Critical Self Assessment Reflective Essay Social Work Essay

Critical Self Assessment Reflective Essay Social Work Essay Self-assessment is always a challengeable task because people always attempt to conduct a self-assessment but they do not always succeed in this regard. The main reason for the failure of the self-assessment is the inadequate self-esteem or self-awareness. At the same time, it is necessary to conduct the self-assessment in order to define clearly the progress an individual has made in the course of his or her development and the identification of problems in the personal development along with goals of the further development. At any rate, while conducting my self-assessment, I focused on my current development both personal and professional, and, on the ground of this information, I attempted to define skills and areas which need consistent improvement and what I should work on. Initially, I supposed to conduct my self-assessment for myself. In fact, it was just interesting for me to know what a sort of person I am, how I assess and view myself and what I actually want to improve in my personality. However, on a profound reflection, I arrived to the idea that I need to share my self-assessment and I extended my target audience from myself to my peers and people interested in psychology because it is always interesting to get acquainted with oneà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â€ž ¢s self-assessment to be able to avoid pitfalls of self-assessment made by others in the course of their self-assessment. Frankly speaking, I do not want to be didactic but still I just want to share my experience of self-assessment which may be useful to other people, especially my peers, who may have the same problems as I have. While conducting my self-assessment, I focused on my current personal and professional development mainly and, on the ground of my current development, I attempted to define what I really need to improve in myself and my development to become a better person. On analyzing my current development, I arrived to the conclusion that I have already reached positive outcomes in my personal and professional development. For instance, I have always been successful in my learning and my academic successes always encouraged me to carry on my professional development. At the same time, the more I learned the better I felt because I felt and still feel that my knowledge, my skills and abilities are very useful in my personal life. They contribute to my personal development, extend my eyesight and make me spiritually rich because my knowledge and experience are my personal wealth. At the same time, I would like to dwell upon skills and abilities I have already developed and which I consider to be very important in my life. For instance, my organizational skills are of the utmost importance for me but, as far as I remember, I always had problems with my organizational skills which stay a bit under-developed. At any rate, I cannot say that my regular life is well-organized. Naturally, I can do the routine actions I do day after day but sometimes I feel that I am running of time badly and I need more time to do everything I want and I have to do. I do not have a schedule of to dos for every day, although I attempt to plan my actions. For instance, when I have vacations I plan how I am going to spend my vacation and basically I fulfill my plans successfully. On the other hand, in my daily life, I face some problems with the organization of my working day because I can have an unexpected encounter with a friend of mine that may take a lot of time. As a result, I ma y fail to do something important I have planned at the beginning of the day. Furthermore, my organizational skills often into clashes with my leadership ambitions because, as I fail to organize effectively my own work or learning, for instance, than I cannot always organize a work of a group or team. As a result, my leadership ambitions cannot be implemented because people I want to lead are not confident in my ability to lead them. Nevertheless, I was always concerned with being the first, being the leader. In such a situation, I attempt to compensate my lack of organizational skills by my communication skills. I have a lot of friends and I do like the communication with interesting people. I have a few, if any, problems in the communication with any person. I can start communication easily and I make a lot of friends. In this regard, my high self-awareness and self-esteem may be factors which help me to communicate and lead people. frankly speaking, a feel being a bit too self-assured but this quality helps me a lot in my life, although sometimes it provokes conflicts with some people. On analyzing my current development, I focused on my target development. Taking into consideration the drawbacks I have identified in the course of self-assessment, I would like to focus on the improvement of organizational and leadership skills. In fact, I have to learn to organize and plan my daily life carefully because I believe this will help me to realize my full potential and to become a true leader. The latter is very important for me because I do need to be a leader, who guides people and help them to reach their goals, while working in a team. In this regard, the development of social relations may be very helpful. At any rate, I have good communication skills and I can develop social relations effectively but I believe that I need to change the direction in which I develop my social relations. What I mean is that, at the moment, I develop my social relations for pleasure, to make friends, to spend a good time, and so on. Now, I believe it is a high time to change my life a little bit. In actuality, I need to feel being useful to my community. In this regard, I would like to do some volunteer job to develop my organizational and leadership skills. In addition, I will learn how to be helpful and useful to other people. Thus, I believe that my self-assessment can be helpful to those people, who are interested in psychology and who attempt to conduct their own self-assessment. I attempted to be as sincere and critical as possible. I identified my drawbacks as well as positive traits of character. Naturally, I understand that I may be subjective but people, who read my self-assessment, can identify strong and weak points in my self-assessment and avoid those weak points in their own self-assessment.

