Crane

ENFJ
Elemental Energy: Fire
Mentors, teachers and leaders
KType: Teacher

It’s 1978, and Ross Perot a former IBM super salesman is running EDS, a highly successful software company. Two of his EDS executives were taken hostage by the Iranian government. When attempts to resolve the situation through diplomacy failed, Perot made the decision to act on his own. Remembering Col. Bull Simons, who had retired a few years earlier, Perot called him and asked him if he would organize and lead the rescue of his men in Iran. Within days, Simons was selecting and training a team of EDS employees (all highly decorated Vietnam veterans) into a hostage rescue team to rescue the two executives from the Tehran prison and bring them home. In what might be the ultimate expression of employer loyalty, Perot’s team extracted the two executives from an Iranian prison and returned them safely back to the USA.

Psysign Summary
Cranes are mentors, teachers and leaders of people. Because they put people first, they can foster intense loyalty in their teams and can even lead movements that are in alignment with their personal values.

More about the actual animal
Tall and slender, the Crane is pure white in color, with a yellow, spear-like bill, a long neck, and long black legs.  During breeding season, the birds grow spectacular plumes, which are raised like fans during courtship displays.

The elegant Crane is a dazzling sight in many a North American wetland. Slightly smaller and more svelte than a Great Blue Heron, these are still large birds with impressive wingspans. They hunt in classic heron fashion, standing immobile or wading through wetlands to capture fish with a deadly jab of their yellow bill. Great Egrets were hunted nearly to extinction for their plumes in the late nineteenth century, sparking conservation movements and some of the first laws to protect birds.

Cranes are found near water, salt or fresh, and feed in wetlands, streams, ponds, tidal flats, and other areas. They snare prey by walking slowly or standing still for long periods, waiting for an animal to come within range of their long necks and blade-like bills. The deathblow is delivered with a quick thrust of the sharp bill, and the prey is swallowed whole. Fish are a dietary staple, but great egrets use similar techniques to eat amphibians, reptiles, mice, and other small animals.

These birds nest in trees, near water and gather in groups called colonies, which may include other crane species. They are monogamous, and both parents incubate their three to four eggs. Young cranes are aggressive towards one another in the nest, and stronger siblings often kill their weaker kin so that not all survive.

The Crane is the symbol of the National Audubon Society and represents a conservation success story. The snowy white bird’s beautiful plumage made it far too popular in 19th-century North America. Great egrets were decimated by plume hunters who supplied purveyors of the latest ladies’ fashions. Their populations plunged by some 95 percent. Today the outlook is much brighter. The birds have enjoyed legal protection over the last century, and their numbers have increased substantially.

The Functions

Careers
Teachers
Coaches
Relationships
Dove

Cranes, who lead with external feeling are best matched with partners who have strong introverted feeling (Doves).

Famous Cranes
Ross Perot
Oprah Winfrey