Career

How to Find Meaning in a Career

Based on the Striving Styles Personality System & Myers-Briggs Personality System

I Think, Therefore I Am: Dealing With An Inflated Self-Concept

The way we think about ourselves and how others perceive us can be well-aligned or light years apart. This is often the case for managers and leaders, who can believe that they know what they are doing simply because they have been given the job. They can have difficulty recognizing that what they believe about themselves is very different than the experience of their direct reports, and can have a lot of trouble receiving feedback about the negative impact of their leadership behavior. This is particularly true for the Leader Striving Style.

The Power of the Self-Protective System

Understanding the emotions behind passive-aggressive behavior in employees

In the previous blog, understanding the emotions behind passive-aggressive behavior in leaders, I talked about one of the key behavioral strategies of the Self-Protective System — passive-aggressive behavior. This blog is a continuation of that article with a focus on passive-aggressive employees.   

Understanding Defensive Behavior 3

Strengthening Your Self-Actualizing System

Understanding Defensive Behavior 2

Living in Survival, Without Knowing It

Mental Attitude Contributes to Career Success

I think we are going to continue to see those people who use more than their skills and degrees gain traction in the workplace while those who show up with a sense of entitlement and absence of empathy will not achieve what they believe they should. People like Dale Carnegie began writing about the importance of “social intelligence” in his book How to Win Friends and Influence People in the 1950’s. Daniel Goleman has spearheaded the Emotional Intelligence movement and with his colleagues is demonstrating how our brains are wired to connect.

The Value of Leadership using Your Whole Brain

Every so often, we see a larger-than-life example of what happens when someone is not working from their whole brain and without knowledge of their Striving Style. Such is the case with Oprah’s OWN network and the current challenges the network, as well as Oprah herself as a leader, are experiencing. Rumors about how the network is failing to thrive and speculation about what Oprah hasn’t done and should be doing seem to be everywhere. However, few comments that I have seen have analyzed the impact of her personality and leadership style on her current state of affairs.