Free «Reflection Paper: Social Intelligence Self-Assessment» Essay Sample

1). After taking the self-assessment test by Karl Albrecht, my top five highest nourishing behaviors include giving complements’ that are honest, exchanging views and dialogue, showing tolerance and being cheerful, and lastly expressing respect for ideas given by others. On the other hand, I have a number of toxic behaviors that hinder my communication. The top highest toxic behaviors include ignoring others, seeking approval in an excessive manner, patronizing people, breaking promises and joking inappropriately.

The nourishing behaviors, on which I scored higher, have a positive impact when it comes to my capabilities to relate with others. They enable me to learn from others by listening to their ideas, tolerating different views in life. In addition, I can maintain good relationships by telling an individual where he or she is going wrong, and create new friends by being actively involved in dialogues and exchanging of various views concerning life. On the contrary, the toxic behaviors impact my abilities to relate to others negatively in a number of ways. For example, problems include boring some people by excessively seeking their approval; failing to keep promises and ignoring some individuals. Therefore, it is possible to deter relationships between me and some persons.

In relation to toxic and nourishing behaviors, I would like to improve in the area of keeping promises, with an aim of increasing the confidence and trust that people, especially the ones I am leading, have in me. The leadership development program will aid me in attaining the goal by improving my understanding of the strategies that I can use in order to keep promises. The program will also improve my ability to evaluate the likelihhod of keeping promises before making them. Therefore, the leadership development program will be critical in ensuring that in the future, I am the leader who can be trusted by my juniors.

2). According to Johnson and Lakshmi (2010), there are three levels of personality that impact individual social intelligence. The first one is thinking level, which focuses on abstract thinking, reasoning, critical evaluation, problem-solving and decision- making skills, motivation, self-efficacy and self-esteem. Researchers claim that the aforementioned abilities within the personality thinking level promote and develop social intelligence in an individual. The second level is the feeling one, which is critical when it comes to stimulating social intelligence. Feeling level is an individual ability to understand, know, manage and sense his/her emotions, and at the same time it is a talent to take into account the others’ emotions. If emotional level is conducted and managed well, it fosters social intelligence in an individual. Last important level of personality is behavioral level. It pays attention to issues related to attitudes, assertiveness, negotiation art and interpersonal communication skills. Behavioral level impacts social intelligence through encouraging behavioral changes and modifications in an individual.

The most difficult level to change is the behavioral level. It is difficult to change behavior of an individual in life. For instance, if one is used to abusing drugs, it would be time-consuming and problematic to reform such person. Behaviors are usually learned throughout life, and it is a challenging task to make an individual try to modify and change a behavior he has had for many years. Therefore, modifying behavioral level is an burdensome task for the majority of people around the globe. For example, when management in an organization introduces some behavioral changes, they usually face much resistance from organization employees. In fact, changing behaviors in a company can be a difficult task both on the organizational and individual levels.

3). In order to develop my social intelligence and leadership capabilities, I need to attain three goals in the next six months. The goals include decision-making skills, problem-solving skills and communication skills. The aims fall under the thinking level of personality.

To start with, improving my communication skills will be critical in ensuring that I can connect effectively with my juniors. Communocation skills are paramount in creating the understanding of different instructions regarding the jobs. Moreover, improving such skill will be important in the area of building a workforce that is highly motivated as a leader in the future. In order to achieve the goal, I will have to attend communication classes for the next three months. The classes are beneficial, as I will be taught about various communication elements, and how I can make use of them to improve my skills. My family and friends will be instrumental in improving communication skills, as they will provide financial and moral support needed for me to attain the goal successfully within a set timeframe.

Secondly, problem-solving skills will be critical for me as a leader. It will be vital when it comes to searching for the solutions to issues facing my juniors in the future. I admit that I am weak in the area of problem solving, and I have to address the drawback to be an effective leader. In order to achieve the goal, I will attend leadership classes in the next four months, where I will get training on how a leader should solve problems in life.

Lastly, developing my decision-making skills will improve my ability to make right decisions in the future when faced with a challenging situations. I will need six months to improve my decision making. Friends and family members will provide moral support needed during the skill development period.