Testing for personal effectiveness.
[check] This checklist will help you to assess your personal effectiveness and identify areas for development.Definition
Personal effectiveness is at the heart of best practice and excellence.
Your ability to perform a particular task is not just a measure of your practical knowledge or your skills in a functional area such as human relations, marketing, or information and communications technologies; it is also a reflection of personal qualities, aptitudes and attitudes. Personal skills may also be called transferable skills, personal competences or personal behaviours.
A simple approach to personal effectiveness is offered by allowing you to assess yourself across a wide range of tasks and activities such as teamwork and presentation skills, and ability to manage stress, to influence others, to plan, to relate to others and to prioritise objectives. The checklist is itself a simple test which should take no more than half an hour to complete.
The test summarises a personal competency framework designed by the European Council of Management (CECIOS) for use in profiling managers' personal skills, and first published in Practical self development: a step by step approach to CPD (Institute of Management, 1997). You can use it for analysing your own skills. Equally, it can serve as an effective feedback tool, if you get others--boss, colleagues, staff, customers--to complete it on you.
Tackling the test
1. Each of the competences in the boxes has four statements listed. Look at the statements and decide which is most relevant to your current situation at work.
2. Having selected the statement, tick the column that best describes your own perception of your performance in that area.
3. When you have finished the table, you will be able to review the level of your ability and current level of performance.
4. The statements correspond to levels of management ranging from team leader (the first statement) to senior manager (the fourth statement). If you believe that you perform excellently at a lower level (first and second statements), you perhaps need to identify opportunities to test your skills at a higher level (third and fourth statements). Significant areas of weaker performance should make you review ways of improving these skills.
5. The ultimate test must be whether your colleagues, boss or staff share the same opinion of your particular skill set, so it is worth discussing your perceptions with someone who knows you well. Most managers get surprises when they do this, sometimes because they can find that their worries about performance in some areas are ill-founded
Reviewing test outcomes
Identifying your personal profile may be instructive, but how do you exploit this knowledge? To convert self-knowledge into action and success, you need to do three things:
1. Raise your level of awareness.
Frequent and regular feedback is the only way to increase your awareness of your personality effectively. Look for different sources- self assessment tools, your colleagues, your boss, your partner and friends, even customers. Find ways of asking them what they think.
2. Identify your key development needs.
Review the match between your current job and career aspirations against key aspects of your personality. Try to identify what you need to change to free up your potential.
3. Create realistic action plans.
This is the hard part. To change your behaviour, you need to be realistic, to set SMART (Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Realistic, Time-scheduled) objectives, to expect setbacks, to reward yourself when you succeed and to use others to support and guide you. Most important, you need to review your progress on a regular basis.
Dos and don'ts of testing for personal effectiveness
Do
* Be honest with yourself.
* Ask others to be honest in their perceptions.
Don't
* Take too long over the test--if you are not sure, skip a category and return to it at the end.
Useful reading
Personal effectiveness: a guide to action, Diana Winstanley London: Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development, 2005
Personal effectiveness, 3rd ed., Alex Murdoch and Carol H Scutt Oxford: Butterworth Heinemann, 2003
People skills, 2nd ed., Neil Thompson Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan, 2002
A managers guide to self development, 4th ed., Mike Pedler, John Burgoyne and Tim Boydell London: McGraw Hill, 2001
Thought starters
* Do you know where you want to be five or ten years from now?
* Do you know what the next step(s) is (are)?
* Do you know how to get there?
Personal Competence Indicator Mark x in the appropriate column Very Needs Good Satisfactory Improvement RELATING TO OTHERS treat people evenhandedly actively develop team building and interpersonal skills assist other managers to develop team building and interpersonal skills in their team establish good teamwork and interpersonal skills as a key element in the corporate culture TEAM WORK contribute to the development of internal teams exploit the strengths and skills of staff in your area develop expertise and teamwork across departments in the company develop the corporate culture for promoting staff development PRESENTATION make effective presentations to staff and colleagues make effective presentations to the senior management team use professional presentations to raise the profile of the company promote the company's image and mission through major public presentations ETHICAL PERSPECTIVE comply with statutory and organisational codes of conduct identify potential conflicts between the interests of stakeholders identify and work towards the solution of ethical issues in the company create a company culture with a strong emphasis on business ethics PLANNING AND PRIORITISING OBJECTIVES identify objectives to meet operational requirements translate business plans into operational objectives for your team evaluate and integrate the plans of other managers into corporate business plans create the companies mission and set the strategy COMMITMENT TO EXCELLENCE Consistently seek quality results in your own performance Motivate your team to achieve high quality standards Motivate other managers to achieve high quality standards in key areas Set ambitious, realistic goals for yourself and the rest of the company INFLUENCING OTHERS achieve targets through staff without recourse to inappropriate confrontation secure maximum contributions from staff towards achieving business plans persuade other managers to change their direction and attitudes in key areas gain internal and external support fir the company's mission and strategy INFORMATION SEARCH collect information to monitor operation performance investigate and take advantage of all possible sources of information related to your area of responsibility forecast major trends in your area of business in the company apply information