Diagnostic
Self-Awareness Blog
This blog is to review
the diagnostic self-awareness elements in the course reviewing my own self
elected results and my thoughts of those results. The assessment results are
derived from results elected by myself, prior to reading the course material.
In the first self-awareness assessment it was to
determine if I was had the ability to be self –disclosure and openness to
feedback and the total score was 26. Ironically, the second section was to
determine my awareness of own values, emotional intelligence, change
orientation and core self-evaluation was also a total score of 26. Combining
the two output scores is a total of 52. Immediately my analytical says I scored
a total of 52 out of 66, or 79% of whatever the score was. However, using the
notes based on the comparison data of 5,000 students a score of 52 placed me in
the second quartile, or at the estimated 50% of the normalized results.
What I noticed in the results is there is room for
improvements and maybe I do not do enough self-awareness enough as a leader. I
estimated the typical results only based on the lack of leadership roles that
allow me to do more self-awareness checks on a routine basis. I did find the
results a bit of a surprise and expected more due to my past history of
confidence and lack off when self-evaluating myself. I will use this assessment
as an opportunity to self asses my leadership skills and use it for
improvements.
Emotional
Intelligence
The next section of this assessment is to review
emotional intelligence which took the results and took a total of points based
on how each question was answered. There are 10 questions in this assessment
section and my total score was 100. I did find this section interesting as I
feel my ability to manage emotional behavior is really a negative, but
assessment proved completely opposite of my personal assessment of myself. I
would have expected the questions and results having some type of relationship
of emotional intelligence in comparison to diversity elements that a leader would
have to deal with in the work place. I feel I would use this information as an
awareness verses a defined skill set that I have, as a person’s ability to deal
with emotional intelligence could easily be tripped if the variables with the workplace
were to change. Basically, I would store this skill test as a positive but don’t
get too comfortable and not continuously look for opportunities to improve as a
leader.
Defining
Issues Test
This test is to assess my opinion about controversial
social issues, understanding that people make decisions about various things,
different. In this testing I had to review three different stories and answer questions
about the stories. I found this test not as easy to understand the scoring and
the following is my assumption of the expectation.
In the first case of the escaped prisoner I found myself
responding a bit harsh that a lot of the questions asked had no true value in
my opinion as to what should happen. Most of the questions relating to his
ability to be a good citizen after his escape have no value to the real issue,
the person escaped prison however the I felt the reaction of changing the image
of this person based on eight years of being on the run and doing great would truly
change how other prisoners review their own settings evening thinking they
could escape, doing good and that is justifiable enough to make the original
crime as a wash and we should just allow this to occur. I found my results very
true to my personal beliefs that if you participate in a crime that is strong
enough to warrant prison sentence, then that person needs to follow through
with the punishment. Good behavior does not overcome past performance. My
results were as expected, however I do see if this same concepts were applied
to an employee I may have to re-evaluate other avenues to that type of
response.
The second case of the doctor and the ill patient I had a
very bipolar response in comparison to the prisoner. I feel I responded that a
very ill patients that is terminal there should be an option to end life, but
then I was confused based on my own personal experiences. I had a grandmother
that I watched dye with terminal cancer which lasted a month and she was in
severe pain, with no relief. I based my results based on personal experiences,
which changed how I reviewed the case and it showed in the results. I did not
find these results a surprise, however, I did find my own thoughts about it in
conflict of a decision of what I would do.
The third case of the newspaper I found myself in the
middle of the road. In this case I was half supportive that the principal made
the right decision by allowing the student to print what he wanted in the newspaper,
with verbal out lash from parents that I felt should have no value on whether this
should be included. I did not find the results as a surprise, however, I can
easily see where I could easily sway different on each question depending on what
belief platform I wanted to support. I look at the entire situation as an
opportunity for the principal to share the concept of freedom of speech, but
then there consequences that are good and bad. I think anyone who stands out
with an opinion publically, should be aware of consequences.
