It’s great to be with you again at the beginning of a fresh new week. And as for this next couple of weeks on the program, we’re going to be doing something quite different.

I’m joined again today by Keith Henry. If you were with us last week you’ll know that we spent some time looking at the different personality types that Gods created in each one of us. Keith’s done a lot of work on this over the years and come up with this tool that he calls Personality GPS. It’s a way of locating who we are.

Last week we just had a quick overview really of the four groupings, if you like, of the different personalities. And to help us visualise that, Keith’s placed each of the different nine different personality types, based on the list in Romans chapter 12 in the New Testament, around a clock face.

So from 1 to 3 o’clock we have the holistic, intuitive people. From 3 to 6 are the heart people, the ones who experience the world mostly through their emotions. From 6 to 9 o’clock, the mind people, the thinkers. And then from 9 to 12 o’clock, the people who operate mostly from their will. They’re really strong people.

And over the next nine days, starting today, Keith and I are going to meet one of the each of the nine different personality types across those four groupings to help us dive into some more detail. To help you identify your personality type. And not just yours but the personality types of the people around us. Because if we can understand ourselves and others, it’s going to make much for a better life. That’s the whole point.

Berni: Welcome again to the program Keith and Leo, you’re first, you’re the first victim, specimen, I think guest is the word I’m looking for.

Leo: I think it’s because I’m an achiever, I have to be first.

Berni: (laughs) That’s it. You realise the first will be last. Okay, I’ll come back to you in a moment Leo. Keith we’re kicking off today at 1 o’clock on the personality GPS.

Keith: Yes.

Berni: On the clock face with his personality type that you’ve called the ‘achiever’ in that holistic, intuitive group from 12 ’til 3 on the clock face. People who use all three, their mind, their will and emotions. Now Keith, I want you to tell us, describe to us, first up, the ‘achiever’. How do I know if I’m an achiever? How do I know if someone that I know is an achiever?

Keith: The achiever comes from the encourager part of the personality. We break the encourager up into two. There’s the achiever and then there’s the social encourager. So what we’re looking at is the encourager who is motivating and inspiring but is set on achieving goals. They’re actually very positive and very ‘people’ orientated but they’re very motivated. These are the competitive people or what we might call passionate people. They love to win.

They are very focused on getting recognition, being the best. So in sales teams, in sport, they like to be the ones that wins the awards. They’re very much into self improvement but they’re very inspirational too. They’re a team people so they can lead a team, they can motivate a team. And you can just sense their energy, these are the high energy people, they can just keep going until they bust.

Berni: These are workaholics right?

Keith: These are the workaholics and they’re very goal orientated.

Berni: Tick the tick list.

Keith: A tick list, yep. And they must tick them off. So they have a lot of sense of purpose and a lot of sense of where they’re going.

Berni: Now you can’t miss an achiever, is that what you’re saying?

Keith: No, they stand out.

Berni: They’re not the little quiet wall flower that sits there in the corner?

Keith: No, not as noisy as the leader but they like being up front.

Berni: Okay, Leo, in a moment I’m going to ask you how you relate to what Keith’s been saying but first up, tell us about yourself. What sort of work have you been involved in over the years?

Leo: Over 37 odd years I’ve had various roles and primarily in the sales orientation. Anything from running major accounts, working for big organisations like IBM etc. Handling major projects. One of the largest projects I got to handle there was the Defence Department re-equipment of their whole logistics area which is like from everything from tanks to toilet paper. And it was the largest systems immigration project that IBM have ever undertaken.

Those kind of projects, been in capital equipment sales, everything from heavy earth moving equipment with wheels up to the roof, million dollar type ticket items to micrographics which is where Keith and I bumped into one another in the world where you sold very small things.

But always in that world of solution selling and that kind of approach. That has given me opportunities to be able to move rapidly through organisations where I’ve ended up running states and at the country level of various organisations that I’ve had General Manager sales type responsibilities and a variety of things including managing teams of up to one hundred sales people.

Berni: Okay, just a quiet life then?

Leo: Very uneventful.

Berni: I guess the sales thing is very much achievement orientated isn’t it? There’s awards and recognition.

Leo: Yeah. That’s always been something that’s motivated me. To have the opportunity to stand out from the crowd. It’s sometimes competing against myself. Just to be there, up front, having won the recognitions along the way. Various, wonderful trips that you get around the hey days of the ’80’s, particularly where money for those kind of things were still around. These days less frequent although just recently just come back from a wonderful trip with my wife in Mexico where I was the top achiever for the Asia Pacific region for the company I was working with.

