More charisma than you can shake a stick at

You can lump me in with Jimmy Carter, Jane Fonda and Albert Schweitzer. No, they're not the historical figures I'd most like to invite to dinner. Evidently we share common personality traits. Let's make sure we're clear: We share personality traits, not political ideology.

My new job is revealing leadership characteristics that I've long possessed but never thought much about. While I've always cherished the creative side of my brain, I desperately need structure in order to function best. Yes, dear friends and family, that's the spontaneity gene I'm lacking. I like schedules, I like clearly defined roles, I like knowing what to expect, and I need time to wrap my mind around the unexpected. I hate surprises. 

That epiphany made me go back to the well-known Myers-Briggs personality test, or online derivations thereof. According to the Jung Typology Test, I am ISFJ: introverted, sensing, feeling, judging. We're characterized by our desire to serve others and "need to be needed." We're unappreciated — doormats, the results say — and hate confrontation, but we're loyal to the end. And our "unexplained moodiness" usually has a good cause; we just don't always articulate it.

So that puts me in the camp with Jane, Jimmy and Al. Not to mention Queen Elizabeth II, Robert E. Lee, Kristi Yamaguchi, Johnny Carson and literary greats Louisa May Alcott and Alfred, Lord Tennyson. My fictional counterparts are Melanie from "Gone With the Wind" and Ophelia. Wow. A dishrag and a suicide. I've got to do something about the company I keep.

There are a number of personality tests available on the web. If you don't have time for the Jung test, try this four-question test. That one labeled me a "protector guardian" along with Mother Teresa and George H.W. Bush. I'm not claiming to be either, but the overall description is fairly accurate. Check out the above hyperlink "ISFJ" for my full profile -- it's spot-on accurate. Uncanny.

Then there are the tests that tell you whether you're choleric, phlegmatic, sanguine or melancholy. Or the Winnie the Pooh equivalents: Rabbit, Pooh, Tigger and Eeyore.  Cholerics can either be bullies or great leaders.
Phlegmatics are the stable ones. Sanguines are the social butterflies. Melancholies are creative, introspective, analytical, oversensitive and prone to depression. So who am I in the Hundred Acre Wood?

Just call me Eeyore.

Who are you?