Most Commonly Cited Characteristics Found in Successful Entrepreneur Essay

There has been extensive research conducted on the characteristics that successful entrepreneurs possess. These attributes vary widely across literature, however there are common key traits that are required to achieve any form of success. Frederick et al (2013) suggest entrepreneurs are risk takers, optimistic, have sound judgement and an ability to manage. While a review of literature relating to the psychology of an entrepreneur reveals a large variety of characteristics in a successful entrepreneur, these can be consolidated to a a few into only a few traits that are essential for a successful entrepreneur. Whilst taking into consideration Frederick et al (2013) point of view of key characteristic, other research suggests that there are further primary attributes that a successful entrepreneur necessitates. The most important traits that all entrepreneurs must retain to have any form of success will be discussed with backing arguments from related literature. While there are many other characteristic, within the scope of this piece three essential traits are discussed. Of interest is the characteristics of confidence, while it will be the negative implications off excessive confidence will be outlined. Additionally, the ability to think creatively and innovative to help differentiate an entrepreneur from a manager or executive is to be analysed based on a example of Steve Jobs. Finally, leadership and it’s importance to an entrepreneurs organisation to allow people to share the vision of the entrepreneur. See more: how to cite an article in an essay It will be argued that without confidence an entrepreneur cannot succeed, however, overconfidence can be a drawback to the point where it is destructive in a entrepreneurs venture. While, any successful entrepreneur must contain the traits of creativeness and have the ability to innovate where society requires a product or service and what factors dictate the extent of the trait. Finally, leadership and it’s ability to motivate and how it is able to share the vision of the company will be discussed with an example as evidence. Confidence Confidence is a trait commonly described in literature as an essential trait for any entrepreneur. It is essential for their confidence to not waver in times of difficult down periods and consequently assists maintaining their confidence as well as the one of the people around them. Their own optimism and creates a level of self confidence that is required in decision making such that Nandan (2011) suggests that it is the self-confidence that allows an entrepreneur to make decisions to overcome any obstacle. Frederick et al (2013) describe self-confidence as a belief within their own ability which lacks hesitation. Although confidence is an essential trait for an entrepreneur, recent research has suggested that there is a cognitive bias of overconfidence in entrepreneurs (Fitzsimmons et al 2011) leading to failure. While Fitzsimmonms and Douglas suggest that the overconfidence is what separates them from being a manager, studies have found that overconfidence can also be harmful when making decisions in response to setbacks (Trevelyan 2008). This has also been backed up by Koellinger el al. (2007) who proposed that a negative relationship between entrepreneurial confidence and the ability for their survival. The evidence collected by literature suggests a general negative correlation between excessive confidence and success of an entrepreneur but it tends to be the case that without confidence an entrepreneur cannot succeed. While literature seems to indicate a fine line between confidence and an excess of it, it is clear any form of overconfidence is seen to be destructive. For example, a highly successful entrepreneur in Australia’s coal mining, Nathan Tinkler, has made his fortune by backing his judgement and investing in a bold play in Middlemount mine at a young age of 26, by taking out a half a million dollar loan. The subsequent sale of the land pocketed himself a sizable profit in which he continued to build his wealth on to become a billionaire and one of Australia’s richest men. However, it is his overconfidence in the coal mining has become his downfall in 2012. While it was Tinkler’s optimism and overconfidence on new venture activity resulted in his wealth, the research has detailed that excess optimism and overconfidence can be a drawback. Whyte et al (1997) found that overconfidence predicts an escalation of commitment to losing course of action and similarly in a simulation study conducted by Audia et al (2000) found that entrepreneurs that experience success were more likely to be overconfident and stuck to their ori ginal course of action (Audia et al, 2000). This is research is shown most prevalent in Tinkler’s actions immediately after his initial success to the point that his blindness and lack of any ability to review alternative decisions with his wealth resulted in is wealth halving. A further instance of this was when Tinkler invested heavily back in the coal mining sector with his wealth as this was the original course of action that made his wealth. Consequently, with a dip in the global coal price, Tinklers wealth halved from $1.18 billion to $630 million with many of his coal business’s put into receivership (Low 2013). His over confidence lead to an over evaluation of his business (Hayward and Hambrick 1997) and resulted in him investing in now unprofitable ventures (Zacharakis and Shepard 2001) because of his excess in confidence and belief of the business he had while lacking the ability on new venture development. Creativeness and Innovation Successful entrepreneur natural trait of being creative