about the wider business environment to make decisions on future corporate direction SELF CONFIDENCE put your ideas into action take action to ensure performance targets for your area are consistently exceeded create new opportunities outside your normal area of responsibility create a feeling of optimism and entrepreneurship within the organisation MANAGING STRESS take advantage of formal processes within the company to reduce stress consult with others to reduce levels of stress within your team reduce the effects of constant pressure through careful planning implement unpopular or stressful plans at company level PERSONAL LEARNING AND DEVELOPMENT assess your own performance without guidance from others use feedback to identify development opportunities for improved personal performance actively seek opportunities for self- development in line with company requirements demonstrate an excellent track record for career development supported by comprehensive feedback STRATEGIC PERSPECTIVE develop clear plans to achieve results within the context set by others reduce complex issues to practical steps and plan activities which take the endeavour forward relate key activities and decisions to long-term strategic aims create and direct a clearly defined vision of the future within the company ANALYSIS apply a practical, accurate approach to operational problems use detailed analysis to direct the future actions of your staff identify new approaches to implementing plans outside your area of expertise generate ideas and create effective strategic plans at corporate level JUDGEMENT use facts to arrive at simple operational decisions use adequate information to support decision making within your area of responsibility use a variety of information and tools to make decisions at a corporate level make consistent decisions on behalf of the whole organisation ORGAINSATIONAL INFLUENCING Use "informal systems" to get things done create your own plans to alter attitudes or activities within the company influence major corporate decisions achieve major changes in the culture and direction of the company OTHER Mark x in the appropriate column: Unsatisfactory Not Relevant RELATING TO OTHERS treat people evenhandedly actively develop team building and interpersonal skills assist other managers to develop team building and interpersonal skills in their team establish good teamwork and interpersonal skills as a key element in the corporate culture TEAM WORK contribute to the development of internal teams exploit the strengths and skills of staff in your area develop expertise and teamwork across departments in the company develop the corporate culture for promoting staff development PRESENTATION make effective presentations to staff and colleagues make effective presentations to the senior management team use professional presentations to raise the profile of the company promote the company's image and mission through major public presentations ETHICAL PERSPECTIVE comply with statutory and organisational codes of conduct identify potential conflicts between the interests of stakeholders identify and work towards the solution of ethical issues in the company create a company culture with a strong emphasis on business ethics PLANNING AND PRIORITISING OBJECTIVES identify objectives to meet operational requirements translate business plans into operational objectives for your team evaluate and integrate the plans of other managers into corporate business plans create the companies mission and set the strategy COMMITMENT TO EXCELLENCE Consistently seek quality results in your own performance Motivate your team to achieve high quality standards Motivate other managers to achieve high quality standards in key areas Set ambitious, realistic goals for yourself and the rest of the company INFLUENCING OTHERS achieve targets through staff without recourse to inappropriate confrontation secure maximum contributions from staff towards achieving business plans persuade other managers to change their direction and attitudes in key areas gain internal and external support fir the company's mission and strategy INFORMATION SEARCH collect information to monitor operation performance investigate and take advantage of all possible sources of information related to your area of responsibility forecast major trends in your area of business in the company apply information about the wider business environment to make decisions on future corporate direction SELF CONFIDENCE put your ideas into action take action to ensure performance targets for your area are consistently exceeded create new opportunities outside your normal area of responsibility create a feeling of optimism and entrepreneurship within the organisation MANAGING STRESS take advantage of formal processes within the company to reduce stress consult with others to reduce levels of stress within your team reduce the effects of constant pressure through careful planning implement unpopular or stressful plans at company level PERSONAL LEARNING AND DEVELOPMENT assess your own performance without guidance from others use feedback to identify development opportunities for improved personal performance actively seek opportunities for self- development in line with company requirements demonstrate an excellent track record for career development supported by comprehensive feedback STRATEGIC PERSPECTIVE develop clear plans to achieve results within the context set by others reduce complex issues to practical steps and plan activities which take the endeavour forward relate key activities and decisions to long-term strategic aims create and direct a clearly defined vision of the future within the company ANALYSIS apply a practical, accurate approach to operational problems use detailed analysis to direct the future actions of your staff identify new approaches to implementing plans outside your area of expertise generate ideas and create effective strategic plans at corporate level JUDGEMENT use facts to arrive at simple operational decisions use adequate information to support decision making within your area of responsibility use a variety of information and tools to make decisions at a corporate level make consistent decisions on behalf of the whole organisation ORGAINSATIONAL INFLUENCING Use "informal systems" to get things done create your own plans to alter attitudes or activities within the company influence major corporate decisions achieve major changes in the culture and direction of the company OTHER
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| Title Annotation: | Checklist 164 |
|---|---|
| Publication: | Chartered Management Institute: Checklists: Personal Effectiveness and Development |
| Geographic Code: | 4EUUK |
| Date: | Oct 1, 2005 |
| Words: | 1990 |
| Previous Article: | Handling information--avoiding overload. |
| Next Article: | Managing knowledge. |
| Topics: | |