When asked to take the PMAI test in order to find out about my archetypes, I thought to myself... what exactly are archetypes anyway?! After researching and reading on the subject I learned that we all often find ourselves in roles that we didn't even choose to play. And thanks to Psychologist Carl Jung, we now know that these roles and characters are archetypes. He claims that there are many archetypes, just as there are many situations in life, which makes complete sense to me.
I found it especially interesting that each one of us is capable of playing any of the characters at any time during our lifetime. But, out of these archetypes, each of us uses a select few more frequently than others. Naturally, we develop into humans that are comfortable with stability and find ourselves "stuck in our ways" which relates to your dominant archetypes and how they are the roles that you typically find yourself using over and over again. I believe the concept of archetypes is a unique and eyeopening way to look at traits and human nature as a whole. It is great to apply this knowledge of archetypes to leadership because then you are able to identify what role those around you identify with and more importantly, the archetypes YOU relate with. In the study of leadership, having a concrete knowledge of archetypes demonstrates that we all are capable of acting out and leading in a wide variety of ways, it simply depends on the individual and which archetype they relate with more intimately. Knowing one's dominant archetypes before they take on a leadership role can give you a solid understanding of not only how they will lead and what to expect from them as a leader, but more importantly, how to approach them when problems arise, etc. Overall, the archetype concept is one of which I believe to be true and a present source in our everyday lives.
So it seems that you like the archetypes and what they represent. I personally like the way you interpret that although now we may be one character we can play anyone at any moment. I heard in class that you definitely put people before yourself so you had the archetype of Caregiver as the highest. Yet you also went into how being a Lover and Ruler also have played a part in you life.
ReplyDeleteI wonder if throughout this class you will eventually have another character as your highest? I personally dont agree with having to know what archetype you are in order to expect how you will lead a situation. I feel that after a situation, people can then identify the charcter they were, instead of just always being one archetype.
I liked the picture you put next to this blog because although it is hard to reflect and really identify leadership traits you point out something that everyone should be. Everyone should be alive and active to their goals and leadership development.
I liked how you mentioned it would be good to know the archetypes that were your strongest before being placed in a leadership role. It could depend on the person with their certain archetypes that could be the better leader in that situation. When reading the descriptions of the archetypes, did you have an idea which ones you might be before seeing your results? Did you think that your weakest (shadow) archetype would be your lowest?
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