Personal Effectiveness Learning and Personal Improvement Personal ...
Commerce 3S03 Chapter 1: Personal Effectiveness Learning and Personal Improvement Personal Effectiveness: The Foundation of Great Management - Effective management starts from the inside - Personal effectiveness is the foundation of great management - The most powerful and useful framework for thinking about personal improvement in management skills is by Albert Bandura and his social learning theory - The theory suggests the learning of any new behaviour is the result of 3 main factors: the person, the environment, and the behaviour - The mutual influence is referred to as reciprocal determinism and is at the root of social learning theory - Social learning has been so influential because it refutes widely held notions that people only learn through their own personal experience of rewards and consequences - Bandura suggests that most learning is done through observation and modeling of the behaviours of others - Also, there is such a big disconnect between knowing and doing (challenge is to execute) - Bandura outlines 4 critical components required to learn through observation, and these are the key building blocks of the most successful management training methods - These are: Attention - If you want to learn, you have to pay specific attention - Have to focus - Find the right models and devote undivided attention to them - Isolate specifically (Don’t try to learn too much at once) Retention - Understand and remember what you have observed - Related your observations to a theory, a framework, and understand why what you observed was effective or ineffective Reproduction - Practice or actual demonstration of a skill - You have to translate the images or descriptions into behaviour - Practice with feedback makes perfect Motivation - Persist to stay with it - Have a conscious reason to continue - Punishment does not work well with reinforcement A Model of Self-Management Self-management: A process of modifying one’s own behaviour by systematically altering how we arrange different cues in our world, how we think about what we hope to change, and how we attach behavioural consequences to our actions - Includes strategies we directly impose on ourselves to influence our own behaviour and those whereby we attempt to alter our external world to help affect our behavioural change 5 Behaviour focused strategies to improve self-management 1) Self observation/Exploration - Observe and collect information about the specific behaviours you have targeted for change - Involves determining when, why, and under what conditions you currently use certain behaviours - Provide the building blocks for managing ourselves - The best strategies involve recording your observations and keeping close tabs on your behaviour, before the changes and after - Learn from mistakes or failed efforts - Mistakes you learn from are productive failures 2) Self-set Improvements Goals - Determine what more effective behaviour is (often by observing effective models) and set specific goals for your own behaviours - Determine your desired outcome of effective behaviours look like - The best goals derive from attention to effective models Setting goals work because 1) In committing to a goal, a person devotes attention toward goal-relevant activities and away from goalirrelevant activities 2) Goals energize people
3) Goals affect persistence. High goals prolong effort, and tight deadlines lead to more rapid work pace than loose deadlines 4) Goals motivate people to use their knowledge to help them attain the goal and to discover the knowledge needed to obtain it - The best goals are characterized by the acronym SMART, which represents specific, measurable, attainable, relevant, and time-bound. (They make for smart learners) Management of Cues - Organize your world to assist you in performing the behaviors you want to change - A related strategy is to create reminders and attention focusers you will notice and act on Positive Self-Talk and Rehearsal - Are applications of the social learning principle of reproduction - Search for opportunities to practice new behaviour in the most realistic situations you can find - Create a frame of mind that energizes your self-confidence and gets you beyond self-defeating and negative feelings that can accompany learning difficult tasks Self-Reward and Punishment - We can profoundly induce our actions by rewarding ourselves for desirable behavior - Better to use self-reward Putting it all into practice - To get beyond mere hope and make a sustainable personal improvement requires you to: 1) Know where you are currently 2) Set SMART goals for your change 3) Arrange your world so it focuses your attention and reminds you of your improvement plan and goals 4) Stay positive and rehearse the desired behaviours at every opportunity 5) Create your own rewards for accomplishing your targets Building Self-Awareness Self-Awareness: They Key to Successful Learning and Growth - Is essential to learning and growth in a management role because it forms the basis by which we learn about ourselves and how we differ from others Individual differences and their importance - Recognizing our own differences is important because they impact how we react and behave in different situations - 2 categories of difference: 1) Ability - What a person is capable of doing - Come in many dimensions and include cognitive ability, physical ability, and emotional ability 2) Personality - Represents the pattern of relatively enduring ways in which a person thinks, acts, and behaves - Is determined both by nature and nurture and tends to represent our dominant or natural behaviour - Not a good or bad personality profile - Introversion/extraversion - Essential Managerial Assessment Profile- Seven elements of self-awareness: cognitive ability, emotional intelligence, cultural intelligence, personality