My Working Style Inventory assessment form scores are a 5 in Amiable, a 5 in Analytical, a 5 in Expressive, and a 3 in Driver. According to the assessment results, I am nearly a perfect balance of the four personality types. The results are generally accurate because they reveal that I do not have a dominant social style. However, the results are not completely accurate because the driver score should be the same as the other three scores. In this paper, I explained how some of my driver traits combine with other styles to highlight that the driver style partly defines me. My characteristics from all of the categories logically connect together to explain my strengths, challenges, and potential issues in engaging with others. Insofar as I implement sound strategy, I have the opportunity to communicate well with others and be a successful situational leader.
My characteristics within each style present both strengths and challenges. For example, I am amiably motivated as having friendly, close personal, relationships with others is one of my main objectives (EBS University 2018, 5). My amiable strength is caring for others (EBS University 2018, 5) as it is a key ingredient to leadership (Manning 2014, 10). However, under stress, I face the challenge of needing reassurance that I am liked (EBS University 2018, 11). From there, a potential issue is that my oversensitivity to the feelings of others interferes with me completing tasks (EBS University 2018, 5).
For instance, as a follower in the solar industry, I strived to develop friendly relationships with people in the workplace. I needed motivation that my task completion would benefit my relationships. I was disappointed when some of the driver authority figures were closed off from developing casual relationships. However, according to EBS University (2018, 7), drivers are formal and keep their distance. Unfortunately, I took it personally and lost trust in the driver authority figures. My productivity started to go down. In the future, if the bosses are not adapting to my traits, I will be a leader by adapting to their social style.
While doing so, it is important to be aware that my characteristics from the other styles combine to form additional strengths and accomplish tasks. For example, my analytical preference to see things in writing (EBS University 2018, 6) combines with my driver tendency to put things into piles (EBS University 2018, 7). Exercising the two traits empowers me to have my analytical asset in organization (EBS University 2018, 6). From there, I have the driver ability to get things done (EBS University 2018, 7).
At the same time, while in the process of getting things done, my driver traits combine with some of my other characteristics to create a series of challenges. The impatient driver in me, coupled with my analytical trait of being a persistent problem solver (EBS University 2018, 6), makes it difficult to take a break from figuring out a problem. Since the expressive in me has a short attention span, while making a decision, I avoid the details and take risks. The driver in me responds by putting a lot on my plate, juggling a lot at once, and adding more until the pressure builds to the point where I let everything drop and immediately start the whole process over again (EBS University 2018, 7). In order to cease the pattern, I can slow down so that I can leverage my balance in traits across the styles to be a situational leader.
A potential issue engaging with other styles is derived from how I handle having a diverse set of characteristics. I unconsciously aim to balance others out by radiating characteristics that are opposite of their styles. However, as Schwefel (n.d., 10:41) mentioned, people who have the opposite energy as me even see my non-overboard version as too far. Schwefel (n.d., 11:35) gave great advice to overcome the issue as he suggested pausing to think about the energy that the others lead with and embody their characteristics. The key for me is to detect the trait commonalities that I have with others in every unique situation, focus on them and embody the characteristics. It is a simple strategy. However, the key to succeeding in it is that I need to practice everyday, as if I am working a muscle, and then I will get good at it (Sinek 2016, 3:15). It is a matter of rewiring my brain in order to empower others.
Further, while engaging with people of various styles, delegating tasks is a strategy to best accomplish tasks. Particularly, considering that there are traits I do not have that others do, I want to empower people to specialize in the skills that they excel at and I do not have. While delegating, it is important that I know the style of the followers so that I can conduct myself in a way that coincides with them. Specifically, amiable people would prefer for me to make a personal appeal to their loyalty, analytical people want me to take time to answer all their questions about structure and guidance, drivers would want me to tell them the end goal and then get out of their way, and expressive people would need to be in agreement with the project (EBS University 2018, 10). That way, I can use my knowledge of social styles to, both, understand myself and bring out the strengths others.
References
EBS University. 2018. “SELF-ASSESSMENT OF SOCIAL STYLES.” https:// www.ebsuniversity.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/07/SocialStyles- Assessment.pdf Manning,
George. 2014. The Art of Leadership. New York: McGraw-Hill Schwefel, Scott. Year (n.d.) “Your Personality and Your Brain.” TEDxBrookings. YouTube. Dec 15, 2014. Video, 15:53. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8pq_tCgDkT4
Sinek, Simon. 2016. “Most Leaders Don’t Even Know the Game They’re In.” Live2Lead. 2016. YouTube. Nov. 2, 2016. Video, 35:08. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RyTQ5-SQYTo