Lifestyles Inventory Essays

Lifestyles Inventory Essays Lifestyles Inventory Essay Lifestyles Inventory Essay Personal Thinking Styles The Life Styles Inventory (LSI) was designed to help assess effectiveness in relationships on the job and support the development of interpersonal skills. This â€Å"road map† to self development was the brainchild of Dr. Clayton Lafferty. This survey of questions measures 12 key thinking styles, that are regarded to promote performance change and improve personal understanding of how our thinking affects our behavior. The 12 styles are categorized into three general clusters: Constructive, which includes Achievement, Self-Actualizing, Humanistic-Encouraging, and Affinitive thinking styles, Passive/Defensive, which includes Approval, Conventional, Dependent, and Avoidance thinking styles; Aggressive/Defensive, which includes Oppositional, Power, Competitive, and Perfectionist thinking styles. I must admit, I was quite hesitant about doing another self evaluation as they sometimes do not accurately reflect who you know yourself to be. After all, who knows you better than you do? Nevertheless, the purpose of this exercise was to help me discover how my thinking styles may or may not directly influence my behavior as a manager and could be a great asset in my endeavors for advancement. Primary and Backup Thinking Styles After taking this self assessment, my circumplex shows the two styles with the greatest influences falls under the Constructive style and Passive/Defensive Patterns as displayed in Figure 1. It focuses in on my primary thinking style is Humanistic-Encouraging (1 o’clock position) and my back up thinking style is being Dependent (5 o’clock position). Humanistic-Encouraging Style I can identify with the Humanistic-Encouraging style because it does describe who I am in both my professional and personal life. This style measures our interest in people, our tendency to care about others, and our ability to accept without others without criticism. It is optimistic about what people can achieve and has the ability to inspire and motivate people around them. I have always been genuinely concerned about people in my life and I always want to focus on how I can help them grow and develop their skills. I see potential where other managers do not see and support aspirations that no one else thinks exist in people. I can’t help but nurture others. It is simply who I am. Dependent Style I somewhat disagree with the backup being Dependant as I do not believe this style of thinking is a true depiction of the way I think or see myself as a whole. This style measures the degree to which we feel our efforts do not count. This type of behavior derives from a need for security and self protection. People who fall under this style typically feel helpless with very little control over their lives. They lack self respect and always want to please others. This part could not be further from the truth about who I am. However, it does mention that dependent style people are passive which I am, and sometimes have a difficulty making hard decisions. A lot of this has to do with sudden changes or set back in our life. The latter can be found more in relation to my person life and not so much professional. Limiting Style It was hard to determine which style is limiting my effectiveness from looking at the chart. The obvious would be to select Oppositional; however, says that I an aggressive and like to argue would contradict me â€Å"Dependent quality of passiveness. I decided to go with is Conventional Style. This style I feel is most limiting in that being passive, causes me to want to simply blend in and conform even though my heart says I was made to stand out. The measure that best describes me is â€Å"the preoccupation of appearing normal and unquestioned obedience†. ( survey-server2. com/lsiuniversity-sso/rpt4. sp) This style is most difficult for me because it is not who I am personally, but professionally it speaks truth. Coming from a managerial position to that of a subordate role at my current job had a dramatic affect on me. I have adapted and conformed to the conditions of the culture in my office because it seems to be the easiest way to remain employed in this company. I have watched colleague be terminated for speaking their minds or having different of opinions fro m that of our direct report who is new to this role and wants to flex her power. It is disheartening and discouraging for me. This is a style that needs to be addressed. Impact on Management Style Most of my life, I have successful in maintain balance between my personal and professional life. But as we all know, they overlap and are intertwined. Our management styles whether good or bad reflect our ability to lead other. To be an effective manager you must have the four basic management functions: 1) the ability to Plan; 2) Organize; 3) Lead; and 4) Control. Planning I am not big on procrastination, so planning is very important to me. I need to know the why, when, how, what to generate a plan and effectively execute it. There is always that need to establish a goal and a plan of action to accomplish this. This is a process that must be seen through to the end. Organizing No plan successful plan can be executed with proper organization. As a manager it is imperative to be able to organize the plan for which a goal has been set. Organization is very broad. For me, as long as there is a plan where it is personal or in my professional environment, I strategically put resources in place, which will best efficient way to accomplish the plan of action I set up. Lead Not everyone has the ability to lead or has the know how to do so. Sometimes people get lead and managed confused. Nevertheless, using simple directives set for people to follow is what has always worked for me. I have always been able to influence my employees because I lead by example. I never tried to manage or use power to have my way or force something to be done. Leading is influential. Control Control is about making sure policies and processes are in line with the goals and objects you have. I think for me, it wants to always make sure everything is close to perfection. So that requires periodically monitoring progress, revisiting structural issues and talking to everyone involve for input and their opinions on whatever we are working to accomplish. I don’t really look at control as being in charge; it is more so just making sure everything goes smooth. Genesis of Personal Style My personal style is who I am. It was defined by my character, my values, my life experiences, role models, education and trainings. Over the course of my life, my family’s heritage, the environment I grow up in and even the people I kept close to me all affected who I am today. My values developed more and as I get older. I continue to hold in high regard traits like humility, respect which I was taught as a child. Growing up in the West Indies, it was always about respect, having manors and knowing your place. I heard the Proverb’ â€Å"Children should be seen and not heard† more times than I could remember. But it put in retrospect, it made me realize, that there was a time and a place for everything. I always want to lend a helping hand no matter the cost. Knowing when to speak up for injustice and knowing which battle to fit because we can’t win them all. I was always a bit shy and passive growing up, but had big dreams and an even bigger heart. My grandfather would always ask me, â€Å"Why do you always try to fit in when you were made to stand out†. He along with my entire family has been my inspiration for my life and has help shape who I am. Since then, I have made it a life choice that in whatever I do, to be it personal or professional, I want to shine. I joined Toastmasters at a young age to help work on my shyness which allowed me to reach deep within myself find the confidence and strength hidden. I became more active in student governments and youth foundations where I began to see who I wanted to be; A leader. I worked in an Industry where people were my business and found new respect and strength in optimism. I despise people who are arrogant and have no compassion for others simply because of their position. I never paid much attention to achievements as I do to character. This is where I find value. Conclusion and Reflection The purpose of this exercise was to discover how thinking styles may influence my behavior as a manager. No management style is the same, perfect or fits every situation. What I may see as a strong management style to have, may very well be contradictory of what the other staff thinks it should be. When it comes down to it, my primary style Humanistic-Encouraging patterns, I cannot refute this theory. I claim it proudly because I wear this style every day. It has given me the ability to develop others and help them grow without the need for recognition. I take much gratification in knowing that I have helped, encourage or improve the quality of life whether professionally or personally for my employees. Not everyone can say that and it is displayed in the appreciation the show towards me. Although the Dependent style was my back up, I did not find anything substantial that related to me. A bit of stress here and there, changes in company ownership and job security issues may be the cause for the score in this. But lack of self respect is definitely not who I am. I would rather focus my attention on Conventional style as recently in my professional life, I have take a back seat far from the strong voice that carried over a reign of applause during one of my speeches. I have conformed if only to get along. But this is not the way to achieve my goals. I want to be able to be me; A woman once so positive and willing to go the mile. I want to once again be successful not only in my personal life where I have full control, but also in my professional life where I should be more assertive with my needs and desires as a part of my team. Everyone should have autonomy over their lives and the ability to fully stand behind your Life Style.