Personal Success Plan

Relationships can be looked upon as being fragile because depending on how they are built and actions that we take, they can easily be broken, especially in the workplace. However, many people, including myself have asked the same question: What is an effective relationship, why build an effective relationship, and why are they so important? Well, since taking this course I am able to respond to these questions with an effective answer. To answer the first question, an effective relationship is a relationship where parties have the ability to openly express their feelings and opinions, while being able to listen and understand each other. An effective relationship boils down to one word; respect. Respect is the core of an effective relationship. Without respect you cannot build a strong nor effective relationship, whether it's business or personal.

In response to the second question, in today's society, we need to build effective relationships for numerous reasons. The main reason is that an organization cannot operate without the cooperation of its members. Another reason is that organizations can have a reflective effect on people that do not work for them but, depend on them for the basic requirements of life. The answer to the question why are effective relationships important is really simple. Effective relationships are important because they create a friendly working environment, where the staff can work together and have mutual understanding.

The readings and information gained in this course has helped me to outline a plan to become more effective with others and expand my circle of influence. It was a bit tedious at first because I thought that I was already effective, but the knowledge I gained proved me wrong.

Prior to taking this class, I didn't have a clear concept of what organizational behavior is and how it works. Well, from reading chapter 1, I have come to learn that organizational behavior is "the study of what people think, feel and do in and around organizations." (McShane & Von Glinow, 2010.) It focuses on employee behavior, decisions, perceptions and emotional responses. The further I read, the more I learned about organizational behavior and the many aspects of it, such as organizational effectiveness, open systems perspective, and internal subsystems effectiveness, just to name a few.

Another topic of reading that was interesting and informative was Chapter 2: Individual Behavior, Personality, and Values. I found this chapter interesting because it relates to me and my current situation at work. At work, because I don't fully understand why some people do certain things and act certain ways, I stepped back from them. Now I have a better understanding, as it relates to their personality, as well as their social identity and self-concept.

However, after doing all of the reading, I was able to take a look at myself and see that I need to improve the way that I work and communicate with others, to make it more effective. The first thing that I know needs to change is my level of motivation. I have motivation; however I feel that my levels of intensity and persistence are low. I have decided to raise the both of them, so that my abilities will shine through. Secondly, I plan to revamp my values in the workplace. At the moment, I am displaying values that coincide with the values of my employer and it is displaying as a person that I am not. According to the text "openness to change refers to the extent to which a person is motivated to pursue innovative ways." (McShane & Von Glinow, 2010.) I have to find ways to be more innovative and take challenges head on with confidence.

Overall, my plan to become more effective is as follows:

* Complete a self assessment: the journey to becoming more effective is to first identify who you are, your strengths and weaknesses.

* Get feedback: Get feedback from a few people to get a better picture of where I stand in the organization, and have them identify my strengths and weaknesses.

* Make a plan: Identify what areas need development/improvement and set basic activities that I can undertake and will set me apart from the most.

* Create Accountability: through creating accountability I have the possibility of executing things and getting the results that I want.

* Refresh the Plan: I need to refresh the plan so that it stays relevant as new areas emerge.

Once I follow all the steps of this plan and improvements arise, I will then be able to expand my influence. Other ways I plan to extend my circle of influence is by having more belief in me and not letting the negative influence take over. Also I plan to turn my problems into opportunities and become more upbeat and enthusiastic. With the things I mentioned, I hope that all problems will turn into opportunities, and all obstacles will be surmounted. I know that in order to make this plan effective, I have to hold my head high and remain focused on the end result.

As we entered unit 2 of the course, the specific arrangement of readings allowed me to gain more knowledge on perception, learning, values, emotions in the workplace and stress. Taking each topic one by one and developing a comprehensible definition of perception, allowed me to give a better observation on different things. At first I thought that perception was basically judging someone or something before becoming familiar with them. However, through reading I found that perception is a process that includes, selecting, organizing and interpreting information. (McShane and Von Glinow, 2010.) Instead of jumping to a conclusion, I learned that I should give it a chance first, instead of going based on a preconception.

The section of learning was very interesting because I don't think that a person could ever stop learning or learn too much. In general life, as a human race each day we learn something different. As the text discussed the three main types of learning, I grasped that I fit the description of learning through experience. "One of the most important ingredients for learning through experience is that the organization and its employees should possess a strong learning orientation. Learning orientation is an individual attitude and organizational culture in which people welcome new learning opportunities, actively experiment with new ideas and practice, view reasonable mistakes as a natural part of the learning process and continuously question past practices." (McShane and Von Glinow, 2010.) Although I fit the concept of learning through experience, my workplace does not because everything is already systematic and doesn't leave room to experiment