Berni: Okay. Yeah, you can’t miss him. You can’t see this because we don’t have pictures on radio but let me tell you, he’s just this energetic guy, he’s brimming with energy this guy. He’s not sitting back sort of quiet and shy. He’s just brimming with energy. If you have two hours off, two hours free to yourself, what do you like to do?

Leo: I’ve probably ticked off four things during that time off my tick list. (All laugh)

Berni: This is time off, this is rest.

Leo: I had two hours this morning already and I thought to myself, okay I’ll do a little bit of exercise, I’ll get that done and out of the way. I also ended up painting a picture frame that I wanted to do and was able to do a couple of other things before I got here this morning.

Berni: Tick, tick. I’ve achieved that, I’ve achieved that.

Leo: Exactly, it’s frightening.

Berni: Do you ever relax? Do you ever just kind of just go ‘(sigh) ah well, I’ll just do nothing for a couple of days’?

Leo: A couple of days, haven’t got to that yet but working on it, working seriously on that but the trouble is I often feel guilty. When I’m not doing something I feel guilty. If a day goes by and I haven’t been able to tick something off or say I’ve done something, I feel like the day’s wasted.

Berni: Does obsessive compulsive kind of…

Leo: Look, those kind of terms are probably things that psychologists would use to try and describe people who are just good achievers. (Both laugh)

Berni: I love that. That if all else fails you’ll sell as a feature, right?

Leo: That’s exactly right. All benefit.

Berni: That’s really good. So you’ve achieved a lot of things, what things don’t you like doing? What are you not good at?

Leo: That’s a great question because I’ve only recently been just working through that myself. Trying to make sure that, as I look forward to what else I can achieve in life, that I’m eliminating some of those things that I’m not good at because they tend to cause stress. They tend to cause anxiety that really is unnecessary if you can eliminate them. Some of the things I don’t like doing, that I’m not good at, is being micro managed.

An achiever wants to get out there and do it and be independent and when somebody says, ‘you’ve got to fit into this mould and make it work this way’ it really is quite frustrating and so I don’t like that. Strangely enough I love my independence so to be accountable, Keith mentioned about working with teams and things like that, I love working with teams provided they don’t want me 24×7. If I can input into them and motivate them and give them something that helps them do what they do, leave me alone, I want to do what I want to do then.

Berni: And go and achieve what you want to achieve.

Leo: Exactly right.

Berni: Okay. What drives you nuts in other people? What really frustrates you in other people?

Leo: Well, I tend to have a detail orientation because I make meaning out of putting the pieces together. But that’s achieving things. Like I achieve putting things into some perspective so I know where things are and that, to me, is an achievement. What drives me nuts is disorder. Because I love to put things in order so that I can achieve things. I can do things faster and better and quicker. But if things are in disarray then that frustrates me because I think that’s not going to be very useful for getting to the end objective of where you want to go.

Berni: Well that’s great. Leo, thanks very much for your time. And Keith, I’m going to catch you again shortly.

Keith: Thanks Berni.

Berni: Bless ya.

Now I don’t know about you but every now and then it’s really nice when someone pulls along side of us and gives us some encouragement. Yeah, sure, some people, just because of how they’re wired, need encouragement more than others. That’s okay but let’s be honest. We all need encouragement from time to time. It’s part of being a family or a community.

At work isn’t it nice when someone winks at us with a ‘job well done’ message written all over their faces. Isn’t it nice when someone sends us an encouraging email? Or just takes time out to affirm who we are.

Fortunately God knows that and there are some very special people on this planet who’ve been created to do just that. They’re encouragers.

Now if you’ve been with us on the program over the last week and a half, you’ll know that my good friend, Keith Henry, has been with us steering us through this whole thing of understanding our personality types. It’s based, incidentally, not on some personality system invented by the world. But on what God tells us in Romans chapter 12 in the New Testament.

And as well as Keith, today on the program, we’re going to meet Tim. One of those special people whom Gods wired on the inside to be an encourager.

Berni: Keith, great to have you with us on the program today.

Keith: Thanks Berni.

Berni: And Tim, we’ll come to you in a moment.

Tim: Yeah, thank you Berni.

