Achieving and Maintaining Individual Excellence

Achieving and maintaining individual excellence enables a person achieve personal growth in line with human resource capabilities (Young, 2004, p. 139). This study provides an analysis of personal strengths, weaknesses and areas of growth, in line with various aspects of human resource functions. Analysis is also made with regard to Peter Senge’s five forces. Comprehensively, it entails personal analysis of ways to achieve and maintain individual success.

Force Field Analysis

            Managing the environment incorporates organizing both internal and external organizational to achieve overall corporate success (Gitman, 2008, p. 127). This needs to be done comprehensively and requires a person with strategic foresight and the ability to look at the bigger picture. I believe I have the strategic foresight to analyze both internal and external factors though my biggest restraint is handling the views of other team players. Currently, managing the environment is done in contemporary ways which don’t conform to the turbulent global environment that characterizes the business environment today. My desire is to see more updated ways of environment management adopted.

            With regard to planning and program design, I believe I have the ability to learn fast but my biggest restraint rests in the fact that I don’t have adequate experience in the field. At present, I have a rough idea of what planning and program design entails but my desire is to be mentored in the field to increase my proficiency. When referring to Organizational design; the willingness of employees to follow laid down structures need to be evident (Lawler, 2009). I have the ability to follow laid down structures without much difficulty but my biggest weakness lies in conforming to principles that aren’t in line with personal growth goals. Currently, my personal conviction is that organizational designs should incorporate both personal and organizational goals but current organizational designs don’t entail the diversity of employees.

            Human resource development should be done at a personal level. Currently my greatest strength is the willingness to advance my educational career to the maximum level, but at present, I only have a high school education. I believe this is my greatest weakness because it doesn’t reflect a high stature in human resource development. I hope to get a masters degree as an advancement of my human resource skills and probably get a PHD degree in the near future. My biggest restraint however will be time.

With regards to supervision, my greatest strength is the ability to formulate proper strategies to advance the team into greater heights of success but my biggest weakness is to implement them. Currently I don’t have the necessary experience to deal with people in a work or professional environment but my desire is to master the skills in dealing with people in a professional environment.

            In the field of financial management, my greatest strength is my credibility but my weakness lies in dealing with many aspects of financial management. Currently, I can deal with unskilled aspects of financial management but my desire is to acquire financial management skills in a skilled environment. My skills in information systems are no different because I can only work well in an unskilled environment but my desire is to know how to perform well in a highly skilled environment. However, my greatest strength lies in the fact that I know how to work in a basic information systems environment. My greatest weakness however lies in getting attached to contemporary information systems applications.

            With regard to program evaluation, my greatest strength lies in the fact that I am very dynamic and can come up with a very creative program evaluation program. Nonetheless, my weakness lies in my lack of patience; especially in seeing my programs materialize. Currently, I can work best in a small environment but my desire is to achieve excellence in a larger work environment. As regards leadership and organizational change, my greatest strength is my charisma but my weakness is my inability to incorporate the views of everyone. Currently, I would term myself an average leader because of my charisma and flexibility; which also aligns me well with organizational change. However, I desire to be an exceptional leader.

The strengths and weaknesses discussed above can be summarized as follows:                          

Driving Forces	Current    State	Desired  State	Restraining Forces
Strategic foresight	Adoption of contemporary ways of managing environment	Adoption of updated ways of environment management	Poor handling of other team                                                                                                 player’s views
Ability to learn fast	Lack of knowledge	Mentorship	Lack of adequate experience
Ability to follow laid down structures	Lack of accommodation of divergent views	Accommodation of divergent views	Nonconformance to principles that aren’t in line with personal growth goals
Willingness to advance my educational career to the maximum level	High school education	Get a masters and PHD degree	Time constraint
Ability to formulate proper strategies	Inadequate skills	Skill proficiency in a professional environment	Poor implementation skills
Good credibility	Dealing with unskilled aspects of financial management	Acquire financial management skills in a skilled environment	Dealing with many aspects of financial management
Proficiency in working in a basic skilled environment	Working in an unskilled environment	Proficient in a skilled environment	Attachment to contemporary information systems applications
Dynamism	Ability to work in a small environment	Ability to work in a large business environment	Lack of Patience
Good Charisma	Average leader	To be an exceptional leader	inability to incorporate the views of everyone

 Peter Senge’s Five Disciplines

            Personal growth and learning requires someone to be a fast learner. My hands-on, proactive approach to tasks and open mindedness aligns me in a path of personal mastery. This will however take a considerable amount of time before I achieve perfection. With regard to mental models, the current business and professional environment provides the best opportunities for personal growth. However, opportunities should be opened to everyone and traces of prejudice should be eliminated to provide an equal opportunity for personal growth to individuals. Every organization should also have a mission or vision statement that incorporates the collective vision of every employee. This will improve productivity and efficiency because every person will feel accommodated in the organization. This should however be done through proper communication channels in the organization that merges the views of the management and employees alike (Lawler, 2009).

Team building being a core facet to organizational success, my ability to work with other people and learn new things, provides good ground for personal growth. My ability to respect authority will also go a long way in building team cohesion if all team members can follow the same steps. With regard to systems thinking my strategic foresight ability is in alignment to this goal. In fact, I will get the necessary experience in integrating the four aspects of Senge’s five disciplines to develop the best strategic foresight. After proper comprehension of how the system works, I will be in a position to make adjustment for alignment to growth (Lawler, 2009).

Conclusion

            Achieving high levels of personal growth incorporates self assessment of personal strengths and weaknesses. Growth is therefore induced when strengths are capitalized and weaknesses turned into strengths. Peter Senge’s five forces also provide the framework to which these factors can be maximized to achieve human growth. The development of successful personal growth can therefore be analyzed through a comprehensive evaluation of personal skills and weaknesses.

References

Gitman, L. (2008). The Future of Business: The Essentials. London: Cengage.

Lawler, E. (2009). Achieving Excellence in Human Resource Management. California: Stanford

            University press.        

Young, D. (2004). The music of Management: Applying Organizational Theory. New York: Ash

gate Publishing.