LSI

Myprimary styles is Conventional. My LSI backup style is Affiliative. In this assignment I will
go over how these styles apply to my life and how they also apply to my work. I will also go over my
limiting styles, how personal styles impact my management style, origins of my personal styles, and a
goal I hope my work in GM591 will address.

My LSI Primary style is Conventional. The conventional style is a conforming style that
represents adhering to rules and established procedures, maintaining a low profile, and “blending in”
with our particular environment to avoid calling attention to ourselves. I work with contracts, contract
language, and established procedures in my current and past jobs. My job requires that I follow the
language in our contracts so that I am compliant with procedures and the law. My job does not have
that much room for flexibility and creativity. I am also a low key person at work and outside of
work. I do not crave attention and I do not try to be competitive with people. I agree with the results
that my LSI Primary style is Conventional. I tend to want to fit in and not stand out.

My backup style is Affiliative. This style represents a need for social interaction and interpersonal
contact. Affiliative people seek out, establish, value, and maintain close associations with others.
These individuals appreciate people and enjoy being in the company of others. In my current
position I have to establish relationships with our customers and co-workers. They depend on me and I
depend on them regarding deadlines, accountability and requests. I enjoy working with people and
feel over time I have built strong bonds at work and in my personal life with people that I could trust and
they could trust me. I was surprised by the high score in this category. I tend to not be that social and I do
not go out of my way to meet new people.

My limiting style is Perfectionistic. People that have this style work to make things the best
they can be. My job is very detail orientated and there is room to make a lot of errors. I work with a person
that I would consider a perfectionist. She is very talented and knowledgeable and I try to mimic the way
she works. Her perfectionistic ways are sometime on overdrive and she expects everyone to be like her.
She has gotten into arguments with others. Her message is good but tends to be delivered in a bossy
stuck up manner. I would like to be more of a perfectionist, but do it in a way that would bring people
together rather than making people feel intimidated dealing with me.

My other limiting style is Power. Individuals who seek power are motivated by a need to gain
prestige, status and influence: they achieve false, temporary feelings of self-worth by striving to be “in
charge” at all times. I am an individual contributor at work. I do not have anyone reporting to me. I only
have to manage my work and customer account relationships. I would like to have a position in the future
where people report to me. I feel I need to be more competitive, out-going, and individualistic to be
recognized, promoted, or be considered for a people management position. I agree with the survey
results for this category. I do not like people that are overtly power hungry. I have worked for and with
people like that, and these people were very unpopular in the workplace. I saw corruption and
discrimination used by power hungry people in my work experience.
When it comes to planning and organizing within my job function, I use the Conventional style. I
have learned the procedures at my job. I have also done my job enough times to know what works and
what does not work. I have learned from my co-workers the way I should do my job based on
procedures, policies, and best practices. My job is pretty straightforward. I have deadlines that I need to
meet. I know what is expected of me. There usually are no surprises. The Conventional style does not
change often and works very well for me when it comes to planning and organizing my workload.

When it comes to leading and controlling I would need to use Affiliative, Perfectionistic, and
Power styles. The Affiliative style would be used to make employees like and respect me. A successful
manager needs employees to like and respect them so that they could have a team with less conflict and
more trust. When a person dislikes their manager, it is hard to like the work you do also. I would use the
Perfectionistic Style to show employees that I am very detail orientated, and employees could use me for
training, knowledge, and advice. I would use the Power style to show employees that I have a competitive
edge, and help my team better achieve goals by leading and controlling workplace agendas to better
improve the quality and efficiency of the work that is done.

My Conventional style comes from me immigrating to the United States from Ukraine in 1979. I
was four years old when we moved from the former Soviet Union. I remember kids laughing at the way I
talked and the clothes I wore for the first few years in this country. As I got a little older, I used to be
embarrassed by my parents talking to me in Russian around my American friends . I also used to be
embarrassed by the lunch they used pack for me at school. I wanted to assimilate and fit it. As I got older
I would tell my parents to buy me clothes like my friends at school and pack American food in my
lunchbox. I felt a sense of alienation fitting in at school, at a time when Russia was considered an enemy
of the United States and also a somewhat backwards country compared to the United States. I played
American sports like baseball to fit in, and for a certain time did not want to do anything that would
make me be different from my schoolmates. I think the sense to fit in carried over to my adult life. I
have taken little risks in my life. I have always worked for someone. I never owned my own business. I
tend to play it safe and fit in at work.

In conclusion I need more than just the Conventional style to be a successful manager. I think I
need the positive aspects of all the styles listed in the LSI to be successful. Each style has negative
aspects that I need to avoid. In the GM591 class, I hope to learn how successful managers, individuals,
and companies succeed in the business environment. I would like to learn from successes and mistakes
of others to learn how to better interact with people. Sometimes you have to evaluate and judge
oneself to see what changes you need to make. This exercise was very useful in seeing what different
aspects I need to work on to be a successful manager. Becoming more of a perfectionist and power style
will help me stand out more at work. I will get more credit for my work if I speak out more and not
always try to fit in. I tend to be passive and satisfied with the basics. In this competitive workforce, I
need to be more assertive to get ahead in life. I will need to come out of the box with new ideas and
creativity. I will need to take risks and not be scared of making mistakes. People get used to the way
they act. Sometimes they realize that they act a certain way because of things that happened to them in
their lives. You could learn about different styles listed in the LSI exercise and learn to use those styles to
your advantage to improve your work and personal life. Doing this exercise is like taking bitter medicine.
The medicine does not taste good but it is good for you. Learning about your faults is always hard but
good for you to change your ways.