A631.9.2.RB - Video Debrief of Team MA

Steve Jobs is well known as one of the most effective, visionary leaders of our time. The more I have read and learned about his contribution to the world as we know it, the more I am torn between the effectiveness of his leadership style and the genius of his designs and ideas. I have had many inspirational and motivational people in my life who managed to push me to work harder and be better in a very different way from Jobs.  Steve Jobs obviously had success with his demanding style of leadership and drive for perfection, but I don’t think that that style of leadership and motivation works for everyone, including myself.  It’s difficult to say if I would adapt or adjust to that sort of culture in the NeXT company.  In an interview with several of his previous employees, they stated that they would never treat employees the way he treated them, but that they learned that Jobs did expected and demanded a certain level of success from them and the key to his blunt style of motivation was for employees to “stand up to him and not be wrong” (Fried, 2015). Susan Barnes was a coworker of Jobs at both Apple and NeXT and stated that Jobs appreciated it when employees would challenge him or disobeyed him, as long as they were right, but also claimed that it took her 8 years to appreciate and understand this culture (Fried, 2015).  With that said, the culture Steve Jobs encouraged at NeXT seemed to be one that thrived on collaboration, but with Jobs having the final word.  He held everyone to a certain standard and expected the same level of drive from everyone.  I think those are positive characteristics to have in a company culture; however, I do feel that my personality would not fit well with that type of culture and leadership, but I believe that it is an effective culture for those that do fit well with that style of leadership and culture.

            When looking at the leadership and culture of a company, I think it is key to understand the personality characteristics of the leadership that dictates the culture.  The start up company NeXT, guided by Steve Jobs, illustrates his personality well.  Research on several personality websites all describe Jobs as and ENTJ, or the “commander” personality type.  According to the website “16 Personalities”, ENTJ’s are dominant, relentless, and unforgiving and thrive on challenges and the environment that is created by these challenges and battles. This personality also respects when others challenge them, as long as they can “keep up” and offer compelling arguments, much like how Steve Jobs handled the culture at NeXT. The website goes on to discuss how these types of personalities tend to have a particular effective ability to recognize the talents of others, which helps with their ability to build effective teams.  They do not act through emotions and tend to keep an arms length from people who are sensitive to emotions, as they see this as a sign of weakness.  This personality appears to be almost completely opposite of my personality as a mediator.  I don’t approach failures as failures, but more so learning opportunities and instead of thinking people who are not meeting goals as being less skilled, I think more about how to encourage them to improve.  The personality differences between myself and individuals like Steve Jobs represent two highly distinctive and different types of leadership.  While there are many differences that make me feel like I would not appreciate that type of culture at NeXT, there are some positives that I do find effective in Steve Jobs’ approach. 

            After receiving my management assessment, the first distinguishable difference that correlates to my reasons for not being a good fit for the NeXT company culture is that NeXT is a start up and my personality characteristics would fit better in an organization that is in the mid-size range that has a strong, established foundation. This desire to be in a culture that is already established shares similarities in my personality characteristics. According to my management assessment, to be successful in an organization I need both a small bit of direction, but still a higher level of independence.  This balance of structure and independence correlates with my desire to be in an environment that offers diversity and challenge, but also an ability to take risks without having to worry too much about the consequence.  NeXT, on the other hand, has a risk level that is much higher than what I would be comfortable with.  My personality also faces a desire to share ideas and hear other people’s perspectives, as too much structure and planning can be difficult for me.  Being in a company with a lower risk level allows me to explore more ideas and pick out problems without having to worry too much about the consequences of exploring and planning as a I go.  In a culture like NeXT, it is adamant that the structure and pressure of succeeding is understood.  The success or failure of the company is dependent on the success of the employees, which is why Jobs demanded so much from them.  This level of stress and urgency, I feel, would push me backwards and discourage me from trying for fear of failing.  My personality is also more introverted and is less inclined to be driven by rewards or punishments. The environment and culture at NeXT that Steve Jobs established appears to thrive on that balance of stress between succeeding and failing, as well as rewards and punishments.  This level of ambition and drive, while similar to my level of drive and ambition, utilizes a different style of motivation and leadership for reaching success.  Another reason I feel I would not fit so well in the NeXT culture is my desire to have harmony in the workplace.  A company like NeXT tends to experience a lot of turbulence and disagreements throughout the process.  This type of culture can benefit from leaders like Jobs as he wastes no time on things that are not working.  If I were leading a start-up, I feel I would be too involved with trying to figure out the “whys” of failures and successes instead of looking at them as failures and just moving on. 

