Did you guys miss me yesterday? Yeah I actually had to work for a change. The thing is it wasn't even "work" it was a "leadership seminar". I would really rather be whipped with a wet noodle for 8 hours. You know how in these type of seminars you usually start out with a personality test so that everyone can get to know your personality type. This is supposedly to help you learn how to deal with different types of personalities. Can you tell this is going to be a fascinating post?
I did my little personality test to the best of my knowledge which pretty much means I BS'ed my way through it. The scoring on this thing was more complex than a algebra problem.
The questions included things like "When I am working with another person on a project, I want that person to:
1. Express his/her ideas directly and discuss all possibilities
2. Be pleasant and sensitive to the importance of establishing a good working relationship with me.
3. Be systematic in his/her thinking and outline the logical steps of the task.
4. Have a results-oriented approach that emphasizes a practical approach.
You had to rank what you felt most important but not by any kind of common sense numbering way. Really and truly I don't do any of these things we just do it. I don't think about all the BS that goes into it. But that doesn't make a good leader now does it?
My top two traits were Analytical and Amiable, which surprisingly none of the personality types really fit me. So after all that I give you a round about way of how I felt about the whole seminar from my "personality's" point of view.
Analytical:
After analyzing all that went on during the whole 8 eight hours of the seminar I came to the conclusion that technology really does suck.
1. We attended this seminar via teleconference. Meaning that Mr. Talking Pants was in Wisconsin and we were literally viewing his pants on a large projection screen along with 2 other offices attending through teleconference. That's right for the first three hours of the session, all we could see was the bottom half of his body while he instructed us on the main fundamentals of leadership.
2. Trying to watch a video via teleconference is a bit challenging. They actually zoomed the video conference camera to the T.V. to allow us to "watch" a high quality program from the early 90s trying to integrate Roman Mythology and My Fair Lady into some kind of crazy method of character building. The whole thing was like a bad driver's ed video. I'm still fairly lost on this one as our video froze up in the middle and all we could see was a screen of a framed college certificate, yet the sound was still going. Needless to say I amused myself by singing My Fair Lady Songs.
Amiable
Normally I think of myself as a fairly friendly person or I at least force myself to be. Yet another personality test told me that it's difficult for me to make new friends but the ones I have I remain loyal to and usually endure long lasting friendships. Which is pretty true. I am not a social butterfly and want to be friends with everyone that especially means at work. I will be sociable to you and maybe if I like you a little bit might go out to drinks with you to vent about work or even attend a social gathering or two for the office. This doesn't mean I will probably be BFF with you. I mean it's worth a shot, but probably not going to happen.
I also do not get into the whole sharing with all of the rest of the office my ideas and opinions on leadership and share with you how I want to improve or whatever. I just don't like to share. I also don't really care to know everyone elses feelings about the whole thing. Especially with people I will probably never see again, despite the fact we work for the same company. I really don't care to hear each and every persons personality type, nor their top second for that matter. Just teach me what I may or may not want to know and just leave me alone.
During lunch I want to actually EAT my deli club sandwich provided to me freely by the company, and NOT share with the rest of the group how I feel the session is going and compare it to the last seminar we had last month. If I wanted to gather around a campfire holding hands and singing Kumbuyya, I would just attend my kids Cub Scout meeting.
Guess what guys? I get to do this again for the next two months!
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