Overview

Ambitious, demanding and independent, John is a motivated and direct person who is both self-reliant and confident in his own abilities. He is committed to his goals, and channels his energies into the achievement of success. Impatient and exacting, he will expect others to comply with his aims, and will typically react in a direct and forceful manner when faced with obstacles.

His powerful and commanding style means that he is ready to express his ideas and opinions directly, and the personal drive to achieve his goals. He is most effective in positions where he is responsible for his own work, or controls and coordinates the work of other people.

Keynotes

The following keynotes summarise some of the most important aspects of John's personal style:

• He has a powerfully dominant style, decisive and competitive.
• He copes well with rejection, and can handle conflict.

Keywords

• Productive
• Enterprising
• Serious
• Rational

Behavioural Adaptation

In his work environment, John is placing the emphasis of his adaptation on factors of precision, detail and care. It seems that his work demands a more cautious, analytical approach than he might be expected to display in his more general nature, and he is consequently attempting to pay more attention to the precision of his work and the accuracy of his facts.

Advantages

John's strengths derive from his dynamic and driving style; he is energetic, direct, responsive, independent and self-reliant. His sense of personal responsibility is strong, to the extent that he will prefer to operate in an environment over which he has a level of personal control. His forthright and determined style is at its best when faced with challenge and pressure.

Disadvantages

While there are clearly situations where John's direct and assertive approach would be advantageous, there are also many where it will serve to alienate work colleagues and cause unnecessary confrontation. Urgently decisive in nature, he can be prone to reaching conclusions without giving sufficient considerations to their effects, or to the consequences of those conclusions for others.

Communication Style

'Control' is the watchword when considering John's behaviour. He feels a need to be in a position of personal power over his environment, and this factor will naturally affect the ways in which he interacts with other people. He is direct and uninhibited, ready to say exactly what he means, expecting others to respond rapidly and efficiently. He has little patience with prevarication or evasiveness, and can become extremely demanding and forthright when a situation calls for it.

His concentration on efficiency and achievement extends into the field of working relationships. John's style means that he finds it important to take a dominant position in his relations with others. Where he encounters others with a similar attitude and conflicting goals, it is possible that competition and even confrontation may emerge.

Decision Making

Personal responsibility is important to John, and as such, he takes the decision-making element of that responsibility seriously. This particularly true because he sees decisions as an opportunity to exercise control over his environment, and important issue to people with his style. His decisions will tend to be based on questions of efficiency and results, but John's sense of self-motivation and ambition will also play a part in the process. It is unlikely, for example, that he would reach a conclusion that undermined his own authority in any way.

Organisation and Planning

John understands and values efficiency and the achievement of rapid, quantifiable results. He is therefore also aware of the need that sometimes arises for careful planning to achieve these. While he is sufficiently analytical in nature to see the value of procedure and planning, his urgent pace means that the patience and deliberate thought required for these activities does not come easily to him. Where he seems planning activities as paramount, he will most likely delegate them to less impatient and driving individuals than himself.

Motivation

John's main driving force is the need for personal control. He will want to feel that he has the freedom to act independently, and prefers not to be under direct or constant supervision if this can be avoided. Achieving rapid concrete results is motivating to an individual like John, so that he will tend to gain more satisfaction from relatively short term tasks, where the outcome is clear and distinct, rather than longer term projects.

Managing Style

The focus of John's management style is the achievement of rapid and effective results. Due to his direct nature, he is not given to using subtlety in communication, and instead will tend to issue instructions and opinions in a straightforward manner. His sense of competitiveness and dominance combine to give him a rather commanding air, and hence his attitude to his team will generally be quite authoritarian, especially in more pressured circumstances.

Style of Management Required

It will take a strong-minded and capable manager to effectively handle John's highly assertive behavioural style. John respects results, and will respond more favourably to a manager who can demonstrate their effectiveness. His desire for control over events is pronounced, and if he is not provided some freedom for independent action, he can be expected to lose motivation.

