Improving Self-Awareness and Motivating Others - Essay Example

Reflective essay on improving Self-Awareness and Motivating othersStudent Name Course name Institution Date of submission Student Number Reflective essay on improving Self-Awareness and Motivating others Self-Awareness The two competency areas I wish to focus on include self-awareness and motivating others. Self-awareness, in my view, refers to a state of being conscious of your strengths while at the same time admitting your weakness that you still need to improve, including acknowledging that you may not have the solutions to organizational problems and owning up to slip-ups. While the definition sounds simple, I have learnt that developing the skills for self-awareness comes at a price. Within the exceedingly competitive culture in today’s business environment, having self-awareness may give the impression of being counterintuitive. Indeed, I initially operated on the conviction that I must always give the impression that I know everything at all times otherwise people will question my abilities, as a result leading to the perception that I am an ineffective leader. However, I have learnt that pretending to know can be disastrous to the organization, as it creates problematic situations. Conversely, taking responsibility for your weakness or what I do not know is beneficial to the organization and me. Again, at an interpersonal level, I have learnt that being conscious of your skills and weaknesses improves trust of others, as well as increases one’s credibility. I believe that trust and credibility have improved my leadership effectiveness. For this reason, self-awareness serves as a basis for emotional intelligence that strengthens trustworthiness, supportive communication, and motivation. Essentially therefore, the concept of self-awareness, I believe, is an essential ingredient of motivating others. I applied the PAMS to assess my strength and weakness. To develop self-competencies, I assessed all skills, and categorised them based on the assessed results and significance. My scores of PAMS were based on my colleges, former supervisor and self-assessment. The PAMS score had showed that I had a low score for self-awareness and motivating others. This formed the rationale for wanting to improve on this core leadership skill areas. To improve on these skill areas, I set the sensitive line in addition to the most significant goals that could direct my decisions. I also joined a debate group, volunteered more, as well as read more books. The objective of taking to these activities was to improve my cognitive style, tolerance level, as well as internal locus of control. I, afterwards, evaluated myself regularly to monitor how I was improving. I redid the PAMS test and found more impressive results, which showed that my skills had improved. I have eventually learnt that leaders who promote self-awareness tend to leverage their strengths and confront their weaknesses. In turn, they become more credible and develop relationships rooted in trust and reverence. At the same time, they become more open to new ideas, as well as criticism that are more constructive. I believe that self-awareness has increased my emotional intelligence. Therefore, I would rely on self-awareness in my organisation to strengthen supportive communication, trustworthiness and motivation of others. In my view, motivation refers to the degree of effort an individual readily applies towards achieving certain goal. It amounts to the willingness to perform routine decision-making and communication functions. From attempts to improve my capacity to motivate others, I have learnt that motivation can help lift the team spirit, improve performance and subsequently improve results. This implies that learning to motivate a team potentially creates a productive work environment. Through integration of motivational practices that bring about meaningful work, including praising the team members and providing them with an attractive reward system, it is possible to create an attractive atmosphere and organisation culture that improves organisational productivity. However, this is not automatic. In fact, I learnt that the better I had the capacity to link motivation, organisational goals and productivity, the higher my team became motivated. This, in my view, is rather a win-win situation. I improved my skills in motivating others by following a systematic cultivation process, where I first set certain future goals and established my strengths that I needed to improve to attain my goals. Afterwards, I designed and implemented a plan to motivate my subordinates by praising him at his small accomplishments at work. Afterwards, I observed his actions to ascertain that my perceptions of the key aspects of the plan were consistent with his before recording it. In assessing my skill of development, I redid the PAMS. The feedback was through interviewing him to understand what he felt after motivating him, each week for one month. I also performed Thematic Apperception Test and the Tomkins-Horn Picture Arrangement Test to assess my motivation assessment. I hope to apply the skill of motivating others to improve the employee’s satisfaction levels and productivity in other organisation. Section 2 Cultural diversity The issue of cultural diversity affects the organisation. For instance, Judy Dench,has written an email indicating how the organisation is gossiping about Rob Miller being a lesbian. The tone of the email indicates that there is intolerance towards lesbianism in the office. There is a need to promote identity and tolerance in the organisation through management of diversity. I plan to manage diversities through promoting teamwork and involvement. I will need to start a customizable employee satisfaction survey, which can offer comprehensive reporting on the degree of diversity tolerance in the organisation (Chen 2013). I would need to assess the extent of diversity in the workplace, as I believe this is an integral part of their management system. I also