Blonde MBADocumenting the life of a blonde MBA student in sunny California. Maybe some blondes DO have brains!

When school started, I mentioned having taken about a zillion personality tests, trying to answer the questions “who am I?”, “what’s important to me?”, “what career best fits me?.” Well, this week I got a little more insight into why these personality tests have some importance beyond just pinpointing the strengths & weaknesses that most of us already know we have (whether we use them to our advantage or not) and providing a start for effective leadership in our lives & organizations…

Simply put? Knowing who we are and what’s important to us allows us to (1) manage ourselves & the direction we’re heading, and (2) communicate & best manage others who will most likely have different personalities, goals, and values from us.

First, it starts with self-awareness of ourselves. Knowing what values we hold most dear can guide every aspect of our lives, from picking a job of importance to picking friends & partners who have similar values. Knowing ourself also has everything to do with how we behave, so by taking time to process information through our self-awareness, we can effectively RESPOND to situations in our lives rather than simply REACT to them — a key characteristic of both good communicators & hence, good leaders.

I guess I’ve always thought of personality tests strictly in terms of MYSELF, but the second part of this is recognizing what’s important to others so we can best manage & relate to them, being empathetic to what values they hold dear so we can respond appropriately. This heightens our (*buzzword alert*) EQ, a.k.a. Emotional Intelligence, being able to perceive & monitor the emotions of ourselves & others, thus lending to the respect needed of a true leader.

In watching the Beijing Olympic games these last few days, most individuals are there in pursuit of their own medal, but also have to work with the rest of the team within their sport for preliminaries, relays, and overall country dominance in the games. Most often there is a leader, someone who has most likely been through the games before and has some senior experience or word of advice, but in the case of the men’s USA gymnastics team, there were many rookies and just as many leaders. As they showed the team in a huddle, each proclaiming their own words of motivation, I wondered who could actually listen as they all seemed to be talking at once?

I’ve often been party to this in the boardroom, when there are too many ‘cooks in the kitchen,’ all trying to lead and effectively not accomplishing anything. In pursuing a MBA in a competitive program, you must assume that everyone is as accomplished, ambitious, competitive, and smart as you, and is working to hone their leadership skills…why else would they be there? I’m about to take a personality test as required for my first day of orientation and I wonder what I will find out about myself, my strengths and weaknesses? I’m obviously there to work on my leadership skills, but there must be a balance between leading and listening to others on your team.

I’ll let you know my personality test results when I’m done and I’m sure my observations on the team environment in the MBA program. In the meantime, check out the blog of Steve Churm, President of Churm Media here in Orange County, on ocmetrobusiness.com…he’s at the Beijing Olympic games right now and blogging about the awesome experience!

Enjoy! ~ Blonde MBA leader
(P.S. below are some pics of my first trip to Beijing, about 9 years ago…the Beijing Olympic games are bringing back some of the memories, but not the skinny high school body *sigh*!)

Great Wall of China, circa 1999

Temple of Heaven, Beijing