1

A Project Report on Life Style Inventory (LSI) Exercise

Name:
Email:
Course:
Instructor:
Date:






2
Introduction
When you get into Management or at Managerial level, an insight or reflection of your own self
becomes very necessary. With the development in the studies of Organizational behavior,
management, personality, etc., there are tools available which help us assess our traits. Life Style
Inventory (LSI) Exercise is one such tool. It helps you understand your own behavior
systematically and helps you work on your goal.
LSI has divided thinking styles into 12 specific types. It asks you to take a survey which has
questions pertaining to your responses from your day to day life. On the basis of those responses,
the LSI exercise places you in your dominant styles out of those 12 types and guides you to
improve further.
When I used this tool and took the exercise, I was surprised by my result. My results follow on
the next page.







3
LSI Exercise Result
Position Style Score Percentile
1 Humanistic-Encouraging 33 69
2 Affiliative 35 75
3 Approval 20 83
4 Conventional 20 83
5 Dependent 26 93
6 Avoidance 6 55
7 Oppositional 9 63
8 Power 8 60
9 Competitive 13 55
10 Perfectionistic 15 20
11 Achievement 34 69
12 Self-Actualizing 34 80




4
Personal Thinking Styles
According to my result, my Primary thinking style is Dependant (5 oclock position) and
Backup style is Approval (3 oclock position) and Conventional (4 oclock position) and thus
my thinking style completely falls into the Passive/ Defensive Style. I would say I was rather
surprised that my behavior is Passive/ Defensive. Not that I want to disagree, but I was not aware
of my style and its repercussions.
There are many instances in which my primary and backup style can be seen. The only
difference between now and then is; now I know what they are. I agree to most of the style
characteristics of my Primary style Dependant. I do sometimes feel that I am easily influenced
by others, maybe I try to please others more than required or I am unable to say NO to others. I
remember an instance where my colleague who was senior to me by a year work wise gave me
some work to do. That did not come under my area of responsibility. But I just couldnt say a
simple no. I later regretted that I did not say a no, but it was of no use then. She was my
managers favorite and a no to her meant a no to my manager. I did not have any intentions of
spoiling my image and wanted to be in his good books.
There are not many incidences where I have been dependant on others for a decision. But still, I
feel I am comfortable when people help me decide. During college festivals, we were divided
into teams and assigned work. We all did the work in an awesome manner but at the end I
received a feedback from my faculty saying that I do not take decisions independently. This is
because, whenever I had come across an issue, though I knew the solution, I would go confirm
whether I am right and then proceed. I always thought asking before acting was good.
5
Talking about my Back up styles, I would like to talk about my first back up style, Approval.
Yes, I agree that I come under this style. I remember my boss saying that I am too agreeable. I
did not know then what he was trying to tell me. But I know now. There would be times when
our team would sit down just for a chat and nothing related to work. We would discuss on lots of
topics and had so many views. I would never debate and instead would agree to the points or as
I stated in the above example, I would always confirm things before doing it.
Another backup style identified with me is Conventional. I believe in the results as I show
traits aligned with this style. This can also be identified as my limiting style. I observed that the
factors/ characteristics which come under this style are the ones which definitely hinder my
progress rate or my success rate and hence I chose this to be my limiting style. There are many
behaviors associated with this style, like reluctance to try new things, overly concerned about
how others do things, etc. These factors work against me and hence I want to change it.
One behavior that comes under this style is, Reluctance at trying new things. I completely agree
to this as this can be seen in my professional as well as personal life. I always go the tried and
tested way! I am way too hesitant when it comes to trying new things. Example relating to my
personal life would be, it took a lot of time of my husband to convince me to learn driving since
I was hesitant or whenever I go out to eat I limit myself to the cuisine of my country. Same
happens to me at work. I always want my day to be same. It is not that I am scared of challenges
but I hesitate to go beyond my comfort zone. Sometimes, even my boss used to think if I would
be able to handle certain work. And when I came to know about this, I had already lost the
opportunity of doing that work since it was handed to someone who had lesser capabilities than
me but was upfront at trying out new things and making and accepting mistakes. Hence, I would
6
like to change this behavior of mine since it is stopping me from trying new thing and exploring
my unknown abilities.
Impact on Management Styles
Since my complete style is under Passive/ Defensive way, I am aware that it has negative
impact on the management style. My primary style is Dependant. I being a dependant manager
would not be good at planning as I would rely on others to chalk out a plan. If that involves risk,
I would stay away as far as possible and thus eventually would not be a major contributor for
making any plans. This will slowly lower my importance in my team. I feel the same would
happen with organizing function. There would be very less initiative and I would try to hide
giving away my authority to somebody else. My leadership skills will also go down. As my team
members know my dependant style, they would turn to other managers for opinion instead of
coming to me. I will lose respect as a manager. I will also have no control over my own work
and my team because it would be mine just for namesake. Everything will be controlled by
others. Even if I try and opine, it will not be considered. With my approval style as well, I feel
there will be the same repercussions. A manager has to be firm, independent and a risk taker. But
with the approval attitude, I would always ask for an approval for my plan. And if someone
disapproves it, I would redo the work or scrap it. This will waste time, energy and resources. I
would not be good at organizing as well. I would do as said or approved to impress them,
whether it is right or not and eventually lose my importance. Leading and controlling would be
like an impossible task. For all the orders, if I would start taking approval it would be like I am
being controlled by someone else. All in all, this will in its entirety will lead to low self esteem
and unproductivity on my side and a complete chaos in my team. I might be asked to leave my
job as well.
7
Genesis of my Personal Thinking Styles
While I write down about the effects of my personal styles on the management styles, I exactly
do not remember how I acquired. But I can guess where they come from. As a child, my parents
always asked me take permission for doing things. I would always ask them about all the things I
should be doing and I kept doing it for a longer time. I developed the same at my organization
since my very first boss always wanted me to do things at his will. I also had to be always
compliant and stick to the rules. Also, I was instructed to always ask before taking any decision
and since I worked there for a long time these styles became dominant. I once did take a decision
without asking, for which, I had to give an explanation. So I continued working, thinking may
be it works the same way.
Conclusion
To conclude, I would say that this LSI exercise very strongly and effectively pointed out my
style of thinking. I was very surprised to know that my style of thinking is actually taking me
down. I always thought seeking advice or sticking to the rules is better. But now I realize that it
was and is pulling me towards being dependant and lowering my self esteem. The best thing
about this exercise is, it not only points out your styles but also tells you how to improve. I will
surely follow those improvement ideas to achieve my goal of being independent in my decision
and boost my confidence to a level where I can present my own ideas and stand up for it.