Self Awareness for Team Membership
Kristi Lewis Tyran
Organizations frequently facilitate employee self-awareness by engaging in teambuilding that
helps employees understand themselves and others as they work together. Understanding yourself as a
team member can enhance your ability to work with others in the team setting. In addition, by sharing
this information with others in your teams, interpersonal conflict can often be prevented as you anticipate
how you will interact and work together on your tasks. In this class, we use seven measures that provide
feedback about four personal dimensions: personal values, cognitive style, attitudes toward change, and
interpersonal orientation. We use measures of these dimensions to provoke thought about how you
interact with others in a team setting. When analyzing the results of any survey, it is important to be
critical. Remember: the objective is reflection and thought-provocation – accuracy of the results is
not necessary for you to benefit from the testing experience! It is important to be critical of the results in
terms of how you feel they reflect your values, personality, attitude, and interaction style.
Below is a summary of each of the self-awareness dimensions we explore, along with a
description of the measures used to enhance reflection on how each individual interacts in the team
setting.
Personal Values: Personal values are the criteria we use for the choices we make. They help us
decide everything from the trivial to the very important. At work and in teams, our values influence how
we interact with others. Our priorities in terms of relationships versus tasks, quality versus quantity, or
time spent at work versus time spent with family are determined by our values. Our values guide us
when we need to make trade-offs between things we need and want to do when time, funds, and/or
opportunities are limited.
The Rokeach Value Survey provides you with an opportunity to choose and prioritize among
values that will be pertinent to your teamwork. This instrument requires you to rank order both terminal
values (1st list) and instrumental values (2nd list). After completing this survey, transfer the top five values
for each list to the worksheet attached to this handout.
Cognitive Style: A person’s cognitive style reflects their approach to life in terms of how they
think about situations and act on those thoughts. We primarily think of a person’s cognitive style as their
personality. Knowledge about how your personality is perceived by others can be very useful when
working in a team. It can help you “play to your strengths” and be aware of what can cause you stress.
Your “sensitive line” is the place where certain situations, people, or behaviors can cause you stress and
thus to behave in ways that are not productive for either yourself or the team. Self-awareness of your
sensitive line is imperative for effective interaction with others in the work place.
Understanding the personalities of those you work with is important as well. Personality tests are
frequently used in the workplace to enhance understanding of why people approach work differently.
Many organizations use the following personality tests in their teambuilding efforts.
The Keirsey Classic Temperament Sorter 2 assesses your personality from your responses to an
online survey. This personality assessment is modeled after the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI) and
will provide you with an analysis of your personality temperament (one of four) and a 4-letter acronym of
your personality type. As with any survey, these results are based on your responses and may or may
not be accurate in your view. Make sure to read about your temperament and type on the website and
reflect on whether or not this information is accurate. If the results don’t feel right to you, look at how
your scored on some of the dimensions. Sometimes a change in one dimension can lead you to a better
view of your personality. Take some time to read through the other temperaments to see if there is
another one that is a better fit in your opinion.
The Assertiveness profile is a fun on-line test that can give you some feedback on how assertive
you are with others. If you find this survey intriguing, take the time to pay for the other more involved
(and accurate) assessment at Queendom.com. For this exercise, however, it is only necessary to take
the free test via the link on the worksheet.
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The Learning Style Inventory provides feedback about your preferences when learning from
experience. The learning cycle includes four processes: experience, reflection, planning, and
experimentation. Each individual naturally prefers one or more phase, and in teams, individuals tend to
gravitate more toward their preferred learning process. Understanding the balance of learning
preferences in the team’s learning cycle can enhance the team’s ability to learn from its experiences.
Attitude Toward Change: In the New Economy, change is not only inevitable, it is necessary to
stay competitive and dynamic in the business world. Understanding how you cope with change – and
various types of change – can help you anticipate issues surrounding change that may be more
challenging for you, and also areas that you can excel. In teams, it is often important to take time to plan
and implement changes so that the team can work more efficiently and effectively. Understanding how
each team member approaches change can help the team plan changes that all can accept and work
toward.
The Tolerance of Ambiguity survey measures how you respond to change – does it make you
uncomfortable, or are you enthusiastic when faced with uncertainty or complex situations? There are
three dimensions measured: Novelty (comfort with new situations), Complexity (comfort with complex
situations), and Insolubility (comfort with problems that have never been solved before).
Locus of Control indicates a person’s perceptions of the limitations on their abilities to change the
status quo. Individuals with a more external locus of control tend to perceive the control they have as
limited by fate or other external factors. Those who have a more internal locus of control tend to feel
they control their own destiny – they see their own pro-activity as instrumental in affecting their future.
