We meet friends and family and we know they all have a diverse range of personalities and behaviours, some we relate to and some we don’t.
This dimension adds a real challenge to the politician when formulating and presenting policy.
The audience will be a mix of personalities and they cannot expect to appeal to all. This diversity of type does help to incorporate more empathy when we meet other personalities with very different views to our own. And who knows it might encourage you to change your vote or politicians to change their policies!
What do the different personalities look for in politicians? Is it depth of policy, extrovert persona, articulation, track record, powerful presenter, sense of humour, grit and determination, friendly, reliable, honest, integrity? I am sure we could add lots more qualities to our almost never-ending list.
But I have discovered from my interviewing and assessing many candidates that we can define 4 distinct personality types, Supporter, Influencer, Analyst and Creative and their very different expectations from their politicians.
The Supporter personality type is a people person. They are a good judge of character and will in the first instance, make an assessment of the politician and then secondly their policies. They relate to friendly individuals and look for policies which are considerate and people centric.
The Influencer’s type dominant focus is also people first but from a different perspective. They themselves are high achievers and are very protective of their own reputation. They will relate to politicians who will mirror image their personality.
Direct, no nonsense, opinionated persona will win their vote though the policies may be a bit overstated and lack supportive detail. A great performance and confidently delivered is what the Influencer is looking for.
The Analyst type needs policy and credible policy as they will judge its factual merits. The extrovert politician delivering a dramatic loud speech will lose points. They are just looking for content not entertainment.
The Creative type as the title implies needs new and need innovative strategy. The same old boring repetitions have no appeal. Apart from good material it needs to be packaged with verve, energy and enthusiasm.
We can now say that when politicians are formulating policies they cannot be expected to relate or appease all of the 4 Lowe Personality Profiles.
Perhaps they should deliver bland ‘middle of the road’ ‘ one size fits all ‘ material which is dry and impartial.
The cynic might say ‘isn’t that what they normally do’! But I hope this blog will encourage a more empathetic insight whereby we make an allowance for personality convergence on both parties and tolerance if not.