Developing Personal Profile - Assignment Example

Topic Developing Personal Profile I) Introduction The aim of this paper is to analyze the development of my personal profile and understand my strength and weaknesses. For this matter various inventories are used like Kolbs Learning Style Inventory, Personal Style Inventory; Realistic Optimism instruments, Self Leadership questionnaire, Values; Locus of control scale etc. According to (Tilson,2007) “A Positive Personal Profile (PPP) is a way to “take inventory” of all the attributes of youth that will be relevant to their job search, employability, job match , retention and long-range career development”. The various results of analyzing instrument give me idea about my strength and weaknesses .Upon this assessment, I can empower my strength and sharpen my weaknesses. First of all the Kolb LS has revealed my strength to be intellectual competency while my weakness is disruption of creativity in me. In the same manner other instruments have revealed that I have a positive attitude but my interpersonal communicative skill is backward. My other skills are evaluated with the help of SMART principles where my thinking and actions are screened. Moreover, I even have to reflect on my performance during the scaling of my skill development phase. As per (Lyness) an important construct that has not received much attention in work–life and work–family research is career advancement II) Various Analyzing Instruments and Results A) Kolbs Learning Style Inventory: As per (Kolb, 2005, pg.1 – 43) “ The Kolb Learning Style Inventory differs from other tests of learning style and personality used in education by being based on a comprehensive theory of learning and development. The assessment of this inventory was on the basis of strength and weaknesses. The strength was that I am a logically thinking person and likes pursuing intellectually challenging ideas and concept and also is competent in this field. However the weakness is that my dominating nature will destroy my creativity. In his website (Leap, 2012) writes that “Human creative genius has left its mark on our world. It has advanced civilization by improving human living conditions. Think about the creative inventions that have drastically altered and improved our lives: airplanes, cars, light bulbs, telephones and television, just to name a very few”. B) Personal Style Inventory: Personal style inventory is an assessment based on the personality of an individual. According to (Hogan, 1980) “Just as every person has differently shape feet and toes from every other person, so we all have differently “shaped” personalities”. This assessment has one sub division as below; Realistic Optimism instruments: According to this analyzing instrument, my strength is that I am highly optimistic. And as far as the weakness goes, I am weak at handling obstacles which come in achievement of my goals. Self Leadership Questionnaire: The self leadership questionnaire is a procedure where in several questions are laid down for the candidate to assess his strength and weaknesses. As per (Norris, 2008,pg.45)“This empirical study tests the relationship between need for autonomy and general self-efficacy on self leadership”. This instrument gives reflection on self efficacy of a participant. As per (Roberts) “we choose the word “reflected” to emphasize that this self-portrait is based on our perception of how others view us”. a)Self Efficacy: Self –efficacy is measured with the use of Self leadership questionnaire. (Bandera,1995) “A strong sense of efficacy in socially valued pursuits is conducive to human attainment and well –being, it is not an unmixed blessing”. My self efficacy scale has revealed 6 and this shows I am above average as the maximum is 10. I understood that my confidence level is high but cannot take risk at some turning points. My thinking ability has not matured and I feel I need to be more serious in taking decisions which are crucial. When I asked my friends and family, they said I am best at confidence and weak at taking decision and tremble during decision making. As per (Mullen,1991.pg.4)“It demands that out decision –making be outcome oriented and that we have the habits of thought and ability to predict the cause and effect sequences there are likely to be initiated by our choices. a) Autonomy: When assessing autonomy that is “self governing ability “of mine I found out that I am restricting myself in many fields. I am not going free with implementing my ideas and concept in business roles. When I was asked to take decision when there was strike at the company as a board director I was not able bring forth any decision and I was hesitating to speak about my ideas. D) Values: this refers to the personal values of an invidual. The instrument for these assessment criteria is as locus of control scale. Locus of Control scale: According to (Neill, 2006) : A locus of control orientation is a belief about what we do (internal control orientation) or on events outside our personal control (external control orientation)”. There is internal and external locus of control and it depends on an individual’s ability to adjust or cope