Self-assessment for Develop an Action Plan - Essay Example

Introduction I am writing a self-assessment of myself so that I can develop an action plan. I will write honest personal characteristics of myself. What I have learned from taking personal trait tests is going to be very helpful for me. It will help me assess my management skills. I will understand how to apply my education and personal experiences to help me in my career. SELF-ANALYSIS Background I came to Denver, Colorado to earn a bachelors degree in Business management. I was born in Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates. I graduated from high school in 2008 in my country. After high school graduation, I worked as a volunteer for the Chamber of Commerce in Abu Dhabi. My volunteer work lasted about three months. I received some incentives instead of a salary. My job responsibilities were working as Information Technology help desk. With personal experience in computers, I helped fixing small computer problems. While working in this job, I learned a lot more than I originally knew. I gained more knowledge about computers by fixing them. By autumn of 2008, I came to United States for the first time. I went to the state of Indiana and enrolled in Intensive English language school. The English language course lasted about eight months. After the completion of the language school, I returned to United Arab Emirates. I returned to the United States to enroll in University of Colorado. My older brother recommended about Denver, Colorado since he had attended the same school. I began my studies in August of 2009. My major is finance. Now, I plan to get bachelors degree and decide for masters after graduation. My goal is to return to my home country to work for Abu Dhabi National Oil Company (ADNOC) Company. ADNOC is one of the biggest oil companies in United Arab Emirates. ADNOC has scholarship programs so if I work for this company then I am hoping the company will help me with my graduate program in the future. Strengths and Weaknesses Strengths - I am a very hard worker and enjoy fast pace work environment. I am focused and well prepared in any task I take. I like to organize in both my personal and work setting. I like to work both as independent and in a team. I like structure in my life. I like to take initiative in new projects or new ideas. Weaknesses -My weaknesses is something I know I can work on it and turn it into strengths. I can be a bit self-critical because I want to make sure I do it right. I am always eager to finish projects or any work that I take responsibility to do it. I can be impatient at times because I can get anxious to complete it. I also need to give more attention to details to avoid mistakes. I tend to overwhelm myself with too many responsibilities or tasks so I need to be more patient with myself. I like deadlines but sometimes I can get too anxious and forget to pay attention to details. Important Personal Characteristic I like networking with people because I can learn more things from people. I lack confidence with regard to professional experience. I want to improve my skills in public speaking. I want to improve my writing skills too. This will help me greatly because I plan to start by own company in financial market. I want to improve my communication skills particularly in English language. Because it takes so much of time to study and go to classes, I have not been able to interact with Americans enough. I want to become fluent and learn advanced English language. My major problem is my weakness in the language. I have to be more focused in improving my English language. English language is an international language and is very important in the business world. It will help me become successful because I plan to travel around the world to network in the business environment and seek potential business investors. I have to learn to make friends who only speak English because that way I will be forced to speak English all the time. Now, I relax with my friends from the same country and we speak Arabic but I have to instead find a way to not do that. I have to find out how I can interact with Americans to improve my English language. The degree I am pursuing in Business management leads me to an extraordinarily challenging business environment, which I believe I can adapt through a series of hard work and dedication. I have set realistic goals to go home after completion of my degree to work for Abu Dhabi National Oil Company () Company. ADNOC is one of the biggest oil companies in United Arab Emirates; this will prove to be a highly challenging dream to achieve. The advantage of being associated with this leading company is that it has a scholarship programs. This will give me a lifetime opportunity to pursue my postgraduate without difficulties. Being a profit aimed organization; it will certainly fund me to pursue a business related postgraduate degree. The various areas mentioned in my self-assessment need improvements and development. Having examined my personality I have realized that I need to improve on my personal traits and style. I have had problems with my English language, because it is my second language. I have realized a need to develop listening skills, to further development and refine my English language. Listening skills are extremely prominent in improving my understanding of the language and the ability to engage myself in a conversation. I have realized how vital it is for me to make and associate with the American students with the focus of improving my speaking ability. This will widen my career dream to expand from only thinking of working in my original home to thinking of working anywhere in the entire world. Being fluent in both writing and speaking English will allow me to have an advantage since it is an international language. In my studies, I have realized the need to pull up my socks especially when it comes to completing my projects in constant time. I have had the realization of how vital it is to focus in my studies in order to score highly in my final paper. All my academic progress will reflects in my transcripts, which, I will present in all the places I dream of working in the future. Not all this areas that need improvement handled at once. The stress I pass through when tackling anything; exams, assignments and associating with people in a second language, not solved at once. I have to take my time, and with patience and determination, I can achieve my goals of becoming fluent in English. In order to become a better businessperson in the future, I need to find a way to handle this kind of stress. My one to one communication needs improvement when in new and unfamiliar settings and situations. I have a problem in associating with new people, especially the American students who speak English, this is a weakness that I need working on since my spoken English can only improve through interacting with them. I have realized too that delegation is extremely essential in everything I do. However, all these things mentioned achieved if I dedicate myself in the S.M.A.R.T goals (Robbins and Judge 78); to be Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Realistic, and Timely. In my self-assessment, the areas in need of development reviewed, while an appropriate S.M.A.R.T goal discussed and formulated. This will allow for overall development improvement in individual weaknesses. Being specific-, this aims at having a focus in being specific to a goal. If I am to finish a specific project, I should work tirelessly towards the specific goal of finishing the specified project. Measurable: the progress and performance in my business class and my English lessons measured especially with regard to the number of classes I have attended. I will aim at having goals that are measurable in terms of