Final leadership paper

The activity that I did in class of Values card sort (Figure 2) involved of me picking out 5 cards out of a bunch that were the most important to me. One of the cards that I picked out was advancement that means personal and professional growth. Personal and professional growth is very important to me as it leads to living a result orientated life which makes it more stimulating and challenging. On a smaller scale, during class activities and preparation for exams, I always think about the consequences and the end result.

According to DISC analysis (Figure 3), I am able to handle multiple activities and communicate well with people which makes me adapt to situations with ease.  I chose this as one of my sub themes as using my skills of being a good communicator I am able to put my word forward and also understand other people’s point of view which makes adaptation easier in any kind of situation. According to my identity map (Figure 1), there are a number of given attributes to my life, however I am flexible in choosing other aspects of my life and I possess a strength of being outgoing.

The second highest data collected for my reflected best self – assignment (Figure 4) was categorized under obliging.  Reading the examples made me realize it comes naturally to me to be helpful to other people around me. From my DISC interpretation (Figure 3), I am also people orientated which makes it easier to help other people and grow with them.

I have a habit of analyzing situations that come my way before taking any impulsive action. For example, in any group project I like to look at people’s strengths and on the basis of that communicate my ideas of how I think the team should work. The DISC analysis (Figure 3) also has a repetitive use of me being a problem solver. This made me choose analytical problem solver as one of the sub themes.

The descriptors from the DISC analysis (Figure 3.5), have the highest inclination towards influencing. With the set of skills that I possess (people oriented, good communicator) I am able to convince and motivate people towards favoring situations. According to Eikenberry (2010), the ability to influence people is higher if the values are given importance. As mentioned earlier, I give a lot of importance to my values and core beliefs which has a direct relationship with my ability to influence people. My Influencing style is behavioural in nature (Organizational behaviour concept).

THEMES AND SUB THEMES:

  Action Plan :

Moving forward, I have been researching different ideas for my career exploration. The main focus is to research about different industries and invest in business ideas that are authentic to myself. I plan to establish many start-ups in my twenties as I am venturesome and continue to hire professional teams to run them. I believe that the team drives the business more than the idea itself. I plan to invest my time and resources wisely on building a professional team that shows exponential career and professional growth. 

Being people oriented, I plan to put my best foot forward at networking next semester. Through networking I will be able to learn from the experiences of people with a professional background that may interest me. I plan to invest my time in finding a mentor who can guide me at difficult phases of my career path. Networking will also help me share my ideas off people to receive constructive feedback. Furthermore, I want to sharpen my skills of creating systems and patterns to be more efficient in conducting a progressive professional graph. I have learnt while being at Babson that everyone is like a ‘brand’, our words and actions create an image in the other person's mind. Investing in oneself is very important for growth and advancement in life. I want to capitalize on my friendly and outgoing nature to build strong professional and personal relationships. I want to focus on my influencing behaviour to build confidence in others and negotiate conflicts. 

I want to further work on my weaknesses and convert them into strengths by putting extra effort in recognising them. For example, during topics of discussion that are not of my interest I become a selective listener which reduces the amount of information I am gathering. However, if I listen more I might actually become interested in that topic and see potential growth. I want to increase my attention span and start reflecting upon the things that I listen to which will make me a better listener (Center for creative leadership, 2019). I also want to build upon my technical skills as the world is moving towards AI and machine learning. 

 Specific actions for next semester include meeting people from different cultural and professional backgrounds to gain knowledge from various perspectives. It is important to focus on similarities with people of different backgrounds to form an instant connect (Molinsky, A & Jang S., 2016) which will help me in networking also. I will measure my success by keeping a track of the people I meet and make a note of the value they add to my life. I will make an effort to gain constant feedback from my mentors and friends at Babson towards my professional conduct. I also plan to work towards my attentive listening skills by being fully immersed in all conversations I take part in. 

Conclusion:

The self-reflection term paper highlights strengths and weakness. The paper also focuses on an action plan which helps to strategize the forthcoming steps that must be taken to achieve professional and personal goals. This paper has given me the opportunity to understand how to substantiate raw data into a feasible action plan that will help to accomplish career goals. I plan to reflect upon and take actions towards my action plan and also keep working on it to function in an effective and efficient manner. My adaptive behaviour will help me twist and tweak any obstacles on my way to achieve my goals.

Appendix:

Table 1.

References :

Eikenberry, K. (2010). Five Practical Reasons Why Values Matter to Leaders. [online] Kevin Eikenberry on Leadership & Learning. Available at: https://blog.kevineikenberry.com/leadership-supervisory-skills/five-practical-reasons-why-values-matter-to-leaders/ [Accessed 7 Dec. 2019].

Molinsky, A. and Jang, S. (2016). Focusing on Similarities - not Differences - is the Key To Crossing Cultures - Andy Molinsky. [online] Andy Molinsky. Available at: http://www.andymolinsky.com/focusing-similarities-not-differences-key-crossing-cultures/ [Accessed 7 Dec. 2019].

Center for Creative Leadership. (2019). Use Active Listening Skills When Coaching Others. [online] Available at: https://www.ccl.org/articles/leading-effectively-articles/coaching-others-use-active-listening-skills/?utm_content=sf24287882&utm_medium=spredfast&utm_source=twitter&utm_campaign=EC-LE%20article%20OE-CHRP%20R-EMEA%20C-Infographic&sf24287882=1 [Accessed 7 Dec. 2019].

Self-Assessment Results:

Figure 1. Identity Map

Figure 2. Values Card Sort

Figure 3. DISC Analysis

3.1

3.2

3.3

3.4

3.5 Descriptors

Figure 4. Reflected Best Self

Figure 5. Conflict Management Style Assessment

3