with change. According to the scale I am average with adjusting with change as I think circumstances are to an extent controlled externally by fate, God and destiny. As (robbins) “An early debate in personality research centered on whether an individual’s personality was the result of their heredity or of their environment” I would like to mention that this outcome is biased as I was not feeling well on the day of assessment. III) Analysis by SMART : As per (Zahorsky)“S.M.A.R.T. is an acronym for the 5 steps of specific, measurable, achievable, relevant, and time-based goals”. According to smart analysis the skills are measured as with reference to objective Specific Measurable Achievable Realistic Time Objective: To increase my interpersonal communication skill by the year 2014 to an excellent level Specific: Here it would be specified the activity of mine taken to increase the interpersonal communication skill. Measurable: Stating how much number of debates and coaching classes I have to attend to sharpen my interpersonal communication skill .It means 6 in numbers. Achievable: The resources and nature of classes and coaching efficiency to sharpen my interpersonal communication skill. Realistic – Connection with friends and acquaintance to improve my communication skills. Time: My interpersonal communication skill must be done by 2014. IV) Reflection on the areas of improvement The areas of development are as follows according to evaluating instrument and SMART policies. A) Balance my dominating nature: I was in the task of explaining to the other participants the meaning of leadership. At that time one participant had demanded to explain this aspect more deeply. I got enraged and said what he listened is adequate for him. So I assessed that I have dominating nature. Every quality in an individual is either in lower, medium or high range. I have detected that my dominating nature is high which is hampering my other potentials. Dominating nature is not ideal as it brings out over confidence and also destroys the creativity in me. According to (Wilbur,2011)“Even worse, sometimes—when someone else starts to answer a question—the dominating person jumps in and talks louder until the first person gives up”. So it is not ideal to be bossy, over confident and insulting to others. B) Developing my creativity: Every person has some other creativity in them and it is a crucial aspect to improve leadership skill. Only a creative person can bring innovation into an enterprise so I definitely need to improve on creative skill. This I understood when I criticized the participant for asking me the in depth meaning of leadership. I felt I was minimizing my ability to be more creative about the idea on leadership and its meaning. C) Weak at handling obstacles: When I have undergone the assessment of realism optimism instrument, I found that my way of handling obstacles is defective. I am really not able to study the obstacles and understand the nature of it and face it. The obstacles are an inevitable element and no matter how smooth the path of goal is they are sure to happen. I understood from my assessment that my obstacle handling technique was weak. The main purpose for this is that I have fear factor in me. D) Handling Risk : I have found out that I am weak at handling risk. Risk taking is an important role of leaders, and a person who cannot take risk is a complete failure as a leader. A leader is many times, in the midst of risky situations and face internal and external problems in an organization .So if I am weak, I need to rearrange myself and apply more boldness and strength to my risk taking ability. E) Self Developing Questionnaire a) Develop decision making ability: A leader has the main role to take decision as and when needed. A person who cannot take rational is a failure as a leader. I am not good in decision making skill and I want to develop it by taking lead role in class activities, where I will have to take decisions more often. I understand poor decisions can create chaos and destruction of any team led activity. When I answered the question where it was asked what I will do when an employee ask for salary hike, I was quiet with no decisions. So I have decided to work on this skill. b) Being autonomous: I have understood during the development of my leadership profile that being autonomous is a significant factor. If I become autonomous, then I can be free in many ways and can take action and decision which are substantial for the organization. If I hesitate to give out ideas and decisions, as in assessment period, then the organization can be doomed to failure. (Drucker)Most people think they know what they are good at. They are usually wrong. More often, people know what they are not good at - and even then more people are wrong than right. Values: In value there is an instrument of scale which is Locus of control scale. It is used to monitor the ability of an individual to face a change happening in his leadership endeavor. I am a religious person and believe that God and fate has a big hand in things happening in my life. So I would like to change this thinking a bit more broad as I want to have