Life Styles Inventory (lsi) Case
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Taking the Life Styles Inventory (LSI) has made me realize and confirm many things and styles that I have already know about me. Growing up in a big family I realized from a very early age that there was a deep desire to compete and win. It was no surprise when I scored in the eighty-first percentile in this category. The next highest percentile in which I scored falls under the Affiliative style. Coming from a large close-knit family attributed to this being my “backup” personal thinking style. I have embraced these characteristics throughout my life and been drawn to these types of positions throughout my career.
According to the LSI the Competitive trait falls in the Aggressive/Defensive cluster which also includes Oppositional and Power. While I did not score particularly high in the latter, I do believe my upbringing had a lot to do with the Competitive results. During my childhood I was very active in sports where a competitive nature is a necessity to succeed at adolescent rivalries. I learned that being part of team sports the first and foremost goal is to win. This taught me from a very early age that winning is the only thing that matters and you must compete against yourself and the opposition.
Athletes must develop relationships with your teammates and coaches, which brings me to the affiliative style. The LSI states, “The Affiliative scale measures our degree of commitment to forming and sustaining satisfying relationships. This style represents a need for social interaction and interpersonal contact. Affiliative people seek out, establish, value, and maintain close associations with others. These individuals appreciate people and enjoy being in the company of others. In fact, they tend to be most comfortable when among those with whom they have established strong emotional and social ties.”
Over the years I have discovered that my dearest friends are those that I played with and competed against every day in practice. The teammates I had through elementary school, high-school, and college sports are the people I have stayed in contact with over the years. It was our desire to compete and win that brought us together and the blood, sweat, and tears we shared that has formed these strong ties. Being raised in a stable family predisposed me to these relationships. Ive noticed we all have taken similar paths throughout our working careers as well.
Like many of my teammates and family members, every job that I have held has been in sales. I was drawn to these types of positions because no matter what kind of industry you work in, sales are always a competitive business. In addition, a sales-person is required to build and maintain relationships with clientele in order to be successful. My first job was selling insurance which can be a very cut-throat industry. I was always trying to steal other companies clients and out due my competition. After that I was a corporate accounts manager for a rental car company where I was competing with other companies. While my current position is no longer a sales job, I still compete against my co-workers through our production numbers and try to win any awards handed out. All these careers have allowed me to compete and offered social interaction and interpersonal contact.
The area I scored the lowest on (eighteenth percentile) was the oppositional thinking style; it correlates to the one aspect I think has hindered me throughout my career. This style