Organizational development skills help an individual solve problems and realistically achieve their goals. These skills assist an individual not only in meeting their goals, but in learning new problems solving skills that can be useful in the future. In order to actualize my organizational development skills, I have decided to learn the following skills: extraversion skills, planning and organizing skills, conscientiousness skills, communication skills, and time management skills.
I choose extraversion skill because this skill helps one seeking positive emotions and stimulation. This makes an individual fully connected to the outer world; hence one can enjoy being in the company of other people. This skill usually enhances team building capability of an individual. The skill does not only help us to relate well with others, but influences one’s career path as an organizational developer. Furthermore, when one possess this skill, he is normally less likely to experience anxiety and stress over depressing feedbacks. This is because this skill is fundamental in helping a person share his/her feelings and thoughts in a sociable and flexible manner.
In an attempt to actualize my organizational and development skills, I want to improve my planning and organizing skills. These skills help one to organize his tasks and develop a proper strategy for meeting deadlines. These skills help an individual to scrutinize and anticipate possible outcomes and proceedings. Good planning skills help one ensuring that everything is well accounted when conducting risk assessment in a particular undertaking.
Conscientiousness skill is an essential part of organizational development skills. These skills are helpful to an individual since they cultivate a sense of self-discipline, self-organization, thoroughness, and carefulness in all operations. This skill also enables one to be dedicated and committed in all his undertaking. Furthermore, individual with these skills normally possess strong values and moral support.
I also want to improve my communication skills because they enable one to communicate effectively with one another both in an organization and with clients/suppliers. These skills enable one to choose the appropriate channel of communication so as to present information to the target audience in a way that can be understood. Furthermore, these skills are essential because they enable to convey a message or information through the use of words, body language, and facial expression. Besides, they cultivate a sense of self-confidence and help an individual to radiate enthusiasm when communicating.
Finally, I want to perfect my time management skills. These skills are indispensable since they help to prioritize activities in case of urgency. Possessing these skills helps a person to execute all tasks in time and avoid penalties for not meeting deadlines. This skill enables one to develop effective time management strategies that helps to balance conflicting demands in the workplace. They also help a person adjusting routines and pattern of behaviors thus avoiding inconveniences.
Conscientiousness
Conscientiousness is one of the extra ordinate traits in the Big Five model of personality. It characterizes an individual being painstaking. Other aspects of this skill include; high level of thoughtfulness, good impulse, and goal oriented behaviors. Having this trait is also helpful as one tends to act according to the dictate of the conscience. Elements of; self-discipline, thoroughness, self organization, carefulness, and deliberation can also be seen in a conscientious person. Having realized all the above, I opted that conscientiousness is a skill that I need to effectively develop.
This skill development normally begins in early childhood just like language. It is learned from childhood by the observation or by imitation of parents. But this does not mean that it cannot be learned during adulthood. In improving this trait, self-discipline is all that is needed.
In developing this skill, one needs to consider the options available before acting, to think about the outcome to the other people or even the environment. Another important thing to do while developing this skill is listening to the inner voice, and then follow its course for the best determination of the situation and circumstances (Sitter-Liver, 1997). In this case, the sense of right and wrong plays a major role.
According to some research conducted on conscientiousness, this skill develops as people grow (Thorverton, 1994). He suggests that determining and knowing ones weaknesses is an effective way to improve conscientiousness. According to the research conscientious personality type as having eight characteristics and behaviors;
“¢ He suggests that conscientious person is hard working. This trait enables one to be dedicated to his work.
“¢ A person having this trait has strong values and moral stability. Beliefs and opinions on any subject are rarely held lightly. An individual with this trait will always want to do what is right.
“¢ Perfectionism is a strong trait of conscientious. A perfection person will always want to complete all tasks and projects to absolute facts without even a single minor flaw.
“¢ A conscientious person as being perseverance. That is, people with this trait stick to their opinions and convictions, and opposition to this will only strengthen the conviction held by these individuals. This is essential as it enhances ones determination and thus, in the long run, success in life.
To have a well developed conscientiousness, one needs to set some doable goals, remain focused and quit bad behaviors in a locker. If all goes as planned, it is always good to reward yourself, and in so doing, conscientiousness will develop.
Order and detail are other traits of conscientious. People with these traits will like an appearance of orderliness, neatness, and organization. They will always be neat, and to them, no detail is too small for consideration. Their office or home will always be well arranged. For instance, they can arrange books in the shelves alphabetically. Prudence is another trait exhibited by individuals who are conscientious (Brice, 1994). They will be careful and cautious all the time in all areas of their life. Persons with this characteristic will not give in to reckless behavior or wild excess. Finally, conscientious person will tend to accumulate things. They will save and accumulate things, hesitating to dispose anything that in the past had or some time may have value for them.
Personalized Development Plan
This is an essential skill that will enhance my decision making process in my daily life. To ensure that I am improving on it, I will:
“¢ always listen to my inner voice and my conscience in deciding what is right for me and others. I will also ensure that am mindful of how my actions may affect people or the environment;
“¢ ensure I have everything in order so as to enhance my orderliness in my work, study and other activities;
“¢ be dedicated to my work and success to enhance my perfection;
“¢ be careful and cautious in my actions.
Extraversion
This skill or trait is characterized by the tendency to seek out stimulation and positive emotions. It is marked by a prominent commitment with the external world where a person with this trait enjoys being with other people. When with others, extraverts like talking to people, draw attention to them, and assert themselves.
