Achieving and Maintaining Individual Excellence

Introduction

Knowing whom I am, where I am going and how I am going to get there is the first step to achieving excellence in my life. I need to know what I want to accomplish in life and the skills that I have will help me determine that. I have several driving forces in life. I am a person who is self-driven and will attempt any challenges presented to me before I admit that I cannot handle them. This has helped me in life, as I have been able to accomplish so much. Being self-driven in the past has allowed me to work with minimal supervision. I have been able to manage my time and other resources well because of this.

Discussion

I do not disregard the importance of teams or groups since I know that human interaction is very fundamental. I know that sharing problems and seeking assistance is one of the ways that I can accomplish my goals. As people come together, they can share ideas and knowledge and enrich each other. I am a good coordinator and I am able to lead and manage the people and the environment I am in with minimal effort. I usually do this by consulting with the other members and ensuring that everybody in the team agrees with the decision reached. This makes the team members feel important and they are more willing to accomplish the goals we have set in place.

Having a passion for what I do motivates me to work even when the situation is not favorable. Once I get my mind into a project, I will strive to accomplish it in the best way possible. This helps me in planning and program design. I plan small-scale projects that I am able to complete in time and in the best way possible. My driving force in organizational design comes from my ability to be structured. I am a highly structured person though I have not met any challenging situations in this particular area. One attribute that I need to improve however, is patience, which is an important character in human resource development. I am not a particularly patient person and this has made me lose some opportunities in life. I realize that I ought to be a patient person especially when I am working with other people.

Driving forces are the opportunities or problems that provide motivation for change while restraining forces are barriers to change (Daft, 2007). I do not have the necessary skills needed to supervise a large team since I have only worked with small teams. The people I have worked with are all at the same level and there is minimal diversity. I do not have the adequate knowledge of information system. This is a crucial element in today’s world and though I know the basics, technology keeps on changing and I have not had the opportunity to update on what I know. Another restraining force is financial management. I have never had the opportunity to handle large financial transactions or budgeted for anything and this is a major hindrance.

Organizational change may prove hard to initiate especially if one is not prepared for it. A leader can choose to initiate the change based on the leadership style that he or she uses. Some leaders choose to use directive leadership where they exercise their full authority. They feel responsible for the major decisions they want implemented and they will make sure that they have overseen the tasks up to completion. Other leaders opt to use participative leadership style. They involve the other members of the staff in their decision-making. They present their ideas and suggestions to the staff and ask for their opinion regarding the issues presented. They welcome alternative suggestions from the staff members but they have a final say regarding the issue. Some leaders will delegate duties, roles and other functions to the members. They do not seek to have a final say in the suggestions proposed or the decisions made by the employees. They have full trust in the staff members and they have entrusted the responsibility of decision making to them. They implement their decisions and are at ease without having to show their full authority (Brody, 2005).

Each of these styles has its own advantages and disadvantages. Where leaders choose to delegate to the employees, they are showing their full confidence in them, which is a motivating factor to them. However, the decisions made may not be the best for the organization and it may ne too late to change anything once the decisions have been implemented. Directive leadership may seem to be authoritarian. Employees may be uncooperative and they will be opposed to any changes. It is also limiting since the ideas come from one source. Participative leadership takes into account all the opinion and it is usually preferred. However, it can prove to be time consuming and therefore not suitable for urgent matters.

Peter Senge defined a learning organization as an “organization where people continually expand their capacity to create the results they truly desire, where new and expansive patterns of thinking are nurtured, where collective aspiration is set free and where people are continually learning to see the whole together (Senge, 1990).” He identified five disciplines or component technologies, which distinguished a learning organization from other organizations. These disciplines are systems thinking, personal mastery, mental models, building a shared vision and team learning.

The essence of personal mastery is that individuals should continually strive to improve themselves in all areas. Personal mastery is a learning process, which has no end as it contributes to the growth of the individual. People ought to improve continually their knowledge through learning, as there is always something new to be learnt. Without individual learning, there can be no organizational learning. It is not only concerned with skills and knowledge but also with personal vision. It enables employees to conduct their work in a more efficient way by avoiding errors.

Mental models refer to the assumptions and generalizations that make up people’s understanding of how they see the world and how they take a particular action. It involves thinking, reflecting and having a clear picture and thought about how individuals see the world. Individuals should have a clear picture of themselves so that they can know where they are going. Employees should go beyond assumptions and stereotypes in order for them to be fair to the customers and to provide them with the best services. It is also applicable in teams, where one should not make assumptions about another’s suggestion but should instead listen to the contributions of everybody. Personal biasness should be kept aside to ensure efficiency and effective delivery of services. Everyone has their own opinion regarding a situation and they should use this knowledge for the benefit of the group and the organization.

Shared vision means sharing personal principles and vision to the others to build a better future. Each person in an organization has his or her own vision about the company, depending on the various levels and departments where they work. They should be able to share this vision with each other and come into a common agreement. The vision of most people is to see their company or organization being the leader in their field. Though the employees might agree on this, they might differ on how to go about it. The employees should be able to decide on the way forward seeing that they have a common vision.

Team learning is the learning of skills and habits to improve the groups or organization’s intelligence and knowledge. This way the group or the organization is considered greater than individual knowledge (Nilson, 2003). It involves working with others to solve difficult problems and come up with solutions that are agreeable with everybody. The team members have different personalities and varied opinions and these should be used for the benefit of the organization. Communication is an important feature in teams. It is practically impossible to work in teams without communicating and one should therefore develop appropriate communication skills. Listening is an important part of communication and one of my strongest attributes. Being a good listener ensures that one gets to hear the opinion of the others and one does not rush into making decisions. Team learning is one of my driving sources, though in a small way. I am able to handle small teams but I need to learn managing larger teams.

Systems thinking hold the shared vision, personal mastery, team learning and mental models together. It involves using a different mindset in dealing with various issues. Individuals should be able to examine the whole and understand the relationships between different parts. In an organization, that means that a person should see it as a whole and understand the different components and departments that make it up. A process should not be seen in isolation but it should be seen as part of a whole. Finding a quick solution to problems without delving into the real issue is sometimes seen as the best and easy way out since it saves a lot of time and resources. However, that can be likened as treating the symptoms instead of finding the root cause for the problem. One should take the time to find out where the problems originate from and what other departments and sectors are involved. Treating them as a whole instead of treating individual parts will ensure that the problem does not recur (Society for Organizational Learning, n. d.).

Conclusion

As a conclusion, driving forces are the opportunities that bring motivation for change. Restraining forces oppose any attempts to change. For successful implementation of change in the organization, the driving forces should be more than the restraining forces. The style of leadership in the organization usually determines how the leader will initiate the changes. The five disciplines identified by Senge usually differentiate between a learning organization and other organizations. They include system thinking, mental models, shared vision, team learning and personal mastery.

References

Brody, R. (2005). Effectively managing human service organizations. Thousand Oaks, CA: SAGE.

Daft, L. R. (2007). Management. New York, NY: Cengage Learning.

Nilson, D. C. (2003). How to manage training: a guide to design and delivery for high performance, Volume 1. New York, NY: AMACOM Div American Mgmt Assn.

Senge, M. P. (1990). The fifth discipline: The art and practice of the learning organization. New York, NY: Doubleday/Currency.

Society for Organizational Learning. (n. d.). The five disciplines of organizational learning. Retrieved 10 February 2011, from http://www.solonline.org/organizational_overview/