MSc Management Personal Effectiveness Assignment Sample 2023
Introduction
Personal effectiveness refers to the process which helps to achieve success by utilising skills, motivation, and energy and it helps to achieve growth and development on both the personal and professional front. High determination is one of the important qualities which helps an individual to achieve personal effectiveness as well as boost self-confidence which is of utmost required to achieve success.
There are many skills which are determined as personal effectiveness skills such as intercommunication skills, stress management, intervention skills and many more which help an individual from the perception of good practice (Thompson, 2021). Mark Zuckerberg is one of the popular contemporary leaders who are well-known for the role of Chief Executive Officer (CEO) and in task 1 the potential skills of the leaders will be discussed.
The skills and behaviours of Mark Zuckerberg help to understand the importance of personal effectiveness and the way it helps to develop in the personal and professional field effectively. Additionally, with the help of different frameworks such as Covey’s 7 habits and the CMI Code of Conduct the analysis of personal effectiveness and leadership will be discussed.
Along with that, evaluation of learning style is important and with the help of Honey and Mumford’s learning styles questionnaire an individual may identify the strength and weakness which needs to be improved to achieve success in the future. In task 3, the details on the identification of skills and behaviour are important and the methods which help to improve those skills will be properly discussed in this report.
Task 1: Case Study Review
Analyse key skills and behaviour
Mark Zuckerberg is one of the popular leaders in the contemporary era and analysis of the skill and behaviour of the person may help to understand the way those skills help to grow leadership. There are different types of skills such as critical thinking, problem-solving, effective communication and equanimity which attract the attention of the flowers in the skills that help to improve the performance as a leader (Refer to Appendix 1).
Effective leadership skill is based on a good foundation, hardworking capabilities, having a clear goal or vision, and implementing innovative strategies which help to achieve success and attracts the attention of the followers (Rihal, 2017). Critical thinking is one of the important skills which helps the leader to manage the critical situation effectively as it helps to provide effective solutions to any kind of problem.
Critical thinking of both employees and leaders helps to increase motivation and job satisfaction within the work process and therefore, this skill is one of the important skills to boost the performance of a team (Jiang et al., 2018). Effective communication is one of the other skills which provides support to Mark Zuckerberg to reduce workplace stress and discrimination which Mark Zuckerberg to be a great boss.
Mark Zuckerberg has a good problem-solving skill which helps the leader to provide solutions in critical situations and overcome challenges within any crisis. On the other hand, Mark Zuckerberg maintains equanimity which helps to maintain good relationships with subordinates as the person doesn’t take work pressure.
The way skills and behaviour used by Mark Zuckerberg
Mark Zuckerberg has many noticeable skills such as communication, problem-solving, critical thinking, and equanimity which help to boost their effectiveness and leadership qualities.
Stephen Covey has proposed seven habits which help to boost personal as well as interpersonal effectiveness and the seven habits are being proactive, beginning with the end in mind, putting first things first, synergising, seeking first to understand, then to be understood, thinking win-win, sharpen the saw.
The seven habits of highly effective people depict many fundamental principles of human effectiveness which influence overall success and happiness effectively (Covey and Covey, 2020).
Figure 1: Covey’s Seven Habits
(Source: Covey and Covey, 2020)
Effective communication of Mark Zuckerberg helps the person to follow and sharpen the saw principle which helps to increase employee satisfaction level, energy, and work-life balance. On the other hand, the critical thinking skills of the person help to follow another principle of Covey’s seven habits, synergise which helps to develop innovative solutions which boost the relationship with stakeholders.
Equanimity is another important skill of Mark Zuckerberg and the skill to follow think the win-win principle of Covey’s seven habits helps to build a high-trust relationship with the employee. For developing a good entrepreneur the principles of Covey’s seven habits provide immense support by developing professional opportunities and those principles focus on different factors such as interpersonal, management and business skill (Bedenkov et al., 2021).
The problem-solving skill of the person helps to provide immense support that helps to follow the put first thing first which helps to provide priority on certain goals and to achieve them properly. Considering research, it may be stated that the seven core principles of Covey boost an individual through adopting a proper mission, vision, principle-centred approach and many more (Bedenkov et al., 2021).
The usefulness of the behaviour or skills and its limitation
Effective skills such as communication, problem-solving, and critical thinking help the person to achieve success and retain the position of the company in a highly competitive market. Along with that, CMI conduct is one of the well-known policies which help to maintain standard professionalism within an organisation as well as maintaining the ethics within the organisational culture.
For instance, the communication skill of the leader provides support to maintain behaving in an open and trustworthy manner and helps to increase the values of the employees (Code-of-conduct.pdf, 2022). Critical thinking helps to follow the code of conduct which helps to develop professional knowledge and competence and it impacts the highest standards of professional performance and behaviour.
Equanimity is one of their skills Mark Zuckerberg and it helps to make good relationships with colleagues and help to promote, encourage, and share management practices effectively. CMI code of conduct effectively helps to improve personal effectiveness, interpersonal skills, and organisational skills and the leaders may follow the conduct to improve the performance of the companies among a huge range of competition.
