Mid-Term Grade :-)

Hey guys,

Got my midterm grade back and thought I would share. Apparently I am doing SOMETHING right.. LOL! The grade is at the bottom if you dont want to read my ramblings. :-) Love you guys.



Leadership Self-Reflection
Christy Ward

Ward, Christy L
2/15/2009


Abstract: This purpose of this paper is to identify my personal strengths and areas for growth or study. I will be using the Keirsey Style Sorter (David Keirsey, Marilyn Bates- Please Understand Me) and two self-assessment tools taken from a Leadership textbook (Lusseir/Achua- Leadership: Theory, Application & Skill Development). In order to understand where the information of my strengths and growth areas originated I will first explain my personality type, according to the Keirsey Style Sorter, and the results of the two self assessments taken from the textbook. I will then identify personal strengths and growth areas. After these have been identified I will then give examples of how these strengths and growth areas help me achieve or hinder my work in my current job. Finally, I will explain the benefits of understanding other personality styles and how understanding these styles would help in a leadership role.


What does that mean?
ENFP! According to the Keirsey Style Sorter by David Keirsey and Marilyn Bates that is my personality type. I scored the same on the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator test that I took three years ago. In order to understand my strengths and growth areas and from where I received such data you must first understand what the letters ENFP are and why they are indicators that lead to strengths and growth areas. In this section I will explain what they mean and identify general strengths and growth areas for persons of similar styles. I will then focus my attention to my leadership style and my normative leadership style. The results of these two self-assessments will come from Lusseir/Achua Leadership text. Finally, I will combine the measurements and form personal strengths and growth areas about myself.

The Keirsey Style Sorter is very similar to the Myers-Briggs but a much shorter version. The results were the same for both assessments. As stated my results indicated that I am an ENFP. Keirsey/Bates explains that there are four pairs of preferences (what I described as letters). They are E- Extraversion and I- Introversion, S-Sensation and N-Intuition, F-Feeling and T-Thinking, and finally P-Perceiving and J-Judging. (Keirsey/Bates, 1984)

Given the meaning of the letters we can see that my preferences are toward E which means extraversion, N which means intuition, F which means feeling and P which means perceiving. There are cases, which I will not go into detail about, where the subject indicates no clear preference to either indicator. In this situation Keirsey/Bates afford them an X in place of the letter which indicates that the subject could use either preference given the situation. I had no such indication as mine were clearly one way or the other.

According to Keirsey/Bates extraverts need sociability and introverts are territorial. Thus extraverts are pumped up when they are around people and get lonely when they are not. Conversely, introverts may want or not care to be around people but it drains them. They need their space and alone time. (Keirsey/Bates, 1984) The E fits me well. I thrive on being around people. I can not be alone for long before I feel lost and alone. This does not mean that I am never comfortable being alone. There are times when it is quite acceptable for me to be alone. Some of those times are when I need to reflect or when I am cleaning. The latter may sound funny, but given that I am sociable, if someone was with me during that time I would be socializing not cleaning.

When studying the N and S of the equation I found that I show the same preference as only 25 percent of the population. Keirsey and Bates state that seventy-five percent of the general population prefers sensation. The S person is fact driven and practical where the N person is driven by “metaphor and imagery”. (Keirsey/Bates, 1984) This also describes me. I feel restrained and bogged down when given a bunch of facts. I look more toward what could be than what is the actual. This, as I will explain later, can be taxing for the sensible who deals with facts. Most of the time I have a hard time with seeing things black or white- I am forever seeing everything else- the “gray” areas.

“More women than men (6 out of 10) report that they prefer deciding on the basis of personal impact {F}… more men than women (6 out of 10) report that they prefer to make decision on the basis of principles, that is, logically and objectively {T}”. Keirsey/Bates state that this is really not a good indicator of what the preference is going to be, however, it is the only one of the preferences that shows a gender difference. (Keirsey/Bates, 1984) I found this section to be curiously interesting! Stereotypically women ARE more feeling oriented than men. However, that trend is changing and we can see this by Keirsey/Bates statistical information. I can safely say that I definitely fit the F profile. My decisions are emotionally and not logically driven most of the time which would also compliment my intuitive side.

As I stated above, I would prefer to look at what could be instead of what is, which is somewhat explained my preference to the perceiving type. If I had the J or judging preference I would want things settled. However, having the perceiving preference I like to leave my options open because what “could be”. Keirsy/Bates state that Js will set deadlines and keep them/take them seriously but Ps don’t put much value in a deadline. (Keirsey/Bates, 1984) I am a procrastinator; in fact, I feel that I am the definition of said person. This particular preference causes me great stress at times and I feel uncomfortable with setting exact times. I find myself telling people with whom I am setting a date/time with to be there on the “ish” (i.e. let’s make it around 11:30 ish- which could be 11:35 or 11:59 – but as my friends know- rarely 11:30).
Of ENFPs: “Nothing occurs which does not have some significance… sees life as an exciting drama… found in only about 5 percent of the general population, but they have great influence because of their extraordinary impact on others… hard on themselves… considers intense emotional experiences vital… possess a wide range and variety of feelings and afraid of losing touch with them… brilliantly perceptive but makes serious mistakes in judgment … optimistic… people to people work is essential… have difficulty working within the constraints of an institution especially following rules, regulations and SOPs…”. (Keirsey/Bates, 1984) When we put all the preferences together the above are some of the things that Keirsey/Bates relay about our type. I do, but not all of me, fit within my type’s preferences. I do see life as an adventure and things happen for a reason- the reason of which I am constantly wondering about. My feelings about rules and regulations are true to form. I feel that they are for situations that fit neatly into a little box with no variance. This of course, is impractical and never happens. I also see the importance of rules and regulations – a necessary evil if you will. As a supervisor, manager and/or leader I may be more likely to enforce rules and regulations depending upon the situation. This could be a growth opportunity. Inconsistency in this area would lower morale and reduce productivity. This will be discussed later in the paper.

