Understanding the Intuitive Contributor
If your Primary Type of Contribution is Intuitive, this results from high core value preference in the Merchant and Builder quadrants. You may have dominant Builder values with secondary Merchant, or dominant Merchant values closely followed by Builder values. Either combination expresses itself as the Intuitive Type of Contribution.
The Intuitive Contributor represents one of the most dynamic combinations in the Core Values Index framework. When the Builder’s drive for power and action combines with the Merchant’s capacity for love and vision, something remarkable emerges: a leader who can both inspire and execute.
Shared Values: Action Aligned with Vision
This valuable combination of action aligned with vision, doing aligned with teaching, and results aligned with solid relationships creates an unstoppable force. This is a force that works with both the push and the pull strategy.
The action of the Builder creates worth, and the vision of the Merchant creates excitement. The Merchant’s teaching abilities release new energy and expand capabilities. The Builder’s decisiveness generates bottom-line results. The value that the Merchant places on relationships builds trust and loyalty.
The Intuitive Contributor’s practicality commands respect, and their creativity builds appreciation in others. They embody the rare ability to dream big while also getting things done.
Contributions to the Team
If there is a need for a strong, driving leader with a long-term vision in mind, an Intuitive Contributor is the best person for the job. If decisiveness, energy, heart, enthusiasm, strength, openness, and spontaneity are also required, the Intuitive Contributor is unbeatable.
These people know how to work and how to get others to work with them. The Builder in them is a doer. If there is too much work for one person, the Merchant in them will motivate and teach others what they need to do to help the Intuitive Contributor succeed.
Intuitive Contributors are not good in isolation. The Builder side requires someone for them to show and command, and the Merchant side needs an audience with whom to share their vision and all related successes and failures.
So if building a team rapidly is required, if opening a new sales territory is the task at hand, or if a new business enterprise is being launched, an Intuitive Contributor is the most likely candidate to succeed.
The Unstoppable Force
What makes the Intuitive Contributor truly powerful is how their dual values reinforce each other:
- Action creates worth: The Builder’s drive produces tangible results
- Vision creates excitement: The Merchant’s dreams inspire others to follow
- Teaching expands capability: The Merchant’s nurturing develops team members
- Decisiveness generates results: The Builder’s quick action keeps momentum
- Relationships build loyalty: The Merchant’s connection creates lasting teams
- Practicality commands respect: The Builder’s effectiveness earns trust
Potential Challenges
Because Intuitive Contributors possess so much confidence in their ability to know what to do next, they may become so enamored with their ideas that they take one dramatic action after another, leaving a trail of incomplete assignments and disappointment behind them.
Their spontaneity creates an incredibly fertile field for Innovators to play in and an endless vacuum of fact and balance for a Banker to set straight. Actions are taken that have to be corrected.
The opposing values that an Intuitive Contributor possesses also cause conflict. The “get it done now” attitude of the Builder contrasts with the cajoling, joking, and inspirational attitude of the Merchant. The Builder values are willing to put relationships at risk, while the Merchant values are willing to risk poor results in order to preserve relationships.
These opposing values can cause behaviors that make them appear inconsistent and even “two-faced” to others. For instance, if a person’s Merchant qualities are in control of a situation, they could be patiently teaching a co-worker how to perform a task, being friendly and building a relationship. Then without batting an eye the Builder side kicks in, and they switch without warning to a blustering dynamo of demand. “Just do it,” they may command.
Working with Intuitive Contributors
Understanding the dual nature of Intuitive Contributors helps teams work more effectively with them. Recognize that their shifts between nurturing and demanding aren’t inconsistency—they’re the natural expression of two powerful value systems working together.
These people are explosive and exciting to be around. Damage control may be a common necessary task for the members of an Intuitive Contributor’s team, but the energy, vision, and results they bring often far outweigh the occasional cleanup required.
For Intuitive Contributors themselves, awareness of these dynamics helps them moderate their shifts between Builder and Merchant modes, providing more consistency for their teams while still leveraging the power of both value systems.
Ideal Roles for Intuitive Contributors
Intuitive Contributors excel in positions that require both vision and execution:
- Startup founders and entrepreneurs
- Sales leadership and territory development
- Team building and organizational development
- Project leadership for new initiatives
- Change management and transformation roles
- Training and development leadership
Discover Your Contributor Type
Are you an Intuitive Contributor? Take the Core Values Index to discover your unique combination of core values and learn how to leverage your natural strengths for greater success and fulfillment.