From listening to the podcast and reading the articles I could quickly identify myself as the fox figure, the dreamer, pioneer, big-picture person. I realized I had a leaning towards this identity in the higher grades of elementary school when my classroom had to vote for student leadership. The idea of representing my classmates and being able to make decisions for a purpose greater than myself just fascinated me. Throughout my primary education I continued taking leadership roles in organizations and school projects. In college I had the opportunity to really exercise my leadership experience by becoming the manager of the university’s student run radio station, a subsidiary of a non-profit company that staffed up to one hundred students. As I entered the role, I had many ideas and had spent a lot of time thinking and brainstorming of projects I wanted to start and accomplish. As I presented these ideas to my staff, I realized that while I had these ideas, I would not be able to accomplish them by myself. I did not have the qualities of a “guardian”, one who is detail oriented and pragmatic, as the Fast Company article explains. I also could not consider myself as the “loving” person, one who can build good team relationships, as the Inc article explains. I needed a diverse team which would be able to help me accomplish the goals I set for the team. Initially working with people of different skills was not easy for me but later I learned how important this was. One of the people I had to work with the closest was the On-Air Director, the person who manages the staff of the on-air department. She had the qualities of the guardian as described above: she was detail driven and very organized. Our difference in personalities initially caused issues in trying to find middle ground and working together. However, as we got to know each other better she helped me learn how to make my plans more realistic while I helped her become more creative with her work. This balance allowed us to produce our best work for the radio station. Learning from this lesson with my co-worker, a year later I had to hire a new web director for the station. One of the finalist candidates had the qualities of the loving person as described above. As a manager I had not done much to give my staff members the opportunities to get to know each other and build positive work relationships. The new web director was a great addition to the team as she brought in a lot of great ideas and initiatives to help with this issue. In conclusion I still believe that I lean towards the leader personality, especially due to my past experiences. One of the things I have learned is the importance of having a diverse team that can fill in the gaps of other people’s weaknesses. As I read the articles however, one of the questions I ask myself is whether it is more important to focus and build on the skills of the personality I resonate with the most or whether it more important to learn about the skills of other personalities and be able to adapt according to the needs of the team you are working in. When someone first gets hired, they cannot immediately jump to a leadership role. A skill that every team really needs may be adaptability, the ability to jump from one personality to the other without any difficulty.
Feedback
Nectarios-Nicholas,
Your response reminds me of a very common interview questions I've gotten many times (I've had about 50 interviews in the last year, so I have a lot of data points!). Many will ask "tell us about a time that you had a difference of opinion in with a coworker or supervisor, and how did you work through it?" or "if your coworkers / people you've worked on a team with would describe who you are to the team, what would they say?" You cover both these questions well in your response. I think that there's this idea that the most desirable working style is a "leader" when, in most work contexts, you need more people following than you do leading on any given task or project. Your answer shows how you can both lead but also know where you should look to others to lead on certain dimensions. There's no right or wrong-- but self awareness is key--- but also, being able to clearly articulate it in an interview is also necessary!
Since Then
I still believe, that adaptability is still a really important skill to have. While I had gained leadership skills at my radio station, when I started working with Azul I basically started all-over again at the bottom of the hierarchy. Programming skills became the most important skill to have rather than leadership. Despite that, the leadership skills I had still helped me lead the team of interns effectively. Being able to change according to your environment, just like a chameleon does, ended up being the most useful skill.
