Knowing oneself Essay Example

Knowing oneself Essay Knowing oneself is the first step in becoming a fully functioning individual and recognizing that we have strengths and weaknesses that help us become better persons by building on what we are good at and by improving what we are not good at. As a worker and as a human being, we are required to interact and relate with other people. In any relationship, may that be of boss and subordinate or between parents and children or friends, we must be able to communicate effectively, and thinking that I am pretty good at this aspect, I was excited to take the assessment tests on communication to maybe validate what I believe is one of my strengths or to find out weaknesses that I may not be aware of. Moreover, we also took motivation skills assessment to test our level of motivation and our motivating skills in the workplace. The results are very important to me since I know that motivating others is not one of my greatest assets. What follows  Ã‚   is a presentation of my assessment result s in communication and motivation identifying my strengths and weaknesses and a plan of action that I would accomplish to become a better person, enhancing what I have and developing what I don’t have. Communication The communication assessment consisted of three subtests including communicating supportively, my personal use of supportive communication and my communication styles, as well as a role playing exercise that presented a communication dilemma. I discovered that I have a number of strengths in this aspect and have a few weaknesses as well. Strengths My communication style uses more of probing responses (86) which is an indicator of an effective communicator. I tend to ask people about what they feel and think about a situation or views on an issue and in the process clarify or gain a better understanding of other people. I do not use many advising responses (2) which actually may sound condescending to others and would make them feel incompetent. I try to let people know that I know that they are thinking individuals and I do not have to offer them any suggestions. In my supportive communication assessment, I tend to be problem-oriented, consistent, descriptive, validating and owned my statements (1a, 2b, 3a, 4b, 5a). I generally try to say to others what I mean and mean what I say, in the most diplomatic way and one that tells them that I understand their situation but that things have to be done and their cooperation is needed to get it done. Weaknesses I am not adept at reflecting responses (1), I seem to concentrate more on asking questions that makes the employee elaborate or clarify more on the issue or topic. I admit though that I do not make use of reflecting responses seems it feels redundant to me or just like repeating what the other person said. Generally though, it seems that I don’t have very good supportive communication skills. My total score is 69 which is almost half of the ideal score (120) and it places me in the bottom quartile. When I think about it I realize that I do lack the skill on coaching and counseling and I don’t know how to give negative feedback, I more often try to concentrate on the problem and what is to be done and usually end up doing it myself. In the role-playing exercise, I had difficulty communicating what I wanted to say and was also not attentive of my partners responses, hence I think I should develop more on this skill. Action Plan Based on the assessment results on my supportive communication skills and communication styles, I would strive hard to learn more about effective communication by reading books and following some of the tips in the lectures. I also need to work on my reflecting responses skills because I realize that this is the most effective style for supportive communication and yet I rarely use it. I also need to make a distinction between counseling and coaching and evidently I do not have any idea of how to do it properly, instead I might end up hurting other people’s feelings. Attentive listening is also a skill that I fail to use and must learn to use more often. What I learned from this experience is that no matter how good a communicator we are, but to actually b effective in it is a difficult to do, on that takes an honest assessment of my communicating skills and us it as a basis for further improvement. We will write a custom essay sample on Knowing oneself specifically for you for only $16.38 $13.9/page Order now We will write a custom essay sample on Knowing oneself specifically for you FOR ONLY $16.38 $13.9/page Hire Writer We will write a custom essay sample on Knowing oneself specifically for you FOR ONLY $16.38 $13.9/page Hire Writer Motivation The second part of our assessment exercises involved measuring our level of motivation and our performance problems and our motivational skills. The results indicate that I do not have broad-based motivational problems at work but there are those that need to be looked into. While in motivating others, my score of 87 falls in the third quartile compared to the mean group and is not that far from the ideal score (120). Strengths I found out from the result of the assessment that I am good at motivating others by telling them that they are good at what they do (aptitude) and I expect them to successfully accomplish their tasks (expectations). It seems that this two approaches usually work for me and hence I repeatedly use it to motivate others. In the role-playing exercise I was able to reach a compromise with my subordinate, that when she shows an improvement in performance for the next week I will not put her under disciplinary action. This shows that I can actually settle conflicting views by being diplomatic about it and yet reaching an acceptable resolution to the issue. Weaknesses I had difficulty in motivating others by facilitating improvement of skills and by linking rewards to performance. I usually think that everybody is intrinsically motivated to become at what they do because it is self-gratifying, but I did not account for the fact that some people are not as driven as the rest of us. In the role-playing exercise, I realized that I did have a short patience for arguments and was almost becoming irritated thankfully I had the idea to reach a compromise rather than to insist in what I think should be the right solution. Action Plan I realized that there are more ways in motivating others and that I can learn it to become an effective motivator. There are a number of self-help books and the readings that the professor gave us can help me learn more about motivation and its many uses. I am also curious at how to Use effective punishment and reward because I might be unknowingly contributing to negative attitudes and behaviors in others. I also would like to learn more of my own levels of motivation and where it comes from and how to develop it more. I did understand that sometimes not getting what I want done is not a sign of failure, but finding ways to resolve and issue in the best possible means is more important.