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The 6 Perceptual Styles, What We Value and How We See the World: The Goals Style

Guest post by: Gary Jordan, Ph.D.

Article Overview: In the fourth of a series of articles detailing the 6 innate Perceptual Styles of the Perceptual Style Theory, the authors detail the style known as Goals: a person who perceives the world as a series of tasks that must be completed at all costs, who thrives on challenges and opportunities posed by life’s immediate problems.

The 6 Perceptual Styles, What We Value and How We See the World: The Goals Style

Karen's Perceptual Style is Goals. She perceives the world as a series of tasks that must be completed at all costs. Nothing else has higher priority. She thrives on challenges and opportunities posed by immediate problems that need solving and believes that there is one right way to solve them. She sees a world of clear, simple options, with little ambiguity and little gray. She knows that the right way is the simplest and most direct one. When the central issues have been addressed the problem is solved; the details are unimportant and will take care of themselves.

Karen distrusts complexity, subtlety, and solutions that evolve slowly over time. The world is difficult but not complex, and she is puzzled and irritated when people talk about shading and nuance. She believes that such talk obscures what is important, and she likes to keep things simple so she can focus on what really matters. She knows that if a problem needs a solution, there is no time like the present to solve it and no reason to worry about politics and irrelevant distractions. Even when the available choices are not appealing problems must be dealt with quickly and resolutely.

Karen sees a world in which possibilities combine with facts to create goals to achieve and opportunities to seize. She approaches the world with intense energy and has a high level of endurance that allows her to push herself long after others have given up. She takes action with personal intensity and urgency, and is always anxious to get on to the next task even before the current one is complete. What needs to be done next is obvious to her, and she does not understand why others around her do not see and act on it. Karen's single-mindedness creates enormous momentum as she moves forward and can become difficult to stop or divert.

As the Perceptual Style name implies, Karen is very outcome oriented and prefers to focus on the accomplishment of goals on which she can see immediate progress. She uses her sharp focus to attack problems and difficulties, map a path to follow, and unhesitatingly follow it. However, she has no loyalty to current processes or methods and will abandon them quickly if progress towards a solution is slowing down and stagnating. She makes high achievement demands on others, but never more than she demands from herself.

Karen sees challenges, opportunities, resources, and obstacles all around her. Each presents a battle that she is determined to win. Life is a competition, and if she can find no other worthy competitor she will compete with herself to see how far she can push her speed, quantity, and endurance. She knows her first responsibility is to spot the dangers, obstacles, and problems that lie in between her and her goal. She is prepared for any challenge because she knows that life is risky and only the strong and prepared succeed.

Karen sets short-term strategic goals for herself in both her personal and work life and cannot imagine that others do not focus on goals as intensely as she does. Goals are markers against which she can measure her progress in life. Situations without goals make her uncomfortable because they have no clear direction and she doesn't know what to do or how to evaluate progress. While she looks to the future, it is the practical short-term objective that grabs her attention rather than vague, grandiose visions because they are difficult to evaluate.

Karen is an excellent active listener, and it is her favorite way to gather information. Listening allows her to ask questions, summarize, and provide immediate reaction. She listens for content and information relevant to the immediate task at hand. She wants the facts from a conversation not the personal or social context, and she has little patience with rambling and pointless discussion. She gathers data to support her opinions and conclusions which she forms quickly. She abandons her opinions slowly and only when the data is overwhelmingly contrary. While she will change her mind, she requires tough convincing as she focuses on data that support her view and ignores data that challenges it.

Karen doesn't like wasting time on social pleasantries or personal discussions. She wants interactions to be direct, uncomplicated, task-centered, and frank. She feels both clumsy and bored in unstructured social situations and other unfocused interactions. Much of her social awkwardness is due to her inability to read hidden agendas, deeper layers of meaning, or subtle hints. She approaches others directly and bluntly and wants the same in return.

People readily follow Karen because she is decisive in crises and adept at bringing structure out of chaotic situations while radiating focus, certainty, and calm authority. Her single-minded focus allows her to see the fundamental issues in problem situations, to determine the most important task, and to prioritize the steps necessary to accomplish her goal. People look to her when they feel unsure, and her willingness to act and to take responsibility gives her influence and generates respect.

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  I’m Right, You’re Wrong: Behavioral Science Explains Away This Universal Belief

Article Tags: business, Perceptual Styles, psychology, relationships



Related Forum Posts
Re: Set goals that motivate you! - Sounds simple enough when you take it at face value, but what are goals? Are these short term or long term Goals, Are theses goal realistic, achievable? How to make them motivating Goals, What is motivation? Is motivation the same for all of us Hmm so many questions, so few answers. must a an article in this somewhere Btw (by the way) GT, nice Blog
Name for website - Hmmmm Authors World Authors Network Authors World Wide Weblog World Wide Authors Arboretum (or some other alliterative word) WritertoWriter Writer to Reader WritersWorld WritersConnect AuthorsandtheirReadersBlog
Elements of Style - Can't comment on the two books you listed, but Strunk and White's Elements of Style belong on every writer's shelf.
Re: Alexa Ranking Goals - Thanks GT! This is still the right post for Alexa Goals but everything else can go to Kevin's Mastermind post! Cheers!
Re: Search Engine Friendly Coding - According to my experience, You should avoid flash and java script while making a website for online business promotion. These type of coding also increases website loading time so avoid it. You can also use external CSS "Cascading Style sheet" for placing images on website it will reduce website loading time.


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