Guidelines in Management

John's approach to management can be expected to be rather authoritarian and formal in tone. He is not a manager who depends on building relationships with his team, and indeed productivity and efficiency are rather more important to him. He is concerned with achieving concrete results, and with a significantly self-reliant style, he demands a great deal of himself, and of the team he manages. If he feels that his team are failing to produce the results he demands, he has the raw assertiveness to exert considerable pressure.

Management Style Summary

• He has a sense of self-reliance, and so is not unduly concerned with his team's perceptions of him.
• He has a relatively detached and formal approach to management, and will typically take up a rather authoritarian stance.
• His resilient style makes him capable of leading in an independent way.
• He is ready to lead his team in new directions when the opportunity arises.
• He typically avoids interacting with his team on a particularly personal level.

Guidelines for Development

John might consider the following suggestions to develop his management style. The effectiveness of these suggestions will naturally depend on his current situation, and will need to be weighed accordingly. Taking this into account, John might consider:

• Being more receptive to feedback or criticisms that might be offered by his team.
• Occasionally showing a more receptive, accepting side to his team.
• Being careful not to dismiss feedback or criticism that may carry a useful message.
• Taking time to help his team understand his leadership style and decisions.
• Enhancing productivity by taking time to help his team develop a motivated approach.

Guidelines in Sales

There is every indication that John can be quite effective in a sales role. He has an enterprising, self-reliant style and adapts well to situations that others would find antagonistic and uncomfortable. For this reason, and others, he is resilient in the face of criticism or rejection. He also has reserves of self-motivation and efficiency that will typically translate into a productive attitude and a real focus on getting results.

If there is a disadvantage in John's style, from the particular point of view of a sales position, it is the comparatively low priority he gives to personal relationships. He is not a naturally friendly or outgoing person, and so building effective relationships with his contacts might prove difficult in some cases.

Sales Style Summary

• He handles rejection effectively.
• He takes sales work seriously, using his assertive style to the best advantage.
• His resilient nature makes him quite capable of dealing with criticism or rejection.
• His enterprising and self-starting approach helps him create and develop sales potential.
• He can be somewhat unresponsive at times, especially on a personal level.

Guidelines for Development

John might consider the following suggestions to develop his sales style. The effectiveness of these suggestions will naturally depend on his current situation, and will need to be weighed accordingly. Taking this into account, John might consider:

• Being more open to constructive criticism or feedback from prospects or colleagues.
• Showing a more light-hearted and friendly style where it seems appropriate.
• Being careful not to let his resilient attitude to rejection blind him to positive criticism.
• Taking advantage of his enterprising style to explore sales opportunities to their potential.
• Making an effort to express himself in a warmer, more personable way than perhaps comes naturally to him.

Guidelines in Service

John's assertive style means that he can work effectively in antagonistic situations that others might find a considerable source of pressure. In a service role, then, he will probably achieve most when dealing with customers who are equally assertive, or whose requirements need a determined and forthright style to help resolve them. John is not a particularly patient person, nor is he concerned (in a working sense) with building personal relationships, and these factors may make it difficult for him to operate in a more traditional support role.

Service Style Summary

• He has a resilient style that will aid him in dealing with unreceptive or inflexible individuals.
• He has the resilience to deal effectively with forceful or unreasonable customers.
• He tends to take a serious, formal view of his role, and of the needs of customers.
• He has the resilience to accept criticism from customers.
• He will look for opportunities to extend the influence of his role.

Guidelines for Development

John might consider the following suggestions to develop his approach to service and support work. The effectiveness of these suggestions will naturally depend on his current situation, and will need to be weighed accordingly. Taking this into account, John might consider:

• Adopting a more light-hearted and receptive approach to customers, where appropriate.
• Giving appropriate weight to feedback received from customers.
• Taking care not to allow his own perceptions of a situation to override those of a customer.
• Developing a more open, personable approach to customers and clients.
• Developing an understanding that not all customers or clients will share his sense of self-reliance.

