ESSAY
As defined by Daniel Goleman, self-awareness is the foundation
of emotional intelligence. The lectures and the in-class exercises
helped reveal a skills gap that I need to work on for success in
the future. My mindset progressed from a fixed one more towards a
growth mindset in each lecture. Also, I have realised that changing
ones values and mind-set is a necessary step in order to adapt to
the changing environment and, constantly improve and grow.
Through the personal surveys that I conducted, I got helpful
insights in discovering my blind self and determining my strengths
and weaknesses. A lot of the responses from my personal interviews
indicate that I need to have more self-confidence and be more of a
risk-taker. This has made me realise that being under confident is
the reason which led me to pass a lot of opportunities that came my
way, simply because I believed I could not do it and is also the
reason that I do not participate in conversations that require me
to express my point of view in front of strangers. The Ted Talk by
Amy Cuddy (shown in second lecture of the course), was highly
effective in conveying the importance of body language and it made
me aware that I have a scope for improvement in the area of
non-verbal communication-as also, pointed out by one of my
interviewees in the personal survey- especially my posture, eye
contact and facial expressions. Being shy and under-confident, my
body language is not as effective and impressionable as I would
like. On the other hand, many said that I stay calm in stressful
situations and my productivity rather increases in such situations.
Also, some people see me as being trustworthy and reliable.
The field of work I am interested in joining in the future is
corporate finance and banking, more specifically as a financial
analyst. In order to be successful in this field one needs to be
able to express oneself clearly and concisely, be team-oriented,
good at time management, resilient and self-motivated, to name a
few. I aim to fill my skills gap by taking up the leadership roles
in various group projects and focusing on my presentation skills.
This will serve the dual purpose of overcoming stage fright- thus
increasing my confidence and improving my communication skills. In
other words, I need to step out of my comfort zone and act
according to the situation without any fear. In order to do so, I
want to have as many new experiences as possible, for instance,
joining debate clubs and societies, working part-time. Also, not
knowing the French language is a huge disadvantage both personally
and professionally. So, I wish to reach advanced proficiency, thus,
showing my determination towards learning a new language.
Also, my long-term goal is to move towards the experienced
member scenario of the Johari Window as much as possible, by
discovering more and more weaknesses, as well as strengths, that
are still unknown to me- through more self-awareness
techniques.
I got interesting feedback through the personal surveys
highlighting some traits, which I did not realize I have, both the
positive and negative traits. The following is what I learnt from
the survey:
I have high determination to succeed, but due to my
under-confidence and shyness, it is not visible and because of the
same trait I come across as being nave and thus, suggesting that I
should make more efforts to be outspoken. Well-organized Reliable
and trustworthy Need to take up more challenging tasks and keep
pushing myself. Good listener, which helps me to assess the
situation better.