quality and quantity (Robbins and Judge 120). In my greatest problem, which is the English language, I measure my speaking skills in terms of the quality of spoken English language while I measure the marks score in the English exam in terms of quantity. Attainable; this aims at setting goals that I can attain. If, for example, I aim at attaining a first grade in a given subject, then I should work towards attaining it at whatever cost. Realistic: this is where I set realistic goals. I should not set a goal of obtaining a distinction in the English language in the initial exams but in the final exams. This is because, at the first time I will take time to adapt to the environment, and the grasping capacity is still low. By the time, the semester is over, the grasping capacity increases as the environment becomes friendlier, and the probability of scoring a distinction in the final exam is high compared to the initial exams. Time is a truly essential tool in my life. There is a saying that goes “time is money” and that is what I should have in mind. Every second of my life aimed at achieving something. I should deliver all my assignments in a timely manner. I should avoid waiting for the last minute rush where am supposed to meet a deadline. Dealing with deadlines accompanied with a junk of mistakes where the probability of misunderstanding the guidelines is unusually high. I should have a personal schedule of what I should do at a particular time. I also know that time keeping describes whom I am and thus should aim at ensuring I am a staunch timekeeper in everything I do. Professional Development PLAN Having identified my weakness in the previous discussions, I have developed a plan that I will adhere to, for at least one semester. I will work on the challenges I believe the plan will overcome all the weaknesses. I have identified realistic goals achieved by the end of the semester. Relevant measures to identify the success discussed too. The areas that need consideration include: i) Personal characteristic, self-discovery, and personal style ii) Stress management iii) Listening and speaking skills Problem: Personal characteristic, self-discovery, and personal style My personality and self-image is low, as discussed. I have a problem in mingling with the American students simply because they speak English, which is my second language. I spend more time with my fellow Arabs to chat and discuss matters in Arabic. I have the in the ability to express myself if I need something that a non- Arab owns. The problem of low self-image and the unwillingness to make mistakes has undoubtedly made my personal characteristics poor. To combat these, I will need to improve and allow for the most capitalizing potential, I will need to engage myself in activities that expose me more to the environment. I will join clubs and societies in the college to ensure I interact with the Americans. On Monday and Thursday evenings after classes, from 5.30-6.30 pm I will ensure I attend a club or society I will choose to be a member in the course of the semester. I will measure my progress by comparing my class performance with previous performances. I will also monitor my fluency in speaking the English language and request my supervisor monitor me too. The goal of all this is to improve my personal characteristic, the way of carrying out myself as I discover myself. With these in mind, I will ensure I waste no time in those evenings. During the daytime, I engage myself in both serious studying and adaptation training. To better my language For the studying portion, there are several trustworthy books that have been published which though, they do not deal specifically with my problem that address the overall process of managing personalities. There are several books that cover the topic of personality as one, Working Together, it’s a book that describes the Personality-Centered Approach to be a manager of to participate in management activities. The learning process as it discusses personality and management using theories. Problem: stress management I got to discover that, by the time the day ends, I get worked up, and tired of the days hectic activities especially with the struggle of the new language. My learning and career pursuance materially affected. This is because I spend sleepless nights as I think of how much am wasted. As a leader and a future manager, I need not behave this way. Sometimes I think of how I have wasted the day. The momentous issue could be either because, some students busted me or because I honestly did not attain a certain goal I had targeted. I plan to go for games every other Tuesday, Wednesday, and Friday evening after classes, from 5.30-6.30pm. On Saturday afternoon, I will go for swimming as I go for aerobics on a daily basis every morning from 6.00-6.45am. I intend to measure my progress by observing my sleeping behavior, and the way I approach problems and challenges. I will take statistics on the number of times I experience headaches comparing it with previous occurrence. I will consult with my lecturer who has always complained of my absent mindedness in classes. I will request him to make an assessment throughout the semester and compare it with other semesters. He will again check on my performance as a leader and in the class work. With the aim of maintaining physical health and doing away with stress, I will make sure I spend no time thinking of things I cannot reverse. I will implement ways of releasing stress by reading books on stress management from the university library. Problem: Listening and speaking skills I realized I have a problem when it comes to expressing me or while explaining my plea or while socializing. I could not talk to a crowd of people in English, which is a paramount leadership quality. Speaking skills further demolished due to my lack of confidence of expression. I have also identified listening problem that calls for improvement. In order to solve this problem I need improve my cognitive listening abilities. I need to listen more than speak especially during lectures. I need to learn to listen to understand instead of passively listening. This skill, be it workshops, seminars, books and the like, and based upon my current situation, being a student, there will be different methods and applications that can be used. I should find ways to participate in seminars and workshops while in the university. Listening will not have any specific time. It happens throughout the day. The measuring tool will be general performance in class, and the way of answering oral questions. The Books of interest to depend on in order to improve my reading and listening skills are, “Listening: The Forgotten Skill: A Self-Teaching Guide", by Madelyn Burley-Allen. These books provide a basic understanding of the skills needed for me to be an accomplished speaker and listener. The future goal is to develop my commanding skills as a leader especially while giving a speech. Another goal is to answer oral questions and improve generally in the English language. Conclusion It does not take a short time for one to become a leader. It takes a series of lessons, sacrifices, and self-analysis. I need to identify my weakness in a respectable time and work towards overcoming them. Being a leader right now means making an excellent manager in the future. The time to start rebuilding myself image is now. With the communication skills, speaking and listening skills, all put together with the SMART objectives, form a model person in me with individual skills of leading. Having examined myself image and with the professional development plans set for myself, I feel as a leader and a future manager. Work Cited Robbins, S. and Judge, T. Essentials of Organizational Behavior. Upper Saddle River, New Jersey: Pearson Prentice Hall, 2008. Read More