Archive for the ‘Journal Questions’ Category
Calculate your positive to negative interaction ratio. What was your ratio and what could you do to improve it?
My ratio seems to sit around 4-5:1 ratio positive to negatve responses with a conversation which is not a bad level. My less positive responses are of the “yeah, but…” type (Being a lateral thinker I usually always have something extra to add to what anyone is saying). To increase this ratio even more I should take more time to practice active listening and reserve adding my my extra thoughts and opinions untill I have heard what the other person is saying all the way through and acknowledging with positive gesture and feedback that what they are saying is important before responding.
What is your score on the Losada ratio survey? And What could you do to increase the levels of positive emotion you experience in your leadership and personal contexts?
My score for the Losada positivity ratio was 4. The lowest positive emotion scores were in the “amused, fun-loving, silly” and “awe, wonder, amazement” areas for the particular day I took the test.
To increase these I could look at making some more time in my day to be humorous or watch/listen to something fun on the internet or with my work mates. Also perhaps spend some more time appreciating beauty in the world a bit more…. stopping to smell the roses so to speak on a more regular basis.
Tags: How could you better utilise your signature strengths
- In your current or future leadership experiences?
Get involved in more team based work and projects, lead by example with high organisational citizenship and inspire other to learn new skills, ideas and explore new ways of doing the same things things. - Within your university endeavours?
Loving of learning is not a bad character strength to have in regards to study! I could (and have) utilise this by reading more related texts, blogs and articles to a paper other than just the required readings. Google and wiki some of the non-exam related facts and intricacies after lectures.
Could also work in with other students when it comes to exam preparation and sharing the workload. - Within your personal life?
I could find out something new about a culture or country I am interested in (at the moment I have been looking into Japanses language and history). I am also one to share random irreverent facts at the drop of a hat with my partner bits and pieces I have picked up, read, come across on the net etc.
My signature strengths:
Love of Learning
Curiosity and interest in the world
Teamwork, Citizenship, Loyalty.
Complete the Gratitude (three good things) exercise for a week and record at least two days worth you good things with their causal explanation.
Here is two days from my “3 good things a day” journal I am keeping as part of my personal leadership paper.
Friday
Had a jam session at work.
I worked hard all week and as a team we had a great jam session as a reward for a great weeks work.
Completed my project goals at work.
I worked close to the project plan and used my expertise to develop a new promotional tool for my companies website.
Organised going to Auckland for Iaido seminar.
I have been training hard at Iaido and want to meet more people who practice this art.
Wednesday
My partner got a job offer.
I encouraged her and helped her complete a video project that has led to her landing a full job.
I gave to the Tsunami relief fund and encouraged others to do the same through the use of social media tools.
I felt that it was a good cause and I knew I if syndicated it out to my social networks many others would give to the cause too… over $10,000 was raised as a result.
A fellow student shared his work with me.
I took time to get to know a fellow student who I ended up helping out by introducing him to my companies CEO for him to do a report. He has since trusted me enough to share his report with me and we are also looking to share some study workload for the upcoming MGMT208 exam.
Record a complete ABCDE process for negative thought/s that are connected to your BHAG.
The following is an optimism intervention example based around the ABCDE (Adversity, Belief, Consequence, [Distraction, Distancing, Disputing, Decatasrophising], Energising) optimism technique for thoughts around my BHAG (See my Personal Development Plan).
Adversity: I thought about what I need to do to become an effective leader and influencer within my industry (Technology/Web/IT).
Belief: People won’t want to follow my ideas or take me seriously.
Consequence:Lowers my motivation to push forward with my goals, feel less like putting myself out there and networking and becoming known.
Distraction: Use positive affirmation statements and habbitualise them in my everyday life, do confidence building exercises.
Distancing: Someone who knows me well would say that I am well liked and people trust my ideas and opinions so I shouldn’t worry about this.
Disputing:
Alternate Belief 1:
Belief: People are interested in my work and share my ideas.
Evidence: I already have a good social network of people that do follow me and I do post a lot of good content and ideas, I have helped several people better make use of technology in their businesses already.
Consequence: I will have better motivation and achieve my goals.
Alternate Belief 2:
Belief: I will have to work hard, learn more but it will pay off and I will be a central contributor in my social network.
Evidence: I am working towards my Degree at present and every new thing learn’t is something more to share and help those in my social network, and other businesses out with.
Consequence: More motivation, positive feedback and a causal reason for my following.
Decatastrophising:
Best thing that could happen?: I contribute great meaningful ideas and help many individuals and businesses make the most of social networks, technology and push change in the way people work.
Worst thing that could happen?: I am not taken seriously and ignored
The most likely thing to happen?: I will work hard, stay true to my core values and build my following through my being a good human being.
Energising: I can see the results of my continued learning and training and enjoy maintaining my social network and the working relationships I have made.
Record a complete ABCDE process for the negative thoughts you have had surrounding some form of adversity you have had to face.
The following is an optimism intervention example based around the ABCDE (Adversity, Belief, Consequence, [Distraction, Distancing, Disputing, Decatasrophising], Energising) optimism technique.
Adversity: I have trouble sleeping when I stay in unfamiliar places.
Belief: I won’t get any sleep and I will feel terrible the next day.
Consequence: I feel un-easy, anxious and like I don’t want to go places.
Distraction: When I have trouble sleeping I use breathing exercises, get up and watch tv or have a hot drink to break the anxious thoughts.
