Learning Style Inventory - Essay Example

Learning Style Inventory According to the learning styles circumplex, my primary personal thinking styles are self-actualization and competitiveness. In addition, my backup personal thinking styles are achievement, power, and oppositional. In my work life, the self-actualizing style is manifested through my strong desire to experience and learn about things directly, an exciting and energetic approach to life, as well as having strong intuition and instincts when carrying out tasks. As far as my competitive style is concerned, it manifests in my work place through my fear of failure, a need to be recognized for my good work, and associating my self-worth by whether I lose or win. For my back up styles, the oppositional style is manifested through always finding the problems with specific done tasks, my ability to ask probing and difficult questions, and my tendency to be detached from my work mates. My achievement style manifests itself through my belief in giving and asking for honest feedback, my commitment to making things better, and a focus on achieving excellent standards. Finally, my power style manifests through my tendency to be dictatorial, rather than guiding, my aggressive attitude, and the tendency to feel threatened by anyone I perceive to undermine my authority. I think my limiting style is my power style, which has increased my tendency to associate what I am worth at the workplace with how much I can dominate and control others. One behavior that I would like to change in this style is my tendency to be dictatorial, where I would like to be more guiding and nurturing as a manager, which will allow me to have a better relationship with my workers and subordinates. Impact on Management Style My personal thinking styles portend a very important impact on my style as a manager. I scored quite highly in my self-actualizing qualities. In my personal life, I tend to live for and by the moment. In my workplace, I find that all my workmates are responsible for what they do, and to obtain their goals we all need to be responsible for our actions. I also strive to be self-developing and have an urge to keep learning. This is an important perspective in my work in management since I can assign my team tasks that are based on learning curves. When I see a team member who is in need of a new skill, I use the opportunity to better their experiences. In organizing terms, I have the ability to select the best team for completion of the task. I am also able to distinguish the qualities each member exhibits and how it specifically fits within the task. With regards to leadership, I feel that I can lead the team in case of obstacles while I am also accepting their flaws and make attempts to work around these issues. The fact that I have a high score in achievement proves that I have the ability to show initiative in effecting changes. I feel able to begin a reformation to improve the team’s efficiency. With regards to planning, I am able to lead in making proper adjustments. I also have the ability to organize various tasks based on things that need to be done under my guidance and according to my standards. Over time, I also feel that I have got more lenient, which has lessened my tendency to make unattainable goals and standards for my team members. While I am available to show them the things that need to be done as a leader, I also expect them to do their part in their tasks. Genesis of Personal Style I assume that my upbringing has had a major effect on my personal styles. For instance, my parents were very controlling and demanding. Growing up, I was always required and expected to do a thing right or not attempt to do it in the first place, which caused me into always seeking to be in control and have power so as to make sure I had the ability to do things right. My father was never particularly satisfied with most things I did, which was also responsible for my very high need to achieve. I ended up developing some of these standards for myself, especially my achievement style, as well as my need for self-actualization, which may have been an attempt at placating him. My mother, on the other hand, was always pushing me as far as my school grades were concerned and wanted me to be the best at school. While she was encouraging, it was clear that she wanted me to view my classmates as my direct competition, and it is this that has made me a very competitive person. In addition, being always compared to my admittedly brilliant brother made me very competitive although I can also say that it made me very defensive when I could not be as good as he was. I feel that this also led to my oppositional spirit as I ended up not having too many close ties in school because of my ultra-competitiveness. At university, I completed my studies in a mere three years due to my competitiveness, which, I think, made me believe that I always have to be in control because of my accomplishments. This, I believe, is the cause for my power style. A failure to stop and enjoy what was around me may also have led to my oppositional style as I did not understand why some things were happening. Conclusion and Reflection Throughout this exercise, I have learnt that it is imperative for me to become a little less demanding of my team members, as well be more understanding of their needs. While I always thought that my leadership skills would be improved by my competitiveness, I feel that my oppositional style has stood in the way of being able to harness my competitiveness to push my team members. My oppositional style drives me into becoming too bored with a task if I do not get my way. Perhaps, I need to be more accommodating to my team members and their opinions. If I were less oppositional, maybe I would be more effective because I would trust the judgment of team members. I hope that I can learn from this in becoming a more efficient manager. In addition, I would recommend this to other managers because it depicts how we interact within social groupings and in our professional life. While the two are separate, in both respects, we tend to act in the same way. Through becoming a better manager, it is also possible to improve personal relationships with team members. It is my hope that I will become more understanding and intuitive about my goals and those of other team members. Read More