Goal Setting and Organizational Skills - Essay Example

? Organizational and Leadership skills Supervisor] Organizational and leadership skills Organizational structure at solentive software: The person I interviewed for this paper was Mr. Jayden Thompson who is the in charge of business analysis phase at the software development department of the company. The department of software development is responsible for developing software that meet the requirement of their clients. The role of business analyst in this department is an important one. Business analyst conduct interviews with the clients inspect their working methods and analyze the problems that are being faced by the organizations from the current working system. Business analysis is one of the most crucial phases of software development. The results of the analysis provide a basis for the phases that come in next. Any error in the business analysis could have a huge impact on the end product and would eventually lead to customer dissatisfaction (Carkenord, 2009). Questionnaire: Response 1 Do you have clear and specific goals? Mostly True 2 Do you have any planned outcomes regarding your life? Mostly True 3 Do you prefer general goals to specific goals? Mostly False 4 Do you work better without deadlines? Mostly True 5 Do you dedicate a part of your time everyday to plan out your work? Mostly False 6 Are you clear about the measures that would indicate the achievement of your goals? Mostly True 7 Do you work better by setting challenging goals for yourself? Mostly True 8 Do you help out others regarding clarification of their goals? Mostly True (Daft, Kendrick, & Vershinina, 2010) Comparison of scores: Mr. Thompson’s scored a total of six points. During the interview Mr. Thompson stated that he preferred setting goals that were specific to and were short term in nature. Other than that he has worked out various goals for different aspects of his life and is working towards the achievement of those goals. To motivate himself to work harder Mr. Thompson prefers to set challenging goals for himself. These areas were the ones where Mr. Thompson achieved positive scoring. The only areas where Mr. Thompson lost his score was working with deadlines. He preferred working on projects that didn’t have any strict time constraints. Moreover he didn’t dedicate any specific time during the day or during the week to plan. He felt that specific planning complicated his short term goals. The overall score of Mr. Thompson was of six points. The score of five points and above indicates that the individual possesses good behavior regarding goal setting (Daft, Kendrick, & Vershinina, 2010). The six points scored by Mr. Thompson is a clear indication that regarding goal setting he posse’s excellent skills and can use these skills to become an efficient leader. Goal setting and organizational skills: Goal setting is the procedure for assimilating the creation of various realistic objectives and goals that ought to be achieved by an individual. Also, the achievement should be noted within particular time duration (Rouillard, 2003). Goal setting for a person can be encouraged by informing them of what is expected of them. Personally a person sets goals for himself or herself to plan ahead for their life. Usually these goals are related to a person’s career or to their financial situations (Rouillard, 2003). Organizational skills help an individual manage time and various resources available to him or her at work or in personal life. Proper management of such resources enables a person to improve his or her productivity and provides efficiency in his performance. Organizational skills prioritize a person’s duties with respect to time (Facts on File, Inc., 2009). Various tools are used to help individuals manage these resources and their time at work. One such tool is a prioritized list. A prioritized list is a list of all the tasks that need to be completed by an individual in a particular period of time. The tasks on the list are arranged in order of urgency (Stroman, Wilson, & Wauson, 2012). The work that has to be completed sooner is rated at the top of the table while the tasks that are unimportant or not urgent are rated at the bottom of the list (Facts on File, Inc., 2009). When asked about goal setting and organizational skills Mr. Thompson was of the view that goal setting and organizational skills were two of the most important tools for a person’s success within and outside the corporate world. He felt that setting goals at work place help a person determine how the progress of a particular activity. In addition goals at work place motivate a person to work and strive for achievement better performance. Goals also provide a sense of direction to individuals. In personal life goals provide a person the means to carry on with his or her life. Personal goals can be anything whether it is with respect to their social life or could be regarding their financial status. Personal goals give a person an aim for which that person could strive for. Regarding organizational skills Mr. Thompson was of the view that organizational skills were a part of goal setting. The achievement of the goals set by an individual are only possible if a person develops a set of organizational skills. Organizational skills provide a person with the right attitude that helps them achieve their goals by training them to work towards their goals. As mentioned above most personal goals are either career based or are financial based. To achieve those types of goals a person has to make sure that they manage their time and work properly at work and at home. To help achieve this task Mr. Thompson suggested using a daily planner that helps manage various tasks of a person. In addition he also informed us of a time management model that he uses at work. The model divided his task into four categories tasks that were urgent and important, tasks that were urgent but not important, tasks that were not urgent but were important and tasks that were neither important nor were they urgent. The model is called Covey’s time management model and it helps individuals focus on tasks that are most important to them (Covey, 1999). Nature of the organization and goal setting: The process of software development is a hectic business and requires dedication by the managerial staff and developers alike. In software industry time is of utmost importance (Perry, Staudenmayer, & Votta Jr, 1993). Clients demand that their software is produced on time without any compromise in quality. It is in this industry that organizational skills such as time management of Mr. Thompson helped him develop his reputation as a hard working individual. “Software development is a very demanding field there are numerous projects pouring into the organization at once. Unless we manage our time properly we will not be able deliver the end product something that is unacceptable in our field.” Moreover resources, in terms of skilled personnel are limited when it comes to development of software. Management of these resources is also one of the traits that Mr. Thompson learned from organizational skills. To measure the progress of the development of software timings of the completion of objectives are noted. This is where goal setting comes into play. Each phase of the system development life cycle is connected with the next. Therefore it is extremely important that each phase is completed within the allotted amount of time. It is for these reasons that Mr. Thompson sets goals for himself and encourages his employees to do the same. “In software development the only tool we have to measure the progress of a project is time. Every phase of the SDLC is allotted a particular time period for them to complete their tasks. The same is the case with my department. The only way I know that a job can be completed in the given time is if we make it our goal to complete our task in the given time.” Mr. Thompson provides an insight on the workings within his department. He sets the long term goal for the entire department and allows the department to divide the long term goal into small short term goals that would eventually help achieve the required results. Conclusion: There are three main aspects to be derived from the interview above. First is that the establishment of goals in personal and professional life are of extreme importance. Goals provide a person something to work for something for which they could strive. Second is the achievement of those goals. The goals a person sets for himself or herself can only be achieved if a person develops organizational skills. Third is the implementation of these two factors in practical. Mr. Thompson has shown us the benefit of goal setting and organizational skills and the impact that they can have on the quality of work a person produces. Reference List Carkenord, B. A. (2009). Seven Steps to Mastering Business Analysis. Washington D.C: J. Ross Publishing. Covey, S. R. (1999). Seven Habits of Highly Successful People. Simon & Schuster. Daft, R. L., Kendrick, M., & Vershinina, I. (2010). Management. Hampshire: Cengage Learning EMEA. Facts on File, Inc. (2009). Organization Skills. New York: Infobase Publishing. Perry, D. E., Staudenmayer, N. A., & Votta Jr, L. G. (1993). Understanding and Improving Time Usage in Software Development. Murray Hill: AT&T Bell Laboratories. Rouillard, L. (2003). Goals and Goal Setting: Achieveing Measured Objectives. Hampshire: Cengage Learning. Stroman, J., Wilson, K., & Wauson, J. (2012). Administrative Assistant's and Secretary's Handbook. Washington D.C: AMACOM Div American Mgmt Assn. Read More