traits, personality traits, personality preferences, personal values, and career orientation How do I think critically and analytically? - Cognitive capacity to learn and process cognitive information such as reading comprehension, mathematical patterns, and spatial patterns How well do I understand and use emotion? - Emotional intelligence refer to the ability to accurately identify emotions as well as understand and manage those emotions successfully - People differ in their ability to deal effectively with their emotional states - Many emotional abilities can be learned Key aspects of Emotional Intelligence - Be able to accurately identify and express yours and others feelings - Get in the right mood - Predict the emotional future - Do it with feeling Cultural Intelligence - Represents a person’s capability to function effectively in situations characterized by cultural diversity - Has been positively associated with certain types of job performance and a person’s ability to perform well in culturally diverse work groups, navigate cross-cultural interactions, and adapt successfully to multi-cultural situations - Linn Van Dyne and Soon Ang have identified cultural intelligence as consisting of 4 difference sub-skills:
1) CQ-Strategy - How a person interprets and understands intercultural experiences - Includes strategizing before an intercultural encounter, checking assumptions during an encounter, and adjusting perceptions when actual experiences differ from expectations 2) CQ-Knowledge - A person’s understanding of how cultures are similar and different - This knowledge is best gained through a combination of formal study and travel 3) CQ-Motivation - A person’s interest in experiencing other cultures and interacting with people from different cultures - Can be considered the amount of energy applied toward learning about and functioning in cross-cultural situations 4) CQ-Behaviour - A person’s capability to modify their own verbal and nonverbal behaviour so it is appropriate for different cultures - Having flexible set of responses that are appropriate in a variety of situations and having the ability to alter verbal and nonverbal behaviour based on the people and characteristics of a particular setting What are my dominant personality traits? - The big 5 dimensions: 1) Extraversion - Positive emotions - Gregariousness - Warmth 2) Emotional stability - Anxiety - Self-consciousness - Vulnerability 3) Agreeableness - Trust - Straight-forward - Tender-mindedness 4) Conscientiousness - Competence - Order - Self-Discipline 5) Openness to experience - Fantasy - Actions - Ideas What are my personality preferences? - Our preferences are not traits - They are choices we make to navigate the world - Jung fond that people’s preferences varied according to 4 major preference areas: 1) Extraversion (E) or Introversion (I) - One’s preferred direction of energy and attention - People with a preference for extraversion prefer to direct their attention and energy toward people and things, whereas introversion preferences usually involve directing energy inwards toward ideas and concepts 2) Sensing (S) or intuition (N) - Vary according to one’s preferred method of taking in or seeking information - Sensing preferences lead people to desire actual data and well-documented experience and to pay attention to detail - Intuition preferences lead individuals to seek out the big picture and complex patterns 3) Thinking (T) or Feeling (F) - Thinking preferences lead individuals toward the use of logic, impartiality, and the utility to make decisions - People with a preference of feeling often base decisions on human values and needs and personalize decisions 4) Judgment (J) or Perception (P) - This area represents an individual’s preferred orientation to the external world - Those preferring judgment orientation tend to deal with their outside world in planned ways, focusing on task completion and goal attainment - Perception preferences often lead individuals toward spontaneity and curiosity The Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI)
- Presents an individual with a series of forced choice questions about their preferences, which produce a 4letter designation to describe the individual’s preferences Often used inappropriately - It should never be used to hire an individual for a job or to indicate intelligence or competence - Best used for self-awareness and awareness of others’ preferences at work - Can provide useful information and particularly help individuals find good career fits in team development What are my Core Values? - Milton Rokeach describes an individual’s value system as ensuring beliefs about what’s most important in the world - Values are non-negotiable, deeply held beliefs - He suggests the total number of values is relatively small and that we all possess the same values, just in different degrees - Occupational fit is a condition that exists when there is relative agreement among the parties about what is most important What is my preferred career orientation? - Fundamental to managerial self-awareness is having a good understanding of your occupational interests or career orientation - Career orientation is a preference for a specific type of occupation and work context - Likely to feel energized and committed Holland’s Career Preferences - Realistic - Investigative - Artistic - Social - Enterprising - Conventional Important Self-awareness Issues - Assessment results are simply feedback - Thousands of self-assessments exist but any have questionable legitimacy - Preferences are choices we make about how we perceive the world and function best in it - We always recommend you look for patterns and consistency across your assessments Involve Others: Seek Regular Feedback - Reliable knowledge about ourselves can help us gain insights into what areas we want to change, and improve, and the strengths we should aim