Self Assessment Project - Essay Example

  Self and Leadership: Assessment Project The need to understand ourselves within the context of a professional environment, and our interpersonal relationships within that framework, is significant; and gaining that understanding is vital to effective leadership. To facilitate this awareness, I have undertaken this assessment project so that I can become more informed regarding my own strengths and weaknesses; and to learn how to enhance the former while attenuating the latter. The focus of this project will be for me to seek ways of improving my intrapersonal intelligence so that I can take the assessment information gained and use it to my advantage within the workplace. I will use a variety of methods to assist me in this endeavor. First, I will present the results of a feedback survey I conducted with my family, friends, and business colleagues. I expect this to provide me with insight from those closest to me as I ask them to identify my strengths, weaknesses, and areas where I could improve. Then, I will assess the results of several standardized tests I took that will offer insight into my personality, intelligence, career strengths, etc. These more objective forms of self-analysis are instructive from a comparative perspective. My scores will include a comparison to classification levels that are recognized as having a significant impact on the workplace. Following that, I will include a section on personal information from my family and past that has bearing upon my skills and functionality within the workplace. This, most personal, area of assessment will include my own biographical information as well as those events in my family’s history that impacted my personal development. Finally, I will perform a Strength, Weakness, Opportunity, Threat (SWOT) analysis on myself using a synthesis of all of the information I have gathered. I expect this methodology to be useful for providing a condensed presentation of all the data in the assessment and lead to specific goals for improving my leadership skills. My goal, during the course of this exercise, will be to explore my individual leadership capability and determine ways of making myself a better, more effective leader. During the course of the assessment, I expect to be able to communicate my personal and career goals, particularly as it relates to leadership within a business culture. I perceive myself as the type of individual who looks forward to continuously advancing and improving my skills and knowledge. I try to identify the strengths and weaknesses I may have to help me grow and become a better leader. This assessment exercise will help me achieve my ultimate goal of establishing my own successful business so that I can obtain security and independence. Section I: Feedback My initial foray into increasing my intrapersonal intelligence involves a series of interviews with a group of my family, friends, and business colleagues; asking them to comment on me. I must admit that doing this made me a little nervous. It is one thing to take a personality test or fill out an online questionnaire and have a computer rate your score. It is quite another thing entirely to conduct a face-to-face interview with people who are important to you while giving them the opportunity to speak candidly about you. We were advised to listen to the responses carefully, and try to say nothing at all; even if we did not hear what we expected or wanted to hear. As revealed in the assessment portion of this paper, I am a direct and focused person, which makes it hard for me to listen to something I don’t want to hear. Ironically, one of the comments from an interviewee was that I needed to “listen to peoples’ ideas even if they don’t agree with [me].”1 The methodology for this part of the assessment was straightforward. I personally met with each interviewee and asked them three simple questions about myself: What are my weaknesses? What are my strengths? What can I do to improve? I asked each person to be honest with me, as I was conducting an assessment of my own opportunities to improve as a person and be a better leader in my career field. The interviewees are tabulated below: First Name Relationship Gender Age Mubarak Relative M 26 Muneera Relative F 16 Haya Friend F 30 Nermine Colleague F 35 Noor Friend M 26 Father Relative M Undisclosed Mother Relative F Undisclosed Abdulaziz Relative M 30 This group represents a good cross-section of people who know me, with a varying degree of intimacy. I felt that a sampling group inclusive of family, friends, and co-workers would allow me to ascertain the widest possible scope of interpersonal relationships so that I can use the various perspectives to identify areas of improvement. It also is evenly mixed between males and females, so that any gender differences in perception can be identified and explained. Finally, this sample group has a wide disparity in ages, from my teenage sister to my parents (who are not willing to disclose their age but represent the older generation), so that any generational differences in world view can be understood in their proper context. The information provided by this series of interviews was enlightening, to say the least, and