or innovative are of people who are driven by the desire to create or change something (Wiley 2007). Frederick et al (2013) suggest that the level of innovation in entrepreneurs is closely correlated to the geographic location and environment. As a result, their findings suggest that innovation and creativeness is not something that is genetic but a trait related to culture. Based on these findings, it would seem that creativeness and innovation may be learned and developed when they have been forced to create change in something (Wiley 2007). Wiley et al (2007) argues in their studies that innovative entrepreneurs include technological entrepreneurs and social entrepreneurs who are not driven to create inventions or new science break through, however, are driven by culture to create change. As a result, studies indicate that this driver emerges from the need for change where unique goods and services are needed to be produced ( Frederick et al 2013). Additionally Jeffery et al (2009) argue in their studies that innovative entrepreneurs differ from executives based on four behavioral patterns. They suggest that innovative entrepreneurs acquire information differently to many top executives as the are able to question, observe the market, experiment and idea network (Jeffery et al 2009). Accordingly, innovative entrepreneurs develop a different train of thought to top managers where it can explain the ability for a innovative entrepreneur to create new innovative ventures. For these reasons it might be suggested that innovative entrepreneurs are less sensitive to the status quo bias and have the motivation to change the status quo through the creativeness and innovation. For instance, regarded by many as the most creative entrepreneur in the last decade, Steve Jobs, one of the co-founders of Apple, opened new product markets where none had existed before, turning Apple into a highly profitable business. He saw what many were not able to see, and developed new products such as the smart phone to compete with the conventional phone, which became the norm of the 21st century. Winslow (2007), suggests that the innovation and creativity has spawned not only because of the electronic era but the plethora of new materials and products (Winslow 2007) and it is clear that Jobs took full advantage of these developments. Leadership Leadership is a device that is used to obtain an organisations goal or desire though the means of influencing, motivation and sharing of a vision (Samson & Draft 2007). Studies suggest that leadership is associated with confidence where without self-assurance there would not be any leadership where it indicates that self-confidence is the fundamental basis of an entrepreneur (Francisco Dau). Furthermore according to Nandan (2011), self confidence is key to overcome any obstacles that may lie in front of an entrepreneur which is essential low periods and periods of uncertainty. Leadership was best demonstrated by Lee Iacoca in the lats 1970s and 80s in his ability to reshape the automotive industry. He is widely seen as one the the most influential leaders of the 20th century that helped reshape America. Indeed, it was his leadership that save Chrysler auto-motives from bankruptcy. Studies conducted by Samson and Draft illustrated that a organisations performance correlated to whether the senior executives and managers demonstrated strong leadership. They also indicated that strong leadership from the top resulted in increase in job satisfaction and commitment which assists in promoting creativity and sharing a vision of change. As a result Iacocca developed his nine C’s for leadership (curiosity, creative, communicate, character, courage, conviction, charisma, competent) where he utilised them to share his vision for change and influenced his employees to support him. Choosing to reduce his salary to $1 a year in order to help restore the company, Iacocca was able to illustrate his commitment to stakeholders and through rational persuasion was able to get the stakeholders to believe in his credibility. His $1 a year salary motivated others and assisted him inspire labor unions to accept a pay cut. Without this level of leadership, entrepreneur’s are not able to share their vision with their employees as entrepreneurs require a team to support them achieve their goals. Iaccoca suggested that having a dynamic team and keeping their enthusiasm and support was critical to achieving any change and vision. Conclusion It has been discussed in detail that there are three main characteristics that are essential to a successful entrepreneur. While studies have detailed the numerous other characteristics that have not been mentioned this this piece, they all shared a common view point that confidence, leadership and creativity and innovative characteristics are all associated with successful entrepreneurs. Based on the examples of previous successful entrepreneurs Steve Jobs and Lee Iacocca, it was illustrated that they all shared the same essential characteristics listed above. The first and most important characteristic for a successful entrepreneur was to be able to have self confidence. Without this key trait, it was illustrated through literature that other characteristics are not possible or ineffective and that it was the fundamental trait any entrepreneur requires. It was followed by the need for entrepreneurs to require a form of creativeness and innovation to create new cheaper solutions, and change the market by implementing services and products subjected to the surrounding culture. Finally, Leadership and its ability to influence and motivate employees to assist the entrepreneur achieve the change and goals they seek is only possible with the help of self confidence.