to utilize more - Major obstacle is fear - Multi-source feedback is feedback provided by many sources other than yourself and it enhances selfknowledge and improves managerial behaviour - Multiple perspectives on yourself are extremely powerful ways to build self-awareness Focus on Strengths, Not Just Weaknesses - Build on your strengths and manage them, rather than obsess trying to improve your weaknesses Managing Stress The Prevalence and Dangers of Stress - Stress is a pattern of mental and physical responses to conditions of uncertainty and perceived threat - Has many detrimental consequences for managers and can inhibit effective listening, decision making, planning, and the generation of new ideas - People who incur long term stress are much more likely to develop physical and mental problems Eustress: A controlled or productive stress Give you a competitive edge - Great managers are aware of different sources of stress and seek ways to proactively manage it to avoid its damaging and harmful effects Sources of stress: Big Events and Daily Hassles - Overestimate how much large events in their lives contribute to their stress level and grossly - Daily hassles are annoying events that occur during the workday that make accomplishing work more difficult - Daily hassles are more likely associated with reported stress than more major life events - Daily uplifts or unexpected positive outcomes can have the opposite impact and can recharge a manager Strategies for Managing Stress - It is how we experience events, and how resilient we are, that determines how stress affects us - Effective stress control is largely a function of your physical hardiness, your psychological hardiness, and your management of time Physical Hardiness - Physical fitness
- More energy Psychological Hardiness - The ability to remain psychologically stable and healthy in the face of significant stress - 3 recurring factors that distinguish those with psychological hardiness: Commitment, control, and challenge Dealing with Stress in the moment - Muscle relation - Deep Breathing - Mood repair Managing Time - Prevent the problems that stress cause - One of the greatest sources of stress First be effective, and then be efficient - Means you actually pay attention to your goals and regularly visit what is important to you and avoid diligently working on whatever comes up or is urgent or what it is in front of you - Doing the right things should come before doing things right Start with written goals Follow the 80/20 Rule - Holds that only 20 percent of the work produces 80 percent of the value, 80 percent of sales come from 20 percent of customers, etc. - Therefore, it is important to analyze which tasks make up the most important 20 percent and spend the bulk of your time on those Use the time management matrix - Important activities are this that are tied to your goals and produce a desired result - They accomplish a valued end or achieve a meaningful purpose - One of the most difficult decisions you must make is determining what is important and what is urgent Just DON’T do it: Learn to say no - Effective time management is largely learning to devote yourself fully to your most important tasks Plan the work, and then work the plan Make good lists for effective prioritization - What goes on the list and how to prioritize it? - Once you’ve collected your to-do list, most experts recommend you review now just routine items but everything that has high priority today or might not get done without special attention - ABC method - A-high-priority item - B- An item of medium priority - C- Low-priority items Ensure cooperating both short term and long-term goals - Always start with the As Ask, “What’s the next action?” - This is not just a listing of the item or demand but specifically the next action step Know Yourself and Your Time Use - Know yourself and your style - Record your time selectively, keeping track of particular problem items you feel are consuming an inordinate amount of time - Internal primetime is the time you concentrate best (morning, afternoon, evening) - External prime time is the best time to attend to other people (classes, work, home) Fight Procrastination Strategies: 1) Swiss Cheese Method - Refers to the poking small holes in the A project and those holes are what Lakein calls instant tasks Instant tasks: requires 5 minutes or less of your time - To find out what they should be: 1) Make a list of possible instant tasks 2) Set priorities 2) The 2-minute Rule - A functional and rational approach to time management - Suggests that any time demand that will take less than 2 minutes should be done now
3) Goals affect persistence. High goals prolong effort, and tight deadlines lead to more rapid work pace than loose deadlines 4) Goals motivate people to use their knowledge to help them attain the goal and to discover the knowledge needed to obtain it - The best goals are characterized by the acronym SMART, which represents specific, measurable, attainable, relevant, and time-bound. (They make for smart learners) Management of Cues - Organize your world to assist you in performing the behaviors you want to change - A related strategy is to create reminders and attention focusers you will notice and act on Positive Self-Talk and Rehearsal - Are applications of the social learning principle of reproduction - Search for opportunities to practice new behaviour in the most realistic situations you can find - Create a frame of mind that energizes your self-confidence and gets you beyond self-defeating and negative feelings that can accompany learning difficult tasks Self-Reward and Punishment - We can profoundly induce our actions by rewarding ourselves for desirable behavior - Better to use self-reward Putting it all into practice - To get beyond mere hope and make a sustainable personal improvement requires you to: 1) Know where you are currently 