Berni: Keith, first to you. I know there are a whole bunch of people who’ve been listening to you talking about this simple yet really powerful tool called the Personality GPS that you’ve developed based on the personality types in Romans chapter 12 over the last week and a half. But there are sure to be some people who’ve tuned in today for the very first time. Give us a quick 25 words or less summary of this thing, this tool, the Personality GPS. What is it and how does it work?

Keith: Right, the way it works Berni, it’s based as you said on Romans 12. The seven personality’s types, or nine that we have developed, are all there. We put them in a clock face because we find it easier to locate yourself. For instance, Tim, an encourager, will be 2 o’clock. So we know he’s 2 o’clock, it’s easy to locate. So in the first quadrant, between 12 o’clock and 3 o’clock, that’s the holistic people, the ‘big picture’ thinkers where the encourager is.

Berni: Okay.

Keith: Between 3 and 6 o’clock, that’s the ‘heart’ people, the feeling people.

Berni: The emotional people.

Keith: The emotional people that really care. And between 6 o’clock and 9 o’clock, that’s the ‘thinkers’. The servers, that’s where they are. And finally between 9 o’clock and 12 o’clock, that’s the decision makers, the leaders.

Berni: Okay, so here we are with our first quadrant, from 12 ’til 3 and Tim is one of the people who’s gifted to be an encourager and you position him at 2 o’clock.

Keith: That’s right.

Berni: Good stuff. Now I know you’ve been looking forward to today’s program because you’re an encourager too right?

Keith: That’s right.

Berni: Okay. Tim’s at 2 o’clock on the Personality GPS clock face with this type that we’ve called ‘encourager’. Describe to us the encourager. How do we know if we’re one of those? How do we know if someone we know is an encourager? What do we need to be looking for?

Keith: Well, you see them, they stand out. These are the fun people, right. They love having pleasure. They love parties. They enjoy life and are positive and enthusiastic. They look to the future. They don’t look back, they’re looking at the new possibilities, what the world has. They enjoy experiencing anything new. They just love the new technology, the new fashions, the new gadgets.

Berni: Tim’s nodding here by the way. (All laugh)

Keith: That’s it. And they’re people people. They love being around people. They’re charming, disarming and they really feel they have a privileged life.

Berni: Now Tim, no pressure to be charming and disarming today. I’m going to ask you in a moment how you relate to what Keith’s been talking about. But first, tell us about yourself. What sort of work are you involved in or have you been involved in? What are you drawn to in the ‘doing’ part of your life?

Tim: Well Berni, I started out in lithographic printing background and when I found out it kind of wasn’t going to be my career I sort of stumbled upon a few other careers that I thought that I’d try. And then basically I actually fell into photography. I found that this is something I love doing, realising that I was an encourager I thought ‘oh yeah, look I’ll do photography for a little while then I’ll move on and try other things.’ But it wasn’t to be.

Berni: Okay, as a Christian, how do you live out who you are in your Christian walk, in your faith? How do you relate to other people?

Tim: I think visually, for me, is what I express and through my images I find that God expresses Himself through what I do. And I think that really encourages people to look at something a little bit different, this is not just a normal photograph. They’re seeing something which is unique and unusual and I think that is the gift that I’ve been given. It allows people visually to see God.

Berni: Okay. What do you love doing yourself? If you had two hours to yourself and you could do anything you wanted for you, what would you do?

Tim: (laughs) That would never happen. Being a father of two.

Berni: Okay, imagine you haven’t got two little kids running around, you’ve got two hours to yourself, what would you do?

Tim: I really couldn’t decide because I would think of about probably twenty different things and I would want to do them all within that hour.

Berni: Oh, okay.

Tim: But then I’d probably end up going ‘well, no, look, I’m just going to get some sleep’. (Both laugh)

Berni: Alright, let me ask you this. What drives you nuts about other people? What annoys you most in other people?

Tim: I would say that there’s not many things that would annoy me most. I love people for what, I’m not the sort of person to judge someone instantly. I trust everybody. I’m always open to love everybody rather than seeing the bad in people. As soon as I meet someone I instantly sort of want to be their friend, if that makes sense.

Berni: Yep.

Tim: I always feel like I want to know people like I’ve known them for a long time rather than I’ve just met them.

Berni: Let me ask you this Keith. What makes you a classic encourager? It’s really interesting listening, he’s on the opposite side of the clock face to me almost, in my personality type and I can kind of see why. What makes him a classic encourager?