In a culture like NeXT, my desire for exploring and creativity, along with my introverted nature, is a stark contrast to the culture that Steve Jobs created.  The NeXT culture thrives on challenges that come with punishments and scrutiny, whereas a culture I would thrive in encourages exploration and accepts failure and sees it as an opportunity instead of a negative experience.  There are a few areas of the culture that I did appreciate, which included bringing together a mix of people to share ideas and openly talk through different strategies.  However, I ultimately feel that my idealistic nature and my desire to lead through morality would conflict with the culture developed at NeXT.  NeXT thrives on competition, risk, rewards, punishment, and challenges, all led by a style of leadership that has a strong vision that is centered around execution and high expectations.  Steve Jobs and the NeXT culture represent similarities in my personality which include a desire to succeed and be challenge, a strong vision, and a unique ability to communicate; however, these similarities are understood in different ways. My desire to be challenged and my high level of passion and motivation are a result of my idealistic nature and need to explore possible ideas and find harmony in this exploration.  Steve Jobs, and the NeXT culture focused more on achievement on reaching goals.  The happiness and success of this culture lies in their ability to reach these goals and be successful.  This type of personality creates a culture that is based on rationality and determination, causing a focus that is shifted on the skills and abilities of others. While we both share a similar level of drive and passion, the roads we take to reach those successes are notably different in areas that are directly influenced by the core of who we are as individuals.  These notable differences describe the reasons why I feel I would not be successful in an environment like NeXT or in a culture dictated by a personality like Steve Jobs.  I believe that both methods of leading, whether commanding or mediating, are successful and can be highly beneficial, these styles are just too distinctly different from one another in ways that I do not feel would be compatible together.  I think having a stronger understanding of personalities and how they can influence a culture is important to understand when seeking a company to work for or bringing in new talent because, as individuals, we all have different needs that meet our desires and moral views.  Understanding where our personalities fit in is crucial to the success of reaching any type of goal.  Steve Jobs was so successful in reaching these goals because he found a way to balance his blunt nature with his desire to reach these goals.  His ability to show this drive as ambition instead of cold-heartedness was understood in his methods of communicating and encouraging others to challenge him.  This style of leadership continued to build a strong culture that thrived in an environment like this.  I think this is the key to being a successful leader; to bring compatible personalities together while finding a balance in your actions and methods of reaching goals that effectively relate to the culture.  Jobs managed to do this even with his difficult nature because he reinforced his desire for success in both his communication tactics and his acceptance of challenges and disagreements.  By accepting and recognizing employee’s challenges, he further reinforced that his goal was not to hurt people’s feelings, but to reach his vision by any means necessary. While this is not the method I would take, or the style that I feel I would fit in with, it helps to illustrate the different styles of leadership and encourages me to understand that I don’t need to be like someone else to be effective; my style of leadership and my personality can be effective and motivational as well as long as I believe in it and am able to continuously reinforce my vision in both my actions and inactions.

  

References

ENTJ Personality (“The Commander”). (n.d.). Retrieved December 17, 2015, from http://www.16personalities.com/entj-personality

Fried, I. (2015, November 8). Could There Have Been a Kinder, Gentler Steve Jobs? Retrieved December 18, 2015, from http://recode.net/2015/11/08/could-there-have-been-a-kinder-gentler-steve-jobs/

INFP Personality (“The Mediator”). (n.d.). Retrieved December 17, 2015, from http://www.16personalities.com/infp-personality

Isaacson, W. (2012, April 1). The Real Leadership Lessons of Steve Jobs. Retrieved December 17, 2015, from https://hbr.org/2012/04/the-real-leadership-lessons-of-steve-jobs

