Some Implications of Personal Preferences
✔ You, as a leader, have preferences on each of the four scales. Their combined effect
greatly influences how you like to work. Use the application tool to gain insights into
your own preferences.
✔ Each person with whom you interact also has personal preferences. How much these
preferences coincide with or differ from your own can be a source of clicking, of see-
ing things the same way, or of conflict.
✔ These conflicts can actually be beneficial. For example, if you are a strong T and depend
on thinking to draw conclusions, you can benefit greatly from hearing an F perspec-
tive, if you can work together.
✔ Any strength on one side of a preference pair corresponds to a flat spot on the other
side for which you could use assistance.HOW TO USE THIS LEADERSHIP TOOL
“It’s strange, but wherever I take my eyes, they always see things from my point of view.”
—Ashleigh BrilliantAs a leader, you have a natural inclination to do things in a particular way, and also to assume
that others should do things in the same way. Your personal approach is assumed to be right.
Yet what seems rational and natural to one person can seem bizarre and counterproductive to
another! The twofold trick to using the preferences approach is:
- First, understand your own strengths and blind spots as a leader.
- Second, appreciate the differing perspectives of others, not as sources of affliction or
conflict, but as sources for complementing (rounding out) your own personal prefer-
ences.
Step 1: Assess your own personal preferences:Read the description lists for each pair of prefer-
ences. In the space provided here, rate how strongly you identify with these descriptors, with
+5 representing a strong preference for a given pole, and 0 representing no particular prefer-
ence for either pole.
Step 2: Assess the personal preferences of another person:Next, assess the personal preferences
of another person (perhaps a person you are having difficulty understanding or working with).
Note that these assessments are provisional in nature; they represent a static and descriptive
snapshot at a given point in time. They should not be used to pysch out another person’s
behavior. Use this tool to help you deal more effectively with others, but never use it to force-
fit other people into rigid stereotypes or categories.
Step 3: Assess how you might improve your working relationship with the other person:To get you
started, here are some common differences and their impacts.
448 SECTION 14 TOOLS FORLEARNING