Keith: Well encouragers are scattered in their thinking because they’ve got too many plans, right, too many options. And when I met Tim, he was going to do photography for a few years, as he said, and then find something else to do. What did I say to you?

Tim: You said no, no you’re not.

Keith: Yet God gave him a gift and this is the problem with encouragers, they’ve got so many gifts. God gave him a gift. He had to focus on that gift and since doing that, he’s won photography awards, he’s had an old bomb car, now he’s got a new car. He’s bought a house. In three years he has achieved so much that encouragers don’t achieve unless they focus and get on with one thing rather than be scattered.

Tim: I think it was, it came to a point when Keith and I got together and he actually, almost, hit me over the head with a bat.

Berni: In the nicest possible way.

Tim: In the nicest possible way, encouraging way, and that kind of threw me completely because I did have all these other plans but it actually opened up my eyes to think, well, hang on a second. You have, this is my gift and God is giving me this amazing ability to make all these wedding couples that, couples that I get to come in and share their most intimate day of their lives with them and produce something which is going to be memories for their life and I didn’t realise the importance of that. That’s all. Keith sort of said, ‘No, this is your gift.’

Berni: Keith, let me ask you ’cause we’re out of time almost. Why do we need these encouragers around? What is it that Tim brings to the table?

Keith: Because they bring optimism. They take us from our own inner world of, you know, where we think down, things are not good. They can just bring a fresh breath of air into life.

Berni: Keith, Tim, thanks for today.

Tim: Thank you.

Keith: Thank you.

Every now and then something happens that gives me a rare and exquisite sense of delight and today on the program, well today’s one of them. Because as well as being joined by my good friend, Keith Henry. Who’s leading us through understanding the different personality types that God’s created.

Well today, today we’re joined by Max. Now Max is a special man because Max is my partner in crime in recording these radio programs. In fact, over the last 4 or 5 years, he’s been sitting on the other side of the glass panel in the studio, while I sit on this side behind a microphone.

Max is the knob twiddler extraordinaire. And he’s the man who actually records and produces these programs. And the reason that today is such a sweet, sweet delight for me is this. Max loves being on the other side of the glass panel, twiddling knobs, but we had to hire a team of wild horses to drag him over to this side of the glass and stick him behind the mike. And today we’ve achieved that.

Out of his comfort zone, Max welcome to my world.

Max: Hi Berni.

Berni: And also Keith, welcome again to the program.

Keith: Thanks Berni.

Berni: Now without further ado we’re going to dive into it. This week we’ve started working our way through each of the nine personality types that Keith and I discussed on air last week. And we’re doing that by lining up victims, like Max, one from each personality type, to dig deeper to find out what makes them tick.

The idea of that is not only so that you can figure out your personality type by recognising a bit of yourself in each of these guests. But also that you might recognise some of your loved ones and friends and colleagues to figure out where they’re coming from and who they might be.

Keith, as you’ll recall, has come up with a bog simple way to understand personalities. It’s a tool called Personality GPS. Where he takes the personality types that we find in Romans chapter 12 in the New Testament and just lays them out across the numbers of a clock face. So Keith, refresh my memory, at the moment we’re dealing with the personality types from?

Keith: Well from 12 o’clock to 3 o’clock on the clock face Berni, these are the big picture thinkers, the holistic people. They use their mind, their will and their emotions. On Monday we kicked off at 1 o’clock with the achiever. Yesterday we met an encourager, 2 o’clock on the clock face. And today, the last personality type among this group that I’ve called holistic or soul people is 3 o’clock – the teacher.

Berni: Okay, we’re going to be talking to Max in a moment but first, tell us about this personality type, the teacher. Which one does that relate to from Romans chapter 12? What do they look like? How do I know if I’m one of those or someone I know has the personality type of a teacher?

Keith: Well Berni, the teacher is not always the person we think that a teacher will be. These are easy going people. They can teach but that’s not always their calling. People like to get along side them because they’re not judgemental and they’re actually very caring type of people. So they’re people that really you’re attracted to naturally.

Berni: Why do we call them teacher though? Why that label of this personality type?

Keith: Well, if you look at a university teacher, they might just be the person who gives you the facts. What a teacher does is to get alongside you, they’d then say ‘Let me show you how this works. Let me show you what …’ So they care about the person not just the facts.

Berni: So is it more of a life coach type of person?

Keith: Yeah, that’s a good way of putting it.

