Organizational Behaviour

Personally Organizational Behavior was quite an interesting and enriching learning experience for me. Although a lot of the components of the course were something one learns in some form or the other and has practiced during one’s career progression, it’s interesting how I personally chose to forget some of the basics essentials of being a manager and most importunately being a successful manager. I guess working with different leadership styles and job requirements rubs off on an individuals working style, and to an extent influences their leadership style, which I believe has happened with me. Retrospectively if I have to look at my career and more specifically my leadership style, it has changed to a great extent. I say it has changed based on my approach to people. It has changed based on how I respond to people’s emotions now against how I used to respond maybe 5 years ago, I believe I was more understanding and patient with my people then, than what I am today. I could relate to the fact about how an Organization’s goals and culture can influence a manager’s behavior and working style.

OB has helped me by giving me a very objective view of what I was, what I have become and what I should be. It has for example provided me with an insight on how I have maybe suppressed my original style of leadership and latched on to a style that is not truly mine, but an amalgamation of what my organization demands and my bosses demanded.

A key learning for me has been knowing the importance of Interpersonal skills or networking. As a personality I am not an outgoing individual and I have always had this perception that good interpersonal skills is nothing but sucking up to others, which I could never see myself doing. I have always wanted my work to speak for itself and I was lucky enough that it has on most occasions. However, once again retrospectively if I have to look at my own career, I do believe I could have been more successful if I had better interpersonal skills. This is an area which conflicts with my personality and I know is going to be the hardest to work upon, however, I strongly feel I have been making progress in this area and would like to continue working on it.

I have always considered myself to be a strong leader, in the sense that I have been good with managing people, it’s something I believe comes naturally to me because I have always tried to be fair, patient and have a very balanced approach in dealing with an individual, team and the task, however, I have always had a hard time understanding why people fail to be good leaders. For more than 10 years I have been managing people managers and have seen a lot of them struggle in their role, and my feedback to them has always been based on my assumptions of what I considered a good leader, it worked in most of the cases, however, failed in some. OB has given me a very scientific view of what is expected of a leader