As we move into leadership style as measured by Lussier/Achua in the textbook I will note how my personal preferences connect with my leadership style. I see a direct correlation between the two. In chapter 3 of our text, self-assessment 1, I determined that my leadership style was a high people leadership style (10/10) and a medium task leadership style (6/10). Because of my ENFP preferences, as noted above, people to people work is essential for me. People are my main priority when leading; however, I realize that tasks need to be accomplished in any organization.

My preferred normative leadership style is facilitating. Lussier/Achua state that Facilitate Leadership Style is:
“…includes having a group meeting to get input from members as you attempt to support the group to agree on a decision within boundaries set by you; in other words, you still have the final say on the decision. As a facilitator, you are supportive and encouraging to the group members to both make the decision and implement the decision.” (Lussier/Achua, 2007)
I feel this also feeds back to my preference to work with people. I also have a strong drive to find out what could be and what better way to find that out then from other people’s ideas and perceptions?

Strengths
One of my strengths is working with people. As a leader I want to accomplish tasks through others. I will find this easier because of my strength of working with people. My leadership style and normative leadership style reflect this strength. I am people oriented while maintaining knowledge that tasks need to be accomplished. I run meetings in a facilitative manner including everyone involved in the process. In doing so I get the best of everyone’s knowledge and perceptions while making them feel included in the process and part of the change. At the present my job is not related to a leadership position. I work in a small office with three other women. It is important for me to be able to communicate and work with them. I have struggled in the past with some of the employees because of my laid back personality. Eventually, through persistence, I helped foster a relationship with each of them.

The second strength I wish to highlight is my “talent for seeing life as an exciting drama, pregnant with possibilities…” (Keirsey/Bates, 1984) As a leader I need to have my eye to the future. This brings about innovation and change. I, in my current job, have initiated many changes. This has been part of the struggle aforementioned. Because of my ability working with people I was able to help others through the changes. It was not without their help that the full change was founded. I may have “dreamed” up an idea but others added to and helped with that idea.

Growth Opportunities
As stated above: “As a supervisor, manager and/or leader I may be more likely to enforce rules and regulations depending upon the situation”. This is indeed a growth area. I find it hard not to see both sides (and everything in between) to every story. Where this may appear to be a strength, and in many situations it would be, it can also lead to confusion of followers. Inconsistencies of how I deal with my team regarding rules and regulations may lead to views of favoritism. It could also confuse my team and they would not know what “version” of the rule to follow. For people with preferences to “knowing a rule and following it exactly” this would be a cause for great distress. Productivity and morale would suffer in this type of environment. If I were in a leadership position I may bring everyone together to discuss the rules and regulations. If we come up with the rules together everyone, including me, would agree that they were important and needed to be followed. My current job, much to my benefit, has a flexible working environment and we have unspoken rules that we follow. These rules have more to do with respect for the boss than an SOP. For example, I don’t leave work without telling my boss where I am going. This is not because the rule says I will get fired if I do not. I do it because I respect my boss. For now, as a follower, I need to understand the rules were made to protect the company as well as the employee.

Another opportunity for growth lies in the “P”. My perceiving nature leads me to be a procrastinator. I am more comfortable with open ended opportunities. Deadlines have the ability to cause a great deal of stress for me. However, I realize that if I did not have them I would never get a project completed. As a leader it would be vital that I complete items on time so that my followers would have the information they needed to complete their jobs. I lead by example. If I am always late I can’t expect my employees to be on time. I can grow in this area by setting an action plans to follow. Peter Drucker in his book The Effective Executive points out that “time is an executive’s scarcest and most precious resource … the action plan will prove useless unless it’s allowed to determine how the executive spends his or her time”. (Drucker, 2006) The action plan will act as a time management plan and therefore squash procrastination tendencies. It is also flexible enough to allow for new opportunities and this is very comfortable to me. Drucker states that an action plan must not “become a straight jacket” but should “be revised often to create new opportunities”. (Drucker, 2006)

Why is important to understand others preferences/personality tendencies?
As a leader I should understand my individual team member’s individual styles. Everyone is unique and they are motivated by different things. If I don’t understand what motivates them I can’t get them to be productive. I have a recent example of the importance of understanding individual styles. I am a life coach for someone in another state. This person recently had weight loss surgery and was overwhelmed and confused by food choices. I suggested that she go online to look up the food pyramid. To me, this would be an endless supply of information and opportunity. To her it was ok I see the food pyramid- so what. Her preference is to be directed to particular groups of information contained within certain limitations. To her it is easier for me to say look at the food pyramid and tell me how much whole grains you are supposed to have in a day. If this had been in an organization and she was one of my followers it would be beneficial for me to know this about her. I would know when and where to utilize her talents. She would be very task oriented completing a specific task within the boundaries and specifications I gave her without supervision. However, she may not do as well if I asked her to create an idea for future growth.

Conclusion
I have done much work to understand myself in the last three or four years and I have grown considerably. I have found that I have a lot more growing to do. However, this fits well into my preferences too- forever looking toward what could be!

Bibliography

Achua, R. N. (2007). Leadership: Theory, Application, Skill Development, 3e. Mason: South-Western Cengage Learning.
Drucker, P. (2006). The Effective Executive. New York: HarperCollins Publishers.
Keirsey, D., & Bates, M. (1984). Please Understand Me. Gnosology Books Ltd.



Christy,
This is an excellent, well-written reflection. I hope the materials continue to give you tools for present and future leadership successes.
Score: 100