Life Style Inventory - Essay Example

Avoidance is my primary thinking style while dependent and approval are my backup styles. My percentile score on avoidance style is 99 while I had tie on dependent and approval with a score of 83 on each style. Avoidance behavior is when an individual avoids issues or people that intimidate them, as a defensive strategy. Dependent behavior on the other hand, is when a person shows an unhealthy need to cling on others for guidance and direction since they lack self-confidence in their judgment and abilities.

Approval style is more or less like dependent where an individual shows a high need to be acknowledged by other people in order to uphold their feelings of self-esteem. In life, avoidant style may be seen through poor interpersonal behavior. Such individuals fear rejection and will therefore test people to check if they are being genuine with their friendship. They are reluctant to share their feelings partly because they have difficulties in trusting others. This makes it hard for them to initiate and maintain relationships.

Therefore, as a defense mechanism against humiliation and rejection, they all together avoid people. On the other hand, individuals with this style may form relationships but will keep them at a safe distance as a way of avoiding intimacy. Individuals with avoidance style process too much information because of their tendency to excessively scrutinize situations. This is because they overly concerned with their internal reactions as well as external reactions of other people. They may also become perfectionists and reject anyone who does not measure up to their unrealistic standards.

At work, such thinking patterns caused by the fear of humiliation and rejection, makes one indecisive and unable to relate well with colleagues at different levels. Dependent personalities tend to cling on others because of fear. This clinging behavior makes one unable to make everyday decisions without excessive advice and reassurance from other people. At work, a dependant person lacks the initiative to start projects or do anything on their own as they lack self-confidence in their abilities and judgment.

I generally agree with the descriptions of the style since the life style inventory measures are factual and can change over time due to learning and experience. Avoidance is the style that may be working against me and reducing my overall effectiveness. An effective manager is one who is capable of maximizing employees’ motivation, morale and productivity. At work as a manager, this can be achieved if the manager is decisive, guides the employees by setting clear goals and helping them attain them through frequent and proper communication.

My high score in this style means that I more often than not feel exposed by responsibilities of the position and will therefore ignore issues in hopes that they will sort themselves. For example, if I cannot set realistic goals for my juniors and offer guidance, the organization will eventually not achieve its overall goals due to failure on my part. This in turn limits my professional effectiveness in organizations. Planning is a basic management function where one decides in advance what will be done, when it will be done and how it will be done.

It involves problem-solving and decision making. Having a very high score in avoidance style means that as a manager, whenever am faced with an issue that intimidates me in my position, for fear of failure, I may quickly retreat as a defense mechanism instead of planning. Planning is about the future but if as a manager am gripped with fear of unknown, I will definitely be paralyzed and be unable to plan which makes me an ineffective leader in any organization. Harmonizing financial, physical and human resources of an organization and developing them into a productive relationship in order to reach organizational goals is a management function of organizing.

As a manager with a primary style of avoidance and backup of dependence and approval, I may not be good in that management function. Organizing requires a manager to delegate and coordinate authority, create responsibility and responsible relationships. The above management styles make a manager to avoid conflict and a confrontation instead of amicably solving the problems. Such a manager doubts their ability to make sound decisions and organizing requires one to be decisive in order to harmonize both human and non-human resources within the organizational structure.

Leading is a management function that directly deals with influencing, guiding, supervising and motivating subordinates to achieve organizational goals. As manager, a high score in approval style means that my self-esteem is dependent on other people’s opinion. I am highly anxious about what they think about me and want to be liked by them. For me to lead effectively and be an effective manager, I may have to do some things that are not popular amongst my subordinates. This calls for me to be strong enough and know that self-esteem comes from within.

Insisting on being approved may lead me to be indecisive, drag my feet and finally fail as I may not delegate efficiently, supervise and motivate my juniors. They in turn are unable to be productive and attain organizational goals. Controlling is measuring what has been accomplished against set standards and correcting any short comings in order to achieve organizational goals. A highly dependent manager usually feels that their efforts don’t amount to anything pulling them back from taking control of situations and managing effectively.

My dependent style makes me too cautious and doubtful about my decisions leaving unable to take risks that may save a situation. This behavior will definitely lessen my effectiveness as a manager. As a child, when growing up, I always felt rejected by my parents. I was never given an opportunity to express how I feel. My home environment was harsh and I was not allowed to make mistakes. Making a mistake would earn me a thorough beating from my parents and this instilled fear in me. This affected me because I felt safer keeping to myself to avoid any perceived conflicts.

In school, to avoid bullying from older students, I would agree with whatever was said in order to fit in. In order to feel accepted and not to suffer rejection, I slowly agreed to let people decide issues for me and whenever faced with issues, I would retract and hope that things will get better on their own. In conclusion, this exercise has given me a better understanding of whom I am and why I behavior the way I do. It has helped me answer questions why I relate to people the way I do and why I respond to situations the way I do at different levels.

Interestingly, it has offered practical ways in which I can follow personally and professionally in order to become effective. I am hoping my work at GM591 will help me deal with my fear of confrontation by handling issues as they come instead of avoiding uneasy state of affairs hoping that they will resolve themselves. Works cited Robert A. Cooke, and Clayton Lafferty J. Life Styles Inventory (LSI): Self-Description. Human Synergistics International: Australia, 2012. Print.