Who I Am

Your scores indicate you have BANKER/INNOVATOR tendencies. When you enter a room there is more knowledge and wisdom energy suddenly in that room. You are the presence of wise knowledge. This is your assignment, to be the effective presence of wise knowledge. You look at the circumstances and situations around you through the eyes of justice and compassion. You operate from reason and cognitive thinking, know the facts and work to conserve resources. This is balanced by your intuitive and reasoning capacity to observe what is happening around you, to question and brainstorm until you truly understand, then work to develop a right response and best strategy. Your highest and best contribution can only be made in situations in which there is a significant and constant need for wise knowledge.

Who you are at the deepest innate level of your human nature is the most important element in your life. Who you are at this deep level is, after all, the only thing you really contribute to this world. It is through right assignment and effective choices that you make your highest and best contribution. This is the universal mission of all people.

The more you learn about who you really are, and how to optimize your presence in this world, the greater will be your success, happiness and life effectiveness.

Your dominant Banker value energy is balanced by your Innovator secondary value energy. Your actions are routinely, almost equally, guided by these two core energies. In times of distress you will usually rely on the conflict strategies of your dominant core energy. In less critical conflicts you may use either conflict strategy given the situation.

Your unique dominant BANKER core energy causes you to rely upon the following strategies for success and fulfillment.

Your cornerstone core value is knowledge, supported by your strong desire to create justice in the world.

Having the right information is important to you. You do what you say you will do. Building protection against possible risk comes naturally. You work diligently to gather resources together and save them. You like steady, solid situations with limited change. Life is easier when people and things are reasonably similar. The reliability of your words and actions is critical to your sense of self-respect.

Chaos is your enemy. People and situations should measure up to commitments. When things get messy, you may get testy. You surround yourself with facts, figures and data. Once started, you don't give up easily. Creation without effective written plans and process description is senseless. You like to conserve resources and gain control by reducing the number of influences and authorities in any situation.

Having all of the information is important to you, even the small things. You dislike any waste of resources. Social structure and appropriate mannerisms are good for the soul. You enjoy the work of keeping systems and processes running smoothly. An appropriate request from you should be all that is required. Effective decisions are supported by analysis of similarities and differences. You like to provide others with proven ideas and methodology.

Your knowledge is generally available to others. You like to be the one who knows; being right and being able to prove it is important to you.

Your unique secondary INNOVATOR core energy supports your dominant BANKER core energy.

Your second cornerstone core value is wisdom. Understanding and compassion are central to your life strategy.

Strategic thinking is your forte. You see and understand the relative worth of people and things. Development of effective responses to situations is one of your primary contributions. To invent new systems, processes and things is pure pleasure. You enjoy helping people and things work well and consistently together. People look to you for the creation and improvement of work flow and procedures. You have wit and creativity in your thinking.

You can always see another way to put things together. Complicated situations and problems are not a threat to you. Finding the best solution is one of your primary contributions. You like to consider all the options. Exploration of new and better approaches keeps you interested. Rapid and clever exchange of ideas is a personal joy and a method of work for you. You are able to see the ways things are, and you know what to do about it.

Others look to you for your quick and responsive mind. You are seen as a valuable resource for leading people toward the right ideas and the right direction. Acting foolishly or illogically is not a common experience for you. Your use everything that is available to meet requirements. You value and rely upon your mental abilities.

BANKERS-Your Dominant Core Energy

The power of bankers is in their clear rational processes. They are organized to the nth degree. Data is at their fingertips, and they don't miss details. Bankers are insatiable information gatherers. They are like magnets dragged through sand, collecting all the valuable shards of fact.

The power of a banker as a business leader comes from the banker's intolerance of waste and distaste for unnecessary risk. Once a banker is placed into a high-risk situation where resources are limited, his drive to get back into a secure position may cause the banker to rely more heavily on the merchants, innovators or builders around him. This drive to create something solid and resistant to outside pressures makes a successful banker's company recession-proof, highly resilient, and seldom under-capitalized.

Bankers who are acting out of their strengths are invaluable. Without a banker core energy in any sales department, production shop, or marketing office, the number of repetitive mistakes buries the business. Opportunities are lost, orders are misplaced and forgotten, and shipment schedules are considered a nuisance. Bankers are unwilling to be part of an operation that doesn't fulfill its commitments. They will do almost anything to make things right.

