My Life in the Working

My Life in the Working

Lifestyle Inventory

Name: Criselda Quan

Course Number:MGMT-591-68595

Course: Leadership & Organizational Behavior

Professor: Shashon Miles

03/7/2016

Introductory

The purpose of this assignment is to determine the impact of my personal thinking styles have on my management style and to identify which one of my thinking styles is reducing my overall effectiveness to work.  This survey is to help you be self aware of how your personality is affecting your career path and as well to let you know how well do you really know yourself.

Background

In the adult world, I am very far off from what I want to be. I’m just starting out in my career; I graduated with a bachelor’s degree in Hospitality Management Major in culinary arts. Then I had a 2-year experience in the United States as a line cook in two 5 Stars, 5 Diamond and Forbes rated resorts in California and in Georgia.

Personality wise I have complications in understanding myself. First of all, I want to say that I have trust issues when it comes to people. I’m a type of person who is very observant of behavior; I consider myself to be judgmental and it is a hard habit to let go because the vision was already created in my attention. Overall I know I am a negative human being, but I manage to put that aside when it comes to work but sometimes I can’t control it. So far I never had any issues with it besides the fact my managers always tell me that I am too hard on myself but I never had any arguments with another person at work.

Part 1: Personal Thinking Styles

Primary

My Primary thinking style revealed by my completed LSI survey is avoidance. In the circumplex chart, this style fell into the highest percentile range score of 99. This style is characterized by doubting oneself, preoccupied with own concerns, hallucinating thoughts that everyone always talks about them in a hasty manner, difficulty in establishing a relationship through converting their thoughts and emotions through words, unsure of their own potential and lacks motivation. Avoidance thinking style I would say is base on being engage in rumination, they are basically trying to always think their way out of uncomfortable situations. This way of thinking has a tendency to focus on shortcomings and would always be hard on them with every mistake they make thus difficulty in forgiving and moving on.

I already have known about this side of me but I didn’t know that it would be considered as avoidance. I have been usually an introvert per se by locking myself in a room or in a corner of a house and just put on my laptop and just watch TV series all day long. I wouldn’t normally go out with friends because I just don’t want to mingle with them for some reason.

 I would always think it’s a nuisance to meet and spend money just to go out and chat. For instance, when I was in high school I wasn’t one of the popular kids I don’t even think that I was part of the average. I’m the one whom they would always bully and say derogative things because I was overweight, ugly and had dark skin tone. At that type, there was like a stereotype in my country if you have a pale light skin tone, thin and have a nice structured nose you are considered pretty. And I do kind of notice that part of my childhood had a traumatic effect on me. Considering that I put in the effort to lose weight and fix myself up and I still don’t think it was enough I always would compare and I notice I do have an impulse of needing acceptance but I do it indirectly by posting nice pictures of me through being vain but it lessen throughout the years.

Recently I went bowling to Long Island with my friend and he introduced me to his friends that day. How I acted was very accurate with the description in the circumplex. Usually I’m not a good bowler I was really uncomfortable playing especially with random people I just met. I was so distracted with the thinking I can’t do this and I kept over thinking of how I can do better and I just wanted to give up and watch. So every time it was my turn I get so embarrassed just by holding the ball and my friend was even trying to show me how to do it properly it was very uncomfortable for me especially I’m not used to people holding me from the back and showing me how to play. I just can’t figure it out. For every turn in the game you always get two turns no matter if you got the bowl in the gutter. I would always try to run back after the first roll of the ball because I was to embarrass and I didn’t have any confidence that I can do better. And my friend would always try to push me back and tell me you still have one turn don’t worry and they were all laughing how shy I was getting about the situation.

Same goes for work I would always be overwhelmed in the kitchen doing multiple tasks that I always think that I can’t handle doing myself because the list of preparation was just too much for me. During the busy service I always do my best and once I make a mistake I can never forget It would always be so hard for me to forgive myself and move on I would even cry about it when I get home and reflect. In the back of the house usually we have a meeting before we start any preparations for service and the chef would always ask if we had anything to bring to the table for instance a new recipe we want to try or ideas how we can be more like a team things like that. The problem I had was I always had difficulty interacting effectively with others, I was always too afraid of saying anything because I am not confident enough so how can I put an idea out there if I’m not even confident in my own ability. Another is that I don’t take compliments too well I always would be negative and say no I didn’t think I really do well today that I made a lot of mistakes that I should’ve been aware and focus on preventing it. My Leaders would always tell me I’m too hard on myself I always have fear in my eyes and I have to relax, stop overthinking and being in a cylo. He would always tell me we are here for we are a family we won’t bring you down we would lift you up.

Backup

Base on the result of the survey, my second-highest percentile range was a 98 on a Conventional style of thinking. From my understanding the characteristic of a conventional thinker are more concern about rules and security, they are responsible and reliable with the tendency to be compliant without unquestioned obedience to authority figures and rules. According to the LSI results conventionalist would tend to seek approval from a higher authority and there wouldn’t be any room to grow while some conformity is necessary for our lives but too much will just take away a sense of individuality and uniqueness. I can see this describing my personality when I come to think of it. Being overly concerned with how others would do things, prefer to follow others orders than making a decision on my own. I think being a conventional thinker makes you a gullible person who would rather blend in and let others make decisions for them rather than making decisions and take responsibility on your own.