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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