Interviews are formal consultations that evaluate the qualifications of a prospective employee. During the interview, the interviewers can ask the prospective employees to take a self-assessment of themselves to examine their fitness for their qualification for a certain role. This test can include an interviewee taking the DISC Personality Test and evaluating the traits, they deem to qualify them for a certain role. For example, while interviewing for a managerial role in Ajax Manufacturing Company, the interviewers asked me to take a leadership assessment tool and to respond to questions on my leadership skills. In this paper, I will summarize the results of the leadership assessment tool and outline my responses to the questions on my leadership style.
Summary and Interpretation of the Test Results
The assessment test that I took for the interview was the DISC Personality Test. The DISC Personality Test is an assessment tool that determines different behavior types. Depending on the responses of the person taking the test, the tool assigns a personality type to the person (Disc Personality Testing, 2020). The four behavior types of the test are Dominance, Influence, Steadiness, and Compliance, whose acronym is DISC. The graph below is an excerpt from my test report.
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The graph on 'least answers' represents the internal or natural behavior, while the graph on the 'most answers' represents the external or adapted behavior. The interpretation of the results is that I bled both dominant and Cautions traits in my behavior. However, cautious traits are stronger than the dominant traits (Disc Personality Testing, 2020). In addition, the results indicate that I am analytical, self-driven, conscientious, and careful. The results also show that I am task-oriented rather than being people-oriented and that I enjoy analyzing and solving problems while getting things done with a focus on quality and excellent delivery.
Characteristics that will help me as a Manager in Ajax Manufacturing Company
I have several personal characteristics that I feel will help me deliver as the manager at Ajax Manufacturing Company. For most, I am an empathetic person towards other people. This trait will help understand and share the feeling of the other employees in the company. I am also good at communication, which I believe will help me communicate easily and effectively with all stakeholders in the company and establish beneficial connections with them. I am also assertive in putting my opinions and views forward, but at the same time, able to remain calm. This trait will be valuable in ensuring that I can deliver my opinions strongly without getting emotional or angry in the process. However, being assertive does not mean I am not able to accept other peoples' opinions. I am an open-minded person; hence, I am able to accept peoples' conflicting opinions and engage them in discussions to find a common solution to the issue under discussion.
Another characteristic that I feel will be beneficial in the managerial role is that I enjoy other peoples' company. This trait will enable me to make connections with people who are even unknown to me, make them accept them and that way; I will be in a position to influence them. I also trust people, and that ensures that I do not hesitate in delegating tasks to people whom I believe I can handle then. I give credit to the people who can complete their tasks in a timely and excellent manner, which helps them build their confidence and image while also making them feel appreciated. Additionally, I am an optimistic person who tries to establish a positive aspect in all situation. My interest in learning new things will also help me in progressing in the managerial role. Other traits that will benefit my role are my honesty, love for justice, loyalty and dependability, gratitude, and ability to make decisions. All these positive characteristics will help me deliver in the managerial position, as I will be able to create a good working environment and relationships with all the involved stakeholders.
Characteristics that may Hinder me as a Manager
Despite the numerous positive traits, some of them can hinder my position, especially when it comes to handling people. For example, since I am an emphatic and interactive person who enjoys other peoples' company, sometimes I find it difficult to take tough decisions against people. The fear to take the tough decisions results from the fear of hurting them and thinks about the repercussions the decision will have on the person's life. For example, taking the decision to dismiss an employee from their position is a tall order for me. I prefer giving such an employee a second chance to correct their mistakes.
In addition, employees under me can take advantage of my soft voice tone and the fact that I do not like hurt people and fail to abide by my rules, which can have a negative impact on my delivery as the manager. When a manager is comparatively soft, the employees are not afraid of the repercussions of their actions, which may make them go astray. Such actions can negatively impact the productivity of the company and result in the manager failing. Although I accept these traits are detrimental and a hindrance to my position, I believe, my ability to make tough decisions when need be will be enough to counter them.
Potential Challenge that I may face as the Manager
As companies grow and increase productivity to meet the market demand, there are always temptations for the management to increase the working hours for the employees by an hour or two. Since the demand for the products manufactured by Ajax Manufacturing Company is increasing rapidly, I expect that in the near future there will be a need to increase the working hours of the employees of the company in order to meet the demand. I do not expect the employees to accept an increase in hours out rightly. I expect such an action by the management to create dissatisfaction and anger among the employees; hence, it will be a challenge that will require an informed intervention.
As the manager, I will have to play a big role in resolving this problem when it arises. I will use my ability, as an empathetic and good communicator will hold separate meetings with the staff and the management to get their opinions on how the challenge will be solved. In the meeting, I will try to convince the management that, as much as increasing the working hours is important to the company, it is an injustice to the employees and infringes on their rights. However, I would advise the management that implementing such an action would require the company to pay the employees for the extra time. On the other hand, during the meeting with the employees, I would explain why the management has decided to take such a position and ensure that I would negotiate with the management to ensure that they get extra pay for the extra working hours. I believe this approach will produce win-win results for both the management and the staff concerning the challenge.
Preferred Leadership Style
My preferred leadership style when working with teams is the transformational leadership style. Transformational leadership style refers to a form of leadership whereby the leader encourages, motivates, and inspires the group members to be innovative in creating changes that will focus on achieving the goals and objectives of the group or organization (Lorinkova & Perry, 2019). In this case, the leader leads by example. The leader also trusts the group members to take authority in making decisions on the assigned jobs without micromanaging them.
The advantage of the transformational leadership style is that a transformational leader has the ability to influence the group members, making it easy to build consensus in case decisions have to be made. In addition, transformational leadership creates unity and trust between the team members and the leader reducing grievances and grudges (Lorinkova & Perry, 2019). Thus, it creates a positive working environment. Finally, this form of leadership ensures the group is effective.
Conclusion
The paper has discussed the DISC Personality Test results obtained after taking the test. It has established that the results indicate that I am an analytical, self-driven, conscientious, and careful person who blends both dominant and Cautions traits in my behavior. In response to the interview questions, the paper has also established the traits that can help me in the managerial role to be being a good communicator, being empathetic, assertive, being social, goal-oriented, and optimistic. However, being soft-spoken and empathetic can also be a barrier to my performance as a manager. Finally, it has discussed transformational leadership as my preferred leadership style while working in groups.
References
Disc Personality Testing (2020). A free Disc personality test. Retrieved from https://discpersonalitytesting.com/free-disc-test/
Lorinkova, N. M., & Perry, S. J. (2019). The importance of group‐focused transformational leadership and felt obligation for helping and group performance. Journal of Organizational Behavior , 40 (3), 231-247.
