Ramu, the message you wrote suggests that you may be familiar with the
Personal Profile Instrument (or something similar) which helps to identify
one's "natural" or prferred interactional style. The Myers-Briggs
instrument would be a related--though much more complex--tool. I think you
are on the right track when you can identify and acknowledge your areas of
strength and competence. My many years in counseling and training suggest
to me that people do _not_ change easily, if at all, from their basic
mental and emotional structures. I would say that the key to what your
were asking about is not that you need to "reinvent" yourself, but that
you might want to shift some of the perceptions you and others have of
what constitutes "leadership."
I have used the Personal Profile instrument for many years in a leadership
class I have taught at the college and in various consulting settings, and
have found that it is very helpful in demonstrating how people of
different "styles" can function as effective leaders in their own way and
how the type of leadership called for in learning organizations may, in
fact, be very different from what our culture has been used to designating
by that term. It may be that you would benefit from exploring more
carefully the whole system of which you are a part to see in what ways
someone with _your_ skills and values can exert leadership effectively. An
effective and successful team will need the kinds of input and guidance
you can give. And if you do your work well, the team will say, "We did it
ourselves!"
Now if your organization only rewards those who function as
"action-oriented change agents," I would say that is a systems issue as
much, if not more than, a personal one. (And, if so, just who and what is
it that those vaunted "change agents" are so busy changing??)
Does this begin to make sense, or have I missed the heart of your request?
On Fri, 16 Jun 1995, Ramu Iyer wrote:
> I have noticed that the learning organization paradigm suggests a
> tight relationship between learning and leadership. In my experience,
> I have noticed that individuals tend to vary since not everybody
> belongs to the same personality profile. My profile is one of
> cautiousness or compliance to standards, with the emphasis being on
> working with existing circumstances to promote quality in products or
> service. My "natural" or "preferred" tendencies include:
[quote of prev msg trimmed by your host...]
-- Tobin Quereau Austin Community College quereau@austin.cc.tx.us