My Lsi (Life Styles Inventory) Interpretation

My LSI (Life Styles Inventory) Interpretation
I thoroughly enjoyed taking the LSI questionnaire. I believe it has given me a much better understanding of my personality in regards to my management potential and individual characteristics. With that being said, the following is my interpretation of my LSI survey.
Part I: Personal Thinking Styles
“Primary” and "Backup" Thinking Styles:
By far, my “primary” thinking style was “affiliative”. I have concluded to this by the ranking in the 96th percentile of 9,207 individuals that had taken the LSI survey before me. I was surprised how accurate this was regarding this personality trait. I consider myself “affiliative” because I simply love being around people. At work, I have been moved into a much bigger cubicle recently that is quiet, has lots of space and is a generally good atmosphere compared to the loud, highly trafficked area that I was in previously, but I have found myself slowly trying to make my way back there. My new area is simply too quiet and I feel left out. I want to be part of the group and by being segregated from the common area, I am much less happy. In my extracurricular time, I have started a technology users group because I wanted to get together a group of people that shared my common interests. It is taking off and I am enjoying the opportunities to network and socialize with my peers at every meeting.
My "backup" thinking style was not quite as profound, but it turned out to be “perfectionistic”. This trait ranked in the 69th percentile with a score of 23 out of a potential 40. This trait was not as profound for a few reasons. The first reason is that I desire affiliation much more than I do in perfection. I believe the sole source of success is in the communication and interaction with people, however you also have to maintain a strict philosophy for your work and attitude by carrying some perfectionistic traits. Even if an individual is the socialite of the 21st century but is unorganized, not concerned about appearance or simply doesn't care for quality this person will definitely fail. I believe a good combination between affiliative and perfectionistic is a good combination of broad traits that reflect who I am as a person.
"Limiting" Thinking Style:
My "limiting" thinking style is power. This style was my lowest for a reason and a reason I need to work on if my goals of being a leader are ever achieved. I believe, as a leader, a person has to grasp the concept of power over many other styles. First, a leader cannot simply act as subordinate. A leader needs to stand up, take charge and really motivate members of the organization. If someone like myself has no power styles, then what would stop a fellow power hungry subordinate from running all over me? A leader has to have some sense of power or he will lose respect within his/her organization. The behavior I would like to change in this style is my timid nature around superiors. My timid nature is not a good trait to have in being able to express myself and ideas to superiors. I have been known to simply leave a job if I feel like things are not going my way instead of sticking up for myself and letting others know how I feel. It's also a major hindrance to soliciting ideas. I know for an organization to be successful, ideas needs to come from everyone from the CEO to the janitor. However, due to my timid nature and fear of rejection, my ideas are not normally heard.
Part II: Impact on Management
There are four management functions as set by Schermerhorn, Hunt, Oshorn in their book Organizational Behavior (2008). I will reflect on these functions in my personal work and try to instill a sense of exactly how each of these functions may relate to my impact on management.
These functions are:
Planning - Planning is defined as defining goals, setting specific performance objectives, and identifying the actions needs to achieve them. The traits that were expressed on my LSI such as “perfectionistic” and “achievement” have the greatest effect for me in regards to planning. I believe having a perfection oriented attitude will yield better planning and also execution due to the detail oriented behavior that a perfection oriented person may express. Achievement is yet another trait by having this quality as it leads me to excel in planning by striving to generate the proper plan to achieve my desired output.
Organizing - Organizing is defined as creating work structures and systems and arranging resources to accomplish goals and objectives. I am a very organized person and it is reflected through my skills of “approval”. I sometimes clean up my desk not only for myself, but also for my coworkers. I am subliminally seeking approval by my organization. I also subscribe to a productivity methodology. Could it be that I am subconsciously seeking approval from myself for being as productive as possible?
Leading - Leading is defined as instilling enthusiasm by communicating with others, motivating them to work hard, and maintaining good interpersonal relations. I convey some negative and some positives aspects in regards to leading. A positive trait is “affiliative”. This trait allows me to meet and get along with everyone in the organization. It allows me to really understand how everyone is thinking and care for everyone’s well being, which is a great trait for a leader. A negative trait as portrayed on my LSI is “power”. Someone has to have some amount of power for anyone to pay attention. My obvious lack of “power” desire shows.
Controlling - Controlling is defined as ensuring that things go well by monitoring performance and taking corrective action as necessary. A big part from my LSI really sticks out in regards to controlling is avoidance. I rank high in avoidance. What this means to me is that I would not be good at controlling mostly due to my lack of desire to “micro manage”. I tend to set an objective and hope that my objective is met without much hesitation. When I have to follow up with someone, I am strongly going against my desire to avoid.
Part III: Genesis of Personal Styles
I believe I have achieved most of my personal style from my father. My father and I share many of the same traits in regards to our personal style. My father is very friendly, sociable and achievement oriented. I believe that my LSI reflects this as well. For example, my father is a teacher and has been for 30 years. He loves interacting with students, faculty and parents. He also is involved in many committees with his organization. He also has opened a business (achievement), was elected as Grand Marshall of my hometown’s parade (achievement) and knows almost everyone in my town through his teachings (affiliative). My second most influence has been by a mentor at an organization where I was employed at. This person introduced me to business scenarios, strategic thinking in business and financial implications of my ideas. He really influenced my desire to obtain my MBA and gain a leadership position in an organization.
Part IV: Conclusion and Reflection
I hope my work in GM591 will really make me think about where I am in my career, where I want to go and help me solidify the goals that I already have in place to achieve a leadership position. My goal in this course is to answer the question of “What qualities does Adam possess in regards to organizational behavior and which ones can he improve?” The exercise has been very valuable to me personally and professionally. I base most of my LSI on my professional experience. I seem to relate most with the business world vs. my personal life. This exercise has allowed me to peer deeper into my psyche and to gain an understanding of myself that I would have otherwise not been introduced to. I wish that more organizations would make the LSI a part of the regular performance evaluations to managers.