control upon what is happening at work place and life generally. Strengths and weakness My major strength is as follows High confidence level: I have understood that one of my positive ability is high confidence level. This is a very qualitative ability as it leads way to the enhancement of my position as leaders in any mode of action or team work. I can enhance it by upgrading my knowledge and understand more of my positive qualities. This confidence as a quality has a good impact on others as it gives positivity to them. a) High Optimism: As far as my optimism level goes, it is high and together with confidence it gives my personality a good boost. I can use my skill to take decision which are positive in nature and encounter problems with full heart. According to (Daft, 2008, pg.39) “Optimism refers to a tendency to see the positive side of things and expect the things will return out well”. My Major weaknesses a) Inadequate at facing obstacles: I have found that I am bad at facing obstacles. This is a major drawback of mine and would like to improve on it Bad at taking risk: Every leaders has to take risk and organization had different culture and Values and a charismatic leader should face risk comfortably. As per (Neck,1996 , pg.445-467) “Since one manner in which cultural values and beliefs are transmitted to employees is through a charismatic leader or group of managers, leadership style plays an important role in shaping values and beliefs”. With all these analysis, I would like to apply a learning theory to make a change in my leadership profile. Leadership theory – Behaviorism I upon reflection decided that my behavior should change in order to develop my personal profile and change myself. For this I am using a learning theory, which is behaviorism. Here, in this theory it is believed that, “external stimuli” is needed for any development in a person’s behavior. A person has to be realistic and understand what is happening in his environment. (Schneider,2001,pg250-263.) “Being realistic also requires negotiating the uncertainty and lack of specificity that is a part of our environment”. This is very essential to protect and maintain our self concept. In his article (Hunsacker,2005.pg.20-52) “We all want to protect, maintain, and enhance our sell‘-concepts and images others have of us. But, we also have fears, inadequacies, self-doubts, and insecurities that we do not want to reveal to others.”.According to behaviorism a person is passive and desponds to the positive or negative reinforcement in their surroundings. As per (Simonton) “Indeed, the greater strength of negative phenomena underscores the practical need for a positive psychology”. I believe this is true as I have encounters many times my confidence level change when the judge is not around to analyze my performance and I feel more motivated. According to (Ryan,2000, 68-78. ) “Motivation concerns energy, direction, persistence, and equifinality – all aspects of activation and intention”. Conclusion Developing personal profile is important in leadership upheaval. A leader can be born or most specifically saying he is mold. As per (Manz, 1991, pg30-35) “Our focus is on a new form of leadership that is designed to facilitate the self-leadership energy within each person”. I have found that various self assessing instruments have paved way to analyze and measure my personal values and profile as a whole. I believe motivation is a big factor in developing one’s self. In his article (Boyatzis, 2006,pg. 42-624) “We propose that once the force of the ideal self is activated, it plays an executive or motivational function within the self”. I have learned that my confidence, logical thinking and dominating ability are high whereas risk taking, creativity and ability to face obstacle is low. I have understood that, the ability to solve problem is essential in developing leadership qualities. As per (Whemeyera,2003,pg.79-87)) “The solutions to the problem in each phase lead to the problem-solving sequence in the next phase”. The cognitive skill of a person has a large play in taking decision and solving problems. According to (Neck) “One of the most significant finding in psychology in the last 20 years is that individuals can choose the way they think”. It is also essential to thing positive and this understood while I undergoing SMART assessment scale. Negativity is a common enemy to a developing leader. As per (Gable, 2005,pg.103-110) “The third reason for our field’s focus on the negative may very well reside in our own nature and our theories about psychological processes”. So to be a perfect leader many qualities in born and external factors need to be assessed and developed References Bandera, A. (1995). Self -efficacy in changing societies (p. 1). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Boyatzis, R. E. (2006). The ideal self as the driver of intentional change. Journal of Management Development, 25(7), 42-624. Carver, C. S. (2002). Optmism. Oxford University Press, 1. Daft, R. L. (2008). The leadership experience (2ndnd ed., p. 39). Ohio: Thomson South Western Drucker, P. F. (1999). 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