Self-Assessment and Appraisal: Who Am

Self-Assessment and Appraisal: Who am I and how can I change?

A review of my performance on a personal and workplace-oriented self-appraisal test battery, and a prescription for change.

Self-Assessment Introduction

One of the most useful aspects of the process of conducting a self-assessment at work, is that in the middle of a workplace related project, usually one's 'self' is last thing on one's mind. One tends to think of one's self entirely in relation to others in the here and now. The process through which different, specific qualities relate to the qualities of other people is often placed on the back burner. Self-criticism can be an important tool of self-awareness, and help the subject, in this case myself, better understand his or her relationship to the world.

Decision-Making

In conducting my self-assessment on my decision-making capabilities, I learned that I have a slight towards favoring rational approaches to making judgments, as opposed to relying upon intuition. I rely upon my gut only if the facts support my gut instinct, although I don't discount my ability to assess an issue based upon my subconscious perceptions, provided I verify these perceptions with the facts. I believe in making judgments in a holistic but evidence-based fashion. Although I would classify myself as a judger, on the Jungian scale of personality types, I am happy that I do not discount the value of intuition entirely. I am proud of my ethics and lack of a tendency to procrastinate, and I think my decision-making techniques seem to be sound.

Motivation

The motivational section of the self-assessment helped me understand that intangible rewards, like personal growth and the esteem of co-workers and supervisors I respect, are more important than purely tangible rewards like pay. A sense of personal achievement, intellectual growth, and personal autonomy are all very important to me. I like to help others and make a contribution to an organization, as supported by my balanced perspective, almost entirely evenly split, between my agreement with the philosophies behind the mistrustful and trustful Theory X versus Theory Y theories of management. My scores in self-efficacy, esteem, and setting goals regarding my studies all received high marks. I do not need the social reinforcement of a team to motivate myself. While rewards like prestige and pay are certainly nice, I also seek challenges that cannot be quantified on a paycheck, although I agree that I very much enjoy receiving what rewards I aspire to, whether they are esteem or promotions. My scores suggested I seek more aspects of my work as intrinsically motivating and crucial to the organization, when considering factors related to job enrichment and my ability to view my work as crucial to the overall organization.

Other factors: Emotional IQ, Morning vs. Night, Initiative-Taking, and Entrepreneurial Abilities

Despite my self-directed nature, I rated fairly high (a B+, or near 40) on my Emotional IQ score. I rated high as a morning person, and one who is proactive and has good entrepreneurial skills, as befits the value I place on personal autonomy.

Personal Qualities

I am agreeable, conscientious, and emotionally stable, according to my personality assessment -- but unsurprisingly I rated high on introversion, and perhaps as a result of this introversion, rather low on openness to novelty.

Values

Oddly enough, I did rank friendship and peer esteem high on my list of important personal values. My score regarding my involvement in my current job was relatively low. I am only moderately satisfied in my current job and not very optimistic about the potential to create a diverse workforce.

Assessment Analysis: Who Am I?

Overall, a portrait of a highly motivated, reasonably (but not overly) social being and a person who is strongly motivated by self-improvement and intellectual challenges emerged from the assessment. However, my scores indicated as well that my current challenges at my place of employment are not enough to truly fulfill my appetite for self-improvement. I enjoy the company of others, but am slightly mistrustful of the ability of teams to motivate better work, and for the potential of diversity to create a better world.

Assessment Synthesis

Some of my mistrust may come from my personal timeliness, and my sense that teams can occasionally procrastinate and pull other people back. Accepting others differences is indeed difficult. (Kroeger, Thuesen & Rutledge, 2002, p. 3) I need to make the differences of others work better for both myself, and my organization. Even if I am doing a good job, I must make my internal criticism of others less judgmental. (Kroeger, Thuesen & Rutledge, 2002, p.7) Instead of just buckling down and working harder, as I have always done, I need to strive to make the work styles of others work for me, rather than against me, and combine the mutual skills of everyone at the office to realize the goal of a project.

Of course, I would like to retain my strengths as an individual. My desire to exercise leadership potential and to learn more at work could be fulfilled by seeking out greater challenges. I must learn to use my positive qualities, such as a lack of procrastination, my high level energy in the morning, and other assets, as motivational models for others. Also, hopefully, now that I know myself better, I can recognize what is going on, internally, when I cringe inside at a colleague's laid back style. (Kroeger, Thuesen & Rutledge, 2002, p.4)

This self-assessment was helpful, because I was initially inclined to view myself as far more sociable and trusting than my scores may have indicated. Outside of work, I am known as a compassionate and caring individual. But at work, because of my hard-working nature, I may be inclined to judge others as less hard working than they actually are, because they have temperamental differences. This makes me less inclined to view team-based projects in a positive fashion.

One thing I would like to work upon is my relatively low score on my novelty-seeking quotient. I am able to motivate myself in school, but I would like to motivate myself to seek out more learning opportunities in the workplace environment. I believe I have skills that could allow me to become more entrepreneurial, either in my own business endeavors, in the very far future, or simply in the service of my current organization.