Program Goal L
This program goal requires you to be self-aware of your strengths and weaknesses, in order to continue the quest for self-improvement and lifelong learning. This program goal objective includes recognizing, contrasting, and categorizing individual communication behaviors by performing self-analysis and learning about individual character traits of self and others and their implications for communication (Patton, 2019). To gain competency in this program goal, it is required to create and execute a plan to effectively develop targeted leadership communication skills by understanding the connection between the person, behavior, and communication style and learning to leverage and expand skill levels (Patton, 2019). This program goal is important to information professionals because, in order to succeed in this field, information professionals must evolve and continue learning to keep up with the ever-evolving information field. Moreover, information professionals must commit to their interpersonal communication development in order to be effective leaders in the information field.
During my first semester of the MMLIS program, I took the course GSBA502: Management Communication for Leaders. During this course, I not only learned communication and leadership theory, but I also assessed myself on multiple assignments to become aware of my own strengths and weaknesses in my communication and presentation skills. These assessments were done with the purpose of learning how to communicate more effectively and become a better leader in my workplace. During this course, I assessed myself and my skills in several different ways. One of the first assessments I did was the Strength Deployment Inventory (SDI) assessment. The SDI assessment “provides a vivid way of seeing yourself and others from the perspective of motives under two conditions--when things are going well and in conflict” (Patton, 2019, p.1). I learned that in taking this assessment and understanding the results, I could empower myself with the self-awareness to make better choices and use my strengths to improve my interactions with others (Patton, 2019). For the SDI assessment, I answered multiple questions regarding my personality and ethics in specific situations. After submitting my answers, a report was generated describing the results in great detail. From the SDI report, I learned what my motivational value system was based on. I learned my motivational value system was a HUB Flexible-Cohering, which means I am motivated by flexibility and adapting to others or situations. I have a strong desire to collaborate with others and to remain open to different options and viewpoints. Furthermore, the report states I achieve feelings of self-worth by finding and meeting the needs of groups while staying open to all sides of situations (Patton, 2019). The report goes on to describe my motivation level when everything is going well and when I am faced with conflict. Being aware of this assessment is important to understand what motivates me, my strengths, and my weaknesses are in order to know what I need to improve on. As the report states, understanding my personality empowers me to make better choices in my interactions with others. Taking this assessment addresses the program goal as I am being honest and self-aware and am committed to learning more about myself in order to improve my interactions with others.
I also demonstrated my competency of this program goal during the same course, when I worked on a “Personal Communication Development Plan”. For this assignment, I assessed my presentation and oral skills, written communication skills, my ethos, and emotional intelligence. I also assessed my cultural literacy, team communication skills, and my internal and external organizational communication skills. I was tasked to rank how I felt I did for all those skills from 1 to 5. One being, “need to develop, essentially need lots of work on this capability”, and 5 being “excellent abilities”, leadership communication level achieved. After ranking every section, I had to calculate my average score on the different sections, and document those scores into a chart so I can see how I rank on all the sections and see which sections need improvement. The assignment then prompts me to answer a number of questions to determine my leadership communication goals and how I will achieve improving on them. Lastly, I wrote a memo to my professor detailing a few of my goals and listing the small changes I will make to reach my goals. This assignment was a good exercise for me to learn how to do a self-evaluation. This assignment addresses this program goal as a commitment to my continued professional education; I can use this same assessment to check myself later in my career to create new goals and improve on other skills. Later on, in my career, I can look back on my assessments and see the steps it took me to get there.
This program goal requires you to recognize individual communication behaviors by performing self-analysis and learning about individual character traits of self and others and their implications for communication. To gain competency in this program goal, it is required to create and execute a plan to effectively develop targeted leadership communication skills by understanding the connection between the person, behavior, and communication style and learning to leverage and expand skill levels. I demonstrated my mastery in this program goal by taking the SDI assessment test, doing a self-evaluation, and then writing a personal communication development plan on the skills I need to work on. Through these assignments, I become aware of the skills I need to work on and through my plan, I make a commitment to continue working on my skills in order to achieve my goals.
References
Patton, G. 2019. GSBA502: Management Communication for Leaders [Syllabus]. Los Angeles, CA: Marshall School of Business, University of Southern California. https://ia801508.us.archive.org/18/items/gsba-502-su-19-syllabus/GSBA502_SU19_Syllabus.pdf
Patton, G. (2019). Strength Deployment Inventory personalized Report: Eileen Urrutia (pp. 1–20) [SDI Assessment]. TotalSDI.
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