Overall, all three cases fell where I thought they should
with the idea they are developed on my own beliefs and values. I tend to have a
very open mind to what I think things should be done, however I have been often
challenged on my thinking or assessment of certain situations. When I am
challenged, I still have an open mind to changing my thought process.
Cognitive
Style indicator
This assessment is to review the cognitive styles of
knowing, planning, and creating style. In the knowing element my total score
was 20, divided by four gave me the end result of 5. Based on the scoring
criteria results of 5,925 young managers who took the same assessment scored a
mean of 3.89, and young managers with a MBA scored a 4.06 for the knowing. The
planning results of the same young managers was a 3.78 and those with a MBA had
a 3.81, and my result was 4. The creating results of the young managers was
4.01 and those with a MBA was 4.15, and my results was 3.5. This assessment was
not a surprise at all to me considering I am a leader who likes to plan and my technical
skills are around planning. I was set back with my results on creating style,
as my score was below the young managers, whether they had a MBA or not. So the
first thought is that the younger generation is more innovative and creative,
and I am showing my elements of an older generation. That would be my assumption,
and would need to look further into this as I always feel that I embrace
innovation in the workplace.
Locus
of Control Scale
This assessment was to review each question and select
the statement that sounded best. When I started to score this assessment I was
getting worried as my mind wanted to auto analyze that I was not getting
anything right as I was not choosing the answer in the answer key. In the
comparison results of 5,000 students my score fell in the second quartile of
the statistics. The standard mean score of the results is 5.19 where the
standard deviation was 3.04. My thought
is I fall within the range of the average, but really feel this score is not
what expected. I expected that I would have a better control on the questions
and the results. I found my surprised while scoring and immediately felt the
nervousness that I was about to fail something. This test provided me with the idea
that I auto assume the worst, and leave an area of opportunity to improve on as
a leader. Auto assumption is an area I have known is a weakness and drives to
other issues as a leader, which tends to be not positive for myself.
Tolerance
of Ambiguity Scale
The Tolerance of Ambiguity Scale is to assess my
tolerance to ambiguity. A high intolerance means I tend to perceive situations
as threatening rather than promising. Lack of information or uncertainty would
tend to make a person uncomfortable. This test was fun as you answered the questions
on a scale, and then scored them oppositely. My initial review of a score of 63
would have placed me in the top quartile as a cumulative result, but when I
re-read the instructions on how to score the assessment my score was 56, which
actually put me in the second quartile. My complexity score was the highest at
26, with novelty and Insolubility were equal with 15. I found this test as an
eye opening, that maybe I don’t deal with ambiguity very well. I remember just
6 years ago I was interviewing for a leader job and the question was “how would
I deal with ambiguity”, which stumped me and I struggled with the response. I
then self-analyzed that question for some time as it bothered me that I could
not answer the question efficiently. I will be able to use these results to
further understand ambiguity and leadership.
Core
Self-Evaluation Scale (CSES)
The core self-evaluation
scale had a total count of 41 and average mean of 3.4, which indicates that I assessed
my self is neutral to agree with majority of the questions within the
assessment. I do know that I am confident overall about my ability to complete
tasks on time, cope with problems okay, and the only question that was not a
surprise but scored on the strongly agree is when I fail I feel worthless. Most
times when I fail at something I am harder on myself and self-analyze whether I
did enough preparation or just not organized to do better. I do contribute that
internal self-destruction behavior based on how I grew up as a child always being
told I was stupid and would never amount to anything. I have always struggled
with overcoming that internal behavior about myself, but it gets easier as I
get older and accomplish more goals.
Conclusion
I enjoyed this self-assessment as a student and a leader.
As a student I have a better respect for self-awareness than I did prior to
starting this course. I thought I did it well, and what I learned is there is a
great amount of areas that I can do better. As a leader, the one area that I like
the most was the understanding what I understood on my tolerance to ambiguity.
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