Berni: Okay.

Keith: Yeah.

Berni: Alright, anything else? So how do I identify this personality type if I run into one?

Keith: Well, they’re easy going. They’re very trusting people, as I said, that don’t judge others. They relate easily with everybody, any type of personality type they can relate to. They like to go to social events, not to be the star but just to be one of the people in the group.

Berni: Okay Max, you’re on. In a moment I’m going to ask you how you related to what Keith’s been saying but first, tell us a bit about yourself. Tell us about the work and the ministry you’re involved in.

Max: Well, I do this recording as you well know. That’s part of what I do. Involved in music at Church. I’m involved in a ministry outside of Church which is a healing and deliverance ministry. I do worship there as well. So it’s a whole range of things.

Berni: Quite a variety of things. I’m interested in this healing and deliverance ministry because that’s a place where we were talking about the life coach type model before. It’s a place where you do pull alongside people a lot and spend time with them, don’t you? Just tell us a little bit about that.

Max: Well yes, I’ve been “trained”, in inverted commas, as a counsellor and I love doing that. I get really nervous every time I get called to go and do that sort of stuff but once I’m there and I start talking and I start listening to God, it’s amazing what He does through me and that’s what I love.

Berni: Okay. So what do you love doing yourself? What are your hobbies? I mean if you have two hours to yourself other than coming down here and producing radio programs, what would you do with that time for yourself?

Max: Probably go and paddle a canoe out in the ocean somewhere. I’ve got a sea kayak and I love doing that.

Berni: Okay and then you’ve got the bees to look after.

Max: I’ve got the bees to look after, yeah. That’s hard work.

Berni: Yeah, good honey though.

Max: Good honey.

Berni: Mate what really flicks your switch? What really motivates you as a person? Why do you get up in the morning? What drives you?

Max: I enjoy people. I think I’ve always enjoyed people. Or maybe that’s not true, I know I hated crowds when I was a kid. To go to a thing like the Easter show or something in Sydney, that was the last place on earth that I’d want to be as a kid. I’m okay with it now but 1 to 1, small groups, I enjoy that. Even to have a crowd of 6 or 10 or 40 people over for a party is really hard work for me. But 2 or 3 – love it, I can connect with them.

Berni: Okay. What makes you feel different from other people you know? How do you feel unique? How do you feel different?

Max: I’ve heard you ask that question a few times Berni and I don’t have an answer for that. I don’t know that I feel unique. I know there are some areas that I cope with. For instance, my wife, she will not cope with people doing things or saying things around her very easily. I do and I don’t know why she doesn’t. So in that sense I guess when I look at other people, yeah they have issues with some comment, with something that was said and I think ‘well, what’s the problem? Just …

Berni: Just be easy going like me.

Max: Yeah. (All laugh) Yeah, just like you Berni.

Berni: We all want people to be like us, don’t we in a sense?

Max: Absolutely.

Berni: Why can’t they be like me? What drives you nuts about other people quickly?

Max: I guess it is that. It’s just they’re inability to see where the other person is coming from and intolerance.

Berni: Keith, what makes Max your classic teacher personality type? You’ve listened to him now.

Keith: Well we can see that he’s peaceful, right, stress free. They like being peaceful and stress free. They’re the peace makers between people.

Berni: Okay.

Keith: Because of that they also dislike conflict so they don’t …

Berni: Max is nodding.

Max: Big time, big time.

Keith: They don’t want to be around argumentative people, they would rather get them together than having something been pulled apart.

Berni: Well, that’s cool. So Max is Mr Easy Going. I guess you have to be to work with me for a whole bunch of years, don’t you Max?

Max: Yeah.

Berni: That’s awesome. Thanks for joining us. Yeah, it’s been really good. Thanks Max.

Max: Thanks Berni.

Berni: And Keith, we’ll catch you again a little bit later.

Keith: Look forward to it.

Berni: Thanks matey.

Some people use their emotions in life more than others. In fact these are the people who are always talking about how they feel. It seems that feelings are more important to them than say thinking through things logically or exercising their wills to overcome circumstances.

These are the people who Keith Henry calls the ‘heart’ people. And if you’ve been listening in over the last couple of weeks you’ll know that Keith’s been explaining, in quite some detail, the nine different personality types based on Romans chapter 12 in the New Testament. He’s organised them into a simple tool called Personality GPS.