2) Set SMART goals for your change 3) Arrange your world so it focuses your attention and reminds you of your improvement plan and goals 4) Stay positive and rehearse the desired behaviours at every opportunity 5) Create your own rewards for accomplishing your targets Building Self-Awareness Self-Awareness: They Key to Successful Learning and Growth - Is essential to learning and growth in a management role because it forms the basis by which we learn about ourselves and how we differ from others Individual differences and their importance - Recognizing our own differences is important because they impact how we react and behave in different situations - 2 categories of difference: 1) Ability - What a person is capable of doing - Come in many dimensions and include cognitive ability, physical ability, and emotional ability 2) Personality - Represents the pattern of relatively enduring ways in which a person thinks, acts, and behaves - Is determined both by nature and nurture and tends to represent our dominant or natural behaviour - Not a good or bad personality profile - Introversion/extraversion - Essential Managerial Assessment Profile- Seven elements of self-awareness: cognitive ability, emotional intelligence, cultural intelligence, personality traits, personality traits, personality preferences, personal values, and career orientation How do I think critically and analytically? - Cognitive capacity to learn and process cognitive information such as reading comprehension, mathematical patterns, and spatial patterns How well do I understand and use emotion? - Emotional intelligence refer to the ability to accurately identify emotions as well as understand and manage those emotions successfully - People differ in their ability to deal effectively with their emotional states - Many emotional abilities can be learned Key aspects of Emotional Intelligence - Be able to accurately identify and express yours and others feelings - Get in the right mood - Predict the emotional future - Do it with feeling Cultural Intelligence - Represents a person’s capability to function effectively in situations characterized by cultural diversity - Has been positively associated with certain types of job performance and a person’s ability to perform well in culturally diverse work groups, navigate cross-cultural interactions, and adapt successfully to multi-cultural situations - Linn Van Dyne and Soon Ang have identified cultural intelligence as consisting of 4 difference sub-skills:
1) CQ-Strategy - How a person interprets and understands intercultural experiences - Includes strategizing before an intercultural encounter, checking assumptions during an encounter, and adjusting perceptions when actual experiences differ from expectations 2) CQ-Knowledge - A person’s understanding of how cultures are similar and different - This knowledge is best gained through a combination of formal study and travel 3) CQ-Motivation - A person’s interest in experiencing other cultures and interacting with people from different cultures - Can be considered the amount of energy applied toward learning about and functioning in cross-cultural situations 4) CQ-Behaviour - A person’s capability to modify their own verbal and nonverbal behaviour so it is appropriate for different cultures - Having flexible set of responses that are appropriate in a variety of situations and having the ability to alter verbal and nonverbal behaviour based on the people and characteristics of a particular setting What are my dominant personality traits? - The big 5 dimensions: 1) Extraversion - Positive emotions - Gregariousness - Warmth 2) Emotional stability - Anxiety - Self-consciousness - Vulnerability 3) Agreeableness - Trust - Straight-forward - Tender-mindedness 4) Conscientiousness - Competence - Order - Self-Discipline 5) Openness to experience - Fantasy - Actions - Ideas What are my personality preferences? - Our preferences are not traits - They are choices we make to navigate the world - Jung fond that people’s preferences varied according to 4 major preference areas: 1) Extraversion (E) or Introversion (I) - One’s preferred direction of energy and attention - People with a preference for extraversion prefer to direct their attention and energy toward people and things, whereas introversion preferences usually involve directing energy inwards toward ideas and concepts 2) Sensing (S) or intuition (N) - Vary according to one’s preferred method of taking in or seeking information - Sensing preferences lead people to desire actual data and well-documented experience and to pay attention to detail - Intuition preferences lead individuals to seek out the big picture and complex patterns 3) Thinking (T) or Feeling (F) - Thinking preferences lead individuals toward the use of logic, impartiality, and the utility to make decisions - People with a preference of feeling often base decisions on human values and needs and personalize decisions 4) Judgment (J) or Perception (P) - This area represents an individual’s preferred orientation to the external world - Those preferring judgment orientation tend to deal with their outside world in planned ways, focusing on task completion and goal attainment - Perception preferences often lead individuals toward spontaneity and curiosity The Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI)