an integrated summary is shown below: Question Blended Responses What are my weaknesses? Work too hard Impatient Aggressive Judge of Character Too sensitive What are my strengths? What are my strengths? (Cont.) Strong personality Creativity Commitment Team player Smart Kind Decisive Insightful Fair Honest What can I do to improve? Listen better Relax Be more patient Control Intensity Balance family and work better This survey was very informative, and not without its surprises. Several people independently agreed that I worked too hard and did not take care of myself. I have always considered myself a dedicated and focused person. I did not realize that I was giving the impression of being imbalanced towards my work and neglectful of my personal and family needs. Because I concentrate on efficiency and competency, I know that I can seem impatient and aggressive. If someone is saying something to me that is not useful or on point, I tend to shut them off and move on to more significant matters. Apparently, this comes across as impatience though I mean no offense. If I see something I need, I go after it. What I have felt was a good thing—intensity—others are perceiving as aggressiveness. I try to look for the best in others, and sometimes I am a little too trusting of people who are not close to me. This caused my friends and family to perceive me as a bad judge of character. I was pleased with what the interviewees saw as my strengths. I know that I have a strong personality, and my drive and commitment to achieving my goals were positively received. I try to be a fair and honest person, which was also reflected in the strengths comments. I find it particularly interesting that what may be listed as a weakness, e.g., aggressiveness, is also a quality that drives my identified strengths of decisiveness and commitment. Ironically, the very things that make me a good team player, one who is committed to creatively achieving my goals, also results in the perceived weaknesses of my working too hard and neglecting myself. Perhaps a personal strength, when taken to the extreme, becomes a weakness. The impact of this portion of the exercise is most relevant in my synthesizing my strengths and weaknesses with the things I need to do to improve myself. In a negative sense; I am intense, career-oriented and impatient—apparently too much so. If I am going to be an effective leader, I need to communicate more effectively so that I can attenuate the negative perceptions associated with these traits. I don’t want to be seen by my colleagues and subordinates as a driving, unreasonable person. I don’t want my family to think that I don’t care about them; for I certainly do. I will focus on balancing my intensity and desire to get the job done right—and on time—with an increase in communication skill so that I can help people to be efficient in a constructive work environment. In a positive sense; I am strong, kind, and honest. I need to increase the outward expression of these qualities by allowing myself to be strong without being rude, and communicate kindness through the way I speak and act towards people. As for improving myself, I can use this survey to my advantage by relaxing a little, listening better to what others have to say, and showing more patience. As a leader in the workplace, I think I can take these survey results and learn to put people at ease while still retaining a strong personality and good work ethic. Section II: Personal Assessment For the purposes of assessing myself through more objective means, I have undergone independent testing to give me insight into my personality, my career field suitability, as well as my intelligence strengths. My intention is to see where I am strongest in these areas so that I can enhance my strengths to be a more effective leader. In this section, I will reveal some of the most pertinent results from these examinations in each category, as a comprehensive treatment would not be of a reasonable length. I will then synthesize the information so that I can form a profile of myself and, once I understand the implications of that profile, I will try to formulate a strategy that will permit me lead others more effectively. Personality. Based upon one standard testing method, my natural personality tends to be “friendly, tactful, compassionate, and sympathetic.”2 Upon deeper analysis, however, there is a four-category analysis that gives deeper insight into the way I perceive the world. My type and strengths are: Type Strongest Quality within Type Extraversion (over Introversion) Enthusiasm Sensing (over Intuition) Practicality Feeling (over Thinking) Accommodation Judging (over Perceiving) Planful Extraversion means that I direct energy outward, towards other people and the world in general. The quality of enthusiasm indicates that I like to be where the action is; I feel that life is meant to be exciting, and I tend to get board without activity. Sensing means that I tend to focus on what I see and hear, rather than perceiving patterns and interrelationships. The quality of practicality, which I scored as high as it is possible to score, means that I favor practical utility over intellectual curiosity and tend to be impatient listening to ideas