As a business leader, I’ve had to take many different tests to analyze how I operate. What kind of leader am I? What’s my tendencies under pressure? Am I more analytical or emotional? Am I more extroverted or introverted?

While I’m not particularly proud of this, I’ve scored in the very top percentage of executives seeking control and power. Yikes. Apparently, my “charismatic style” can make me a very destructive force within an organization without proper process and structure. If leveraged properly, however, these traits can mobilize an organization to do great things. Properly harnessing my strengths and overcoming my weaknesses to benefit our organization is a continual and deliberate effort.

What I haven’t spent much time trying to understand is how my need for control and power affects my family, especially my immediate family. All the potential for being destructive apply to my personal life as well. I can be overbearing, judgemental and very intense when dealing with my wife and children. A person who needs as much control as myself do not try to get his way subtly.

I’ve read a lot of books on being a corporate leader, but not one about how to deal with my own personality in trying to be a part of a family. The latter is a lot harder in my opinion. Awareness with the desire to be a better family member is a starting point. But there are a lot more steps to go that I’m sure a lot of people (entrepreneurs, corporate leaders) like me struggle with.