This personality trait is associated to a number of diverse tendencies. It has the ability to influence even our career. According to research conducted, it has been established that this particular trait is linked with leadership behavior (Goldberg, 2006). It is so, because extraverts have a tendency of asserting themselves among others, and thus, they are commonly given leadership positions. Another thing about extraversion is that individuals with this trait are less likely to experience anxiety over depressing response or feedback. They have a very positive outlook on life, as well as are sociable, active, and highly flexible.
Extraversion skills are mostly helpful in jobs that entail immense deal of communication and interaction with other people. People with this skill suit for careers such as sales, marketing, public relations officers, teaching, and political engagement.
Extraversion is a skill that can be developed. This can be achieved by trying to spend more time with people and remaining comfortable whenever in a group of people. By being with other people, one is able to freely intermingle with them and get to know more about them. Once new friends have been made, one should talk to them on a regular basis. This can be during the weekdays or during weekends and class discussion.
Extroversion is something that one is supposed to be born with. It is the trait that has several sub traits, and they include friendliness, high activity level, cheerfulness, excitement-seeking, gregariousness, and assertiveness. All these sub traits are important in enhancing one’s interaction with other people, expressing to others and excelling in one’s career. People who score high in extraversion character test take pleasure in being with other people or taking part in social congregation and are full of energy.
Extraversion can be enhanced by having a discussion with others without fearing what to articulate. One should avoid isolation at all cost and find social activities to enjoy. The best way to find social activities is by joining college clubs; volunteering to do things for people you have already shared interest. Another way of improving extraversion is widening comfort zones limits. That is, one requires being outgoing so as to crush any social worries held.
Extraversion is a trait that an individual possessing is characterized by outward attitude towards people and things. Extraverts need a lot of stimulation and often express emotions. They always get their motivation from other people. This trait enables one to change the world by making it a better place to be rather than complaining and thinking about it. They are relaxed and confident. People having this trait show energy and eagerness, they respond quickly with no long pauses to think, allow chatting out loudly without exact ending and the focus on the external world, and finally, they do not suppose obligation or resolutions made.
Personalized Development Plan
This will be a skill of a great help in my future career as it will involve much interaction with people. To enhance my extraversion skills I will:
“¢ whenever possible, increase my involvement in clubs membership. This will be of a great help as it will help me be in a position to express my ideas or views on various issues during club meetings;
“¢ ensure that am always comfortable even with my newly acquired friends. This will help me in developing the confidence of standing in front of people and addressing them without the fear of what to say next;
“¢ widen my comfort zones. That is, I will be more outgoing as to take part in social events such as friends’ birthdays, evening dinners and family gatherings;
“¢ take part in volunteering programs at school such as in community clean up activities;
“¢ enhance my talk activeness by always contributing to conversations or debates on various issues that in one way or another affect me. These are things like politics and country security issues. This will boost my ability to find solutions to issues affecting mankind.
Planning and organizing
Having the ability to organize and plan is something many are born with; but just like other organizational behavior, these skills need to be developed effectively so as to meet deadlines and prioritize conflicting issues in one’s life. Planning is an anticipatory assessment making process that involves circumstances scrutiny forecasting outcomes and proceedings. Planning and organizing are also skills that enable one anticipating cost and taking into account implementation issues and contingencies. It entails asking questions such as can I?, is it possible?, how can I?. These questions are necessary in the proactive process of planning.
Improving one planning and organizing skills is essential in a daily life scenario as one will always have more than one demanding issue. One of the ways of improving planning is by being open to serendipity. One needs to be aware that serendipity can impact on the growth and execution of plans. This is the ability to gain information and make constructive discoveries from unplanned events and occurrences.
To have effective planning and organizing skills one must develop in seven areas of competency. They include;
“¢ Diagnosing troubles and identifying applicable casual factors;
“¢ Forecasting and predicting;
“¢ Identifying appropriate courses of deed and target setting;
“¢ Communicating;
“¢ Implementing dealings and monitoring them;
“¢ Interpreting, analyzing data and situations;
“¢ Comparing and estimating achievable courses of accomplishment.
All the above will help in dealing with a variety of situations where they are expected to analyze and interpret data and situations (Lord, 1982). Basically, one is supposed to use his intuitive, cognitive, and judgmental skills so as to figure out what the situation or data means. Analyzing means that one has to divide the situation into parts examining each one so as to better understand it (Lord, 1982). Interpreting means that one has to provide his own point of view of the situation faced. This is an essential skill necessary in the daily life as such situations will always appear and require one to plan and organize things so that nothing goes wrong. Another component of planning is assessing. It means estimating the significance or worth of elements of the situation. In applying this trait of planning, one is able to sort out data and situations. It enhances identifying consistent and plausible interpretations. Most of these situations are important events in our life, so analysis has to be complete and rigorous as much as possible.
Being a person who can plan and organize must mean that one has to exercise care and identify missing, wrong or extraneous circumstances and data.
One needs to cope up with partial information, recognize and assess contradictory situations, identify unreliable data, make realistic assumptions, develop complicated reckoning chains supported by assumptions and substantial evidence, and finally, using intuition, reach defensible consideration and interpretation.
In planning and organizing, one has to develop his aptitude to forecast the future. To achieve this skill, the present model becomes useful in forecasting. In some other situations, qualitative models bring in false assurance and exaggerate errors and discountities about expected events that are occurring over time. The predictors or variables held in forecasting the future can change quickly as events open out and thus necessitate modification of the plans (Lord, 1982). A person skilled in planning develops an adequate and appropriate understanding of causes and consequences to help in anticipating events and adjusting actions over the time.