that are not of practical value. Feeling means that I tend to focus on harmony when making conclusions on social values, rather than being strictly objective or logical. The dominant quality of accommodations means that I want approval and desire a harmonious environment. Finally, judging is the quality of desiring decisiveness and closure of flexibility and spontaneity. The quality of being planful means that I like to focus on the future and have firm plans for how to achieve my goals. These personality qualities have a direct application to business communication and how I can effectively lead people. For example, I tend to be enthusiastic and will therefore take a project and move forward with it. I need to realize, however, that this enthusiasm can overwhelm and override others. Perhaps this is reflected in the survey results when some people perceived me as aggressive or intense. I realize that my enthusiasm is coming across too strongly. The accommodating aspect of my personality tends to reflect in my business communication as agreeability, because I tend to seek harmonious situations. When taken to the extreme, however, people may think that I am hiding my real opinion or don’t truly care about the subject. This personality trait may be the source for the survey comments about judging character. It may look like I don’t care or that I tend to trust someone because I don’t want an unnecessary confrontation. I want a harmonious atmosphere. Finally, the third area where my personality directly bears on business communication is that my practicality can make me somewhat critical and tough. If a subject is being discussed that has no practical application, my response will be to either criticize or take a let’s-get-on-with-it approach. No doubt, this is where the survey participants get the idea that I am impatient. If the subject is irrelevant to my interests or duties, this aspect of my personality will certainly be communicated as impatience. I need to adjust my mindset to allow that sometimes people just need to talk, even if I can’t see a practical purpose to the subject; and I should let them do so without cutting them off. Career. When it comes to career testing, there are several methods for determining the logical placement for an individual based upon their interests and personalities. According to one, my career orientation skills are “spread widely over many different areas.”3 Upon further testing, however, an interesting mix of career types began to emerge that seemed to line up with my personality traits as well as the comments made in the interviews. For example, one test identified that my interests and skills were primarily social, enterprising, and conventional.4 Synthesizing this information reveals that I need to work with people, I have the need to provide leadership, and I must be in an environment that is organized, orderly, and detail-oriented. All of these career characteristics seem to match up well with the personality and survey results. I desire a harmonious work environment and am likely to be too trustful of others. This demonstrates the social nature identified in the screening. The fact that I am identified as enterprising and need to lead in the career test also matches very well with my strong personality and the enthusiasm identified previously. I am interested in getting things done, and need to be in a career where I can effectively lead others to do so. My conventional designation also matches well with the previous information. What the survey revealed as commitment and decisiveness, when combined with my personality trait of practicality, makes this an obvious choice. I am naturally geared to operating in an organized environment and will prosper there if I am allowed to decisively make a plan, and then maintain my commitment to work the plan. Finally, in terms of career analysis, I have identified four primary characteristics that serve my defined occupational factor.5 This test has shown that I am; outgoing and sociable, factual and realistic, objective and analytical, structured and decisive. There are no real surprises here, as this final test lines up with the other information very well. These career qualities have a direct application to business communication and how I can effectively lead people. I tend to be social and outgoing, which is a good quality for leadership; I just need to make sure that I am not too willing to sacrifice quality for harmony. I am also realistic, which is good in terms of getting projects done, but can be taken too far when communicating in a business environment; especially with colleagues and subordinates. I need to ensure that my realistic approach to my work is communicated constructively and not taken for criticism or aggressiveness. I am analytical, structured and decisive. These are very good career qualities for certain fields of service and, given the ultimate goal of owning my own business, these qualities will help ensure the viability of that enterprise. In a communications sense, however, I need to make sure that these qualities do not appear as impatience when I am dealing with others. If I can harness the good aspects of these traits and be more sensitive to how I communicate them, then