- Presents an individual with a series of forced choice questions about their preferences, which produce a 4letter designation to describe the individual’s preferences Often used inappropriately - It should never be used to hire an individual for a job or to indicate intelligence or competence - Best used for self-awareness and awareness of others’ preferences at work - Can provide useful information and particularly help individuals find good career fits in team development What are my Core Values? - Milton Rokeach describes an individual’s value system as ensuring beliefs about what’s most important in the world - Values are non-negotiable, deeply held beliefs - He suggests the total number of values is relatively small and that we all possess the same values, just in different degrees - Occupational fit is a condition that exists when there is relative agreement among the parties about what is most important What is my preferred career orientation? - Fundamental to managerial self-awareness is having a good understanding of your occupational interests or career orientation - Career orientation is a preference for a specific type of occupation and work context - Likely to feel energized and committed Holland’s Career Preferences - Realistic - Investigative - Artistic - Social - Enterprising - Conventional Important Self-awareness Issues - Assessment results are simply feedback - Thousands of self-assessments exist but any have questionable legitimacy - Preferences are choices we make about how we perceive the world and function best in it - We always recommend you look for patterns and consistency across your assessments Involve Others: Seek Regular Feedback - Reliable knowledge about ourselves can help us gain insights into what areas we want to change, and improve, and the strengths we should aim to utilize more - Major obstacle is fear - Multi-source feedback is feedback provided by many sources other than yourself and it enhances selfknowledge and improves managerial behaviour - Multiple perspectives on yourself are extremely powerful ways to build self-awareness Focus on Strengths, Not Just Weaknesses - Build on your strengths and manage them, rather than obsess trying to improve your weaknesses Managing Stress The Prevalence and Dangers of Stress - Stress is a pattern of mental and physical responses to conditions of uncertainty and perceived threat - Has many detrimental consequences for managers and can inhibit effective listening, decision making, planning, and the generation of new ideas - People who incur long term stress are much more likely to develop physical and mental problems Eustress: A controlled or productive stress Give you a competitive edge - Great managers are aware of different sources of stress and seek ways to proactively manage it to avoid its damaging and harmful effects Sources of stress: Big Events and Daily Hassles - Overestimate how much large events in their lives contribute to their stress level and grossly - Daily hassles are annoying events that occur during the workday that make accomplishing work more difficult - Daily hassles are more likely associated with reported stress than more major life events - Daily uplifts or unexpected positive outcomes can have the opposite impact and can recharge a manager Strategies for Managing Stress - It is how we experience events, and how resilient we are, that determines how stress affects us - Effective stress control is largely a function of your physical hardiness, your psychological hardiness, and your management of time Physical Hardiness - Physical fitness
- More energy Psychological Hardiness - The ability to remain psychologically stable and healthy in the face of significant stress - 3 recurring factors that distinguish those with psychological hardiness: Commitment, control, and challenge Dealing with Stress in the moment - Muscle relation - Deep Breathing - Mood repair Managing Time - Prevent the problems that stress cause - One of the greatest sources of stress First be effective, and then be efficient - Means you actually pay attention to your goals and regularly visit what is important to you and avoid diligently working on whatever comes up or is urgent or what it is in front of you - Doing the right things should come before doing things right Start with written goals Follow the 80/20 Rule - Holds that only 20 percent of the work produces 80 percent of the value, 80 percent of sales come from 20 percent of customers, etc. - Therefore, it is important to analyze which tasks make up the most important 20 percent and spend the bulk of your time on those Use the time management matrix - Important activities are this that are tied to your goals and produce a desired result - They accomplish a valued end or achieve a meaningful purpose - One of the most difficult decisions you must make is determining what is important and what is urgent Just DON’T do it: Learn to say no - Effective time management is largely learning to devote yourself fully to your most important tasks Plan the work, and then work the plan Make good lists for effective prioritization - What goes on the list and how to prioritize it? - Once you’ve collected your to-do list, most experts recommend you review now just routine items but everything that has high priority today or might not get done without special attention - ABC method - A-high-priority item - B- An item of medium priority - C- Low-priority items Ensure cooperating both short term and long-term goals - Always start with the As Ask, “What’s the next action?” - This is not just a listing of the item or demand but specifically the next action step Know Yourself and Your Time Use - Know yourself and your style - Record your time selectively, keeping track of particular problem items you feel are consuming an inordinate amount of time - Internal primetime is the time you concentrate best (morning, afternoon, evening) - External prime time is the best time to attend to other people (classes, work, home) Fight Procrastination Strategies: 1) Swiss Cheese Method - Refers to the poking small holes in the A project and those holes are what Lakein calls instant tasks Instant tasks: requires 5 minutes or less of your time - To find out what they should be: 1) Make a list of possible instant tasks 2) Set priorities 2) The 2-minute Rule - A functional and rational approach to time management - Suggests that any time demand that will take less than 2 minutes should be done now