Just a straight forward clock face where he arranges the personality types around the numbers on the clock and this week we’ve been interviewing people with each of the different personality types. We’re going to continue that today and we’ll be meeting Ally and Ally is one of the two personality types in the second quadrant on the clock face from 3 o’clock to 6 o’clock.

These are the heart people. These are the people who come at the world more through their emotions than they do through their mind or their will.

Berni: Am I getting the hang of this Keith, am I starting to get this right?

Keith: You’ve become an expert at it Berni.

Berni: That’s a worry. Ally, welcome to the program, great to have you with us.

Ally: Hi, thanks, it’s good to be here.

Berni: Now Keith, tell us a bit more about these heart people. What are they like?

Keith: They’re loving and caring Berni. They’re very sensitive to people’s feelings and they can really pick up, they can be in a room and see somebody hurting. They can pick up on it and go and talk to them. They have great empathy. They’re people who are warm and you want to be with.

Berni: Okay. You’ve bought Ally in to talk with us today because she’s which personality type?

Keith: She’s 4 o’clock which is the carer.

Berni: Okay, she’s the carer. She’s the first of the two personality types in this heart or emotions quadrant from 3 ’til 6, right?

Keith: That’s right.

Berni: Now just refresh our memories, where have we been in the last few days?

Keith: Well remember Berni, over the last few days we’ve been up in the soul quadrant. This is from 12 o’clock to 3 o’clock on the GPS clock face. These are the people who are the big thinkers, you know the fun people. We met an ‘achiever’ at 1 o’clock, the ‘encourager’ at 2 o’clock and the ‘teacher’ yesterday at 3 o’clock. And today we’re at 4 o’clock on the same GPS clock face looking at the ‘heart’ people, the emotion people in the heart and emotion quadrant. And today we’re talking to the ‘carer’.

Berni: Okay, so Keith tell us quickly about Ally’s personality type, the ‘carer’. How do we know if we’re one of those? How do we know if someone that we know is a carer? What are we looking for to say ‘this person is really a carer’?

Keith: People who easily empathise with other people. They can sense when somebody’s hurting but they also can think a lot about their own feelings and that’s what draws them down and they can become a little depressed if they do that. So they’ve really got to be set free to look at other people.

Berni: Okay. Well I know I’m not that. We’re going to Church and my wife said, ‘Oh, so and so wasn’t looking well today’ and I go, ‘wasn’t she?’ I have no idea. Ally, it’s great to have you with us. I’m going to ask you to react to what Keith said in a little while but tell us a bit first about yourself. What do you do? What living, what do you do?

Ally: For work I work in a small company as an operations manager which basically means that I’m responsible for the day to day running of things to make sure that the suppliers get paid, all the invoices get done. Basically everything is happening that needs to be happening in the office but more on a day to day basis than a long term.

Berni: And in your life, what do people tend to come to you for?

Ally: When they have problems. Basically I’m the one that they come because they know that I’ll always listen and care about them. Like if they’re hurting then I hurt as well because I have that empathy for people.

Berni: Oh okay.

Ally: So yeah, I’m very much a friend orientated person.

Berni: That’s awesome. We need people around like that. As a Christian, in your Church life, how do you express you faith to other people given who you are? How do you live it out?

Ally: I think by being available to talk to them and journey with them through their lives. I also love doing things for people as well. Whether it’s calling them up and saying hi and seeing if they’re okay or baking someone a cake or just making them feel better, that’s my aim.

Berni: I’ll give you my address later. Nice people to be around – the carers. If you look at how you operate and how you function, how do you feel different to the other people that you’re with?

Ally: I guess I don’t say that they care as much about relationships as me. For instance, I find it very easy to get offended by the way people act around me. If I perceive them as not caring enough about me or doing things that may offend me even if, to them, they’re a different personality so they think a different way so it doesn’t mean the same thing to them. But to me, I have to be really careful of not interpreting things as someone specifically doing something to hurt me.

Berni: Okay. What don’t you enjoy doing? What are you not so good at?

Ally: I’m not so good at thinking in the big picture, long term. I tend to get overwhelmed very easily so I’m a lot better at living day to day than trying to think too far into the future.

Berni: That’s cool. Tell you a funny story. I was speaking at a conference once, it was a small conference, and I was speaking in the morning and then I decided to have a pastoral care thing in the afternoon and I said, ‘look my hotel room is this room, anyone who wants to come up and chat and just have some time of prayer come up.’ In the four days no-one came. I don’t think I was effective. I should have taken Ally along right? Keith, tell my why is it that Ally is our classic carer?