my effectiveness as a leader will be enhanced. Intelligence. My scores in the area of general intelligence show that I am able to handle most academic challenges and 70% of occupations.6 I scored highest in computational speed, logic, and visual apprehension. This supports the other personality traits of an analytical nature. It also correlates with the survey results of my strengths where my interviewees identified me as smart. The result of this portion of my intrapersonal knowledge improvement shows me that I can be confident in my ability to understand the facts of a situation, organize them into a plan, and then carry out that plan with a reasonable expectation of success. This quality also has a direct application to my communications with others in a business setting. I can address a subject with confidence, knowing that I have a firm understanding of it; but I need to make sure that I don’t appear to be arrogant or too intense. If I allow others to speak to an issue, even if I think they are wrong, I will be perceived as a better listener and convey the quality of patience. Through this assessment, I have already identified the need to improve these areas and this analysis confirms that goal. When the assessment information is taken as a whole, I can judge the impact of the data and form a profile of myself that I can use to my advantage by focusing upon my strengths and working to improve my abilities as a leader. My profile indicates that I am a social person who tends to be decisive, analytical, organized, and smart. I can use the good aspects of these traits to be an effective leader if I focus on communicating them in a positive way. The fact that I am perceived as too aggressive or impatient is a function of mis-communicating my decisiveness. Since I am a social person who likes an atmosphere of harmony, I can discipline myself to modify how I state my position to allow for the opinions of others to be seen as valuable, even if I don’t agree with what they are saying. That said, I need to control my desire for harmony so that I am not too trustful of others or compromise what needs to happen just so everyone can be happy. I know that I can be too critical or tough in some situations, so I can focus on not expressing a negative attitude and communicate a more patient approach to projects. By taking the sum of this assessment, and intentionally improving how I interact with others to be more patient and tolerant, I will be able to increase my effectiveness in the workplace and be a better leader on the job. Section III: Personal Information The next portion of my personal assessment will include some biographical information, look at some family events and individuals which have impacted my life significantly, and describe some of the activities that bring me joy. I will then evaluate that information to see how I can use it to my advantage. I was born in a Qatari family in the city of Kuwait in May of 1976. At the time of my birth and until the age of five, my family and I lived in Kuwait where my father was the Ambassador of Qatar. After returning to Qatar, I completed my High school Diploma in Arts and earned a Bachelor of Arts in English Literature from Qatar University. My initial intent was to proceed with my studies to obtain a higher degree in translation from the United Kingdom. Prior to my travel to the UK, however, I received an employment offer that changed my plans. I became determined to pursue my career in Management and therefore, decided to change my field from translation to Management because I realized that translation, being a routine-type of profession, would not appeal to me. My family history and background has had a significant impact on my decisions, ambitions and mostly, my personality. I come from a line of educated and intellectual individuals who served in the diplomatic and political arena in the country. My grandfather wanted to be a pioneer in establishing a parliamentary political system in Qatar. As a result of his revolutionary ideas, he was imprisoned for a number of years and his family migrated to Kuwait to avoid persecution. Once my grandfather was released from prison he left Qatar to join his family in Kuwait. Later the family moved to Egypt during the 1960’s. My father studied Political Science in the United States and later served in the diplomatic field. Due to this family history and my upbringing, my ambitions go beyond my current profession, which is not my ultimate goal. Determined to achieve independence and success, I am aiming at establishing my own private company and becoming a successful business individual. My activities and interests include travel, socialization, sports and, most importantly, reading. A very important aspect of my life is interacting with my friends and appreciating their value to me. These are the things that bring me personal joy and make my life fulfilling. I can use these events to my advantage in a business setting, particularly as a leader. My high-quality education is useful because I have been exposed to a wide range of areas. From arts and literature, language interpretation, and business studies, I have a broad field of knowledge that can be translated into creative approaches to