The Life Styles Inventory

Life Styles Inventory

The Life Styles Inventory (LSI) identifies the underlying thoughts and motivations that guide an individual's behavior. The quality of an individual's thinking and behavior contributes greatly to that person's work performance. The Life Styles Inventory (LSI) is based around the Human Synergistic Circumplex, describing constructive, passive/defensive and aggressive/defensive behaviors. In the LSI, the feedback is normed against how 9,000 individuals have described themselves (LSI 1) and how 5,000 individuals have been described by 25,000 others (LSI 2). (LSI Human Synergistic www.human-synergistic.com)

Part I- Personal Thinking Styles

Your LSI Styles Circumplex

"Primary" and "Backup" Thinking Styles

The above illustration shows my different styles, I am strongest in the Aggressive/Defensive Styles category. Power, Oppositional, Competitive, and perfectionistic are my strengths in the illustration.

My primary personal thinking style is Power (8 O' clock position). This measure on how demanding and controlling I am all of the time. This shows that feeling in charge; I tend to feel threatened and helpless when I'm not in full control of a situation. I notice that most of my friends tend to be quiet when I start to get hostile in feuding conversations. Below are statements that describe how power thinking styles affect me:

* Driven to be in charge at all times

* Quick to anger , impatient and irritable with others

* Will seek revenge if provoked

* Fear a loss control

My Backup personal thinking style is Competitive (9 O'clock position). Competitive scale measures my way of thinking with others. I tend to focus more on winning than on performance excellence. I scored more on the high range with competitive as well as power. Being a high competitive person includes:

* Higher - Quality results

* The ability and willingness to cooperate with others

* Satisfying relationships

* A greater appreciation for cooperation and teamwork

"Limiting" Thinking Styles

I chose Self-Actualizing out of Constructive Styles; I scored the highest out of that category (12 O'clock position). This scale measures a way of thinking that results in the highest form of personal fulfillment. This is a challenging style for me because it involves creativity and imagination.

I am choosing this style because I believe this is a area in my life that I would like to focus on. I would like to challenge myself to become more self-actualizing which I will have a strong interest in working to become everything that I'm capable of being. I feel there are so many different areas that I need to change in my life and sometimes I hear people telling me how I should change traits in my life. I believe this may be a trait that I should focus more on.

Part II: Impact On Management Style

What impact do my personal styles have on my management style? Explore/assess the impact of my personal style on my effectiveness as a manager in terms of the five functions of management.

1. Planning- I scored high in Dependent style which shows that I can plan things well with others. I'm a weekly planner when it comes to business, coordinating meetings and being very pro-active, others help me out when it comes to future planning.

2. Organizing- As a dependent style, I usually want others in my group to help me with ideas. In team meeting, I normally would like a colleague to assist with a new idea or become creative with organizing a event. I have really great organizational skills when it comes to my desk and home. I know where everything is.

3. Staffing- I believe my high Approval style works well when it comes to staffing. I can collaborate with others approval. Normally when I'm about to make a decision, I always seek approval from about 5 people, this helps me finalized my decision.

4. Directing- I believe that my high score of Power works well when I'm in a position of directing a group of people. I have always had the mission and desire to be in control. The high score of power signifies my intelligence of being a leader. Most of organizational task, I'm normally voted the leader.

5. Controlling- Again my high score of Power shows that I have no problem being in control. I have great leadership skills, and fit all of the criteria of having a Power style. I don't come off as a control

...