PERSONAL EFFECTIVENESS ASSIGNMENT SAMPLE
Introduction
Personal effectiveness can be defined as the branch of the self-help movement that deals with goals, success, and relevant concepts (Voronina et. al. 2018). This, thus, integrates concepts from the positive psychology and power of positive thinking. Personal effectiveness is transferring ideas and information to create an energetic and positive impact.
This helps attain an insight into self-awareness that aids in developing relationships to reduce personal stress. This concept is about utilizing resources in an individual, including energy, talent, skills, and time management, to attain the goals in life and work (Bhardwaj and Gupta, 2017). In professional development, personal effectiveness is crucial as it builds the ability to think logically and clearly to translate into the advantage.
The main body of the report is bifurcated into three major parts. The first part is of a case study review, which is inclined to discuss the skills and behavioural attributes that Sundar Pichai possesses. Further, it also involves the analysis of the impact of these skills on the organization and the employees. This evaluation has been done based on two theoretical frameworks as Covey’s Seven Habits and CEO Genome Project.
Another part is personal skill appraisal that critically evaluate own personal effectiveness. I have used SWOT analysis as a self-assessment tool to identify and highlight my major strengths and weaknesses in this section. A personal effectiveness model has been adopted to examine the strengths and weaknesses that is Gibbs reflective cycle.
This model consists of six key stages, which discusses the overall experience. The last part is about learning method discussions within the report. It encompasses those different Strategies and actions that I can adapt to work on my weaknesses identified in the previous section. The report also involves an action plan based on the recognized strategies.
Case Study Review
Sundar Pichai’s skills and behaviours
Sundar Pichai or Pichai Sundarajan is an Indian born American Businessman and CEO of alphabet incorporation and its subsidiary Google. Sundar Pichai is recognized globally for his influential and effective personality and leadership qualities.
After assessing the case studies, it has been evaluated that several skills, competencies, and attributes within this personality make him a globally recognized and admired leader. Below mentioned are the considerable skills and behavioural traits that Sundar Pichai demonstrates.
Public speaking skills:
The most excellent skill of Sundar Pichai is to represent the ability to speak to a group of people comfortably and engagingly (Mirbabaie et. al. 2019). It has been identified that Sundar Pichai has public speaking competency as he communicates with strong gestures, eye contact, and vocal tone and pace. He has been found to be a strong communicator who makes sure that everyone understands the mission and vision.
Fearless:
Pichai has been identified as calm and easy in the leadership role. The CEO does not hesitate to take up new projects, challenges or grab opportunities with fearless behaviour.
Visionary:
Sundar Pichai has a clear vision regarding what he wants to achieve, making him an influential leader. The leaders formulate effective company strategies based on the vision that lead to success and growth (Pichai, 2018).
Experiential leader:
From the provided case study, it has been revealed that Sundar Pichai is a kind of leader who believes in learning from past experiences. This is the reason that the work culture of Google is based on continuous learning and out of the box thinking.
Decision-making traits:
Also, the biggest trait of a leader is decision-making ability, and the CEO has this capability. He is always ready to grab opportunities and take the industry’s first-mover advantage.
Excellent motivator:
The key strength from the case study of Sundar Pichai has been evaluated as to its risk-taking capability, dedication, and motivation. Sundar Pichai mainly concentrates on encouraging the team members to develop innovative ideas.
Passionate and focused:
Pichai is an open-minded personality and is focused on the work. With this passion for work, he can also encourage and inspire the team members. This is why the employees feel encouraged every time and remain optimistic.
To state the skills of the CEO in a more explained manner, Covey’s seven habit framework can be used. Stephen R Covey explains the seven habits of highly effective people that helps in navigating real-world problems in challenging time (Covey, 2016).
Figure 1: Covey’s 7 habits
(Source: AmCham China, 2017)
As demonstrated in the above figure, the first habit of an influential person is to be proactive. This states that focus on what can be controlled and influenced. As per this habit, it can be said that Sundar Pichai is an effective leader as he tries to control the activities and also influences them positively in favour of the organization and employees (Covey and Covey, 2020).
In addition to this, Sundar Pichai has been examined as a visionary personality from the case scenario. This resembles the second habit as he defines the clear measure of success and a plan to attain them (Agarwal and Sisodia, 2021).