Fedex Essay

If you were the HR Head of a major competitor of FedEx: a) List down the 3 HR practices which you would emulate of FedEx. Explain reasons for the same. Ans) * Leadership Evaluation And Awareness Process (LEAP) – This policy gave FedEx’s Non-Managerial Employees an opportunity to seek Managerial Positions. LEAP created the chance for Non Management Employees to try out their Managerial Skills. LEAP helped Employees of FedEx check whether they were capable of managing Organizations or not. It also gave a chance to FedEx to check out the leadership and managerial skills of its internal Employees. * â€Å"Guaranteed Fair Employee Procedure† (GFTP ) Via â€Å"People –Service-Profit â€Å" (PSP) Philosophy – One of the major HR practices which made FedEx a success story was the Guaranteed Fair Employee Procedure where all type of Employee Grievances were taken care of. The philosophy of â€Å" People-Service-Profit† where Employees were kept before the company’s profit making motives lead to more motivated employees ,leading to more profits in the long run . It was believed that people before profits were would lead to more efficient work on behalf of the employees to the customers , thus strengthening the brand image of FedEx. * Succession Planning Executive Education (SPEED) – The SPEED program introduced at FedEx were done mainly to give feedback to the high level employees reporting directly to the CEO or to the top management of FedEx. Feedback was given periodically n order to rate the skills and promotability of the people who were likely to replace them in the near future. Such Employees were suggested which areas they needed to work on to improve their skills for their new positions some years down the line. b) If you had to attract top Talent from Fedex, what would be your strategy for this, assuming compensation and role were not the key factors for attracting talent from Fedex? Develop your response based on the case study (identifying areas where Fedex may not be as good) and state your assumptions, if any. Ans) To lure top Talent from FedEx, we can go in for the following strategies: * Fringe Benefits – * Perks – * Job Enlargement And Enrichment More Exciting Job Opportunities Q2. Based on the industry FedEx is in and on the nature of its business, list down 1 or 2 competencies which you think are core to the organization (across functions and levels) and which are essential for employees to possess in order for the organization to succeed. Justify your answer suitably Ans) * Recruitment Focusing on Entrepreneurship – The rec ruitment style followed by FedEx is to hire people who have a mind for new Entrepreneurial ventures. They have to be creative in nature and have the ability to think out of the box. This Recruitment strategy has worked well for FedEx. * Employee Centricity and Retention – FedEx Core Competency lies in the fact that all the Employees are treated equally and every grievance are taken care of. No stone is left unturned to see to it that all problems faced by employees are always addressed to before the company objectives. Q3. What do you think would be the top 5 measures the CEO of FedEx would want his HR Head to measure and report on an ongoing basis.

Role Of Uncertainty And Imperfect Information On An...

The main objective of this paper is to evaluate and examine the role of uncertainty and imperfect information to an entrepreneur. Oxford word reference (2015) defines entrepreneurs as individuals who set up business and taking on monetary dangers in the trust of benefit. To turn into a successful and ambitious entrepreneur there are a few attributes which are required including: being exceedingly self inspired, being daring individuals, being taught and obviously not being terrified of coming up short. (Joe Robinson, 2014) As we think about the role of entrepreneurship in terms of the economic growth, entrepreneurs make new organizations and new organizations,thus they create employment opportunities, based on the above explanation, they†¦show more content†¦They are capable of succeeding their objectives of benefits by trying different methods and also changing quickly as they get new data. (Brian Tracy, 2005). Entrepreneurs and risk taking Risk-taking is a part of entrepreneurial life. Due to this reason entrepreneurs have to have a risk-taking spirit, because not taking risks can kill an enterprise before it gets off the ground. Dr. Shailendra Vyakarnam (2013) adds that entrepreneurs are people who also know their limitations. As entrepreneurs take risks, what they mostly come across are uncertainty and imperfect information. Uncertainty and its importance by Entrepreneurs According to the Business Word Reference (2015); uncertainty is a circumstance where the current condition of learning is such that the request or nature of things is obscure, the outcomes, degree or greatness of circumstances, conditions or occasions is eccentric. The announcement what’s to come is dubious is a conspicuous one –of course it is. In administration we cannot recognize what is going to happen or when or what the effect of it will be. We can assemble data and break down it to attempt to see better what may happen and what the outcomes may be, however we can never know beyond any doubt. An unwillingness to shoulder instability is esteemed in charge of keeping prospective entrepreneurs from taking part in entrepreneurial activity. (Stokes, Wilson Mador, 2010). For Knight, benefit was connected not to riskShow MoreRelatedFeatures Of Entrepreneurs And Risk Taking1553 Words   |  7 Pagesfeatures of Entrepreneurs Brian identified