This is the third and last part of this article. In the first part, which you can read HERE, I’ve introduced the PCM Model and explained why each Personality Type comes with certain myths and “life lessons” attached, and I’ve approached the life lessons for the Thinker and Persister Personality Types. In the second part, which you can read HERE, I’ve presented the life lessons for the Harmoniser and Imaginer Personality Types. If you haven’t read them already, I warmly recommend that you do.
Today, I’ll discuss the myths and associated life lessons for the Rebel and Promoter Personality Types in PCM.
5. Rebel Personality – “I have to try hard to be OK.”
The Myth: Rebels bring spontaneity, creativity and playfulness but may grow up believing they must exert extra effort to prove their worth and receive love, creating unnecessary struggle. Stress drives them into resistance or overcompensation. The myth can be stated as: “You can make me feel good emotionally by doing the thinking for me.
Driver: Try hard for you
Communication and behavioural clues: Expressing confusion, disorientation, or helplessness. Does not answer questions directly: “Uh”, “Huh?”; invites others to “do” or “think” for them. Delegates inappropriately and without direction.
Examples:
- “I don’t get it.”
- “What was I supposed to do?”
- “Huh? “I don’t understand what you just said.”
Potential Problems: Avoids responsibility, loses independence, gets misunderstood. Invites criticism.
Helpful affirmations:
- “I am creative and resourceful.”
- “I can ask for what I need without losing myself.”
- “Taking initiative gives me more freedom.”
The Life Lesson:
- “I am OK just by being me.”
- I deserve success that comes naturally and joyfully.
Path to Growth:
- Cultivate play without performance – create, dance, doodle just for you.
- Use humour to connect, not deflect. Share your deeper feelings too.
- Allow yourself to rest without guilt – your value isn’t in your hustle.
- Identify your natural talents and lean into them rather than forcing growth in areas that drain you.
- Create opportunities for playfulness and spontaneity in work and responsibilities.
- Break large tasks into smaller, manageable components that don’t trigger overwhelm.
- Celebrate effortless wins rather than only valuing accomplishments that required struggle.
- Practice receiving help and recognition without feeling you haven’t earned it.
- Listen for sentences that contain the myth, to raise your awareness.
6. Promoter Personality – “You have to be strong to be OK.”
The Myth: Promoters are action-oriented, adaptable and charming, who often judge the emotional expression of others as a weakness, while hiding their own vulnerabilities behind a confident façade and control. The myth can be stated as: “I can make you feel good emotionally by doing the thinking for you.”
Driver: Be strong for me
Communication and behavioural clues: Uses “you” when referring to own feelings; invites others to believe they are not in charge of their emotions/ thoughts; avoids helping; expects others to fend for themselves.
Examples:
- “You know how it feels to lose.”
- “You’re on your own. I got my part done.”
- “When you’re racing at 200 miles an hour to take the kids to pre-school, you fight in the traffic, you jump over breakfast to make it in time to the office, and they are not even capable to finish the presentation on their own.”
- “How did that make you feel?”
Potential Problems: Low trust, perceived selfishness, lack of teamwork.
The Life Lesson:
- “Vulnerability, and expressed vulnerability is a strength.”
- Connection through authenticity creates more opportunity than strength alone.
Helpful affirmations:
- “I can use my leadership skills to empower others.”
- “When I know what people need, I can better influence outcomes.”
- “Real heroes rally the team – they don’t go it alone.”
Path to Growth:
- Identify situations where vulnerability might actually open doors rather than close them.
- Practice emotional honesty in your close relationships.
- Practice acknowledging limitations or mistakes in low-risk situations.
- Share your own challenges to foster connection.
- Let others take the lead sometimes. It fosters trust and mutual respect.
- Redefine strength as including emotional presence and patience.
- Offer support and acknowledge emotions in others.
- Lead with collaboration, not control.
- Develop relationships where mutual support, not just individual capability, is valued.
- Recognize the difference between strategic adaptation and authentic connection.
- Listen for sentences that contain the myth, to raise your awareness.
Final Thoughts
Each personality type in PCM offers gifts to the world – whether it’s precision, conviction, compassion, imagination, playfulness, or boldness. Yet, under stress, these gifts can become burdens when driven by unconscious myths.
Our early coping strategies might have helped us survive childhood, but they don’t always help us thrive as adults. Using the Process Communication Model®, we can bring our old myths into awareness and choose better options.
The good news? These myths are not truths. They are outdated beliefs and strategies from childhood.
With a mix of self-awareness, emotional intelligence, and new habits, we can flip the script – and alter the trajectory of our lives. In doing so, we don’t lose who we are – we become more of who we truly are.
I hope you found this article useful. Feel free to share it with your friends, if you think it will help them too! 🙂
Stay happy, stay safe, stay healthy,
Magda.
My PCM Training Courses
If you want to get your own PCM Personality Profile, as well as a host of amazingly insightful information about yourself and others, come and join me for one of my Open PCM Training courses (see more info below) or find out if we can collaborate for an in-house PCM Training for your teams.
We go into the subject of PCM Personality Types and what they mean for your leadership approach, your communication and stress management, as well as many more interesting themes in my PCM training courses. I normally deliver PCM in-house, face-to-face or online, for organisations around Europe and the world.
However, twice a year (in early spring and autumn), I organise Open PCM Training Courses, where anyone can sign up. These are for all those who want to know themselves better and improve their relationships, their communication and their stress management.
The Open PCM Training Courses are organised as a 5-week programme: we meet online every week for 4 hours to learn and practice, and then we have homework from one week to another to “play the detective” and practice again what we’ve learnt. If this interests you, check out the Open PCM Training Programme presentation page or schedule a virtual coffee with me to learn more about it.
PS: A big reason I write is to meet people so feel free to say Hi! on Linkedin here or follow my Instagram here, as I’d love to learn more about you.
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