Furthermore, Pichai highlights another habit by developing a positive relationship with its team members or thinking win-win. It has been evaluated that Sundar Pichai is fond of taking challenges and risks and signifies synergy. This is because he develops innovative solutions and satisfies the relevant stakeholders (Whatcott, 2017).
Impact of Pichai’s skills and behaviours on Google and employees
Sundar Pichai creates a positive impact on its employees. This can be illustrated by concerning the case brief. It has been found that once Sundar Pichai stated that “a leader is the individual who firs thinks of the employees”. Such behavioural trait of the leader helps the team in working with dedication and commitment (Kanchana, 2019).
Sundar Pichai also demonstrates the fifth habit by showing and practising empathetic skills within the workplace. The leader always tries to put himself in others’ situations and gain a deep perspective of their condition. Consequently, the team member’s feels connected to the leader and comes up with great ideas.
In this scenario, another framework or concept CEO genome can be embraced. As per this framework, this was researched by the data sets of assessment of 17000 C-suite executives. This can also be said as a concept of mapping the DNA of a successful CEO. The dimensions involve decisions made with conviction and speed, focus on engagement, willingness to adapt, and tendency towards reliability (Al Khajeh, 2018).
Pichai has been identified as a good listener from the case scenario. He is known for sitting quietly throughout the meetings and conferences and giving everyone a chance to speak what they think. After carefully listening to everyone, Pichai speaks and put his foot forward.
Although he considers the team’s opinions at the same time, the CEO is well known for making fast and quick decisions. As per the CEO genome project, the decisive CEO is more likely to become a high performing executive, and Sundar Pichai tops the list. He actively inspires the team by involving them in decisions and strategy formulation and, at the same time, is well known for making decisions quickly.
Further, Pichai is the name behind the famous search toolbar of Google. His capabilities, qualification, and skills played a main role in the company’s success. Pichai also worked on several other google products, including Google Pack and Gear. In this manner, he efficiently demonstrates engagement.
From the CEO Genome Project, it can be said that those who masterfully engaged stakeholders are more successful in their roles, and Sundar Pichai has again proved an influential personality by engaging numerous stakeholders as well as satisfying the Google users. Google is a large organization, and the CEO is well recognized for his critical thinking capability, long term orientation and challenging attitude. He adopts proactively and always remains eager to learn from his mistakes (Asbari et. al. 2020).
In this journey, Sundar Pichai also provides numerous opportunities for growth and development to its employees, which empowers them continuously and leads to overall organizational success. The most important behaviour for a CEO is to deliver consistent and reliable results (Fiaz et. al. 2017). This has been identified from the behavioural attribute of Sundar Pichai. He has consistently come up with numerous Google products and is still developing opportunities to grow the company and meet stakeholders’ expectations.
Thus, Pichai has remarkably impacted the employees, Google, and other stakeholders. He admits when he does not know the answer and learns from every experience. He is a man who wanted android phones to be for everyone. He stayed loyal to the company, and as per his appointment as a CEO, the stock price of the alphabet has risen to 90% and revenue by 80%. (Gill, 2019).
Personal Skills Appraisal
Summary of test results
To conduct my self-assessment, I have used SWOT analysis. This is a self-assessment tool for my own analysis, and it is a self-assessment methodology to understand myself better and support my professional and personal development.
I believe that this tool or SWOT analysis has assisted me in my assessment process by evaluating the gaps. SWOT analysis is mainly a strategic planning technique that works as a self-examination tool that helps identify strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats based on fresh perspectives and new ideas (Ibrahim et. al. 2017). I have evaluated that this self-analysis has helped me clarify my personal and professional objectives and made me more self-aware regarding how they can be achieved.
Further, with this application of SWOT analysis, I will allow myself to figure out what I need to do to achieve them. Personal SWOT analysis helped me gain insight based on my personality, strengths, available opportunities and foreseeable challenges. With this examination, I learn about these factors that can aid in gaining an invaluable advantage.
Based on the swot analysis, I have revealed some major strengths and weaknesses and focused on them. Concerning my strengths, I identified that I am good at communicating, whether written or verbal. I am efficient in communicating my perspectives and opinions to others as I do not hesitate.
Additionally, considering the aspects of my skills that set me aside from my peers, I believe in my interest in technical knowledge. I am keen interested in gaining more exposure in the technical field, and I am fond of learning about new technologies and automated processes.