plan to promote an attitude of openness by encouraging employees to express themselves freely while attributing a sense of equal value despite their different sexual orientations, race, or cultures (Kamal 2009). Employee turnover rates The organisation also faces the problem of high turnover rates. For instance, Tamika Jerico’s email to Perillo alludes to the fact that he may soon be moving to another firm, especially because senior analysts are in demand at the moment, and she just had an offer from, PTY Company, ABC’s competitors. Since Tamika Jerico also talks of being offered a great salary, which is 10 percent more than what he currently gets at ABC, it is clear that his lack of dedication is because of the seemingly unattractive salary and reward system. The company has just lost Michael Grant to International Solutions Inc (Angouri, 2009). I plan to hire the right people from the beginning. I also plan to set up the right compensation plans and reward systems. I plan to place emphasis on giving attention to the personal needs of the employee and in return provide them with flexibility wherever I can (Nickson 2013). For instance, I will consider providing them with telecommuting alternatives, or even more flexible work schedules. I also plan to promote employees’ engagement since I feel that Tamika Jerico needs social interaction. I also feel that a more rewarding work environment would motivate him, and many others to stay. Communication and conflict management There is a tendency to spread rumours within the organisation, which is clearly a potential source of conflict in the organisation. Judy Dench’s email describes the staff at Health and Financial Services Division rather informally as “a tricky bunch to manage.” She also spreads rumours regarding Rob Miller’s sexuality as a lesbian. Clearer evidence is, however, provided by Peta Pan’s email to Michael Grant, where the Pan is in conflict with Andy Lee, her immediate supervisor, because of poor communication strategy. An email by Armand Mark to Michael Grant also shows the existence of conflict, where she describes how Lisa Ho and Jenny Button are productive employees yet cannot work together any more as there is always conflict between them, which has intensified to the point where they both feel like leaving the company. I would have to maintain effective human relations by changing my approach to management. This would be achieved through self-awareness, as well as promoting the self-awareness. First, I would diagnose the problem to ensure problem recognition, as it is only in this way that I would ensure effective intervention. I would then perform intervention. Following the diagnosis, I will need to determine any relevant interventions, such as the structural approach, where I will improve organizational effectiveness while at the same time change organizational design. Part 3 Relates to: Issue 1: cultural diversity in the organisation, Issue 2: Communication and handling conflicts Issue 3: increased turnover rates Format: Choose one from the list and delete the rest: Email Who is involved: Shakira Smith, Judy Dench, Peta Pan, Armand Mark, Lisa Ho and Jenny Button Response details: I would like to begin by thanking you all for attempting to communicate with me through your emails during my one-week stint as the Vice President of Operations for Health and Financial Services. I accepted the job knowing the challenges I face ahead. My first task will be to handle issue of organisational behaviour that are potentially affecting productivity. The three I have identifies, thus far, include employee turnover rate, having recently lost Michael Grant to International Solutions Inc, diversity management and communication and conflict issues. Of the three, the issue of cultural diversity is of immediate concern. Clearly, it affects organisational productivity. There is some tangible evidence indicating the existence of intolerance of others based on their sexual orientations or cultural backgrounds. I believe that in the currently increased globalisation, there is a growing trend in workforce diversity, a fact we cannot ignore. This showed by the increased presence of multicultural workforce at ABC Company. I would want you to understand diversity as the approaches for work that encourage members to work with people from divergent identity groups, including sexual orientation and gender. Therefore, there is a need to promote identity and tolerance in the organisation through management of diversity. I plan to manage diversities through promoting teamwork and involvement. Planning on teamwork can promote effective relationships in the department. Additionally, it can promote identity in the departments of an organisation (Srivastav and Das 2013). We must also agree that organisations that develop strong culture or involvement, as ensures that all employees become encouraged, as well empowered. This will handle workplace diversity more effectively relative organisations with weaker involvement cultures. I would need to assess the extent to diversity in the workplace, as I believe this is an integral part of their management system. Based on the results, I would develop diversity in the workplace. However, to ensure the effectiveness of the planned strategies, the executive management and the managerial teams will need to show dedication by incorporating diversity policies, including recruiting employees as an equal opportunity organisation. The culture of diversity will also be enabled through training and encourages employees to work in teams (Srivastav and Das 2013). I will need to start a customizable employee satisfaction survey, which can offer comprehensive reporting on the degree of diversity tolerance in the organisation. The solutions I would use include warding off change resistance through inclusion. Using this strategy, I would encourage every employee to formulate and execute diversity initiatives at the workplace. I also plan to promote an attitude of openness by encouraging employees to express themselves