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Airmen receive a personality check

  • Published
  • By Staff Sgt. Phillip Butterfield
  • 386th Air Expeditionary Wing/PA
SOUTHWEST ASIA --  Have you ever wondered why people do the things they do? 

Sixteen Airmen from the 386th Air Expeditionary Wing had the opportunity to participate in a personality assessment Nov. 20 in the base chapel here. 

The purpose of this assessment was to help Airmen identify their type of personality, therefore helping them become better communicators. The test breaks people's complex personalities down into four colors: orange for energetic people, green for analytical people, gold for highly structured people and blue for romantic and sensitive people. 

After the Airmen determined the order of their colors, the first being the most dominate character trait to the fourth being the least dominate trait, the class then discussed the pros and cons of their dominate trait and thought of ways they could better communicate with others. 

"I decided to teach this class to help Airmen communicate better with their spouses and dealing with reunion issues that may pop up after deployments," said Senior Master Sgt. David Kelch, 386th Expeditionary Mission Support Squadron first sergeant. "I also thought that this training would be good for supervisors, teaching them how to deal with the Airmen they're leading." 

Armed with another tool in their tool belt of knowledge and experience, many Airmen left feeling better equipped for leadership.
 
"This class is going to definitely help me to better communicate with the young Airmen that I'm supervising and molding into the leaders of tomorrow," said Staff Sgt. Nikia Harris, 386th Expeditionary Mission Support Group information manager. "I would recommend this class to anyone wanting to learn how to better communicate with their peers." 

But, this class was not just for new staff sergeants learning the ropes of leadership. 

"This training highlighted a lot of areas that showed the type of personality that I am, the way I deal with things, the way I look at things and now that I know that, I can better communicate with people," said Master Sgt. Lee Mills, 386th Expeditionary Communications Squadron first sergeant. "Now, I will have a better understanding of why people do what they do. I think this training will make counseling and motivating people a lot easier." 

Personality assessment training is not the typical training that Airmen see offered to mid-tier enlisted leaders. 

"I think this is a good opportunity to provide a different type of training that allows people to better identify their own traits and open new lines of communication," said Sergeant Kelch. "The only true way I believe to lead someone is to first be able to communicate with them."