The Life Styles Inventory Essay Example for Free

The Life Styles Inventory Essay The Life Styles Inventory (LSI) is a self-assessment questioning instrument that processes the information you input into the system into 12 different thinking styles. The LSI encourages applicants to understand and change bad behavior and find ways to improve them by examining one’s thoughts and feeling and why they do things the way they do. After taking the 240 self-assessment exam an individual knows exactly what they need to focus on in terms of their development style, because the assessment gives you raw feedback of the results. The results of the self-description is graphed on a circular diagram and table chart giving visual feedback of the individuals results as it relates to their thoughts and behavior in the 12 LSI styles. This summary is a custom-made developmental needs assessment, which then gives the individuals their strengths and areas they may need improvement in. My Life Style Inventory profile shows my primary style is Avoidance. My backup thinking style is dependent closely followed by Power falling within 5% referred to in the LSI Circumplex. As much as I hate to admit it I found the information in the finding extremely accurate with my primary style. I would definitely agree that Avoidance is in my nature. The information that it has under the avoidance style circumplex describes me to T. All my life I’ve been told that I hide my true feelings, that I shy away from situations that I may not want to get involved in because I make them bigger than they really are, and even that I have a fear of failure and rejection. However, I don’t fully agree with what it says about the Avoidance-Oriented Manager style for me. It states that that (â€Å"Managers scoring higher on this scale are often threatened by the responsibilities of their positions and tend to feel overwhelmed much of the time. By choosing to ignore problems in hopes that things will take care of themselves, they often obtain a false, temporary sense of security. †(LSI 2013). I agree with this statement to a certain extent. I might feel threatened by the responsibility of 1my position sometimes, but that is only because I want to do the job perfectly without any flaws, knots or wrinkles. As this may cause me to feel overwhelmed, it doesn’t make me ignore problems in hopes that things will take care of themselves it makes me strive that much harder to complete the job as best I can. I find myself as a more hands on: we will get it done together type manager because I feel people respect managers who don’t mind getting their hands dirty sometime. That’s not to say that I want delegate responsibilities throughout my team because I certainly don’t have a problem with doing that also. My first back up style is Dependent and I too much don’t agree with everything that was stated in this circumplex but again it kind of fit my personality. The circumplex states that (â€Å"The Dependent scale measures the degree to which we feel our efforts do not count. Dependent behavior originates in a need for security and self-protection: dependent people typically feel that they have very little control over their lives. † (LSI 201) It also stated that this style may be due to some type of life changes which I can see why it fits my personality. I was recently in a long term relationship with the first girl I ever loved and I believe due to that separation I can see how I may feel my efforts do not count and how I may feel I may feel that I have very little control over my life because in this relationship I really wanted to get back with my ex-girlfriend but we never did. And this even ties in with the Power management style which would be like my backup to my backup style. I believe my limiting style would be Self-Actualizing because this is where I scored my lowest score on the LSI circumplex. I believe that my low score in this area is what will possibly keep me from being the most effective manager possible. If I could change one behavior from this area I would change how it says I doubt myself and my ability to make a difference. I would like to have more confidence in my abilities and take the risks because with risk you get big rewards. This style that I would like to change is Achievement. I believe Achievement is one of the styles that I much have working for me because of all that I could gain. I also chose Achievement because this is where I scored one of my lowest scores on the LSI assessment and I agree with the reasoning the assessment had to offer. I think by me not scoring high in this assessment it increase my overall effectiveness in the organization because Achievers have increased opportunities for promotions, higher salary levels, more respect from others and the ability to effectively lead others just to name a few and these are all thing that I want the gain within an organization. My personal style is more laid back. I have a really nonchalant attitude toward most things. I am not really confrontational at all I am more like a mediator. I like to think of myself as an open person accepting of others and very friendly because I have a nature of wanting to be accepted. I feel my management style is somewhat different though. First and for most I demand the respect of all my employees as a manager because I want no misunderstanding what our roles is. Once you start one what you can’t change styles in the middle of the race, I believe you will lose a lot of respect from employees that way even fellow coworkers, top management etc. Also as a manager I feel that I am loyal, honest and fair. I believe that hard work is very important and I always strive to complete assignment at any cost. After I have established my roles as a manager and thing are running smoothly I then let my personality slip into the mix. Once I feel more comfortable with employees I am able to joke around and allow for a un-tense work environment. As I am not a manager at this time I recall my previous positions as a supervisor at my last job as a case manager and as a resident assistant over a floor of 35+ college men. In my job I also strived to complete assignments because I want the team to look good when other department were falling short of the quota. At the same time I was pretty cool with my team because I wanted a non-hostile work environment. My personality was shaped throughout the course of my life. I was raised by a single parent my mother and I was pretty sheltered. I was raised to do the right thing in a Christian household and to do unto others as I would want them to do unto me. I feel that the way I was brought up, my religion and culture definitely plays a part in my personality. I feel my mother sheltering me relates to my need to be dependent on others. I feel that the way I was brought up in a Christian household relates to me thinking the way I do causing me to be a little narrow-minded when it comes to certain issues. Looking back on this assignment I really feel like I learned a lot from the LSI. This experience helped me understand my style a whole lot better and makes me what to take hat I have learned and apply it to my life to make me a better manager. With what I have learned I definitely feel this assignment will influence my personal, academic and professional development because of what I know now. I’ve learned that this chart is not indefinite and that my styles can change if I work on it. The areas that I may feel are character flaw I can work on them and potentially fix them and make me better manager. One goal that I hope to work on is opening up more and not shying away from responsibility. I feel that if I work on these goals I would be a good manager.