problems. When I effectively communicate these ideas to a team of colleagues and subordinates, they will be able to draw from my own knowledge and work together with me to effectively accomplish our goals. The fact that my family is educated and comes from a diplomatic and political background has equipped me to function well in multiple environments. By observing these areas since childhood, I can innately function in diplomacy and politics; two important aspects of being a leader in the business world. As a leader, if I can communicate these values to my team, they will draw on my experience and be more effective in attenuating resistance to our solutions by working closely with others to solve problems. Seeing my grandfather as a pioneer of new ideas shows me that innovation and creativity are important contributions to both society and business. I can directly apply these as a leader by following my instincts when presented with a business challenge, and not be afraid to try new ideas or systems. His subsequent imprisonment, however, has taught me that innovation is not without negative consequences in certain situations. This will allow me to balance my natural creative tendencies with the understanding that I need to evaluate the possible negative events that can stem from creatively employing innovative ideas. If my grandfather’s experience taught me anything, it was that a good idea is worth fighting for and, if necessary, suffering the consequences. This means that if I believe in a solution enough, I should be willing to fight for it even if that results in personal difficulties. These events have strengthened my character and have allowed me to proceed with confidence even when others might not agree with me. When I convey these lessons to the people with whom I am working, they will be empowered to bring creative concepts to any particular task, and be encouraged to take the risks associated with innovation. This will be a powerful asset in the business world. Finally, the fact that I am most happy when I am in a social environment with my friends can translate into personable leadership that will foster a sense of teamwork and comradeship with my colleagues. Section IV: Personal SWOT As I have reviewed and balanced all of the principles contained in this assessment, I am able to offer my own ideas regarding my strengths and weaknesses, and draw conclusions from them that will made me a better manager and leader. My personally synthesized and abbreviated SWOT is detailed below: Strengths Creativity Decisiveness Organizational Ability Commitment Weaknesses Impatience Communication Opportunities Leadership Development Threats Inaccurate Perceptions I am a strong person who can creatively innovate and act decisively with an organized plan to which I will be committed. These are good things that need to be focused and implemented within the corporate environment. I tend to be impatient and, though sincere in my convictions, I don’t seem to be able to communicate my ideas and plans without giving a negative impression. This area must be addressed by my focusing upon better listening skills and sharing my ideas in a positive and non-confrontational way. I have the opportunity to take these two concepts and, through increasing my strengths while improving my communication skills, develop my leadership skills to a higher level. The key threat to this plan will be realized if my peers and subordinates perceive me as impatient, aggressive, or unwilling to listen. Again, I can overcome this threat through concentrating on how I express myself in the business world. Conclusion My purpose within the scope of this assessment has been to identify my leadership strengths and weaknesses, and then determine ways of making myself a more effective leader. As previously stated, I perceive myself as the type of individual who looks forward to continuously advancing and improving my skills and knowledge. This assessment has shown me the key areas I need to work on. If I focus on better interpersonal communication by being more patient and listening to others, my strengths of creativity, organization, and dedication will be able to be emphasized and have a resulting positive impact on the workplace. My intrapersonal intelligence has been significantly increased by this assessment, and my hope is to take the lessons I have learned and apply myself to the areas I have identified for improvement. I am confident that as I do this, my interpersonal skills will be significantly increased and my ability to lead others will be enhanced. References Al Khulaifi, Alnowar. Personal Interviews. 5 Feb. 2006 Campbell Interest and Skill Survey. “Individual Profile: Alnowar Al Khulaifi,” 9 Apr. 2003, 1-13 CareerFitter.com. “Career Assessment Results: Alnowar,” 1 Jan. 2004, 1-8 CareerPlanner.com. “Career Planning Test: 283425,” 1 Jan. 2004, 1-10 Emotional IQ Test, “Alnowar Al Khulaifi.” No date. 1-5 Meyers-Briggs Type Indicator Step II, “Interpretive Report for Alnowar Al Khulaifi,” Interp. Jones, Brian, 3 Dec. 2003, 1-18 Personal Intelligence Profile. “Alnowar.” No date. 1-3 Personality 100, “Alnowar’s Personality Report,” 2006, 1-101. Self-Assessment Library, “Basic Personality Analysis,” 15 Mar. 2006, 1-5 Read More