“The Investigator.” Type Fives are known for being intense, cerebral, perceptive, and often isolated individuals; it’s no surprise if your mind immediately conjured an image of Sherlock Holmes! Type Fives strive to acquire as much knowledge as they can, making them life-long learners. Their worst fear is being viewed as useless or incompetent, especially in a professional setting.
One of our own Content Specialists working as a member of the Green Apple Orchard, Saxon McCullough, is a Type Five! What does this mean in regard to her work approach? If she encounters a subject she’s not entirely comfortable with, she goes into a deep dive of research to learn all she can about the topic before she begins writing. This is obviously a great approach to have as a writer, but this approach also serves as a pacifier to any anxiety she has about feeling inadequate in her professional role.
Aside from being a devout researcher and life-long learner, here are a few more traits of a Type Five that make these individuals an asset to your marketing team.
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Type Fives Need to Observe and Contemplate
The basic desire of a Type Five is to hear from others, “You know what you’re talking about;” therefore, they are constantly internalizing ideas and concepts around them and contemplating how they can use this information to innovate.
Saxon sees this Type Five trait the most often in her work. She frequently explains to employers, when asked about her writing process, that if she has been given three hours to write an article, she will spend the first two hours immersing herself in research and absorbing everything she can about the topic. She is then able to hammer out the right assignment in no time at all!
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Type Fives are Life-Long Learners
If you think about the Type Fives you know, you might find that they tend to love finding new hobbies to immerse themselves in. Whether it is all of sudden becoming obsessed with learning how to bake croissants or learning every detail about fly-fishing, Type Fives feel a need to be experts. When considering the Type Fives in your workplace, you will likely find that they have a strong desire to become a subject matter expert—the go-to for a specific problem or topic.
Saxon is that croissant person. She used to work at a coffee shop, and it wasn’t long before she had weaseled her way back into the kitchen and became Lead Baker. Is it because she has been a life-long baker since she was a child? Absolutely not! Her Type Five mind just happened to latch on to baking as the tool to make her feel adequate in her job, and the rest is history.
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Type Fives Value New Ideas and Innovation
After we have acquired a sufficient amount of knowledge, Type Fives seek to use this knowledge to create new ideas and generate new understanding and insight. This means that these individuals are often distinguished problem solvers in the workplace (which are always good to have around).
Every workplace could benefit from someone who has the drive to look at a topic, internalize every aspect of it, and then flip it upside down and create a new perspective. Type Fives can help others on your team find new approaches to old ideas—an invaluable contribution!
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