Moreover, my soft skills involve being a good listener, a good communicator and honesty. I believe that my honesty is my key behavioural trait which I can refer to as my greatest strength. I am quite sure that this will help me in my journey of overall professional development and success.
While thinking about weaknesses, I have examined that I lack analytical thinking, time management, and problem-solving. I am also aware that these are the most important employability competencies in the present business world, and I need improvement in these competencies.
In addition to this, my peers and tutors have also recommended improving my time management competency. I lack time management skills because I sometimes postpone things without any reason, and thus for this, I have to be punctual, and this is the major behavioural attribute that I am required to develop. Apart from this,
I am also required to work on my leadership capability, as this is the key requirement in a present competitive scenario. An individual has to be an influential leader and personality to gain recognition and appreciation in the workplace (Puytet. al. 2020).
Framework evaluation
Intending to evaluate my identified strengths and weaknesses, I have applied a framework of a personal effectiveness or Gibbs reflective cycle. This model is a well-recognized and famous cyclical model of reflection that leads through major six stages of exploring an experience (Adeaniet. al. 2020).
Description: Overall, this situation can be described by stating that I have focused on two major areas that are my strengths and weaknesses. I focus on the skills, competencies, and behavioural attributes. To evaluate my weaknesses, I assessed skills and potential self-developmental areas needed to develop.
Feelings: While identifying these or conducting a SWOT analysis, I was very motivated because this is an opportunity to enhance my skills sets and work on my weaknesses. Considering the present scenario, I am still motivated as I am dedicated to working on myself- developmental areas.
Evaluation: Regarding this experience, the good thing is that I learned about my soft skills and the dedication and curiosity regarding increasing technical knowledge. On the other hand, the bad thing about the experience is that I also got a deep insight regarding my weaknesses and weak areas.
Analysis: Things went well during my self-assessment because I was very straight and unbiased regarding anything. I also considered the suggestions which I got from my tutor and peers. I mainly focused on leading an accurate and reliable SWOT analysis. The thing that didn’t work or go well during that experience is that I lost my confidence because I was coming up with several weaknesses.
Conclusion: It can be said that the overall situation was very positive and impactful on my career because I got a deep exposure to myself before entering into any field or workplace. I am happy that I got to know myself, and now I can work on my weak areas and effectively utilize my strengths and capability.
Action plan: As I have got about the weak areas or the fields in which I am less capable, now I can develop these. For instance, I can work on punctuality and time management skills by keeping a to-do diary, maintaining a logbook, and sticking to the deadline.
Impact on my employability
Employability skills are the building block of one’s career (Peacock, 2017). Several employability skills enhance the chances of getting different opportunities (Jaiswal et. al. 2021). On the other side, the weaknesses of some skills can reduce the employability prospects.
Concerning my poor time management skills, it can be said that in the workplace, this can adversely affect me as I will not be able to manage my work-life balance, and it will cause me more stress. Improper time management capability will also affect my performance as well as productivity.
This is the crucial skill that needs to be on the curriculum vitae, and I lack this skill. Companies require this competency in the candidate as it is essential in prioritizing the work tasks and achieving the goals faster. However, in my case, poor time management skills and lack of punctuality can result in a lack of priorities, missed deadlines and unprofessionalism.
On the other hand, analytical thinking and skill are also important for better business performance, and I am weak in this area. Consequently, I can lose several opportunities and will not resolve critical issues and come up with innovative ideas accordingly.
This is related to the problem-solving approach (Ghanizadeh, 2017). I also feel sometimes difficult to resolve even easy problems. This attitude can adversely impact my employability prospects as the workplace faces complex challenges and problems. I will have to deal with this problem as a weak management approach can adversely influence me.
As I also plan to become an influential leader and manager in the workplace organization, a lack of leadership skills can again be a problematic situation for me, and it can affect my career. Working on this competency has become a necessity for me to lead and manage the team in the future.
Learning Methods Discussion
Strategies for personal development
- To improve my key self-developmental area, time management competency, I can implement different strategies. For example, I have to start my tasks as soon as possible, and I’ll have to give myself proper breaks. In addition to this, another step can be to prioritize the tasks and schedule the tasks as per the deadlines. I have to organize my workplace and learn productivity patterns for skill development.
