Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #52173 in Books
• Published on: 2001-07
• Binding: Paperback
• 40 pages

From the Back Cover
Like leaves of many colors, we each have a different energy. Each colored leaf excites the senses in different ways and evokes a different emotion just as each of us impacts and influences others in different ways. This energy is driven from within by our predispositions and yet influenced by our interactions with others.

There is a richness and variety in the many ways we have of expressing who we are. The four interaction styles are patterns of behavior that have been described by many over the years. Each style has a theme-centered internal drive that helps set the boundaries of our comfort zones in the chaotic world of interpersonal relationships. If we can recognize our own style, we can better match our energy and know how to adapt and flex when necessary to reach goals and meet others at their view of the world.

Understanding Yourself and Others® An Introduction to Interaction Styles reveals the four fundamental interaction style patterns for you to "try on" in your search for understanding yourself and others. Within these patterns are clues to the "how" of our behaviors. Find out how you consistently seem to fall into certain roles in your interactions with others and how you can shift your energies to take on other roles when necessary.

The Understanding Yourself and Others® Series offers you powerful and insightful tools to help you achieve your professional and personal goals—whether you're the leader of an organization striving to build better teams or an individual wanting to better understand yourself and the people with whom you interact. The series presents the essential elements of personality through three overlapping and complementary models: temperament theory, interaction styles, and cognitive dynamics, all of which support systemic learning and application. Exploring these models helps answer questions about how and why we do what we do, and provides hands-on guidance through showing you potential paths for growth and development. The books in this series are written by experts and are based on proven methods for effective learning and application.

About the Author
Linda V. Berens, Ph.D., is the director and founder of Temperament Research Institute (TRI), which provides organizational consulting and interventions as well as certification of trainers in The TRI Methodology™. TRI is one of seven organizations that provide Qualification Programs for the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator®, the most widely used personality instrument in the world. Linda is the author of Understanding Yourself and Others®: An Introduction to Temperament and Dynamics of Personality Type: Understanding and Applying Jung's Cognitive Processes and the coauthor of The 16 Personality Types: Descriptions for Self-Discovery and Working Together: A Personality-Centered Approach to Management. She is an organizational consultant and has spent over twenty-five years teaching professionals as well as helping individuals and teams recognize their strengths, transcend their weaknesses, and work together better. Linda is recognized internationally for her theoretical contributions to the field of psychological type and for developing user-friendly training materials for practical application of understanding individual differences.

Excerpted from Understanding Yourself and Others®: An Introduction to Interaction Styles by Linda V. Berens. Copyright © 2001. Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.
from Introduction

Why?

BLM, BLT, Stress, and Other Ills

It seems most of the stress and conflict in our lives is related to how we interact with others. We all seem to have one of two disorders, BLM Syndrome or BLT Syndrome. Some of us have both of these disorders and they alternate. Others have just one operating most of the time. They are not really curable, but we can learn about them, control for them, and reduce their symptoms.

BLM stands for Be Like Me. We all expect others to be like us and are really surprised when they are not. Then, of course, we say they are wrong, bad, or even weird and crazy. BLM leads us heavily into the “blame game,” where anyone who is not like us is to blame for what goes wrong.

BLT stands for Be Like Them. Often we get into a position of feeling like we are not good enough the way we are and we must be like someone else. Advertising feeds us images of how we should be, as do cultural and gender stereotypes. BLT gets us into the “self-blame game.”

The Way Out?


So what is the way out of these never ending games that lead to unproductive behavior and unhappy people? An understanding of yourself and others! How are you different from others? How are you the same? Why do you seem driven to do things a certain way, even when that way is not working?

Understanding your natural Interaction Style will help you see how you are okay just the way you are and how to use your personal strengths for maximum results. It will also help you recognize that others may be rejecting your ideas not because of the ideas, but because of the style of delivery.

Customer Reviews

Enhances your knowledge and links the other theories of type together
This is a great book once you get past the rather condesending first couple of pages. (tells you to be true to yourself which as it is a book on personality seems a little obvious to me but may be useful to others)
The book takes you through the 4 interaction styles and then how they link to other models such as MBTI, Temperament Theory, Disc, Socaial styles, Thomas-kilman (although that is not the main point of the book it is useful information). The interaction styles themselves are based mainly around the role you might play in a work/project environment and the Patterns of Interaction Styles section is a fantastic overview of the drivers of the types.

Overall an excellent build on personality type.