Personality Inventories and Team Buildings

What:

I remember my first counseling session as a Second Lieutenant. It was my first in the Army and the first with my Battalion Commander. The purpose of the counseling was to receive my first evaluation report. My commander asked me a simple question, “What are your strengths?” I stumbled around the questions and answered, “I’m a hard worker, I’m smart, I work well with others, etc.” After I answered we sat silently for a minute, then I was dismissed. This was the abrupt end to the counseling.

 

The truth was that I didn’t really know my strengths. Nor, did I feel like my commander was interested in helping me find them as apparent by the quick end to the conversation. This is a common problem. As a leader and follower, I found that leaders do not spend enough time counseling their followers and followers wind up feeling neglected.

I’ve had the awesome opportunity to take a break from the Army and attend graduate school. I’ve also had the opportunity to take many different personality tests and team dynamic tests in my small groups and leadership classes. Below is an inventory of these tests (This is a non-inclusive list):

Test:  Leadership Practices Inventory (LPI 360)
Application:	Online Test, Self-test and observer questionnaires
Results:	Measures the Five Practices of Exemplary Leadership
Cost:	~$40.00
Uses:	360 inventory
Test: DISC (Dominance, Influence, Steadiness, Compliance)
Application:	Online Test
Results:	Dominance, Influence, Steadiness, Conscientiousness
Cost:	Free
Uses:	Increases self-knowledge, Conflict Management, Motivations, Stressors, Problem Solving, facilitates better team work and Group interaction
Test: Myer-Briggs Personality Test (MBTI or other Jungian Test)
Application:	Online Test
Results:	Four dichotomies extraversion-introversion, sensing-intuition, thinking-feeling, judging-perception
Cost:	Free
Uses:	Personality type, how personality type fits into the ‘team’
Test:  Emotional Intelligence (EQ-I 2.0)
Application:	Online Test
Results:	Measures individual capacity of self-perception, self-expression, interpersonal composite, decision making, and stress management on a scoreable scale.
Cost:	$66.00
Uses:	Individual self-knowledge and actualization
Test: Strengths Based Leadership (Strengths Finder)
Application:	Online Test and book
Results:	Identifies top five strengths in the categories of executing, influencing, relationship building, and strategic thinking.
Cost:	$24.00
Uses:	Individual self-knowledge and actualization, team strengths.
Test: TKI (Thomas-Kilmann Conflict Test)
Application:	Online Test
Results:	How to deal with conflicts and group dynamics
Cost:	$15.00
Uses:	Team dynamics

So what:

I am always looking for different ways to counsel my subordinates and develop my teams. The Army uses the Multi-Source Assessment and Feeback 360 (MSAF 360) tool to help leaders develop their self-awareness. The limitation with this tool is that only the Soldier sees the result (which is as it was designed). The problem is that Soldiers do not have to use this information for any purpose in team development or professional counseling. I want to develop a system for myself to use the tools listed above to develop my own counseling and team building plans. I propose the following:

 

Now What:

It’s important to note that this list is non-inclusive. Each leader must define his or her own style. Each of these tests has different purposes and applications. I want to use them to build my team, identify strengths and weaknesses, organize for efficiency, and help my subordinates develop their self-awareness and actualization.

These are great tools for my leader “toolbox”. I will continue to refine this system and test it with my teams. I will face the challenge of using the right tools at the right time and bring each team member on board with this idea. However, I think that in the future my teams will find the results useful and will hopefully understand each other and the team dynamics better.

Follower-Centered Perspectives on Leadership

What?

I have really struggled with Boas Shamir’s notions of Follower-Centered Perspectives on Leadership as described in Brad Jackson and Ken Parry’s book, A Very Short, Fairly Interesting and Reasonably Cheap Book about Studying Leadership. As an Army officer, who’s been a platoon leader and company commander, I have struggled with the idea that followers essentially mold leaders and their leadership. This short video briefly and humorously lays out the perspectives.

The U.S. Army is in the business of leadership. Leaders at all levels are expected to lead their units successfully no matter the conditions. We are taught that success or failure of the mission lies with the leader and his or her ability to motivate their unit to success. I honestly can not recall having a discussion of follower-centered perspectives on leadership.

So What?

 

I particularly like the ‘follower as leaders: shared leadership’ perspective. This perspective involves the concept of ‘co-leadership’. Jackson and Parry’s book says, “the notion of ‘co-leadership’, which recognizes that leadership is rarely the preserve of one individual but frequently is exercised by a pair of individuals, a ‘Number one’/’Number Two’ combination such as a CEO and CFO or a group of individuals such as a top management team.”

During my time as a company commander I found this to be especially true. Though I was the ‘leader’ of the company, I was accompanied by a senior Non-Commissioned Officer (1SG Marcus Richardson) and an Executive Officer (XO) (1LT Richard Miller). The 1SG addressed Soldier issues and essentially took care of their daily issues and training. The XO addressed administrative and logistics needs of the company. Though both positions managed the company, both positions required great leaders to make the company successful.

1SG Marcus Richard and CPT Doug Armstrong

1LT Richard Miller (XO Extraordinaire)

 

Looking back on the situation, my company never would have been successful with only me as the leader. All three of us working in unison drove the company to success. I am a very logical and analytical person. I am good at coordinating large scheme efforts and planning operations. However, I am not a very good 'people person'. My 1SG, on the other hand, was a great 'people person'. He always knew the best courses of actions in regards to taking care of people. My XO was extremely good a working out the details. He would pick up the pieces that my 1SG and I would leave behind. At times, like during training, my 1SG was best suited to lead. At other times, like coordinating administrative activities, my XO would be best suited to lead. I was best suited to provide a moral compass to the company and lead during combat operations (though we can argue that my 1SG had more experience than I and may have been best suited).

Now What?

These six perspectives of follower-centered leadership all have a purpose and appropriate applicability. I think the overarching ‘now what’ is that I need to start viewing leadership more in terms of followers than in terms of myself as the leader. Leadership is a process. It’s not restricted to ‘leaders’ in the traditional sense of the word. In the future I need to address each position I am in from the perspective of the followers to fully understand my role as a leader.