I completed two personality tests, one in nwlink.com and other in 16personalities.com. Both gave me similar results and are in line how I feel about my current skills.

What are my strengths in the managerial work?

16personalities.com categorized me as a Campaigner ENFP-A type, the other page gave me similar results. My strength is in innovation and open mindedness. I feel this is true as I often try to come up new ways to complete tasks, and I’m not afraid of change. In my current job as a QA-Engineer I try to learn new things and get excited easily when I learn or can teach others new skills. Also both tests indicate that I have good skills to understand other opinions, which I think also applies to me. I often think how colleagues around act and what the underlying cause for their actions is.

Am I able to get excited and inspire others?

As those management personality test indicate, I feel often get excited. The most I get out is by reading some theory and applying it in my work. QA-Engineers job is perfect for me as it allows to see ones growth in practical terms: My testing protocols are easier to read, my automated tests improve every time I learn new ways to do them and I can teach my colleagues efficiently when I have a conclusive picture of the matter at hand. Inspiring others is something I need to work on, I have not had opportunities to improve this skill, as mostly teams just have one QA-Engineer and current communication methods, such as teams do not offer the best platform to do so. 

How do I react to changes?

I am working in an IT firm that develops electronic patient registry, and change is something that happens a lot. Teams that I work in change rather frequently and working protocols tend to alter quite often.  I am quite adaptive person, and changes in my working environment don’t cause too much stress but also have noticed that too much new things cause me to get tired and my quality of my work suffers. If I can’t see the benefit in changes at hand can lead to a resistance on my part, and I need explanations why such alterations are needed. I find that reasons for changes should be made clear so that it will be received positive light. The optimum for me is gradual changes spaced out on a period, so that my brain doesn’t have to be on full processing mode all the time and I have time to adapt.

Which areas should I develop in order to become a better manager/leader?

Planning is something that I currently need to improve, as I often make decisions on intuition, which is not bad option either, but good plans for future are needed also. Delegation and Execution parts in the nwlink test were the lowest, and especially execution part of me needs work.  I tend to postpone important decisions in my personal life so I have to watch out for that If I ever will be in a leading position, in working environment postponing difficult choices can pile up a big mess.

Summary

Its always useful to reflect what your strengths and weaknesses are so you can improve your leadership skills, and this assignment did just that. While areas to improve in order to become a better manager, is important,  finding ways to inspire others to do their best is something I have to think especially hard. Inspiration of others is no easy feat and there is no one right way to accomplish that.