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Of the six styles featured in Leadership That Gets Results, what is your primary default leadership style?
Coaching is my strongest. Weirdly this comes from all of the reading I did as a kid. I feel like I’ve read all of the wrong ways to do things and what has worked. One of the things I miss most about my old job was my assistant Veronica. She was straight out of college and we would have weekly check-ins. She reported to 3 of us but I was the only one who took time to work with her and figure out what her strengths were and what areas she was looking to develop. We would talk about upcoming projects and in addition to those I would assign, I’d ask her to pick a project she wanted to take ownership of, and then we would work closely together with her using me as a springboard for ideas. I would talk to her about setting up behaviors now for the career she wanted in three years, five years, etc. She was delightful and I miss her a lot.
What did you learn about yourself from the DiSC profile?
Something that didn’t strike me until after we talked about it in Business Leadership class is the fact that I’m pretty evenly divided across three types. That can contribute to some confusion and self-doubt I have when in situations and I feel like I can go in multiple directions. I need to find a way to frame it as an asset for myself. It also was no surprise that I was so low on Influence, an area that I am constantly working on. But maybe I need to realize that I don’t need to be good at every type, but find out ways to use the ones I’m good at to shore up perceived weaknesses in Influence.
What did you learn about yourself from the Harvard IAT test?
I was quite surprised to realize that I was strongly oriented towards young people. I thought it would reveal older people or at least be middle of the road. Upon examination though, I’m thinking about how many issues we are dealing with as a country that was created under the leadership of older white straight cis affluent men and it makes sense that I’ve developed a bias as an outspoken woman who demands change.
Identify one area of strength and one area to focus on from the Emotional Competence Framework
My area of focus, which also ties into my DiSC, is working on persuasion. I’m great at collaborating but can’t be effective if I haven’t persuaded others to come along for the ride with me. This issue can often butt up against one of my strengths in Innovativeness. Every time I look at an issue, I come up with pages of ideas and solutions. Then work hard to think about what is achievable and what isn’t. So when I’ve done that work and come to a team that meets me with an immediate “No”, I feel incredible frustration.
Share a situation at work where you feel you could be more effective if you honed your EQ.
Self-confidence in seeing that my needs are being met. I have a boss who hasn’t done any training with me and I’m 2 months into the job. I consider myself a self-starter but you also need to know what there is to start. So finding a way to make him feel comfortable communicating with me is important.
MarketingMichelle 