Some people think out loud; others need a quiet minute before they say anything. Some can’t rest until the job is done; others care most that everyone feels included. If that sounds like your leadership team or your dinner table, Cory Draper has a simple framework for you.
Draper is a certified Enneagram coach who writes about personality and identity on his Substack, Wholly Me. In his view, no personality system is easier to pick up, and few are more useful in everyday relationships. With just four types to tell apart, you can recognize them even in infants.
In this introduction, he explains the four temperaments (choleric, sanguine, phlegmatic and melancholy) with the colors Kathleen Edelman uses in her book I Said This, You Heard That: red, yellow, green and blue. He sorts them along two lines. Do you process your thoughts out loud or on the inside? Do you lean toward the task or toward the people? He also shares an untested idea of his own: your second-strongest color may owe more to how you grew up than to how you were born.
Instead of celebrities or politicians, whose public image is carefully managed, Draper uses fictional characters as examples, from Ron Swanson and Katniss Everdeen to Joy from Inside Out and Lisa Simpson. That makes the article easy to talk about with a group of students.
The promise behind it all: once you understand the temperaments, you can quickly sense how others tick and adjust the way you talk with them. And if you’re honest about your own color, you’ll see your weak spots more clearly too. It’s a quick, practical read for anyone who leads a team, a small group or a family.
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This article by Cory Draper first appeared on Wholly Me, his Substack. Pulse published a German version in December 2024 (in German).
