A520.1.2.RB_MilliganSteven

I found the self-awareness assessment test to be eye opening in some ways, yet not all shocking in others.  There were some parts of the test that I found to be confusing and difficult to decipher.  Other areas I felt there were no right answers and every decision was a bad decision.  I think this is the case in real life; there will be times that the only decisions available may not be ones I would like to make.  I think the key is to understand my own ideas and values and know how to make the best decision possible. 

The first test I took was the scale self-awareness test.  I scored a 58 on this test, scoring in the top percentile for self-awareness.  I feel like this is accurate.  I tend to think and focus on my reasons for decisions, what I can do to improve myself, and how this affects my ability to function at home and work.  Sometimes I feel that understanding who I am, and what my strengths and weaknesses are is not the difficult part.  The more difficult part is learning the best ways to turn my weaknesses into strengths, then doing it.  To change one’s self takes dedication and a lot of effort.  If you are not completely dedicated to this change, it can be easy to go back to the way you used to do things.  Hopefully, as I become more self-aware I will learn the best ways to know how to change and improve myself. 

In the emotional intelligence assessment I scored high with an 85.  This doesn’t surprise me all that much either.  I feel that I have very little problem empathizing with others.  I would suggest that my weaknesses do not lie in my emotional intelligence.  I can generally control my emotions and have a pretty good idea of how to deal or help others in need.  I find that I usually am aware of my surrounding and can react in different situations with the correct emotional response. 

The test that surprised me the most was the cognitive style indicator.  Although I scored similar in the knowing, planning and creating style, I scored highest in knowing style.  In the test, Whetten states that, “knowing style will probably feel more comfortable in accounting, a planning style will probably feel more comfortable in operations, and a creating style will probably feel more comfortable in advertising” (Whetten & Cameron, 2011, p. 76).  Although I scored the highest in the knowing area I feel that accounting would be the worst job for my own personality.  I find advertising to be by far the most interesting career field of the three stated in the book.  However, I don’t think I am a particular creative person and often have to rely on others for their creativity.  I like facts and data when answering questions.  I see the need and desire to think outside the box when coming up with solutions to problems; however, I find that I often struggle with the creative side of this.  I think in reality I lie somewhere in between the three cognitive styles and find that the outcome of the test is probably accurate. 

Surprisingly, my lowest scoring test on the assessment was on the tolerance of ambiguity scale.  I scored a 47 on this test putting me in the bottom quartile.  This means that I have a high tolerance for ambiguity.  This honestly caught me off guard at first, and I had to double check my answers to make sure I read the questions right.  After thinking about it for a while, I realized the test was accurate.  Although I have a high tolerance for ambiguity, I still get frustrated with it and seek answers.  While these answers may not be apparent at first I tend to find ways to get to those answers.  I think for the most part my high tolerance for ambiguity comes from my high tolerance for frustrating situations.  I tend not to react to bad news, stressful assignments, or tasks that confuse me.  I have found in my own life that the faster I can understand an assignment the faster I will be able to accomplish the task.  When I try to take short cuts or get out of work, bad things happen. 

When I was in high school I worked on remodeling homes.  I was installing a toilet and could not get the pipes to fit right on the threading.  In my own laziness, and rush to get the job done, I jammed the pipe in its place and put a bunch of putty around the sides of the pipe.  Two days later my boss got a phone call from the owners complaining that the ceiling to their basement was bowing downward and we needed to come look at it.  Upon arrival, we found out that a great deal of water had leaked from the toilet causing large amounts of damage to the ceiling and the dry wall.  From that point on, I learned to do the job right the first time; if I don’t understand something I need to just ask. 

I plan to continue to study the information I learned from the self-awareness surveys and apply it to my self-awareness plan and journal entries.  If I can get a better idea of my weaknesses I can hopefully get a better idea of how to improve in these areas.  I can also learn techniques to expand my knowledge, continue to learn, and make decisions quicker, now that I have a better understanding of my own knowledge style.  Like I stated earlier, I feel that becoming self-aware is not very difficult.  The difficult part is learning how to improve on my strengths and then changing the things about myself I don’t like.

References

Whetten, D. A., & Cameron, K. S. (2011). Developing Management Skills. New Jersey: Prentice Hall.

A520.1.6.RB_MilliganSteven

Having taken two courses and just starting my third in the Embry Riddle Leadership Master’s program I feel that I have begun to develop a small amount of self-awareness.  In previous courses we have already focused on the five core aspects in some degree or another. 

The first of the core values is our own core self-evaluation.  Before we can truly begin to develop and build on our own management and leadership skills it is important for us to understand ourselves and our own attributes.  This is no easy task and I fear will take my entire life before I can come to a true understanding of my full range of strengths and weaknesses.  In the text Developing Management Skills it’s stated that there are “an innumerable quantity of personal dimensions available to explore if one is to develop in-depth self-awareness.” (Whetten & Cameron, 2011, p. 61)  It is because of this that we need to continually focus and refocus on the attributes that pertain most to the things that are taking precedence in my life and career at a given time.  My time so far in the MSLD program has given me new knowledge and insight into these ideas and helped me to understand not only more about myself but helped me to know where and how to evaluate myself.  It’s through this better understanding that I can develop the other four core aspects of self-awareness.