Once gathered, the information is ordered, assimilated and re-produced in a manner that leaves nothing out. Because all details are critical to bankers, they are not good at setting priorities, and instead become sources of information for others that wish to explore their library-like minds.

Bankers are committed to assuring that whatever is done is done successfully. They are adamant about not launching the ship before its sea-worthiness has been tested. When you ride in an airplane, be thankful for the banker minds in the FAA. When you take pills to help recover from an illness, appreciate the banker minds in the FDA.

It is those same banker minds in the FAA and FDA that so frustrate businesses that want to launch their products.

Without banker influence in any situation, actions are taken without sufficient thought, and directions are changed without considering long-term ramifications or bottom-line consequences. New innovations are often put into play without regard to service problems, system failures and customer satisfaction.

Bankers, more than any of the other core energies, tend to find themselves standing alone, unwaveringly holding their position in order to effect their most important purposes—to conserve resources, insure longevity, and stabilize the business or society they are in. The analytical power of a banker far exceeds that of any of the other core energies.

When serious problems arise, a banker becomes an essential resource. He has collected information by sheer will and desire and is able to deliver this information in a clear and balanced form. A banker will take the solutions presented by an innovator and formulate the solution down to the task level, understanding the interrelationship of all elements.

The final answers that come from a banker are solid. They are a long time coming, but when they do arrive, they are above reproach.

Banker Challenges

Bankers frustrate builders. The results-oriented decisiveness of a builder is the opposite of a banker's mentality. Bankers also frustrate merchants, but more typically, merchants frustrate them. The constant stirring up of opportunity, the typical lack of value of merchants on completion of projects, and the lack of concern for details keeps bankers constantly feeling under-informed and off balance. This generally leaves bankers feeling dismayed and frustrated.

Bankers get along quite well with innovators since innovators have a high level of regard and need for the information which bankers have. Since information and solutions fit together nicely, bankers serve innovators well by providing much needed analysis and amassed information, which keeps the innovator on track. This, in turn, leaves the innovator feeling confident of the solutions being implemented.

Bankers have the hardest time as entrepreneurs. This is because they are most effective in an environment that needs management of complex, effective systems, and that requires balance and information. In the early stages of company development, until a company reaches $5 to $10 million in annual sales, bankers tend to overuse their organizational and managerial skills. What are otherwise considered their strengths can, in fact, also become their weaknesses.

A banker who has strong merchant characteristics, strong innovator, or builder traits can succeed admirably as a leader in a new enterprise. They must be willing, however, to keep their own dominant banker trait in check until there is truly a need for it in the business.

Since bankers are like builders in their inattention to team building, they often try to manage their companies or their departments far too long. They are detail-oriented people, concerned with knowing where everything is and if it is in its proper place and functioning to its full capability. Preservation of an excellent status quo is more important to them than creation. The role of an entrepreneur is to create something out of nothing. For the most part, this is a complete antithesis of a banker's natural inclination.

Bankers, just like any other core energy, must have strong partners or employees who provide the creative energy, the sales, the team building, and the drive to get results. Their difficulty lies in admitting it. Bankers are prone to build an empire of supporters who, like themselves, gather, analyze and report information. They are generally appropriate and considerate bosses, but this is significantly different than the team building activities of a merchant.

Bankers' strengths lie in knowing that all of the information is accurate and available at their fingertips whenever needed. A banker is reluctant to make a decision except by omission or delay. Bankers are good at saying "no", which is a trait many people do not possess. It is important, however, that they do not put situations at risk to avoid their general discomfort with moving forward when the situation calls for it. This is usually understood by the other core energies and is considered one of their strengths. When a banker gets pressed, pushed to the wall, forced to make a decision or act against his analytical conclusions, he may simply disengage. Bankers who feel unduly pressured may judge others as being wrong and withdraw their trust. They may withhold information to regain control. They may also use that information to undermine others when the opportunity arises. This would be considered a weakness within this core energy.

Because they dislike conflict, bankers will occasionally make promises they do not intend to keep. They may simply say a flat, unqualified "no" to everything, hoping that this simple act will be powerful enough to cause others to draw back and surrender. When bankers feel out of control, they may become aloof, untouchable, unreasonable, intractable, non-responsive, unavailable, busy, etc., due to what they perceive as an inordinate amount of unjustified pressure.

Bankers generally outlast builders, merchants, and innovators in a fight because they refuse to invest any energy in the battle until everyone else is exhausted. Their staying power, often considered strength, may also be a weakness when used at an inappropriate time.

