This person’s ego-drive is moderately strong. J. B. does have to some extent the inner personal need to persuade others. J. B. is somewhat challenged when he is convincing other people, because he does enjoy the conquest of others, both for its financial rewards and for his own sense of achievement. However, persuading others does not gratify him in the same personal way it would if his ego-drive were more intense.

Note: Ego-drive is the inner need to persuade another individual as a means of gaining personal gratification. The ego-driven individual wants and needs the successful persuasion as a powerful enhancement of his or her ego. His or her self-esteem is enhanced by successfully persuading another and diminished when he or she fails to persuade. Ego-drive is not ambition, aggression, energy, or even the willingness to work hard. The ego-driven individual wants and needs to persuade, not primarily for the practical benefits that might be gained, i.e., money, promotion, or other rewards, but more importantly, for the feeling of satisfaction that comes from the victory. Successful persuasion, then, is the particular means through which the ego-driven individual gains pleasure and ego gratification.

J. B.’s empathy is above average. He has good ability to relate effectively to others, accurately sensing their ideas and reactions. J. B. is able to understand objectively another person’s point of view and to use this knowledge to good advantage. J. B. is thereby able to make adjustments in his own behavior in order to deal most appropriately with another person.

This good empathy gives him the ability to deal sensitively with others, thus developing good relationships with them.

Note: Empathy is the ability to sense accurately the reactions of another person. Empathy is the capacity to recognize the clues and cues provided by others in order to relate effectively to them. Empathy is not sympathy. Sympathy involves overidentifying with another person, thereby losing sight of one’s own objectives. Sympathy can block the ability to deal effectively with others. The individual with empathy is able accurately and objectively to perceive the other person’s feelings without necessarily agreeing. This invaluable, indispensable ability to get powerful feedback enables the individual to adjust his or her own behavior appropriately in order to deal effectively with others.

J. B.’s empathy provides the key to his ability to learn and adapt to new situations. J. B. is quite intelligent, and this, linked with his empathy, enables him to grow steadily in the understanding and performance of his job. J. B. is an open, flexible human being who is not only capable of learning and growing, but also welcomes challenges and adapts readily to new methods and ideas.

Thus, his potential for growth personally and on the job is excellent in terms of both his motivation for growth and his ability to achieve growth.

Note: The ability to learn and grow requires considerably more than the possession of good intelligence. It requires the combination of native intelligence with sufficient empathy and flexibility to permit an individual to use his or her intelligence to acquire new ideas and formulate new methods. In many cases, even people with well above-average intelligence lack the capacity to grow because they use their intelligence rigidly to defend and justify their preconceptions, rather than genuinely to seek or accept new approaches. On the other hand, many individuals with only average intelligence have the potential for growth because their openness, flexibility, and empathy permit them to make full use of the abilities they do have to acquire new knowledge and skills. Thus, for an individual to have good growth potential, he or she should combine native intelligence with the openness and flexibility to seek and acquire new ideas and integrate and utilize them in day-to-day life and work.

This person’s leadership ability is reasonably good. J. B. has some ability to be assertive and is capable of exhibiting real strength on some occasions. However, J. B. does not have the consistent overall assertiveness possessed by most strong leaders, so he might tend to vacillate in a leadership role.

His empathy, intelligence, overall flexibility, and genuine interest in people will most often allow him to lead effectively. Some improvement in his assertiveness and in his willingness to act strongly and decisively, combined with the important assets J. B. does possess, would give him all the attributes of a good leader.

Note: Leadership is the ability that enables an individual to get other people to do willingly what they have the ability to do but might not spontaneously do on their own. Leadership implies that an individual has a special effect on others that commands their respect, admiration, or affection and causes them to follow that individual. In other words, leadership consists of getting a positive response from others and utilizing that response to bring about a desired attitude or course of action. This implies a certain amount of assertiveness in the sense that the leader projects some part of his or her personality or will on others. It does not mean aggression, force, or coercion. Whether the leader influences by personal example, persuasion, or empathic feedback, he or she wins others over by influencing their willingness to act, rather than by forcing their compliance. The good leader strives to become aware of the abilities of subordinates or associates, so as to guide them toward only goals that they realistically are capable of attaining.

J. B.’s leadership capacity is further enhanced by his ability to balance a strong sense of responsibility with enough impulsiveness to permit him to make decisions on his own. J. B. is willing to risk the possibility of occasionally being wrong by acting quickly and positively when necessary. J. B. is not likely to be wrong too often because he has sound judgment and the ability to sense how his decisions will affect others.

Further, J. B. possesses the intelligence and flexibility to learn from any mistakes he might make and to adjust his future behavior. Rarely will J. B. make the same mistake a second time.

Note: The competent decision maker possesses a strong sense of personal responsibility and the willingness to make quick decisions where called for. His decisions must be thoughtful and should be based on knowledge of all the available data and possible consequences of his action. On the other hand, J. B. must be willing to take the risk of occasionally being wrong in order to act with the speed and decisiveness that many situations require. The overly impulsive decision maker is likely to make decisions too quickly without sufficient thought about their long-range implications. The overly cautious individual is likely to be so fearful of being wrong that he or she would prefer not to act at all rather than to take that risk, so he or she may miss many opportunities owing to this indecisiveness. The ideal decision maker, therefore, combines thoughtfulness and responsibility with courage to act, even to take a risk, with the intelligence and flexibility to make generally sound judgments and to learn from any mistakes he or she might make.

J. B. is very well able to delegate responsibility to others. He is not so consumed with his own drive that he has to do everything. Rather, J. B. derives a good deal of satisfaction from the achievements of others, so he is willing to allow them to do their own jobs, to grow, and to achieve their own successes.

J. B. is, moreover, well able to assess correctly the ability of another to do a particular job, so he can make good judgments as to the advisability and appropriateness of delegating a specific responsibility.

In short, J. B. possesses the prime requisites of a good delegator. J. B. combines the willingness to delegate with the ability to do so appropriately.

Note: The ability to delegate effectively involves the capacity to judge whether another person can perform a task, the ability to evaluate correctly whether it is advantageous to let this person do it, and the willingness to let this person try. The capable delegator is an individual who, although he or she may personally be as well or better able to do a certain job, realizes that keeping the work may involve the inefficient use of his or her time or ability and possibly interfere with the development and best utilization of others. There are two types of individuals who strongly resist delegating:

J. B. dislikes detail work but probably can handle it competently when necessary. J. B. is likely to be restless if he is continually confronted with routine tasks or jobs that are repetitive in nature.

Although J. B. will always see detail as a chore and as the least desirable aspect of any job, his sense of responsibility is sufficient to motivate him to do what is necessary despite these feelings. J. B. possesses the self-discipline to allow him to deal with the details when necessary to complete a job.

Note: The ability to handle detail requires that combination of personality dynamics that enables an individual to organize work in a systematic way. It also enables him or her to deal effectively with activities that are repetitive and structured. At one extreme, a person with too deep-seated a need for personal organization and structure may tend to become so overly involved in day-to-day detail that he or she may lose sight of the real meaning of the activity. At the other extreme, a person may be so impatient and intolerant of order that he or she will be undisciplined in the planning and execution of his or her work. This lack of self-management could hamper the individual, even in functions not normally requiring a great deal of detail involvement. The individual with good ability to handle detail enjoys, or at least is comfortable with, order or structure and yet is not so enmeshed in detail that he or she loses sight of the broader picture.