Figure 2: CMI code of conduct
(Source: Code-of-conduct.pdf, 2022)
Communication plays an important role during the crisis period and the researchers depicted that communication helps to increase motivation among followers (Stam et al., 2018). The above-mentioned skills of the leaders help to achieve success in both professional as well as personal range and attract the attention of other employees which boosts their confidence.
There are many skills of Mark Zuckerberg and simultaneously some limitations are also seen within the same person one of the limitations is a lack of decision-making skills which creates conflict among the board members of the company (Refer to Appendix 2). The ruthless attitude of Mark Zuckerberg plays a crucial role in reducing the competition in the existing industry as a result Mark Zuckerberg make strategy to attract people to WhatsApp and Facebook.
Task 2: Evaluation of learning style
Self-assessment
I have given the Honey and Mumford’s learning styles questionnaire which helps to identify the strength and weakness which needs to improve in the future to achieve personal effectiveness (Refer to Appendix 3). I have come to know from the test that I am considered a theorist who lies to do many actions after assessing the behind the action and therefore I understand that it effectively boosts my critical thinking.
According to research, it is quite clear that in the case of teamwork leadership plays an effective role and personal effectiveness enhances technical skill and ethical skills (Kenayathulla et al., 2019). I have observed from the test that I am active and according to the test activist, I have the qualities such as puzzle-solving, problem-solving, roleplay and many more.
In the future, I need to grow skills such as problem-solving, and decision-making as I have not gotten a desirable score as an activist (Refer to Appendix 4). Problem-solving skill helps to identify the problem within the work and problem-based learning provides support to generate desirable solutions to those problems and also enhances self-evaluation skill (Simamora et al., 2017).
In addition to that, I have to grow interpersonal skills in the future because it helps me to be more successful as a reflector and therefore self-assessing is highly important.
Two main learning styles and strengths, limitations of learning style
Visual learning style
I have evaluated that interpersonal skill is one of my strengths and visual learning style helps me to improve my interpersonal skill because graphical depiction helps me to measure the improvement. Additionally, I need to enhance my effectiveness and the strength of the visual learning tool is to provide detailed knowledge on improvement by assessing the improvement through arrows, charts, symbols and many more.
Learning styles play an important role and different learning styles influence productivity or improvement of performance in different ways (Stiebel, 2022). I have encountered that problem solving is highly required for leadership and therefore, a visual learning style helps to improve my problem-solving skills through the representation of charts.
I think that the strength of the visual learning style is to get a clear picture through the representation of tables, charts, and graphs regarding the improvement of the performance whereas it also distracts or demotivates an individual with the presentation
Reading and writing learning style
I have encountered situations which help me to understand I need to improve certain skills and my reading and writing styles of learning may help to improve those skills effectively. I have also come to know that reading and learning style helps to increase self-confidence, and self-image and boost learning possess with the help of worksheets and presentation.
I think that the reading and writing style has some weaknesses which are the style is comparatively more time taking as well as lack of graphical presentation. Considering research, different learning styles help to boost the overall performance of the student and it also helps to boost the capabilities of the students effectively (Kauts and Samita, 2019).
Task 3: Comparison of methods of improving skill
Methods for Skill improvement
I have identified two distinct methods for improving my skills of decision-making, interpersonal skill and problem-solving skills which are highly valuable to enhance my skill development through learning and self-efficacy. The first method I have identified is enrollment in the online tutorials to develop and strengthen the inefficiency in the standard of my skills for leadership capabilities.
Moldoveanu and Narayandas, (2019) explained that online tutorials for leadership development are the strategic option to fill the gap in traditional learning through interactive engagement, synchronous multi-person sessions and close monitoring of individuals. On the other hand, the other learning method I have identified is participation in physical workshops for leadership development and developing the specific gaps in my problem solving, decision making and interpersonal skills.
Sanyal and Rigg, (2021) examined workshop participation as a leadership development method with dedicated action learning programs to weave the mindfulness ideas through the planned learning activities where exercises are offered through verbal instruction with organisation-specific content.
Further, the participation in thematic workshops helped the knowledge sharing and peer feedback which creatively develop the skills and interpersonal interaction. These two methods are contemporary and appreciated by many others and helpful for me to gain specific knowledge to develop my skills for my future career endeavour.
Similarities and differences in the two methods
The two above-mentioned learning methods are highly attractive for the inspiring learner as I to involve, learn, develop and articulate my skills which are not standard in business activities for a leader. The similarities between the two methods are the multi-person engagement of the mentors with the individual as well as the collection of study materials are the same for both methods.
Learning is time bounded and properly tracked by the different persons in both methods and have to synchronise the multiperson engagement for effective study and learning for developing my skill gap in interpersonal skills, decision making and problem-solving. Wrigley et al.,(2018) mentioned that massive open online courses are adding the emergence of micro-credentials and enable learners to supplement the professional practices with skill development.