Keith: I think because of her feelings and the feelings, as you heard, for other people. So this sensitivity is not built into most of us. As Ally said, we don’t readily see people hurting.

Berni: And if you don’t have those people around, it’s a pretty sad old world isn’t it?

Keith: Yeah, isn’t it lovely to be looked after and loved.

Berni: I guess it would be easy for other personality types like me as the leader and, maybe less so, you the encourager to kind of roll over the top of these emotional people.

Keith: Yes, it is. It’s too easy and as Ally said we can hurt them so easily if we don’t think about those.

Berni: I never really thought of that because when you come, as I do, from the will quadrant and you have that strength, the idea of hurting, I mean no-one hurts me much, you know what I mean? I don’t ever feel that where as you come from your emotions more and I guess that’s the case isn’t it?

Ally: It is and it is something I have to be very careful of because it is a good thing because you have empathy for other people. It can be a very bad thing because you can get depressed very easily. Basically because a situation can happen and a day goes by, a week goes by and I’m still thinking about it in my head and I can very easily make it into something that it wasn’t. So a lot of the time I go very inwards into my emotions and into my thoughts and if I’m not careful it very quickly spirals into depression.

Berni: Well thanks for sharing that with us. It really is awesome. Thanks for joining us today Ally.

Ally: No worries.

Berni: And Keith, we’ll talk again.

Keith: Thanks Berni.

Well here we are at the end of the week and if you’ve been able to join us over the last four days, you’ll know that we’ve been meeting different people on the program to understand the different personality types that Gods created.

Romans chapter 12, the apostle Paul lists the different personality types or motivational giftings as some people call them. And my good friend Keith Henry has done a lot of work in understanding our differences. The point of that is not just to satisfy our natural curiosity about who we are but so that we can understand ourselves and the next guy.

Because when we know who people really are, well we can be a family, we can be a community. We can understand each other and then we know how to love one another.

And to help us with that Keith and I have been interviewing one of the each of the nine different personality types this week. Working our way around the very simple visual clock face of the tool that Keith’s developed called Personality GPS. To help us to locate our personality type.

And today we’re moving on to 5 o’clock to look at The Giver. Now victim number five on the program this week is a woman by the name of Adele. Now I have to let you in on a little secret. Adele, as well as being a giver, also happens to be Keith’s wife so listen you two, no domestics on air because there are a few million people listening, alright?

Keith: Right!

Berni: Keith, welcome to the program again.

Keith: Thanks Berni.

Berni: Adele is at 5 o’clock on the Personality GPS clock face. In this personality type that you’ve called The Giver in that group from 3 o’clock to 6 o’clock on the clock face. People who experience the world and live their lives more through their emotions than they do necessarily through their mind or their will. Now I need you to tell us, describe to us this giver. How do I know if I’m a giver? How do I know if someone else is a giver?

Keith: Well they come from sensitivity. They’re the empathy people but unlike the carer who’s sensitive to people’s feelings, the giver is sensitive to people’s needs.

Berni: Okay, let’s say that again. So it’s not so much their feelings they’re sensitive to but the giver is sensitive to their needs.

Keith: Physical needs. Right. They’re also called The Helper because they’re always there to do something for you. Physical need or look after you. Think of Mother Theresa for an instance. She would be a Giver.

Berni: It would be just like a husband to liken his wife to Mother Theresa, right? (Both laugh)

Adele: It would.

Keith: Anyway, what they do, they give without expectation. They actually spend 80, 90% of their time looking after their family, looking after their friends, doing things in the community. They spend little time looking after themselves because they’re too busy looking after everybody else.

Berni: Okay. So if I know a Giver tell me some of the things that they actually do that lets me identify them.

Keith: Well they find it easier to give than to receive. They’re no good at receiving, right.

Berni: Okay.

Keith: They’re always giving. They also find it very hard to say no. If somebody asks them, ‘Can you do this for me?’ They just can’t say no, they have to say ‘Yes, I’ll do it.’

Berni: You got to hang round me Adele; I’m very good at saying no.

Adele: I wish I was.

Keith: And they’re very high energy people, fortunately, you know because …

Berni: They have to be otherwise …

Keith: Yeah, they’re always on the go. They find it hard also to ask for help.

Berni: Okay.

