Your Shadow is in the Mentor Pattern. This means it can be harder and take more time to come alongside and develop others. The ability to hone others, fan the flame of their ability, and build into others will be more challenging for you. Coaching, guiding, and being a trusted ally will take effort and work for you.

You can develop your Mentor skills through education, on the job training, or life experience. Using your Mentor skills can bring satisfaction if you have developed this weaker area into a ‘Middle Ground.’ However, you will tire faster when using your Mentor skills, and these skills will be the first to under-perform when you are tired or in a crisis.

The Shadow is like using your non-dominant hand to sign a check. While a few people out of ten thousand are ambidextrous, most people are not innately able to do the same functions with both hands. Through education, on-the-job-training, or the school of hard knocks, you may get fairly good at your Shadow function. Yet, this is like comparing a gifted athlete to a highly trained one. The gifted athlete who hones his or her ability, will always be a better athlete—throwing farther, running faster, having more endurance, etc. In this way, you may be trained in your shadow, but it is not your area of giftedness.

One way to confirm your Shadow is to have another person take the People Patterns Indicator on you. A spouse, co-worker, or subordinate will have insights about your habits and gifts that you need to see!

Your Sunlight is in the Catalyst Pattern. Catalysts are people who will challenge you, and so take you to new ground. They innovate and experiment in life, motivating you to change. Catalysts seem to light fires under people, spurring them on to unconventional or entirely new methods. They can be revolutionary, stirring up people. As trusted critics, we know their words are speaking truth as they speed up change in our lives.

As a Catalyst, you do these things with relative ease, like using your dominant hand to sign a check. You won't have to give these things much thought as they flow naturally from your giftedness.

President John F. Kennedy and Clara Barton were Catalyst leaders. In his acceptance speech, Kennedy showed the Catalyst Pattern. He said “We stand on the edge of a New Frontier.” This is the phrase of a Catalyst! For the rest of his presidency, the phrase "New Frontier" was a Kennedy moniker. His Catalyst Pattern is seen again in his inaugural address. Kennedy delivered his famous line, “ask not what your country can do for you, ask what you can do for your country.” This is another Catalyst phrase! He is calling his listeners to a new paradigm, a new way of thinking about their country. What Kennedy did do was light fires under others. His call in 1961 to land a man on the Moon by the end of the decade was a prime example of this. He ignited popular support for the space program. He promised new technology to achieve his desire of sending a man to the Moon—and Catalysts love using technology to achieve their goals.

Clara Barton founded the American Red Cross and said: “I have an almost complete disregard of precedent, and a faith in the possibility of something better. It irritates me to be told how things have always been done. I defy the tyranny of precedent. I go for anything new that might improve the past.” Catalysts are risk takers and unorthodox, experimenting with new methods for existing problems. The Catalysts love to light fires and motivate others. Unorthodox to the max, the Catalyst Pattern people find that “nobody's business is my business.”

Perhaps the most Catalytic statement of all history is when Jesus said, “But I tell you who hear me: Love your enemies, do good to those who hate you, bless those who curse you, pray for those who mistreat you … Do to others as you would have them do to you.” Catalysts love to shift paradigms in people’s thinking. Jesus in this passage spurs his listeners on to new heights never considered in human history. Catalysts are bold and aggressive, calling people to new paradigms in thinking. They light fires under others and are trusted critics. Catalysts prize launching people’s potential! They spur others on for great change.

Carefully read that section about President Kennedy, Clara Barton, and Jesus, as Catalyst leaders can be exciting, daring and challenging. Yet, they also need to remember the details! They need to remember to use their middle areas and Shadows. As the German philosopher Goethe said, “Where there is much light, the shadow is deep.”