More quotes from Lynne Baab on Personality Types and working effectively with others

These are more quotes by Lynne M. Baab from her book, Personality Type in Congregations: How to Work with Others More Effectively.

"Psychological type is not a good source of direction for finding a place to serve. Type can provide us great understanding of how to serve once we get to a place of ministry. Type can help us understand what tasks will be easy and what tasks will be hard. type can help us understand which tasks will be tiring. Type can help us predict some of the ways we may experience conflict with people. 

"The best and most effective service grows out of our deeply held values, commitments, and passions, which give us energy to persevere when things become boring or difficult. These values, commitments, and passions can come from a variety of places in our lives."

I thought this was particularly interesting and insightful. Baab gives an example of an ESTJ gal who helps out in the church in several very practical ways (which is typical of ESTJ's). But at one point she decided to help with a hospice center, thinking that she'd do practical things like wash dishes and tidy up. But what she found was that caregivers wanted a chance to get away and she ended up sitting with the patients who often wanted to talk out what they were going through. So here was a very practical DO-ing oriented woman who was expected to sit and listen quietly to someone emote -- something she would find incredibly hard to do. But because she still felt strongly about the general task of helping with hospice care, she persevered and ended up growing richly in ways she hadn't expected. Because her weakest abilities were called upon, she felt like she had to rely ever more heavily upon God to learn to listen and empathize with people. But through it, she found healing for some of her own past wounds. Here she was doing a task that she never would have chosen based on personality type, and yet it stretched her and she grew in unexpected and exciting ways. And it worked because she felt strongly about hospice even though it wasn't an area of strength skill-wise for her. 

Baab encourages people to pursue what they feel passionately about, and only after that choice has been made should they consider how best to do their service in light of their personality type and strengths. 

"At midlife and beyond, people usually grow in their ability to use their less-preferred functions. In Navigating Midlife the authors write that beginning at midlife, people 'need to expand their identity by looking inward to discover the pieces of their personalities that are not yet developed. They need to move toward their own wholeness.' The push to grow toward wholeness often motivates people to try new areas of service  tat they never would have considered." 

I've heard this before, that as you grow older you're more willing, and even excited about, trying things that aren't as easy for your personality type. 

"Once we begin serving in a specific ministry, type can give us understanding and insight into why certain tasks are enjoyable and others are not. Type can help us make choices within that ministry to bring balance to our lives. Understanding type can help us know when to delegate tasks to someone else. Type can help us know when to ask for help."

Again, she's advocating for being involved in a ministry we feel strongly about rather than selecting something just because our type indicates that we have strengths in that area. Then she encourages people to find means of interacting with that ministry that fit our type. 

"Burnout can be like carpal tunnel syndrome or repetitive motion syndrome. Overuse of one part of our body results in soreness and pain. ... Overuse of our gifts and strengths in ministry follows the same pattern as repetitive motion syndrome. By the time we experience pain, the pattern of overuse is firmly established. Whether we are a pastor or a lay leader, the congregation expects us to continue to perform in the areas where we have shown so much competence. It is extremely difficult to form new patterns of behavior." 

Baab points out that there's three main ways to end up burned out: being overtaxed in an area of weakness until you're completely drained,  being overtaxed in an area of strength until you're injured in a way similar to getting carpal tunnel, and being so frustrated and stressed that you give up. She says that just because an area is our strength doesn't mean we can't still get burned out in it (which is especially a problem for people that work in their strength and then end up doing volunteer work that leans on that same strength). Just like with carpal tunnel, it can sometimes be helpful to strengthen surrounding muscles/functions. If we're strong extroverts and have to call upon that strength a lot for both work and church life, we may need to take time to strengthen our introverted function by taking on more behind the scenes tasks within the congregation for awhile. 

The frustration and stress section relied heavily upon an example, but she explains that we could work in our strength, but because the board or pastor or people we're helping don't have the same strengths as we do, they may not recognize the amount of work we've put in to something, or they may be grateful to us but not value our work. (In the example a T was thanked by a board of F's, but what she really wanted was her work to be critiqued and then used. She ended up leaving the church because all her hard labor was ignored... until, ironically, after she left the congregation and the F's learned how to use the documents that she had drawn up.) I definitely could relate to this example as I often feel like I'm thanked but not necessarily appreciated. 

Baab offers some great advice to pastors and other leaders in terms of helping people get plugged into the church life. She then moves on to talk about prayer and Bible study and how it differs among different personality types. She brought up Lectio Divina, which is an ancient form of Bible study, and she showed how the four stages of the Lectio Divina met the strengths of several different personality types, making it a good example for how to include all personality types in the same study.