- To work on the analytical thinking approach, the strategy can be to gain as much information as I can, and I have to break this information into parts. The parts can further help me examine the connections and relationships between different variables. Apart from this, I can also formulate some theories and use them to develop possible solutions. Analytical thinking is the act of identifying and defining the problem and extracting information from the data to build workable solutions (Cottrell, 2017).
- The strategies that I can implement to effectively enhance my problem-solving skills are to focus on the solution, not on the problems. I have to work on simplifying things and list out as many solutions as possible. To refine my understanding of problem-solving skills, several techniques can help me consistently. For example, understanding the root cause of the problem, turning problems into opportunities, formulating strategies to resolve longer-term problems, and overcoming short-term crises. I can also work out with my brain to build this competency with some games and logic puzzles.
- In order to ensure my personal development and ensuring better leadership, I have to practice discipline. Also, I can work on various projects to gain better exposure and develop my situation awareness, which will help me build leadership capability. Thus, for becoming an influential leader, I have to learn how to inspire others, resolve conflicts, and be a good listener.
Action plan
A personal development plan can be referred to as a written account of self-reflection along with improvement (Jaiswal et. al. 2021). This can be used to fulfil personal, career and academic goals.
| Strategies | Proposals/actions | Success criteria | Timeframe |
| Time management skills and punctuality
· Prioritizing and scheduling tasks · Organization of the workplace |
Intending to build my time management competency, my key emphasis is on learning prioritizing. Moreover, to develop this area, I can implement actions by setting SMART goals, a time blocking schedule, taking regular breaks, and identifying important and urgent tasks. | I believe that I have improvised in this area when I can accomplish my tasks within deadline and with efficiency. | Two months |
| Leadership skills
· Self-development · Strategic thinking · Evaluating progress |
To be a good leader, self-development is the foundation (Ghanizadeh, 2017). Additionally, I have to find a suitable leadership style and develop a growth mindset. To improvise the leadership ability, the tasks are to be passionate, set goals, and inspire others. | The success measure for this skill set can be when I will practice discipline in my life and encourage others. | Three months |
| Problem-solving
· Brainstorming · Analysing · Managing risks · Managing emotions |
This can be done by deeply understanding the problem with thorough research, and it can lead to better solution generation. This is possible by brainstorming as it allows every individual to come up with creative ideas. A disciplined thought process is needed to evaluate and analyse each solution. To manage emotions, being practice and reliable is important while making decisions for the betterment of the company. | For this weak area, the success criteria can resolve challenging issues and problems with ease and confidence. | Two months |
| Analytical thinking capability
· Being observant · Reading · Playing brain games |
Analytical thinking capability is the major identified weak area of myself, and to improvise this; I can take certain steps and strategies. This can be reading more to gain knowledge and exposure to different aspects (Jaiswal et. al. 2021). Playing brain games will help me in thinking deeply and logically. Apart from this, paying attention to detail is a significant way to make up this skill because it allows the individual to process the way things work and interact. | My success measure for this capability will be when I can effectively assess different situations and come up with an appropriate conclusion. | Four months |
Conclusion
In a summarised form, it can be stated that the major skills and behavioural traits of Sundar Pichai have been evaluated as his communication capability and Fearless attitude, visionary traits and focused behaviour. Also, the skills and behaviour of Sundar Pichai have been aligned with Covey’s seven habits and CEO genome project framework.
Further, another section reveals the use of SWOT analysis as a self-audit tool to identify and gain a deep insight regarding my major strengths and weaknesses. After identifying these areas and evaluating them, Gibbs reflective cyclic model has been implemented.
This six-stage model has helped me attain a deep examination of my strengths and weaknesses. The report also discloses the impact of these weak areas on the career and employability prospect. The last section of the report reveals some key strategies that I can adapt to my weak area.
This has been disclosed as prioritizing, developing a problem-solving approach, brainstorming, practising discipline and observing more. Based on these strategies, I also developed a personal development plan or action plan within the writing that involves major actions that can be taken to improvise these week areas.
Furthermore, it can be said that there is a strong linkage or connection between these three tasks. The skills and traits identified from the case of Sundar Pichai are an inspiration for me as these are the key attributes that a leader should possess. Similarly, identifying my strengths and weaknesses is to develop the competencies by creating an action plan and ensuring that I can become an influential leader like the CEO. The reason behind the analysis of the traits of Sundar Pichai is to get insight into what an effective leader looks like.
References
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