BIZ 102 Reflective Journal: Understanding People and Organizations

This reflective journal delves into understanding people and organizations, emphasizing the importance of self-awareness and emotional intelligence. The author reflects on their experience with the Clifton Strengths Finder by Gallup, detailing how the assessment helped them identify their strengths—Adaptability, Harmony, Positivity, Developer, and Restorative—and how these strengths impact their personal and professional life. The journal includes insights from family and friends, offering external validation of the author's talents and highlighting areas for personal growth. The author also discusses how their strengths contribute to their academic success and future entrepreneurial aspirations, while also acknowledging potential weaknesses and the need for balance. The reflection underscores the value of workplace competency and self-improvement.

Understanding People and Organizations
Reflective Journal 2

R u n n i n g h e a d : U N D E R S T A N D I N G P E O P L E A N D O R G A N I Z A T I O N S
| 2
Reflective Journal 2: Clifton Strengths Finder by Gallup
Self-awareness plays a very essential role in discovering our natural talents and helps
attain success in our studies and career ahead. When we have an understanding of our strengths
our chances of getting selected in a job increase and we end up doing what we actually like doing
(Trivellas, Gerogiannis & Svarna, 2013). The Clifton Strengths Finder talents survey by Gallup
is a useful tool to identify strengths and work in them in the future. I have learnt a lot about
myself after using this tool and attending the coaching sessions. I learnt about my skills, my
talents, my reasons for joy and things that always kept me alive. I learnt what I was passionate
about and how I was distracted by things that were not meant to be for me. It was such great
experience learning with my coach who supported me at each step and pushed me to challenge
the possibilities and shine with all the light I already had within. I was really feeling proud of
myself of being so strong and adapting to changing situations so easily. After I discovered my
strengths I learned how I can develop them in a professional way for a bright future. The
assessment was totally practical, interactive and helped me get most out of it. The courses and
survey also provided me with a direction to diverse my skills in a professional context and attain
training ideas.
After I saw the results of my survey, I was really shocked at first. This was not because
they were far away from reality but as they were so accurate. I felt like I have written the
descriptions for each of those five talents on my own. I immediately turned the screen of the
computer and showed the description of Positivity. Her initial response was, ‘Wow! You are
positive all the time!’ She then started reminding me all of the times I used to say that,
‘everything happens for a reason’ and ‘it will work out in the ways you never imagined’. I
laughed how I never knew this was my talent and I radiated positivity throughout with my
personality and smile around people. The description was perfect for what I was as a person. I
continued to scroll down through the strengths report and I had a similar kind of reaction by
viewing my other strengths as well. Honestly, I really liked discovering myself through such
assessments as receiving relevant results are satisfying.
Once I asked my family friends to write affirmations about me and they started doing the
same and mailed them to me. After seeing those I felt overjoyed and humbled. I could not

R u n n i n g h e a d : U N D E R S T A N D I N G P E O P L E A N D O R G A N I Z A T I O N S
| 3
believe the amazing things they said about me. I was really feeling proud about the person I am
who depict talent themes of Adaptability, Harmony, Positivity, Developer and Restorative.
Because of these strengths I adapt easily to situations, stay happy, give more to others and feel
free. This then helps me to achieve my goals and find solutions.
I have always seen myself as a developer because I enjoy recognize and cultivate the
potential in others. This is the strength I resonate with the most. I like to help people improve by
recognizing signs of small progress. This helps me to get satisfaction seeing their progress. My
mom acknowledged this ability of mine, ‘to help younger children and my natural curiosity of
the world’. She tells me that ‘I am unique’ which supports me to inspire everyone and get the
best solutions. This is a skill that has defined by academic career throughout as it has allowed me
to find confidence in myself and vision big dreams. My open and talkative styles have always
helped me to get positive attention of everyone. My teammates have always told me that I was
supportive and inspiring. This is the reason why I want to be an entrepreneur in the future and
start my own venture. My father’s perspective of my talents showed me that it is just not the area
I am strong in, but a strength that is evident to the people who know me the best. I respect my
father as a mentor and I value his opinion. I feel honoured that my parents see my developer
mind as one of the keys to success.
Over the past few weeks, I have discovered that I have really not struggled to understand
academic concepts that were taught by our trainer. I have become more organized in order to
stay away from the mess and build my objectives. Also, I rarely struggle with time management.
My plans seem to execute in a better way and I get ample time to process my ideas in order to
complete my work on time. This is an accurate description of my Restorative strength (Schutte &
Loi, 2014). My mom always ascertained and told that ‘You solve my problems so easily and
quickly figure out what is wrong’. In the affirmations about me, my friends usually wrote
paragraphs describing me as supportive and how I was a good problem-solver. My friends’
views regarding me reminded me of those beautiful times and how much I miss them. I have
literally spent hours to solve the problems of my friends figuring all possible pros and cons.
Considering their thoughts in writing proved that my friends see me as a person they can go for
help and take my advice. This is because they trust my ability to see problems with the best view.
I feel privileged that this is something that I am known for.

