Overview

From the Summary Profile

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.

Behavioural Adaptation

From the Shift Pattern

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

From the Summary Profile

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

From the Summary Profile

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

From the Summary Profile

'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

From the External Profile

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

From the External Profile

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

From the Internal Profile

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

From the External Profile

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

From the Internal Profile

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.

Trait Comparison

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