People like Jennifer are highly motivated and ambitious.
She focuses strongly on a set of personal goals and will go to great
lengths to achieve these
She is quick-thinking and energetic, and will strive
to achieve. Emotional or personal concerns are less important to this
individual than the achievement of her objectives, and she can at times
seem remote to others. Her competitive instincts are especially apparent
when her position is challenged; she will go to great lengths to protect
her own power base.
Advantages
- A strong sense of her personal goals is one of Jennifer's particular
advantages, allowing her to be motivated by her own sense of achievement,
and needing little direct help in this area from management. Partly
because of this, she possesses reserves of energy beyond those of most
profiles, and will put great effort into achieving results in a realistic
time-scale.
Disadvantages
- The lack of patience in Jennifer's dominant and assertive character,
coupled with her extremely demanding style, makes her difficult, on
occasion, for others to deal with. She instinctively adopts a commanding
stance, and tends to issue orders rather than ask for co-operation,
an approach that inevitably causes resentment in less direct styles.
Communication
Style
- Jennifer's impatient style means that she has little time for social
niceties such as small-talk, and she tends not to employ tact or diplomacy
unless she can see a distinct advantage in doing so. Her normal use
of communication is as a medium for achieving her ends, and because
of this she will be direct in approach, stating her requirements or
issuing instructions. She focuses on relationships out of which she
can gain some kind of advantage, and the most successful of these will
normally be built on a mutual aim or goal. Jennifer's naturally demanding
style means that others often find her intimidating, a factor that
frequently acts as a limit to her effectiveness in building effective
relationships.
Decision Making
- Because of her interest in developing personal responsibility, Jennifer
takes decision-making very seriously. She sees the opportunity not
only to exercise control over her environment, but also to advance
her own position within an organization. Her decisions will tend to
be based more on questions of efficiency and results than on the consequences
for any people involved. These comments should be considered in relation
to the fact that Jennifer is making a change to her natural style.
She is emphasizing the thoughtful, considerate aspect of her attitude
to decision making in a way that may not be rooted in her more usual
approach. It should be noted that Jennifer's present caution when faced
with decisions is largely due to her behavioural adaptation. Her working
conditions demand a level of accuracy from her, and so she is adapting
her style to display it. Where she does not feel this compunction towards
care in decision making, her style is likely to be somewhat more instinctively
based.
Organization and Planning
- Jennifer understands and values efficiency and consistent results,
and therefore is also aware of the need that sometimes arises for careful
planning to achieve these. She is not naturally disposed, however,
to exercise the patience and deliberate thought required for these
activities, and will more normally delegate them to less impatient
and driving individuals. Jennifer's adaptation of her behaviour is
particularly important to the topic of organization and planning, because
part of the change she is making is an attempt to project a working
style that is better suited to strategic thinking. It is important
to understand that such abilities are not necessarily part of her underlying
approach.
Motivation
- Jennifer can be characterize as driving, assertive and openly communicative.
Her sense of motivation comes primarily from the opportunity to exercise
these elements of her style. She will want to feel that she is able
to act independently, according to her own view of a situation, without
being bound by what she sees as unnecessary constraints. One of the
Jennifer's strengths is her ability to motivate herself and those around
her. For this reason, she is often at her best in a position of leadership,
or at least in a role where she can directly influence events. While
retaining a strong social sense, Jennifer's style is currently shifting
away from an outgoing, expressive mode into a more receptive and amiable
style. Because her basic motivations come from her natural style, however,
the freedom to communicate with others on a more assertive level remains
an important element of her motivation. If Jennifer's present style
suggests that she will find guidance and certainty motivating (which
is likely to be the case), then it should be noted that these needs
are not necessarily native to her underlying style. In fact, she is
capable of a surprising amount of self-confidence, and this suggests
that social, rather than factual, factors are more important in terms
of motivation.
Managing Style
- The focus of Jennifer's management
style is the achievement of results as quickly as possible. She is
not a natural communicator, and tends to issue instructions directly,
rather than trying to foster a sense of team-spirit. She values personal
responsibility, and hence tends to adopt a commanding style that
reinforces her authority over her subordinates. Jennifer's current
behavioural adaptation results in her taking a longer-term, more
thoughtful view of her management role. It should be noted, however,
that her underlying style prefers a more rapid, responsive approach,
and her current steady, calm approach is a response to prevailing
conditions. Especially under conditions of pressure, her more extrovert
and proactive nature may be expected to assert itself. The shifts
in Jennifer's behaviour suggest that, while she is adopting a relatively
formal, structured approach to management, her actual preference
would be to manage in a more open way, forming social connections
with her staff. Such a modification of management style can normally
be attributed to the needs of the organization as a whole and the
effects of these needs on her individual working style.
Style of Management Required
- A challenging candidate from a manager's perspective, Jennifer has
a competitive and driving attitude that will need to be carefully handled.
In particular, she will find it difficult to work for a manager whose
abilities she does not respect, and so it is important for a manager
to earn this respect if they are to receive the benefits of Jennifer's
assertiveness. She also has a rather competitive nature, and will wish
to feel that she is earning appropriate rewards for her work. Jennifer's
profile shows that she is presently quite a loyal and somewhat tractable
person to manage. This is a temporary adaptation to current conditions,
and her manager should not assume that it will persist in the long
term. This is not to say that she will become disloyal and unreasonable,
of course, but her underlying style shows her to be more oriented towards
her own needs than may be apparent. It is likely that Jennifer appears
somewhat reserved and self-controlled at present, but this is unlikely
to remain the case in the long term. In fact, a more open and receptive
attitude from management will help to enhance her performance and bring
her natural communication skills to the fore.
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