Distancing: Just relax, not sleeping isn’t a big deal anyways as long as you rest you will eventually get to sleep.
Disputing:
Alternate Belief 1:
Belief: I will have a great nights sleep wherever I am staying.
Evidence: There have been times I haven’t had any trouble sleeping while traveling.
Consequence: I will feel better about traveling to new places.
Alternate Belief 2:
Belief: Even if I have some initial trouble sleeping, I will eventually get to sleep so no need to stress.
Evidence: I do usually get to sleep after a few distraction techniques to calm myself.
Consequence: I won’t get wound up if I can’t get to sleep right away.
Decatastrophising:
Best thing that could happen?: I never have any problems with my sleep and I can travel anyway without worrying about having a terrible sleep.
Worst thing that could happen?: I don’t sleep and spend the next day feeling stressed , anxious and unable to enjoy my stay.
The most likely thing to happen?: Even if I have a little trouble getting to sleep I will eventually get to rest, once I relax and break the rumination cycle.
Energising: I less I think that sleeping is actually an issue the better I feel about visiting new places and taking trips away from my familiar comfort zone which is great because I enjoy new places and learning and exploring.
What are you top 5 strengths on the VIAstrengths survey. Which of those 5 are your signature strengths?
Take the VIA Character strengths survey… its quite long but gets a pretty accurate top 5 strengths it should take about 30-45 mins to run through. Check the link here
http://www.viacharacter.org/VIASurvey/VIASurvey/tabid/237/Default.aspx
These are my results from the survey:
Your Top Character Strength
Love of learning
You love learning new things, whether in a class or on your own. You have always loved school, reading, and museums-anywhere and everywhere there is an opportunity to learn.
Your Second Character Strength
Caution, prudence, and discretion
You are a careful person, and your choices are consistently prudent ones. You do not say or do things that you might later regret.
Your Third Character Strength
Curiosity and interest in the world
You are curious about everything. You are always asking questions, and you find all subjects and topics fascinating. You like exploration and discovery.
Your Fourth Character Strength
Judgment, critical thinking, and open-mindedness
Thinking things through and examining them from all sides are important aspects of who you are. You do not jump to conclusions, and you rely only on solid evidence to make your decisions. You are able to change your mind.
Your Fifth Character Strength
Citizenship, teamwork, and loyalty
You excel as a member of a group. You are a loyal and dedicated teammate, you always do your share, and you work hard for the success of your group.
My signature strenghts from these 5 are:
Love of learning
Curiousity and interest in the world
Teamwork, citizenship and loyalty
These 3 give me the most joy, excitment and I would pursue them in everything I do.
Complete the optimism questionnaire and record all your optimism scores. What significance do these scores have to you and what is the next step.
Having completed the optimism questionnaire as part of the leadership paper my optimism level is apparently “-2″ that being leaning slightly into the pesimistic realm (the scale being -9 to 9).
I am taking this as a healthy dose of pessimism as I am always one to hope for the best, plan for the worst to a realistic level. This is very useful in working out risk and planning contingently around projects and goals.
However sometime a little pessimism can get you down and it is always good to try and self-improve so my plan next it to work at increasing my levels of learned optimism through positive affirmation techniques, gratitude writing and reading more about positive psychology.
I just picked up a copy of Meiron Lees “D-Stress” book from the local university book shop which looks to be an interesting and practical read around improving optimism.
Hopeful Thinking
We have been looking at hope as part of leadership at university, particularly “Hope theory” part of positive psychology which sets out that hope is the perception of attainable goals which you can reach through multiple pathways and sustained motivation (also called agency thinking).
I ran my BHAG goal through a Hope goals assesment questionare to get a better idea if my goal meet the criteria of being “Hopeful” for my personal development assessment.
First the goal itself:
Leading a community of technology developers which helps make online technology intuitive and encouraging the business world to adopt and understand technology to build communities around ideas and products.
My goal is something I have ownership over, that is it fits within my values and purpose in life. It is attainable and an approach goal. It is also a goal that others might have similar goals to (which is great as I can ally with those that share similar ideas, goals and hope as me).
Pathways to my goal are many, I could find others that are also working towards this goal and work with them, start my own company, work freelance, do consulting work or contribute to and help lead online communities around building and using new technologies. All these ways to acheive my goal fit within my values though I do want to learn more around project management particularly Agile Software Development which is entirely feasible and within my power to go out and learn.
Motivation towards this goal (Agency) is my main barrier at the moment however putting my goal into a personal development plan (PDP) and working through how to reach this goal has been building excitment and hope that I can reach my goal. I ended up adding a section or sub-goal into my PDP around building more positve self-talk through learned optimism and affirmation techniques. Those internal resistences always pop up when we set a lofty goal but being something I really want to do I’m positive a little self improvement can do no harm.
Anyway, My PDP was handed in on Monday so once the lecturer has had a chance to mark it I will be releasing here on the blog so keep checking back.
What “gifts” might you enjoy if you were to commit to a sense of calling?
I’m sure that there would be many gifts in the form of feelings of achievement, great relationships with others who are also passionate about community and technology like myself, a sense of helping others, making technology more accessible and easy for others and hopefully a calm mind and less stress and anxiety.
I am hoping that it will also generate gifts for others, if I can help businesses to do better with online tools and technology or help to build other people visions if I help them or build them websites or applications that would be great. There would be a sense that through my purpose and calling that others can succeed because of me following this path.