Personality tests, such as the Myers-Briggs assessment, can be beneficial tools to help people better align themselves with a career that fits their personalities. These assessments can also benefit companies as the assessments can guide leaders to develop high performance teams based on different personalities, allowing for more diversity (Jordan, 2012).  I believe that these tests are becoming increasingly more important as the work force shifts toward a new direction where employees are not staying in the same job forever.  Younger workers now have access to a variety of tools that can highlight potential opportunities globally, allowing them to move between jobs easily. I feel like these types of personality assessments have the potential to be very beneficial, as long as you don’t end up pigeonholing yourself into one career path. The assessments provide an opportunity to understand your strengths, as well as your weaknesses, and link them to a career path that fits with your leadership style. These tests also offer insight into your “leadership potential, and what skills sets may need work” (Lok, 2012).        

            I have always enjoyed taking these types of assessments and reading into personality characteristics.  Previously, I had just enjoyed them for self-reflection opportunities and never really considered the benefits they could provide in a career and leadership path. I am still young in my career and leadership experience and have not had the opportunity to gain as much insight into what path is right for me; therefore, assessments such as the Myers-Briggs can provide an excellent opportunity for guidance, especially for the new work force generation. After taking the assessment multiple times, I have always scored as an INFP.  INFP personality types refer to introvert (22%), intuitive (25%), feeling (56%), and perceiving (9%). INFP’s are considered the “mediators” of the different personality types and generally see the world in an idealistic perspective. INFP’s lives must have variety and meaning and enjoy helping others grow and find success (Druhot, 2007).  According to psychologist Dr. George Simon, INFP personality types are “values-driven idealist who strive to heal the world”, and while this is an optimistic view, INFP’s can sometimes get too caught up in the world of ideas and lofty dreams (2013). Simon goes on to discuss that INFP personality types are often effective at communicating their vision, ideals, and passion due to their deep desire to create positive change (2012).  INFP’s are also very adaptable and welcome new concepts, information, and ideas.  They also tend to value creativity and passion and are not generally motivated by money or recognition (Druhot, 2007). While these traits offer a lot of opportunity to for me to grow as a leader, there are also many difficulties and struggles of this personality type as well including setting goals too high that are unreachable, becoming disinterested and detached from work they don’t see purpose in, and are reluctant to give criticism or constructive feedback and at times will let emotion effect their judgment (NERIS Analytics, 2015).

These are definitely characteristics that I see in myself in a lot of different areas of my life.  I recently reviewed my management assessment scores with Tom Labrecque of NextSteps, I found a lot of parallels in my personality score with the Myers-Briggs test and the management assessment with Mr. Labrecque.  The most obvious similarity between the two scores was in career paths.  Both the management assessment and the MBTI results stated that my strengths and career paths include jobs that serve the community and offer me the ability to set goals, stay innovative, offer diversity, and provide some direction, but still allow for a certain level of independence.  Jobs in this path generally include education, graphic design or fine arts, psychology, and anthropology.  The common theme between the two assessments and the career paths suggested is that they all offer an opportunity to work in an environment that can be directed by my values, achievement levels, ability to innovate, and most importantly, share my vision and passion with others.  For the most part, I feel like I have aligned myself without realizing it toward the careers that appear to suite me best.  After talking with Mr. Labrecque, he pointed out that whatever career path I end up following, finding an environment that challenges me to utilize all of my strengths and build off my weaknesses, is most important. Mr. Labrecque also noted that I landed in the “diplomatic” quadrant of the “Leadership Management Styles” assessment and was more specifically described as a “confident, introverted diplomatic leader”.  Diplomatic leaders tend to take a more people-oriented leadership approach and are generally more driven by “why” things happen instead of “how”.  I felt like this assessment matched up well with the MBTI results as a mediator to conflicts and problems.  The benefits of being able to mediate situations and offer a diplomatic approach, I feel, would be useful in a group or team setting within an organization. These traits would allow me to bridge any conflicts with other team members, as well as provide motivational support and the ability to inspire people to achieve visionary goals. Having the ability to be a diplomatic leader in situations where conflict might arise or when members lose focus would benefit an organization by potentially encouraging a smoother approach to sharing ideas and working in teams.