The differences between the online tutorials and physical workshop engagement for learning method is the first one involves remote interaction with the learners and the second one offers physical interaction between the meteors and the individual learners.
The second method is offering the planned activities with organisation-specific content to develop professional skills whereas the online tutorials are offered for specific skill development through one course. Vermylen et al., (2019) opined that simulation-based mastery learning through workshop engagement for competency-based education through learner’s engagement with deliberate practices for developing the skills.
An effective method for developing skills
I choose the appropriate method for learning and developing my skill gap through the method of physical workshop participation where I will be able to physically interact with the mentors through the organisation-specific content for developing my interpersonal skill. Here I will be able to communicate with other participants from various cultural groups as well as the mentors and assistants.
Significantly, the workshop participation gives me the opportunity of participating in deliberate practices to develop my skills in problem-solving and decision-making in real-life business scenarios. This method also allows the peer feedback process where I may gain my deficiencies through other participants’ observation and evaluation which will help to boost my mindfulness through knowledge sharing.
Participation in physical workshops allows me to gather sufficient knowledge and practise my skills in real-life scenarios to understand and conceptualisation of contemporary issues in problem-solving and decision-making for organisational growth through leadership interventions.
Conclusion
From the above discussion of Task 1, it may be concluded that Mark Zuckerberg is one of the popular leaders and the skills of the persons are communication skills, problem-solving skills, critical thinking and so on. The qualities of the person help to follow different models such as the CMI code of conduct as well as Covey’s seven habits and help to achieve personal effectiveness on both personal and professional front.
From task 2, it may be concluded that my engagement with self-assessment is done through Honey and Mumford’s questionnaire as learning styles where I evaluated my strengths and weaknesses through critical thinking by comparing the visual and reading along with writing learning styles.
It may be concluded from task 3, that I have chosen to participate in a physical workshop, which is offering active learning as well as simulation-based mastery learning with engagement in deliberate practice sessions apart from joining online tutorials for remote learning methods.
References
Bedenkov, A., Rajadhyaksha, V., Moreno, C., Goncalves, S., Fong, P.C., Ipatov, A. and Erdal, B., 2021. The 7+ habits of highly effective medical directors. Pharmaceutical Medicine, 35(5), pp.267-279.
Code-of-conduct.pdf (2022). Retrieved 18 August 2022, from https://www.managers.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2020/03/code-of-conduct.pdf
Covey, S.R. and Covey, S., 2020. The 7 habits of highly effective people. Simon & Schuster.
Jiang, J., Gao, A. and Yang, B., 2018. Employees’ critical thinking, leaders’ inspirational motivation, and voice behavior: The mediating role of voice efficacy. Journal of Personnel Psychology, 17(1), p.33.
Kauts, A. and Samita, M., 2019,LEARNING STYLE PREFERENCES AMONG ADOLESCENT STUDENTS.
Kenayathulla, H.B., Ahmad, N.A. and Idris, A.R., 2019. Gaps between competence and importance of employability skills: evidence from Malaysia. Higher Education Evaluation and Development, 13(2), pp.97-112.
Moldoveanu, M. and Narayandas, D., 2019. The future of leadership development. Harvard business review, 97(2), pp.40-48.
Rihal, C.S., 2017. The importance of leadership to organizational success. NEJM Catalyst, 3(6).
Sanyal, C. and Rigg, C., 2021. Integrating mindfulness into leadership development. Journal of Management Education, 45(2), pp.243-264.
Simamora, R.E., Sidabutar, D.R. and Surya, E., 2017. Improving learning activity and students’ problem solving skill through problem based learning (PBL) in junior high school. International Journal of Sciences: Basic and Applied Research (IJSBAR), 33(2), pp.321-331.
Stam, D., Van Knippenberg, D., Wisse, B. and Nederveen Pieterse, A., 2018. Motivation in words: Promotion-and prevention-oriented leader communication in times of crisis. Journal of management, 44(7), pp.2859-2887.
Stiebel, D.R., 2022. Lifelong learning of professionals: the importance of workplace learning: Do people with preferred learning styles according to the Felder-Silverman learning style model learn in accordance with their learning style in the workplace on a daily basis? (Bachelor’s thesis, University of Twente).
Thompson, N., 2021. People skills. Bloomsbury Publishing.
Vermylen, J.H., Wood, G.J., Cohen, E.R., Barsuk, J.H., McGaghie, W.C. and Wayne, D.B., 2019. Development of a simulation-based mastery learning curriculum for breaking bad news. Journal of pain and symptom management, 57(3), pp.682-687.
Wrigley, C., Mosely, G. and Tomitsch, M., 2018. Design thinking education: a comparison of massive open online courses. She Ji: The Journal of Design, Economics, and Innovation, 4(3), pp.275-292.
Appendices
Appendix 1
https://businesscollective.com/7-life-skills-we-can-learn-from-mark-zuckerberg/index.html
Appendix 2
https://ippi.puebla.gob.mx/gbx9p/mark-zuckerberg-strengths-and-weaknesses.html