freely while attributing a sense of equal value despite their different sexual orientations, race, or cultures (Saari & Judge 2004). The issue of Employee turnover rate affects ABC Company’s productivity. Indeed, our organisation faces the problem of high turnover rates, which can bring about turnover costs. This is disastrous as it has potential to reduce the morale of the employees, which has the after-effect of affecting the financial performance of our organization through direct costs like recruitment, selection, and training of new recruits. I have some evidence showing some employees are considering moving to another firm. I plan to hire the right people from the beginning. I believe this would be an appropriate way for reducing employee turnover. By carefully interviewing and vetting candidates, I will ensure the candidates with the right skills and right job fit are selected. The fit must align with the organisational culture. I also plan to set up the right compensation plans and reward systems. I will work with ABC Company’s human resource department to get the current data on industry/standard pay packages. When it comes to the creative the benefits, I will get a little creative by establishing bonus structures and flexible work schedules. This would however not the end as I be also plan to review benefits packages and compensations each successive year (Srivastav et al. 2013). Importantly, I plan to place emphasis on giving attention to the personal needs of the employee and in return provide them with flexibility wherever I can. For instance, I will consider providing them with telecommuting alternatives, or even more flexible work schedules. I also plan to promote employees’ engagement. I also feel that a more rewarding work environment would motivate him, and many others to stay. It also appears that employees need greater recognition from the management. They also need challenging position that has a room for career advancement. I believe that his email may have been motivated by the feeling that the management has often overlooked how significant providing him with positive work environment would encourage him and others to stay, as well as the extent to which meaningful work recognition and praises would motivate him (Becker & Huselid 2006). I believe that sending you and others simple emails detailing praises for their contributions to the organisation, as well as a weekly memo detailing the achievement of the team can inject considerable positive feedback into the employees. This would however not be sufficient. I also plan to report regularly employee accomplishments up to the higher management. The issue of communication and conflict management also affects our organisational productivity significantly. One email evidencing poor communication within the organisation is seen in one email I received. The email shows a tendency to spread rumours within the organisation regarding others’ sexuality, which is clearly a potential source of conflict in the organisation. Clearly, without effective internal communication, there would be many grounds for conflicts, which would lead to inadequate performance (Spaho 2013). Additionally, ensuring effective human relations at ABC would be impossible without effective communication. What this implies is that to be an effective manager, I would have to maintain effective human relations by changing my approach to management. This would be achieved through self-awareness as well as promoting the self-awareness. First, I would diagnose the problem to ensure problem recognition, as it is only in this way that I would ensure effective intervention. Therefore, I would determine the number of ongoing conflicts within the organization, and later determine the relationship between the substantive and affective conflicts before ultimately exploring strategies that I can use to promote effective communicating and to solve conflicts. In the second stage, I would perform intervention. Following the diagnosis, I will need to determine any relevant interventions as there are more affective conflicts at ABC Company, compared to the substantive conflicts. I would use the structural approach, where I improve organizational effectiveness while at the same time I change organizational design in order to manage conflicts by changing the perceptions of the intensity of conflict (Tsui & Nifadkar 2007). In the third stage, I would manage the conflict by promoting organisation learning, teamwork, and engagement. At any rate, to handle the conflicts, I will need to use the strategy of negotiation, particularly in the situation of where two conflicting employees seemingly cannot work together (Spaho 2013). While the two are highly productive employees, they cannot work together since there are often engaged in conflicts, which has intensified to the point where they both feel like leaving the company. The negotiation would be through a face–to-face tactic to help them to address their differences, and reach a compromise, where one may be asked to move to another department or agree to work together (Raiffia et al. 2002). Notes for self (no more than 100 words) Organise a meeting with the employees undergoing conflicts to manage their conflicts. Meet the executive management to address the rising employee turnover rate Meet the Board and the executive management to deliberate on the potential to institute work-life balance strategies, such as flexible work time Write a report to the executive management to indicate to them the severity of cultural diversity issues, conflicts and employee turnover rates and how this has a potential to affect the organisation's bottomline Take an organisational study to establish current organisational satisfaction level and whether better pay package would increase productivity Total word count for section 2: 1337 References Angouri, J 2009, "Managing Cultural Difference and Struggle in the context of the Multinational Corporate Workplace: Solution or Symptom?" 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