mimicking.
>>I’m weird. Normal people are boring.
No, you’re normal, and not just boring; you’re vapid, AJ.
I’m creepy. True!
Pingback: Personality Types - Analytical
Mac Economy
Pingback: The Expressive Personality Type
Just believed i would comment and say neat design, did you code it yourself? Looks good. Bryan
Wow! That is 1 of the most beneficial blogs We have at any time are available throughout on this subject. Basically Magnificent
Im so a driver….
I am an Analytical person and a Driver. Is that posible? I have both qualities
Pingback: Versatility - Become Irresistibly Persuasive
ya a personality can the combination of many………there are 4 actually
Whenever people learn about these personality types they always want to think of themselves as Drivers. We envision Drivers as the CEO of a big corporation and really know how to get things done. In reality, drivers tend to be extremely disorganized. They also rarely finish projects because something else comes along that interests them more.
Without the help of Analyticals, Drivers will very quickly get themselves in big trouble by not getting the proper permits or licenses squared away before taking action. A lot of times, these people will get themselves, and the people around them, in hot water or sued. I had a Driver business partner that cost me $120,000 and almost got me sued… In my opinion, it’s not the most-desireable personality to have on your team.
I learned that you could have a dominant trait and a backup one. For example, I am an expressive with driver as backup drive. And everyone thinks I am nice!
Maybe you could write next articles referring to this post.
Pingback: The Amiable Personality Type | The Power of Persuasive Communication
Pingback: stop spam plugin
Thanks, I’ve recently been seeking for info about this subject matter for ages and yours is the best I’ve found yet. And I just added this website to my google reader, great page. I Cannot get enough!
Magnificent web site. Plenty of useful information here. I am sending it to a few buddies ans additionally sharing in delicious. And certainly, thanks for your effort!
Pingback: What Causes Someone to “Buy”?
Pingback: Customize Your Customer Service
I’m a driver. Not in the sense that I want to boss everyone around and everything has to be done my way. I just enjoy giving advice and helping others, and I don’t thrive or feel happy unless I’m working toward some kind of goal. I can’t stand the same thing every day and every waking moment I’m thinking about the future and how I can make my life better. I chose a degree path that I enjoyed, video production, because it fit my leadership skills to direct projects like this. People always say I’m fun to work with and I make sure things get done, and I’m a lifesaver when things go wrong in a project. When people don’t have any ideas, I take charge and come up with something everyone will enjoy, and I make a plan. When people do have ideas, I find a way to implement them into a project that will best show off their idea. However, most video production graduates like me don’t start out in leadership roles. They’re lucky to get a job as a grip or setting up lights. I learned from my first job out of college, which was not in my field, that I felt like I was much smarter than my boss and that I could make more intelligent and efficient decisions to benefit the company. I got angry watching coworkers use printers from the 1970’s for important tasks while my boss took home more pay than the business could afford to pay him. I knew I could do things better. When I found out I was a driver personality I decided to go back to school for human resource management. I’m happiest when I’m making decisions and helping other people advance in their careers. It’s perfect for me. 🙂
Everyone should take this test during their freshman year of college. Everyone needs a good mentor to help them find out the right path for them.
Pingback: The Amiable Personality Type | Neuro-Linguistic ProgrammingNeuro-Linguistic Programming
I guess I would say I’m a driver quick to snap don’t feel much with emotion but very protective of my friends I always feel I am responsible for them because I’m the one that could take them all at once and they know it… So would I also be amiable?
Pingback: Versatility – Become Irresistibly Persuasive | Neuro-Linguistic ProgrammingNeuro-Linguistic Programming
I’m a mix of all…I do not fall into a ”type”.