A Review of the Smalley - Trent Personality Profile.

When it comes to personality profiles, most have heard of Myers-Briggs, Galen’s four temperaments, DiSC assessment, and the Keirsey Temperament Sorter. One of the lesser known profiles, but just as insightful, was developed by Dr. Gary Smalley and Dr. John Trent. They base their personalities around animal characteristics. Not only are these entertaining but they are very easy for children to grasp as well.

While these personality types are certainly broad categories, I find them very easy to remember and communicate. This is extremely beneficial when dealing with family members, employees, and/or people in general. Knowing their temperaments can make the home, work environment, meetings, and projects run much smoother.

Listed below are the characteristics of each temperament and how they line up with Galen’s and the DiSC for comparison:


Lion (Choleric/Dominance)

Strengths– Visionary, practical, productive, strong-willed, independent, decisive, leader
Weaknesses– Cold, domineering, unemotional self-sufficient, unforgiving, sarcastic, cruel

Otter (Sanguine/Influence)

Strengths– Outgoing, responsive, warm, friendly, talkative, enthusiastic, compassionate
Weaknesses– Undisciplined, unproductive, exaggerates, egocentric, unstable

Golden Retriever (Phlegmatic/Steadiness)

Strengths– Calm, easy-going, dependable, quiet, objective, diplomatic, humorous
Weaknesses– Selfish, stingy, procrastinator, unmotivated, indecisive, fearful, worrier

Beaver (Melancholy/Compliance)

Strengths– Analytical, self-disciplined, industrious, organized, aesthetic, sacrificing
Weaknesses– Moody, self-centered, touchy, negative, unsociable, critical, revengeful

Often you’ll find that people have a primary character type and a secondary type. Take a look at yourself. Which one is your primary and which one is your secondary? Some naturally go together and make for a wonderful set of strengths. Also, be sensitive to the weaknesses in yourself and in others. 

You can discover your personality profile by going to my previous blog from last Monday.  You can also find this link on our church website for North Raleigh Church of the Nazarene.