Rating Your “Least Preferred Co-worker”
How to measure your primary motivation as a leader.
By now you have completed Fiedler’s LPC measure, scored it, and would like to interpret your score. Here is the scoring breakdown:
Low LPC (Task-Motivated) Scores less than 65 This score indicates that you are a task-motivated leader. Task motivated (low LPC) people find their main satisfaction in getting things done. They gain more from concrete achievement than from their relations with others. They feel most comfortable when they can work from clear guidelines and standard operating procedures.
Middle LPC (Socio-Independent) Scores from 65–72 This score indicates that you are a socio-independent leader (middle-scorer on the LPC). Generally speaking, middle-LPC leaders appear to be somewhat detached, and more inner-directed, less distracted or concerned by what others may think, but more open to their environment. They are, therefore, more flexible and learn more from their experience, and they make better use of their abilities under many conditions.
High LPC (Relationship-Motivated) Scores greater than 72 This score (high LPC) means that you are a relationship-motivated leader. High LPC leaders derive major satisfaction from good personal relations with others. In fact, they need good relations in order to feel at ease with themselves. Their self-esteem depends in large part on how other people regard them and relate to them. As a result, high LPC people are concerned about what others think, and they are sensitive to what their group members feel. In a work setting, relationship-motivated leaders encourage group members to participate in decision making and to offer new ideas or a different approach to a problem.
Remember this: Your score reveals your primary motivation. Fiedler argued that you can have a secondary motivation, and the fact that you are task-motivated doesn’t mean that you don’t care about people. It simply means you value accomplishing the task over evaluating relationships (and vice versa for High LPC scorers). One final point: take assessments with “a grain of salt.” These don’t represent “destiny,” nor are they absolute. They are to help gain self-insight. How accurately do you think the LPC score reflected your motivation as a leader?
