GM591 PREPARATION GUIDE: LIFE STYLES INVENTORY

Introduction: Thinking and Behavior

"The quest for leadership is first an inner quest to discover who you are (p.391).1 --Jim Kouzes and Barry Posner--Self-awareness is foundational to effective leadership and organization success2. Research in leadership and organizational behavior indicates that managers who are blind to who they are, and to the effects they have on other people in their organizations, place their effectiveness and their careers at risk. A frequently cited axiom is "the first commandment of leadership is to know thyself." For example, in their studies of managerial and executive derailment, the Center for Creative Leadership found that successful managers: (1) understand their values, personal styles, and strengths and weaknesses; (2) know the impact of these values, styles, and strengths and weaknesses on their ability to effectively work with others and achieve their goals; and (3) are quick to reflect upon and learn from their own experiences. Despite these advantages, we often resist opportunities to increase our self-awareness or to acknowledge error. We fear that learning something new about ourselves will be painful -- doing so may require us to change our treasured and habitual ways of seeing, thinking, and behaving. Self-awareness is also an important barometer to ensure that even the best leadership practices don't become destructive. As Jim Kouzes and Barry Posner caution us in "The Leadership Challenge", virtues can become vices. Being obsessed at being seen as a role model, for example, can cause a leader to slip from inclusion to exclusion, disregarding the views of others and being non-receptive to feedback. It can, in the words of Kouzes and Posner, "push you to isolation for fear of losing privacy or being 'found out'; it can also cause you to be more concerned with style than substance" (p. 395). Being aware of such contradictions is critical knowledge for a leader. There is no doubt that self-awareness is at the core of leadership learning and development. As a leader, do you know how you come across to your constituents? Knowing how you are perceived by the people who do the work in your company and how your words and actions affect them is the first step to managing your relationships with them. Leaders ultimately don't manage people. They manage relationships. Developing a willingness and ability to engage in self-reflection is a critical leadership skill that is not easily learned yet reaps many rewards. The Life Styles Inventory (LSI) by Human Synergistics is an opportunity for you to take a close look at your thinking styles and how they influence your behavior as a manager. The LSI authors describe the instrument in this way: Depending on how you choose to use them, your thoughts can be your strongest allies or your worst enemies. The LSI enables you to examine your own unique way of thinking and how it influences your behavior. Using what you learn about yourself, you can determine where and how to direct your self-improvement efforts to achieve lasting, measurable results.

Your Assignment
Complete (on your own) the LSI according to the procedure outlined here, so that you end up with your "Life Styles Circumplex" profile: 12 "personal thinking style" scores, one score for each section of the circumplex. Access the online version of the LSI from within the course shell (look for the LSI tab under Week 1 or 2.

1 Kouzes, J. M., & Posner, B. Z. (2002). The Leadership Challenge. Jossey-Bass. 2 Please read Personal Development To Improve Management Performance: A Plain Managers Guide, by Tom Bourner. A copy is in document sharing. This is an excellent article that addresses how the development of selfknowledge of managers (like this LSI exercise) contributes to organizational and personal success.

 Write a 3 to no more than 5 page double-spaced paper [be sure to use subheadings to identify each section] in which you use the results of your LSI. The content of your LSI paper should include, but is not limited to, answers to the following questions: Part I: Personal Thinking Styles (primary, backup, limiting) 25 points

1. "Primary" and "Backup" Thinking Styles:

What are your "primary" and "backup" personal thinking styles as revealed by your completed LSI? Discuss with examples how your "primary" and "backup" personal styles are manifested in your life and work (see the LSI Self Development Guide online).3 (Please include a copy of your Circumplex profile as an appendix to this assignment or paste a copy into your document).

2. "Limiting" Style: Using the style interpretations in the LSI Guide, identify and illustrate one style you
think might be working against you to reduce your effectiveness. Name the style you have chosen, make a few remarks about why you are choosing this style as limiting your professional effectiveness in organizations, and then select one behavior associated with this style that you think you would like to change. Part II: Impact On Management Style (25 points) What impact do your personal styles have on your management style? Explore/assess the impact of your personal styles on your effectiveness as a manager in terms of the functions of management (the functions of management are described in Chapter 1 of your text). Part III: Genesis of Personal Styles (25 points) Speculate on how you developed the personal styles that were revealed in your LSI. What role, for example, did family relationships; school, organizational memberships, culture, etc. have in shaping your personal style? Part IV: Conclusion and Reflection (25 points) Think about your LSI results and your responses to the above questions. Close your paper with a statement of at least one question or goal you hope your work in GM 591 will help you to address, and a comment of a few sentences to describe the value of this exercise to your personal and professional development NOTE: The LSI Self-Development Guide is *integrated* into the LSI1 Participant account, and is available *after* a student completes the LSI Survey and has access to his/her results. There are two places where students can find in their online LSI account the information that was previously provided in the paper SelfDevelopment Guide. The in-depth (and now personalized!) style descriptions can be found by clicking on the style "slices" of the circumplex. For example, if the student would like to learn more about the Humanistic-Encouraging style (Style 1), s/he simply needs to click on the circumplex "slice" for that style. The same goes for the other 11 styles. Students can find the Challenge of Change & the Self-Improvement Plan information by using two of the additional links that become available in their LSI online account after the survey is complete. These links are "The Challenge of Change" and "Your Self-Improvement Plan". The information found with these links is the same (and improved) information previously found at the end of the paper Self-Development Guide. 3 Once you have completed your LSI survey, additional links should appear in the left-hand column of links that can be found on most pages of your LSI account, including the Main Menu page. One of these links will be "Self-Improvement Plan" - this is the online version of the Self-Development Guide.

NOTE TO AOL/MSN USERS

Since the AOL and MSN browsers cover much of the viewable area of a web page, essential parts of the LSI1 Internet Edition site are hidden from the viewer. For any student using the AOL or MSN browser, he or she will need to use a different browser to complete the LSI1 survey. To do this, after accessing the Internet, he or she will need to minimize the AOL or MSN browser and open a different browser (Internet Explorer and Netscape have been most thoroughly tested, although the site does work with other browsers, as well) to surf to the LSI site and access the survey. If the student uses a Windows operating system, he or she most likely has Internet Explorer installed somewhere on his or her machine. If the student is not sure whether or not Internet Explorer is on his or her machine, searching for "internet explorer*.*" on the C:\ drive may locate the program.