Understanding your own locus of control – and those of your teammates – can help you to best facilitate
change in your team.
Interpersonal Orientation: Our interest in interacting with others is somewhat related to
personality, but also reflects other aspects of our work habits. Measuring how we respond to others in
terms of control and inclusion is extremely helpful when exploring how a team will interact together.
Because social interaction is so important in teams, information on interpersonal orientation can help
teams plan how to improve social interaction for the specific individuals in the team.
We measure interpersonal orientation with the Fundamental Interpersonal Response Orientation,
Behavior (FIRO-B). This survey, while sometimes redundant, can be a very reliable measure of your
expressed and wanted control, as well as expressed and wanted inclusion. We will talk more in class
about what this means for you and your team. When taking this survey, it is important to think about a
team you are or have been comfortable with. This is the best way to measure how you interact in longterm teams. Sometimes individuals respond differently to teams in MGMT 313 than they do to other
teams, and so we will critically evaluate these results throughout the term.
Self Awareness is an essential skill for effective team members, leaders and managers.
Developing self-awareness is a lifelong process, and so periodically reflecting on your own values,
personality, behaviors, and attitudes can be extremely important to enhancing your own career potential.
In addition, as you work in teams in the future, utilizing self-assessment tools will be a necessary method
(frequently required by organizations) in increasing self- and other-awareness.
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Self-Assessment Worksheet
MGMT 313 – Dr. Tyran
Name:
Instructions for all surveys:
Complete and score the five surveys handed out in class, including the Rokeach Value Survey, the FIRO-B,
Learning Style Inventory, and Tolerance for Ambiguity Scale. Also do the Keirsey Temperament Sorter II
found at www.keirsey.com , the Locus of Control Web Survey (Free) at
http://www.careerdiagnostics.com/surveys/locus_control.htm , and the Assertiveness Personality Test
(Abridged which is Free) at http://www.queendom.com/tests/access_page/index.htm?idRegTest=3088 . The
scoring instructions are attached to the survey when needed. Follow the scoring instructions carefully.
Complete these 7 tests: Keirsey Classic Temperament Sorter II, Assertiveness personality profile, Rokeach
Value Survey, Learning Style Inventory, Tolerance of Ambiguity, Locus of Control, and FIRO-B. Enter your
scores on this worksheet and bring to class on January 14th, 2015 along with the first page of the Keirsey
test. Remember: surveys provide you with information about yourself, they do not tell you who you are! So
be critical in your analysis. Note: When taking the FIRO-B, think of a current or recent group you are a
member of. It could be a school, work, family, or social group, but you should know the other members well.
Answer the questions with this group in mind.
Keirsey Temperament (one of four): ________________________ NOTE: Attach the first page of your
report (the page that has the graph of responses for all four dimensions)
Keirsey Personality Type (one of sixteen – 4 letter type):
__________________
Rokeach Value Survey
Top 5 Terminal Values (1st list):
1._________________________
2._________________________
3._________________________
4._________________________
5._________________________
Top 5 Instrumental Values (2nd list): 1._________________________
2._________________________
3._________________________
4._________________________
5._________________________
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Assertiveness Personality Profile Score:
__________
Learning Style Profile (use map for scoring): ________________________________________________
Tolerance of Ambiguity
Novelty Score _____
Complexity Score _____
Insolubility Score _____
Total Score
______
Note: Novelty+Complexity+Insolubility = Total
Locus of Control – Total Score (higher is more internal) _____
FIRO-B Results
Fundamental Interpersonal Relations Orientation-Behavior
Expressed Inclusion _____
Expressed Control _____
Expressed Affection _____
Total E _____
Wanted Inclusion
Wanted Control
Wanted Affection
_____
_____
_____
Total W _____
Total Inclusion
_____
Total Control
_____
Total Affection
_____
Second Part of the Assignment
Based on these assessments, write a brief, 2-3 page (typed, double-spaced) summary of what you
perceive to be the distinctive skill strengths and weaknesses you bring to your team. In your summary, write
a section about your strengths followed by a section explaining your weaknesses. You may use bullets if
you like. Discuss briefly how you think these strengths and weaknesses may contribute to your team’s
performance. I encourage you to integrate the assessment from this assignment with any other feedback
you have received throughout your work and school careers that seems relevant to develop a summary of
your strengths and weaknesses that is insightful and useful. Attach your summary and the first page (not
the cover) of your Keirsey Classic Temperament Report to this worksheet. Due on January 21st,
2015.
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