The second core aspect of self-awareness is “values”.  Throughout our lives we will be asked to participate and make decisions that may or may not fall out of the typical “black and white” frame of reference.  Many decisions may fall in that gray area that can cause us to question what our values truly are.  If we have not decided on these values it will be difficult to decide in the moment what is right and what is wrong.  If at a young age I decide for myself that I will never do drugs and then in high school I am offered marijuana by a friend my decision to turn down the offer will be much easier than if I had to decide in the moment.  The text describes values as “the foundation upon which attitudes and personal preferences are formed. They are the basis for crucial decisions, life directions, and personal tastes. They help define our morality and our conceptions of what is good.  Much of what we are is a product of the basic values we have developed throughout our lives.”  (Whetten & Cameron, 2011, p. 65) 

Throughout my own life I have always strived to establish a core set of values.  Much of these I have developed through my faith and through my relationship with my parents and the things they have taught me.  There are times that these values can be difficult to translate to my own professional career.  When there are things I have yet to experience I need to have a good understanding of my personal values and how to apply them in the variety of situations I am bound to experience at work.  Through the discussions, readings, interviews and exercises in the MSLD program I have been able to more thoroughly visualize how I might have to apply my values to work and how I can translate my own life experiences to other things I will experience in the future. 

The third core aspect of self-awareness is learning styles.  For a good chunk of my life I felt that I had a more difficult time picking things up compared to others around me.  I would watch friends barely study for tests and then ace them with little effort.  I would study repeatedly and pull a “B” if I was lucky.  I realized later in life that I did not have a good grasp on my own learning style.  Once I began to realize that I learned by doing and that as I could understand and visualize the things I was learning I began to do much better on my school work with less effort.  I became more efficient at studying and picked things up quicker.  Understanding our own learning styles can be difficult.  In my first class with Embry Riddle, MSLD 500 I learned a great deal about creativity and applying my own thoughts and ideas to the work.  Many of the assignments were ambiguous, leaving me up to deciding what the assignment would look like when I was done.  This was very helpful in aiding me to discover more about my own learning style and allowing me to apply a level of creativity to my work.  In the text Whetten suggests that cognitive learning is based on two key dimensions.  These are “the manner in which you gather information and the way in which you evaluate and act on information” (Whetten & Cameron, 2011, p. 74).  It has taken me a long time to come to a better understanding of how I gather and evaluate information.  I hope to be able to build on what I had learned and strengthen the areas I find to be especially week so that I can broaden my learning capabilities for a variety of situations. 

One area that I have always been fairly good at is my own ability to adapt to change.  I have grown up moving every few years, constantly being put in new and uncomfortable situations.  As an officer in the Air Force I am consistently asked to do things that fall outside of my experience and comfort zone.  If I were to let my inexperience get the better of me I would fail before I even had the chance to succeed.  I am not always expected to know the answers to everything, however, I am expected to learn quickly and grow and take the lead when called upon to do so.  The world often feels like it is moving at a breakneck speed and in order to keep up it is important to develop the ability to cope and handle change.  In the text Whetten states, “The challenge of students and managers at the beginning of the twenty-first century is to prepare for a world that cannot be predicted by the experiences of the past” (Whetten & Cameron, 2011, p. 76).  We live in a world that is consistently developing new technologies and ways of communicating.  It will be difficult to rely on the way things were done.  We need to be able to develop new and innovative methods of accomplishing our goals. 

The final area of self-awareness I need to come to a better understanding of is my own emotional intelligence.  When leading others I need to be able to judge and assess their behaviors and emotional state of being.  I need to be able to show and feel empathy for the things that are happening in their lives.  In the Air Force I often find myself leading young airman barely the age of the eighteen and far away from their parents for the first time in their lives.  This can be an incredibly difficult experience for them.  It is important that I am able to apply my own personal experiences to the world around me and use that knowledge to help others.  Whetten discusses this ability to connect with others in the text.  He states, “Emotionally intelligent people are also able to accurately diagnose and empathize with the feelings of others. They are sensitive to what others are experiencing, and they can share in those feelings” (Whetten & Cameron, 2011, p. 64).  Throughout the MSLD program I have been able to apply the things I’ve studied to my work and have discovered that when I listen to others and their situations I am less likely to judge harshly and more likely to help them find a solution or sometimes just listen to what is going on.  I have found myself in a position to help others on several occasions and have been grateful for the leadership skills I have learned in this program and my ability to empathize and understand what others are going through. 

I have only taken two classes so far in the Embry Riddle Leadership program, however, I feel that I have already been able to add quite a few tools to my leadership tool box.  I understand that I have a long way to go and am grateful for the leaders I have that are pushing me to start this program early.  The earlier I am able to study and learn leadership skills in this program the longer I will be able to apply this knowledge to my own life and career. 

References

Whetten, D. A., & Cameron, K. S. (2011). Developing Management Skills. New Jersey: Prentice Hall.