Guidelines in Technical Work

Technical work that has a requirement for an independent and enterprising approach is unusual, but it is this kind of work that John will adapt to most easily. He has a certain formality and productivity in his style that will give him the potential to succeed in the technical arena, but he is also urgent, impatient and determined, features which are rare in more traditionally technical styles. He will tend to be more effective in directing a project, or developing the business elements of technical work, than in the more practical side of such work.

Technical Style Summary

• He is not easily dissuaded from pursuing his own solutions to technical problems.
• He applies himself in a serious way to the needs of technical work.
• He has the drive to proceed with a project in the face of objections.
• He will look for new and innovative solutions to problems.
• He will tend to avoid subjective judgements when assessing a task or project.

Guidelines for Development

John might consider the following suggestions to develop his approach to technical work. The effectiveness of these suggestions will naturally depend on his current situation, and will need to be weighed accordingly. Taking this into account, John might consider:

• Being more receptive to feedback or constructive criticism from colleagues.
• Being prepared to use persuasion to communicate his ideas to others, rather than relying on his assertiveness.
• Being readier to accept constructive criticism from colleagues.
• Avoiding radical new approaches to a problem where more established techniques exist.
• Taking time to build positive working relationships with those around him.

Exploratory Questions

Exploring Positive Aspects of the Profile

• What are your personal ambitions in life, and what steps have you taken to achieve them?
  (People like John typically have a very clear idea of their ambitions, and will take definite steps towards their goals.)

Exploring Possible Training Needs in the Profile

• Have you ever worked in a team situation? What was your experience of it?
  (John is a person whose focus is on personal success, rather than teamwork.)

Career Directions

A suitable career for John will need to take into account his tremendously self-reliant and determined style. He will probably work best in an independent, or semi-independent role, perhaps as an entrepreneur running his own business, or a commission-based direct salesman. To be fulfilled by his work, John will need to look for a constantly challenging, demanding role that provides appropriate rewards.

Relationships

John has one of the most forcefully independent styles possible, meaning that he is dominant, competitive and - particularly relevant when considering the topic of relationships - highly self-reliant. For this reason, he does not find the development of relationships as vital a part of his working life as more socially oriented styles, and can rely on his own resources as a situation demands. Like all highly dominant types, competitiveness is also a part of his make-up, and this will tend to show itself within working relationships, especially with those as assertive as himself.

Relationship Keynotes for John

• The formation of working relationships is not one of his priorities.
• He is not significantly perturbed by negative responses from others.
• His naturally dominant stance will tend to extend into the field of working relationships.
• His assertive approach means that he can tend to dominate relations with others.
• He will tend to take a commanding position within his relationships with others.

The Team

John has a very self-reliant attitude, and is not strongly oriented towards social matters. These factors combine to suggest that he will tend to work better as an individual than as part of a team. Where he does find himself operating within a group, he will look to establish control over his particular working conditions. Indeed, his dominant and enterprising nature is such that he may take on the mantle of the team's leader, where this is possible within the structure of the team.

Team Keynotes for John

• If he feels that his position is right, he is prepared to confront the rest of the team.
• He will help to ensure that the team remains focused on its business objectives.
• He is prepared to accept feedback or suggestions from other members of the team.
• He will look to develop his areas of responsibility within the team.
• His focus of concentration will be on the productiveness and effectiveness of the team.

Pressure

John has the assertiveness and resilience to stand up to pressure in all its forms. He is prepared to address a problem directly and forcefully, and so is normally able to cope with a pressurised situation by either resolving the problem himself, or directing the pressure elsewhere. Where John does experience pressure, it is in those situations where this potential to act directly is not open to him for some reason, and in situations like this he can become extremely frustrated.

Ambition and Development

John possesses what is arguably the most ambitious of all styles. He is very closely focused on the achievement of success, and measures his progress through life in terms of this. Not only is he motivated to succeed, but he also has the force of character and strength of will to do so. Independence and a need for personal control over his life also figure highly among his motivating factors.

Trait Comparison

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