Keith: Right, ’cause they always have to get it done.

Berni: Yeah okay.

Keith: Think of the PA, you know the PA of the Managing Director in an organisation. Often that person is the ‘mother’ who looks after the Managing Director and is the gate keeper to protect them and look after them and really they run the whole company.

Berni: Absolutely. Okay Adele in a moment I’m going to ask you how you relate to what Keith’s been saying. I mean being that she’s your wife Keith she could say it’s a whole bunch of rubbish.

Keith: She looks after me very well.

Berni: But first up, tell us a bit about yourself. What sort of work have you been involved in? What sort of work?

Adele: I guess I’ve always been involved in administration work for the last 25 years or so. Keith and I have been in business together. Keith’s the one that’s out there with all the ideas and doing things and I’m the one that, I actually used to call it the ‘dog’s body’, puts it together. And I guess we’ve grown together that way. A lot of school admin work. Church admin work. That sort of thing.

Berni: Okay. What are you drawn to in the ‘doing’ part of your life? What do you like to do?

Adele: I guess I like to get beside somebody, work on a project with them, work on a task. Watching things like that get done. I guess in a family area, is that what you’re going to?

Berni: Yeah, yeah.

Adele: Just getting beside them and helping them and making sure they’re okay.

Berni: Fascinating. My wife is the same as you, Jacqui has the same gifting. And this morning, before I was coming to the studio I was preparing, I was running late and I said to her, ‘Darling can you do something for me? Can you quickly grab me some breakfast, I ate at my desk, and can you iron the shirt that I’m going to wear?’ And it just is as natural as pie, it’s not that I ask her to do all the ‘dogs body’ stuff but I was under pressure, you know, and it’s never a case of ‘I don’t want to do that’, she loves doing that.

Adele: Just do it.

Berni: Yeah. Because that’s who she is.

Adele: Well now you’re getting an insight into your own wife.

Berni: Yeah. Absolutely and it’s just fabulous. And interestingly you know Adele, when we got married I realised this about her and I’ve always had to find something that I can do to serve her regularly so that I express love back to her in a way she understands ’cause I’m not a giver, I’m not a server.

Adele: And she’d appreciate that because I just love it when Keith and I are in the kitchen, you know now that there’s only the two of us at home Keith’s spending a lot more time in the kitchen with me and it’s just great doing things together like that.

Berni: Tell me, what don’t you like doing? What’s something that you think, ‘ooh if I had to do that I’d die’?

Adele: I guess get up in front of a whole group of people …

Keith: Speak on the radio station.

Adele: Speak on the radio station. I’ve always found that very hard which has been a challenge but I actually have been able to overcome it, I think with the Lord’s help.

Berni: Yeah. And what drives you nuts in other people? What really annoys you in other people?

Adele: When they don’t get down and do something.

Berni: Are you at the point where you can understand that other people aren’t like you.

Adele: Oh definitely. I think more so going through these programs and understanding people like Keith but I also know my own limitations that there’s definitely things I can’t do. You know I’m not out there into the big picture like Keith is. I’d rather be just doing it. You know getting down and doing things.

Keith: Behind the scenes.

Adele: Behind the scenes, yeah getting beside people but more on a one to one basis not on a big group basis.

Berni: I think wild horses couldn’t drive my wife Jacqui up onto a platform somewhere. I mean there is no way she would come into the studio here. There is no way she’d do that or speak in front of a group of people but she’s so good at doing all these ‘behind the scene’ things.

Adele: That’s right.

Berni: So Keith, Adele is again out of central casting as a giver.

Keith: Oh definitely. 100% giver.

Berni: Okay and what do you think her real strong point is?

Keith: Her strong point is looking after people. It’s not just doing the task, it’s doing the task to bless the person.

Berni: Okay.

Keith: Right.

Berni: Is that the motivation?

Adele: I guess so. Yeah when you see somebody who needs a little bit of help, struggling. I guess especially at the moment now that we’ve got young grandchildren and your kids are in that time of life where they, it is full on but just to sit and chat and make sure everything was going okay on your own.

Berni: She’s an adult, if she needs me she’ll call me (all laugh)

Adele: But they don’t.

Berni: No they don’t.

Adele: They don’t always call you.

Berni: Alright, we’re out of time. Adele, thanks for joining us and Keith, I’ll catch you again tomorrow.

Keith: Thanks Berni.

Adele: Thank you.