Bankers have extraordinary staying power. Their compulsion to be right or to be seen as being right does not allow them to easily admit failure. They keep trying, keep doing, and keep analyzing until often, by perseverance alone, they succeed where others would have failed long before.

Banker/Innovator

Banker/innovators are generally quiet, knowledgeable, resourceful, self-directed and steady people. Any business that needs creative solutions in a highly demanding, practical situation will appreciate the contributions of a banker/innovator. When the situation calls for reduction of good concepts to design and then the further reduction to documentation and quality control, the banker/innovator becomes irreplaceable.

Banker/innovators are rationally based, working from fact, provable systems and logical flow. This core energy can rapidly assess a situation and come up with multiple solutions or systems to support the stated objectives. Once conceived, the ideas are analyzed, organized, proven on paper and perfected in documentation.

The power of banker/innovators in areas of product or system design echoes the strengths of the merchant/banker in risky business situations. The banker/innovator is prone to carefully push the technological or systems horizons. The innovator struggles to create the best possible end product, while for the banker, half of the core energy is constantly worrying about the details, picking up the unfinished and unresolved design flaws, challenging each step before and after it occurs, and assuring maximum likelihood of success.

Because of their banker side, banker/innovators will come up with true innovations that actually work. There is nothing more valuable to an engineering design team than unlimited innovation balanced by the ability to design such an innovation to perfection and ending up with documentation that carries all the way through production, testing and quality assurance.

It is likely that banker/innovators developed Calls and Puts in the stock brokerage arena. This is a prime example of innovation for the sake of risk reduction.

Banker/innovators, however, have a difficult time making decisions. Saying "no" without thought is not making a decision. Information provides evidence to create new solutions, and new solutions need proof, which can only be derived from further information, making the process loop endless. If you are a banker/innovator and the president of a company (or head of a department), then your way to success is through attracting merchants and builders with strong enough personalities to act on their own authority and not wait for you to make a decision. They also must be willing to tell you that some of the information you believe you "need" is not needed in order to get things done.

When banker/innovators go into their "no decision today" lock-up, there is little hope of getting them out of it. The innovator side gets stubborn and isolates from others until "I can figure this out," and the banker side sets into motion a protracted data gathering and analysis cycle which "only I can manage." This posture is virtually impenetrable, unless a courageous builder simply puts himself at risk and takes unauthorized action, and a merchant stays in the resulting fracas to help resolve relationships and keep everyone focused on the corporate goals. Spontaneity for a banker/innovator is not a proposition for him. Recognizing this as a weakness can help the banker/innovator surround himself with merchants and builders.

Your third level BUILDER core energy gives you the ability to respond appropriately to a broad spectrum of situations.

Your BUILDER values are strong enough to bring balance into your life. Learning to shift your strategy to this core energy in times of high opportunity or during conflicts will contribute significantly to your success.

Accomplishing tasks now is a primary drive for you. You are practical and willing to face the truth. You pride yourself in knowing what to do. Whatever you do, you do without much hesitation. Giving directives comes naturally to you. Things go best for you when you have responsibility for results. You make up your mind quickly and intuitively.

You want the things you do to make a tangible difference. Knowing the cost and the gain for all actions is important to you. You are not afraid to bring things to an end; when you're done, you're done. You generally feel that you have enough resources, energy, and drive to achieve your goals. You like speaking clearly, telling the truth and asking for what you want. There are few situations in which you feel inadequate. You use your power, physical and personal, to get what you want.

It is important to you that you do the right thing.

Your fourth level MERCHANT core energy gives you the opportunity to live a balanced and successful life.

Nothing feels right when the people you value are distant or are in conflict. You have a natural enthusiasm and like to be in situations that are fully engaging and energized. You want to receive good rewards and appreciation for time and energy spent. No potential plan, idea or possibility gets by you. A core strategy for you is to work effectively with others. Being acknowledged as a friend is important to you. You like to work and others enjoy working with you.

Getting what you want from others is a gentle negotiation and a friendly arrangement. Choosing your words carefully works well for you. You like a new charge in your life and you like to be the charge in the lives of others. You like to trust people and to share yourself with them freely. Motivating others with your visions and ideas is very satisfying. Talking with others is your way to learn and to teach. You seldom feel defeated; you see good potential in most situations.

It is important for you to see people and things as they really are.