Personal Life Styles Inventory

Joe Schmoe
MGMT 591
Leadership and Organizational Behavior

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Part I: Personal Thinking Styles…………………………………………………………... 3
Part II: Impact on Management Style……………………………………………………... 4
Part III: Genesis of Personal Styles………………………………………………..……… 6
Part IV: Conclusion and Reflection……………………………………………..………… 6
Personal Life Styles Inventory

Part I: Personal Thinking Styles
This paper examines the personalized results of the Life Styles Inventory (LSI), an online survey from Human Synergistics International. The goal is to examine and learn more about my personal strengths and weaknesses in order to become more self aware of these characteristics and ultimately hone them to be a more effective person both inside and outside the workplace.
The LSI interpreted the survey results that were input as a result of answering numerous questions and identified my personal primary style as “oppositional” and my backup style as “avoidance”. Oppositional is described in the LSI Circumplex as the tendency to use defensive and aggressive strategies when disagreeing with others. There are a number of other traits described including; suspicious, sarcastic and hostile, critical of others behind their backs, seldom say what you think, have few close relationships, difficult to impress, seldom gather enough information before you oppose things, defensive in the face of criticism, blame others and stubborn. Avoidance is described in the inventory as using the defensive strategy of withdrawal to shy away from situations we find threatening. Other avoidance characteristics to name a few are fear of failure, and feelings of guilt over real or imagined mistakes. (Life Styles Inventory, 2015)
I agree for the most part with the results of the Life Styles Inventory, in particular with the descriptions given in the oppositional style. I tend to disagree with others about certain political ideas and issues in the workplace. I have even found myself subconsciously thinking others that disagree with me are lacking a certain degree of intelligence. I am also very defensive when receiving criticism. When criticized, my usual response is to criticize the other person which usually results in an argument. I tend to see myself as an honest and hardworking person and become adversarial if my character is attacked. I am already very critical of myself usually knowing my faults before they are told to me by another person further adding to my sensitivity. I am not easily impressed and can be described as critical. While I agree with most of the survey analysis there are portions of the oppositional style I do not agree with. I do not criticize a person behind their back, and rarely resort to sarcasm unless making a joke. I also have a fair amount of professional and personal relationships. Having just met a former college classmate and friend for lunch this week that I have maintained contact with for twenty years, I could not see my oppositional characteristics manifesting themselves to the point of antisocial behavior. Regarding the avoidance style, I found that I agree with most of the descriptions including fear of failure and guilt for making mistakes. I would like to advance in my position in the workplace to an official management position, rather than an engineer who simply does some project management. I see it as a daunting task due to the responsibilities involved in management and the high stakes of making important decisions. I do slightly disagree with the avoidance description because I do not avoid challenging situations entirely even if I may want to. If those opportunities present themselves I would be willing to take them on, in spite of probably feeling somewhat fearful while doing so.
Both the oppositional and avoidance styles are conducive to limiting a person’s overall effectiveness according to the LSI Circumplex. Although the