Regardless of your personality type, values and behaviors, the journey to achieving a balanced, happy life will be much easier, and much more successful and harmonious if you learn to understand and communicate effectively with the people you meet on your journey. We're talking about finding common ground among the four major personality types: Supportive, Direct, I (ego centered) and Controlling, focusing this time on the Direct, or D, personality type.

How Direct People See Themselves: The Direct personality makes up a relatively small part of the population, about 10%. These are people who see themselves as the movers and shakers, as giants standing across the earth, and they are. They know who they are, where they are going, what they are doing and why they are doing it. They love a challenge and as soon as they climb one mountain, they are looking for a higher peak to climb. Often, they are planning to climb the second mountain before they have finished climbing the first.

How Others See Direct People: D's may be seen as quick decision makers, or on the other hand, as people prone to making snap decisions who don't always take time to think things through. The I personality is on the same side of the directness axis and loves the quick decision-making of D's, while the analytical C cannot believe that the D can properly and fully analyze a situation without hours, if not days, of study. I's love the D's directness but think it is misplaced because I's feel that Direct people put too much time into ideas and projects and not enough into themselves. The S often has no real understanding of a direct person as they have opposite relationship values and therefore no common ground. S's do not understand what they perceive to be the D's harsh directness and focus on ideas rather than being sensitive to people and their needs.

Direct people are also seen as decisive, directing, dictatorial, decision-makers, rude, abusive, insensitive, unconcerned and uncaring, snap-decision makers, self-centered, focused and brilliant.

Careers of Direct Personalities

Direct people do not have jobs, they have careers and professions. They are driven to be the top. D's are super achievers. They have a strong sense of vision and mission. They know they can do the impossible. They often create companies that develop new products and systems; they are literally the captains of industry, government or whatever they choose to do. They are often successful in many different fields because it is essential for them to prove to themselves and others that they truly are the best of the best.

Speech of Direct Personalities

Listening to a Direct person talk is often like listening to a machine gun. Their speech is rapid and decisive, overwhelming with authority and drive. There is rarely room for other opinions. The D always acts as a spokesperson for everyone else. There are no truths but their truths. Their focus is always on achieving. Ideas are paramount and relationships are less important, because it is all about winning the race.

Clothes, Cars and Houses

Everything they have is the best, the biggest, the nicest. D's don't have a home, they have houses; they don't have a car, they have cars for every occasion. The same tailor fills their closet with dark blue, navy blue and dark suits, always the best. If the D is a woman, her closet is exactly the same: conservative, high quality, high fashion and never flashy clothes.

Values: Family, Money, Relationships

The Direct person places high value on family but in the sense of having a perfect-looking family rather than in the strength of the personal relationships within the family. D's expect all family members to be clones of themselves, i.e. high achievers and bold thinkers who are equally aggressively and anxious to master the world and everything and everyone in it.

The Direct person values wealth, but only as a success marker in the race of life. He or she wants more money than anyone else, but is always ready to bet the entire farm on a new idea that will reward him or her with even more. Their attachment is not to the money but to where it places them in the food chain of life.

D's see many of their relationships in terms of how those relationships can help or hinder them as they move up the success ladder. They don't count the bodies of the people they may have trampled on in the process because they do not even realize there are bodies. They are masters of time because they have to be in order to accomplish everything that is part of their personal manifest destiny.

At-Home Exercise: Direct Personalities I Know

Make a list of all the Direct personalities you know. Write down their behaviors, careers, professions, speech patterns, clothes, cars, houses and their values concerning family, money and relationships. Place each person you meet for the next month into the appropriate personality category. Make it a game to see how quickly you can correctly determine their primary personality. If you do this rigorously for a month you will have made it a habit, an invaluable habit.

In what areas will you be regularly dealing with D personalities in your life? What actions will you take to better understand and to be better understood by the D personalities in your life? What attributes will you borrow from the D personality in order to attain your goals more easily? If you are a D personality, what behaviors will you change to make reaching your goals easier?

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Congratulations - You have just taken another step on the road to "Power Living!"

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Art and Anna Kleimer are certified professional coaches with an international practice, and authors of Power Living, Living Your Life, Liberty and Happiness. Visit their website at http://www.coachingtoyes.com