While I see a lot of benefits to having this type of personality, I have also discovered a lot of potential set-backs in having a more idealistic approach to problem solving and setting goals.  In my own personal life, some of these drawbacks are abundantly clear for me.  I often pile too much on my plate with the idea that I will be able to handle all of the obligation I put on myself.  I end up putting a lot of pressure and stress on my successes and failures and end up causes a lot of unnecessary stress to myself.  I’ve discovered that being an individual who likes to be challenges, but is also a lofty dreamer and idealist, can oftentimes be a bad mix.  There have been countless times that I’ve agreed to something or overbooked myself with work, school, volunteer work, side project, potential future business ideas that I suddenly feel like I can make work in my free time, and thinking I can find a way to squeeze in another activity! I brought this up during the management assessment and asked about methods to control the overload of ideas and dreams, so that I can focus on a single vision.  Mr. Labrecque suggested that because my personality assessment showed a strong ability to identify problems, but a weaker ability to solve them, that I should work developing a method to take ideas out my head and work on identifying the ones that will definitely not work.  This strategy is one that definitely makes sense for me as I enjoy brainstorming opportunities and programs such as The Brain.  In my professional experience, I have found that when conflict arises and people are disagreeing, I tend to try and encourage other team members to take on strategies such as brainstorming ideas to identify problems.  As I continue to work on and develop more self-awareness in this area, I think the tools that I discover work for me will also be useful in my strategies to be an effective leader. 

As it stands, my current goal is to work with children who are struggling to grasps foundational concepts that are the building blocks in education. Whether they are struggling with a learning disability or are simply not being challenged enough, I feel like the tools that have helped me to internally set challenges for myself would also benefit in an educational structure to encourage students to set internal goals and be motivated by their accomplishments. INFP’s are considered to be a good fit in education or human development areas because they focus on seeing the good and potential in every person and/or situation (Druhot, 2007).  I do think it will be important for me as I continue to develop more self-awareness to continue to ask questions from others who have more experience or different perspectives, as I get very hyper focused on a problem or process and potentially side track myself from the vision or goal.  It will be important for me as I work on my leadership to continue to put myself in a challenging environment that allows me to share my ideals, goals, and visions with others.  This type of environment would offer the ability to express creativity and my desire to come up with innovative ideas with people, while also encouraging a sharing of perspectives and and solutions with other people.  I also think it will be essential to my ability to grow as a leader to work on my confidence in myself and with my visions and dreams. Building more confidence in myself will encourage me to communicate my passion more effectively, while also allowing myself to explore my ideas and the opportunities that they bring to me. Overall, I think that assessments such as the Myers-Briggs, as well as the management assessment, have the potential to offer valuable perspectives and insights into how we function as leaders and followers.  They also offer a constructive feedback on weaknesses both personally and professional, as well as strengths or opportunities to grow.  These assessments; however, are only effective if understood and utilized in a productive manner. While they highlight areas that you may be most successful in, they also provide valuable tools for developing higher emotional intelligence, as well as self-awareness into who you are as a leader, and what you can become.

References

Butt, J. (2015). Functional Analysis Of The INFP. Retrieved December 12, 2015, from http://www.humanmetrics.com/personality/infp

Druhot, G. (2007). Assess Where You Are. In Career directioning: A practical guide for jobseekers. (p. 174). Xlibris Corporation.

INFP in the Workplace. (2015). Retrieved December 12, 2015, from http://www.16personalities.com/infps-at-work

Lok, C. (2012, August 23). What‘s your type. Nature, 488, 545 – 547. Retrieved from https://www.box.com/s/14bbyljg5oxinclatg26 

Simon, G. (2013). The INFP Personality Type: More than a Dreamer. Retrieved December 12, 2015, from http://counsellingresource.com/features/2013/09/03/infp-personality-dreamer/