the entrepreneur as a person who is optimistic, future-oriented, thinking that achievement is conceivable and being open to attempting risky methods to accomplish their objectives of benefits. They are capable of succeeding their objectives of benefits by trying different methods and also changing quickly as they get new data. (Brian Tracy, 2005) Entrepreneurs and risk taking Risk-taking is a part of entrepreneurial life. Due to this reason entrepreneurs haveRead MoreUncertainty And Imperfect Information On Entrepreneurship2676 Words   |  11 PagesUncertainty and Imperfect information in entrepreneurship are two important concepts that should be considered in the role of entrepreneurs. According to (Klir, 1999) uncertainty has many methods and dimensions and can include concepts such as vagueness, disagreement and conflict, imprecision and non-specificity The term ‘uncertainty’ can be defined broadly as â€Å"any deviation from the unachievable ideal of completely deterministic knowledge of the relevant system† (Walker, 2003). Uncertainty couldRead MoreA Literature Review Of Schumpeter And Kirzner2338 Words   |  10 Pagestheir flaws. In addition to this, a comparison of some of the main points of each theory will be made, highlighting both the differences and similarities between Schumpeter’s and Kirzner’s views on the entrepreneurial activities of their respective entrepreneur. The paper will then close with a concise conclusion, summarising the contents of the previous chapters. 1.2 Defining Entrepreneurship Whilst widely acknowledged that entrepreneurship is a vital factor in assisting the development of economiesRead MoreThe Effects of Market Failures Essays1444 Words   |  6 Pagesthe dominant view of neoclassical state of equilibrium underpinning welfare economics and economic allocation) and the dynamic view of Austrians (looks at markets as creative and focuses on innovation as an economic process and entrepreneurs as key agents). In the early 1960’s various specialist agreed perfect competition was incompatible with innovation as it required huge resources and exploitation of innovation suspected increasing returns. It was typically foundRead MoreEssay on Government Corruption1158 Words   |  5 Pagesregulation--and public officials have discretion in allocating them. The classic example of a government restriction resulting in rents and rent-seeking behavior is that of an import quota and the associated licenses that civil servants give to those entrepreneurs willing to pay bribes. More recently, researchers have begun to test some of these long-established theoretical hypotheses using new cross-country data. Indices produced by private rating agencies grade countries on their levels of corruptionRead MoreEntrepreneurship4156 Words   |  17 Pagesthem’. Joseph Schumpeter introduced the modern definition of ‘entrepreneurship’ in 1934. According to Schumpeter, â€Å"the carrying out of new combinations we call ‘enterprise’,† and â€Å" the individuals whose function it is to carry them out we call ‘entrepreneurs’.† Schumpeter tied entrepreneurship to the creation of five basic â€Å"new combinations† namely: introduction of a new product, introduction of a new method of production, opening of a new market, the conquest of a new source of supply and carryingRead MoreMCMULLEN SHEPHERD Entrepreneurial Act13331 Words   |  54 PagesAND THE ROLE OF UNCERTAINTY IN THE THEORY OF THE ENTREPRENEUR JEFFERY S. MCMULLEN Baylor University DEAN A. SHEPHERD Indiana University By considering the amount of uncertainty perceived and the willingness to bear uncertainty concomitantly, we provide a more complete conceptual model of entrepreneurial action that allows for examination of entrepreneurial action at the individual level of analysis while remaining consistent with a rich legacy of system-level theories of the entrepreneur. Our modelRead MoreFormal and Informal Institutions21073 Words   |  85 PagesSavings and credit cooperative societies Savings and credit associations Small and microenterprises List of tables 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. 9. 10. 11. 12. Distribution of main occupation of respondents Selected characteristics of the surveyed entrepreneurs Results of t-test for the differences in means between the amounts applied for and received in both formal and informal credit markets Differences between means: Amount of credit from formal and informal sources Differences between means in creditRead MoreIndustrial Relations Practices5039 Words   |  21 Pagesoptimal allocation of resources in the economy. Concerning the effect of the investment climate indicators, their results showed that an ‘unfriendly’ investment climate illustrated through firms’ perceptions about economic and regulatory policy uncertainty affecting their operations and growth are negatively correlated with productivity. With regards to the SBR measures, they found that social networks as indicated through the extent to which firms or their managers have close contacts within theRead More The World of Commercial Art and the International Art Market3310 Words   |  14 Pagesmarket should select the talented artists in a free and wealthy society that allows a very large number of artists to have more opportunities becoming financially independent and to acquire artistic freedom. Although, the role played by the dealer in the market, as cultural entrepreneur, is important for maintain the value of the product. In this instance, how best the international art market can be organized, what is the best way to balance the supply of art and what is the markets purpose through