LSI Self-Description

According to the LSI Internet Edition LSI 1, the Life Style Inventory survey from Human Synergistics International, is a “system that provides a “road map” to properly focus your personal development goals and keep you headed in the direction you want to go. The LSI measures 12 specific styles of patterns of thinking that can either aid or deter a person from achieving his or her potential, which includes Achievement, Self-Actualizing, Humanistic-Encouraging, and Affiliative thinking styles, the Passive/Defensive, which includes Approval, Conventional, Dependent, and Avoidance thinking styles and the Aggressive/Defensive, which includes Oppositional, Power, Competitive, and Perfectionistic thinking styles.

This paper will examine my primary & backup thinking styles, one style that I believe may be working against me, one particular style that I would like to improve, the impact my personal styles have on my current or future management style and how my personal styles have been developed due to different roles in my life. My “primary” (highest percentile score) included two styles under the Passive/Defensive sections, which were the Conventional and Dependent styles and my “backup” (second highest percentile) included two styles, one from the Constructive which is Humanistic-Encouraging style and one from the Passive/Defensive which is the Approval style. According to the LSI Internet LSI 1, “the Conventional style represents a preoccupation with adhering to rules and established procedures, maintaining a low profile, and “blending in” with our particular environment to avoid calling attention to ourselves”. The Dependent style originates in a need for security and self-protection: dependent people typically feel that they have very little control over their lives, according to the LSI Internet LSI 1. The Humanistic-Encouraging style is the type of individual that is accepting of themselves and tend to accept other people for who they are. LSI Internet LSI 1 states, “A Humanistic-Encouraging individuals believe they can assist others in fulfilling their potential by providing a supportive climate that inspires self-improvement”.

Humanistic-Encouraging individuals gain satisfaction through seeing others grow, and typically form meaningful relationships. Their willingness to take time with people makes them excellent leaders, managers and teachers, according to LSI Internet LSI 1. My final back up style is the approval style, which according to LSI Internet LSI 1, “measures ones need to be accepted by others to increase or sustain ones feelings of self-worth”. In the approval style, an individual tends to try and please everyone else but themselves. I can agree with the four styles I scored high and medium percentiles. In my life and work I definitely tend to see approval from others for myself and seek to be liked by others. I also can say that I am very conventional when it comes to my work like and personal life. I like to stick with the rules and routine and work and don’t like to take risk and I don’t feel like I am creative. In my personal life, the approval style has created problems for me because I will take care of everyone but myself and it affects my health.

I have endometriosis, which is very painful and I will not follow doctor’s orders most of the time or listen to my body because I feel like I need to do for everyone else and do things myself instead of accepting help in order to please people and make sure it gets done the way I want it to. I will buy things for my children, grandchildren and friends and rarely buy for myself. My children have brought these behaviors to my attention several times and how it frustrates them, but I haven’t made much of change until I saw one of my daughters with low self-esteem, pleasing others first and very becoming very dependent. I didn’t like what I saw and would bring it to her attention and give her advice and one day she told me mom “I get it from you”. The conventional style was brought to my attention during my interview for my current position. My current supervisor, who interviewed me, told me that she could see that I had great potential, but I was very soft spoken as if I didn’t want to be seen or noticed, and I seem like I didn’t believe in myself. She asked me to work on improving my confidence. The style that I fee may be working against me to reduce my overall effectiveness and I would like to change is the approval style because this style you tend to please everyone else but yourself.

I dealt with low-self-esteem for many years. I have had this issue in my personal relationships, which has caused me to put up with more than I should have over the years because I felt like I didn’t deserve more. The best example of this I can give is the relationship with my children’s father, which was an abusive relationship for almost 13 years and then I went right into my marriage that was emotionally abusive because I never took the time to heal and learn how to love and value myself. This played a role in my professional life, because I would not fully apply myself for jobs that I had the education and skills for because I didn’t feel confident during the interview. I also tend to be agreeable and wish washy when it comes to decision making. I very agreeable when it comes to task at work because I take on whatever is given to me and I tend to do it with no questions as oppose to asking questions and expressing my feelings. One example with work is my supervisor tends to assign new tasks to me all the time, while another team member doesn’t receive many task. I never say anything about how unfair I think it is, and I will agree to it on and then I’m overwhelmed with work and pushing myself more and more each day, which causes stress.

The style that has the most impact on my management style is the Humanistic-Encouraging style because this type of management style tends to inspire their subordinates to think, grow and take responsibility for themselves. Humanistic-Encouraging mangers obtain this by demonstrating belief in what their staff members can accomplish. This type of manager will build problem-solving skills and confidence by asking insightful questions designed to help subordinates arrive at their own solutions. Humanistic-Encouraging style managers are effective in obtaining measurable, bottom-line results and this comes from planning and being proactive instead of reactive when it comes to things like how to handle conflict, planning and organizing on the job training and feedback from employees, leading by example with integrity and honesty, boosting employee morale and maintaining a healthy work environment, but not controlling employees where they don’t feel as if they don’t have a voice and showing them they are valued. I truly believe my childhood and abusive relationships played a huge role in the development of the personal styles that were revealed in my LSI. During my childhood, I was sexual and physical abused and I also experienced it in my personal adult relationships, which lead to the low self-esteem and seeking approval from others and always wanting to please everyone.

I believe growing up without my father or some type of positive male role model in my life, being raped and my mother being killed when I was 13 caused me to be very dependent and to have a very passive attitude, be overly concerned with pleasing others and sometimes have a difficult time with making decisions without the input of others. I believe my personal family relationships shaped me more than my organizational professional membership has. Although I have had some tragic events happen in my life, it has made who I am today and taking this test has revealed more. I have to learn to accept who I am now and understand how my thinking/behavior affects others and myself. My goal I would like to achieve in this MGMT591 class is how to take all my different styles and learn how and when to use each one at the right time and most importantly improve my self-esteem and reduce stress, which can assist in greater satisfaction with my personal and professional life, improve my relationship with my family and friends, and open up more opportunities for work.

Reference
LSI Internet LSI 1. Retrieved from http:// http://www.survey-server2.com/lsiuniversity-sso/pers_report.asp