LSI Assessment Lifestyle Inventory Assessment

LSI Assessment

Lifestyle Inventory Assessment Analysis

Personal Thinking Styles

The LSI Assessment was an illuminating exercise and for the most part is congruent with my own self-awareness of strengths and weaknesses as they relate to managerial and leadership behaviors. My top style is Affiliative (99% percentile) followed by Self-Actualizing (97% percentile). My greatest limiting factor is Approval (95% percentile).

My two greatest styles are exemplified in how I choose to organize and manage student and work projects, looking to ensure everyone has a voice in the project and feels a strong sense of ownership for its value. I believe that affiliation is stronger than power or ordering people to do their jobs. If employees are completely dedicated to the tasks internally they'll push themselves harder and further than anyone could do through the use of transactional leadership techniques (Arond-Thomas, 2004). Possibly given the many jobs I've had earlier in my life that were very much managed through a power-based approach to management, I still resent leaders who are autocratic and rely just on their position to literally push employees around. While power is celebrated in many management and leadership texts and the popular media, I think it is the ugliest form of leadership. It is the lazy way to get work done as a manager. It is far more difficult, and rewarding, to get employees to believe in the vision of a business and feel they "belong" and "fit in." I feel these two values are extremely important for any employee, including myself when working for a business or on a student project. These are the values and precepts that also underscore transformational leadership and the ability to make lasting, long-term and very significant changes to any organization's direction and ability to compete (Gurley, Wilson, 2011). Having had to at times participate in virtual learning and working teams, I've found that affiliative leadership skills work well for mitigating misunderstandings and breaking down the barriers between students and employees. Affiliative leadership is an excellent trait for managing and leading virtual teams as well (Gurley, Wilson, 2011).

I also agree with the self-actualizing value as defined by the LSI Assessment at the 97% percentile. Much of my time alone is spent thinking about accomplishing more than I have ever before, thinking how wonderful it would be to surpass even my own expectations of academic, work and creative productivity and output. I also think often how to accomplish more and gain greater insights into surpassing my own expectations as well. This aspect of self-actualization is also evident in how I choose to manage school and work projects, looking to accomplish more, faster than other teams, beating deadlines and above all, aspiring for a very high grade. My focus much of the time is on this dimension of self-actualization and achieving more than I expect of myself.

On the downside of the LSI assessment, I do strive for Approval at times too much. After completing this analysis I realize it may be worse than I expect or sense on my own. This area of my life at times has led to me giving up freedom to pursue my own goals, in the hope of gaining the approval of others. Everyone at one time or another has done this, yet I know now this is an area I need to work on. In the context of school and work projects, I need to focus more on being galvanized to the goal or objective first, and not be so accommodating to other team members who have widely divergent, and potential time-consuming direction to take a project. Above all, I need not equivocate the direction on projects and refuse to attempt to be all things to all people when feeling stressed in a leadership role on projects. Figure 1, Life Styles Circumplex and Table 1, Life Styles Circumplex Data Set show the results of this assessment.

Figure 1: Life Styles Circumplex

Table 1: Life Styles Circumplex Data Set

Impact on Management Style

The impact of my primary and secondary thinking styles in the context of planning, organizing, leading and controlling are discussed in this section of the analysis. For clarity's sake each functional area of management is analyzed from the context of my two dominant thinking styles, affiliative and self-actualizing.

Starting with the planning function of management, my affiliative approaches to organizing and leading teams tends to emphasize making sure everyone feels included and "fit in" to the team's goals and direction. Planning is as much about defining the direction of a team and its purpose as it is in making sure every person has a very clear sense of what their contribution is and why it matters. I believe that finding that intersection of people's innate skill sets with the needs of a given project or strategy at work is critical to being successful. I also try to plan tasks that give employees a chance to see what they are doing is more than just going through the motions, that they will eventually be able to translate all that effort into marketable skills. This is critical to me when planning a project to ensure that not only are the best people assigned toe ach project but the people involved have a very strong sense of belonging and accountability for their contributions.

For an organization and leading perspective, the same holds true. My high need to ensure there is strong affiliation across the teams mine is working with on a project and there is cohesiveness within the team are critical. Again, I think that employees can drive themselves much harder than anyone external to them if they believe in the vision of the team and also see exactly why they are so crucial to its success (Gurley, Wilson, 2011). From an organizing and leading perspective my focus on affiliation and self-actualization is evident in how I organize incentive for teams to excel I have managed at work as well. I tend to look for awards that recognize exceptionally high levels of collaboration and shared achievement as this unifies a team. It also creates a healthy level of competition with other teams on what matters most:" sharing information and excelling at original work. My focus is on how to take the potentially negative emotions of mistrust and political maneuvering and re-orient them to focusing on excellent shared results and accomplishments.

On the final management dimension, controlling, I tend to look at this as a continual process, not a specific "step" or obligation fo a manager. Instead, controlling is a continuous function that is provided through continual feedback on the performance of a team and its members. Transformational leaders must focus on controlling as a continual state of feedback on teams, not just a specific task completed fro time to time (Warfield, 2011). I believe that is critical to succeed as a leader and attempt to make "controlling" a core concept in my management style.

Genesis of Personal Style