R u n n i n g h e a d : U N D E R S T A N D I N G P E O P L E A N D O R G A N I Z A T I O N S
| 4
While reading one of my friend Chloe’s affirmations for adaptability, I realized how
easily I can become a good adapter. She listed the activities where I performed certain activities
and the list was really long. She said that I was a person who, ‘go with the flow’. She told I was
the one who performed really well in activities where there was a need to change priorities and
plan despite norms. She called me a ‘bit perfectionist', which I see as my weakness. I constantly
try to adapt to new situations and be better and sometimes this can be a problem. One of my
leaders in our team expressed this in his affirmation saying that I am a good adaptor as long as I
don’t burn out. I feel that it is great to do the best and stay ambitious. But I need to learn that it is
okay to be satisfied with your achievements in past and stop chasing things that are not in
control. I thrive when I am busy, but when I do not have a full planned time-table I really
struggle to be productive. I need to be adaptable in such situations otherwise my talent of being
adaptable can become a flaw. I need to build a balance so that my desires to be the best does not
overwhelm with my life. This can be a challenge for me but I can overcome this using my other
talents and constructing a training program. My LPA score for achieving objectives is the
highest. This score can guide me on developing my individual goals and taking initiatives to seek
opportunities as required. I will challenge myself every day to be better and evaluate the
outcomes (Raj, 2012). This will help me to achieve all the quality standards and succeed in
future.
As I identify my top five strengths and talent themes I gathered inputs from the people
who know me the best. Their opinion gave me an instant confidence boost. I now feel that I am
academically equipped to face the challenges of the professional world. The positive feedback
from my mentors, friends and family showed me a path where I saw myself as admired and
respected. These people have witnessed the ways my talents have helped others and benefited me
in the past. This thing gives me the faith to believe that by adorning my strengths I can succeed
in the future. Although I must not forget that, each of my strength can be a weakness. Workplace
competency is those which help a person to develop the skills and abilities that are required in
today’s workplaces (Sue et al., 2019). This assessment helped me gain these insights so that I
could increase my employability and career success. In fact, I was able to compare my own
strengths with others around the world which is amazing. I now realize that I just need to put in
extra efforts to carry my strengths to the right place. It is my positive and developer attitude that
makes me restorative and can one day make me an entrepreneur. I wish to choose a completely

R u n n i n g h e a d : U N D E R S T A N D I N G P E O P L E A N D O R G A N I Z A T I O N S
| 5
different path in order to succeed. My strength of being developer will allow me to stay satisfied
with anything and help others that come in my way. This is because I am a positive person who
feels that everything in life happens for a reason and I have the ability to be the best and achieve
success.

R u n n i n g h e a d : U N D E R S T A N D I N G P E O P L E A N D O R G A N I Z A T I O N S
| 6
References
Raj, R. (2012). What Are Some Practical Steps to Help You Achieve Your Objectives?
Schutte, N. S., & Loi, N. M. (2014). Connections between emotional intelligence and
Business 2 Community. Retrieved from
https://www.business2community.com/leadership/what-are-some-practical-steps-to-help-
you-achieve-your-objectives-0281311
Sue, D. W., Sue, D., Neville, H. A., & Smith, L. (2019). Counseling the culturally diverse:
Theory and practice. Wiley.
Trivellas, P., Gerogiannis, V., & Svarna, S. (2013). Emotional Intelligence (WLEIS) in
hospitals: Job satisfaction and turnover Intentions. Procedia-Social and Behavioral
Sciences, 73, 701-709.