PURSUING EXCELLENCE: WORK STRENGTHS, ASSETS AND RELEVANT VALUES (AN EXPERIENTIAL EXERCISE) Developments In Business Simulation & Experiential Exercises, Volume 19, 1992 209 PURSUING EXCELLENCE: WORK STRENGTHS, ASSETS AND RELEVANT VALUES (AN EXPERIENTIAL EXERCISE) Richard E. Dutton, The University of South Florida INTRODUCTION “The achievement of excellence requires both a widespread competence among people and an environment which encourages and enables the expression of that competence. We are blessed with the first, but we have defaulted on the last. We have created organizations, which punish rather than encourage and suppress rather than enable a full expression of human competence. There is an irony in all this, which every leader should ponder. (Hall. 1988, P. xii).” As one moves up the organizational ladder, the job role becomes less tangible and predictable. The organization is perceived by the leader as more dynamic. Change, ambiguity, and contradiction become more the rule than the exception. Complex and intuitive decisions are needed. Many new leaders are unable to cope with the stress, uncertainty and tension related to these roles. They remain novices. What causes some to become excellent and successful managers and some to revert back to the comfort of a job which is well described and controlled? The purpose of this exercise is to examine this concept of excellence and success in the workplace beyond what may be considered a rational choice. The World of Work Of all our activities, our work has the greatest potential to satisfy our basic and social needs. It should follow that accurate self-knowledge precedes a job choice and, in fact, it should define the job choice. When our self-knowledge increases our chances of pursuing a personally-appropriate job should also increase. Our chances of becoming self- fulfilled improve accordingly. We must consider our strengths, needs and values. Strengths are those characteristics, which we have that we use with effective results. They are usually activities or skills that please us and please others. Needs and values are often difficult to distinguish. A need is a strong force, like an emotional desire. A value is a need transformed into a concept by which we interpret our world and by which we guide our lives. By careful observation of past experiences and our behavior, our strengths and values may be identified, analyzed, and verified. The Exercise Events Event One: Priority List of Strengths Rank your strengths in the order of ability and frequency of use. (A strength in which you have great ability and frequent use would be listed higher than one of great ability and moderate use, etc...). Each participant will have a form for listing strengths and their verification. Event Two: Defining Your Assets Our assets are our natural resources--granted to us at birth - height, looks, smile, posture, bone structure, emotional outlook, etc... Each participant will list as many assets as they can. Next, have someone who knows you well, prepare a similar list from their perspective. Even better, have several friends respond if this is possible. Ask them not to consult each other as they are writing their list of assets. (If they are willing, also ask them to write down ten strengths that you show in your work.) Event Three: Identifying Values Some values are conscious and easily identifiable, others are unconscious and require more work to bring them to the surface. The following list reflects the most typical values identified by people as relevant to their work. Respond to the following items in as much detail as possible in the space provided. Focus on how important each one is to you in the work setting. 1. Security 9. Independence 2. Status 10. Altruism 3. Compensation 11. Creativity 4. Achievement 12. Ethical Harmony 5 Advancement 13. Intellectual Stimulation 6. Affiliation 14. Variety 7. Recognition 15. Aesthetic 8. Authority Now, select the top five-(5) values-the ones that are most important to you. List the top five Values. List your top five Strengths. Conclusion By thoughtful analysis and selection, you now have found you’re most important and most relevant values and strengths. This creates the “fit” that you should seek when looking for a career position. In such a position, you are most likely to find the best matching of talents, desires and strengths with the goals and performance needed by the organization. The possibility of success by doing the things that you do best is greatly enhanced. Some would say that progress is made almost “effortlessly”. But this is not really the case. Good results and the joy of pursuing excellence come from greater knowledge of strengths and values, and finding a much better match of talent and organizational needs. We cannot be effective in pursuing the right career unless we first know ourselves in terms of assets, strengths, priorities and values. The realistic performance of this exercise will help greatly in finding what we have to offer as a human resource. REFERENCES References are available upon request. Table of Contents Volume 19, 1992 The Pedagogical Utility of a Management Simulation Game in a Business Policy Course Modeling Economic Environments in Business Simulations: Some Comparisons and Recommendations Experiential Learning and TQM Principles: Teaching Behavioral Science in a Business School The Use of Poster Presentations as a Final Project in the Business Policy Course The Device Business: A Management Simulation for Strategy Formulation The Advantages of Experiential learning in the Auditing curriculum A Framework for the Identification of Moderated and Mediated Performance consequences of Pedagogical Alternatives Simulating Qualitative Research Relating to Values and Lifestyle Segmentation A New Market Demand Model for Business Simulators Interactive Optimization Using the Method of Relative Improvement Preferences: Methodology and Empirical Evaluation The Service Trainer Simulation Benefits of Internet Computer Networks for ABSEL Members How Should We Measure Experiential Learning? An Assessment of Simulation Usage in Management Accounting Courses The Influence of Myers-Briggs Type and Group Dynamics on Simulation Performance Effective Leadership Behavior in the Desert Storm Arena: An Application of the Vroom-Yetton-Jago Model Installing and Consolidating Work-Team Values: The Effects of a Multicultural Outdoors Experiential Program Key Determinants and Decision performance in a Business Simulations and Experiential Learning environment Multi-Cultural Experiential Learning: A Computer Simulation in Indonesia Attitudes Toward and Emotions Related to Women as Managers: A Replication and Beyond Scenario Approach to Simulating Consumer Expenditures: A Cross-Cultural Analysis Insights into Ethical Decision making Activities and Organizational Performance: A Management Simulation Analysis of College Students and Managers Evaluating a Business Simulation Program for Joint Venture Negotiation and Management Teaching Business Interviewing Strategies with an Experiential Approach Cooperative Learning Across the Business Curriculum Modeling Total Quality Elements into a Strategy-Oriented Simulation Teaching Business Decision making using a Simulator Extending the Educational Utility of a Simulated Competition within the Confines of an Established Undergraduate Marketing Curriculum Expert Systems Versus Traditional Methods for Teaching Accounting Issues Confidence Extremes Diminish Quality Performance in a Total Enterprise Simulation Can Ethics Be Taught? A Simulation Tests a Traditional Ethics Pedagogy Through The Looking Glass, Inc.: Organizational Climate Research as Experiential Pedagogy The use of Cluster Analysis for Business Game Performance Analysis Power and Ethnicity: An Experiential Learning Exercise (How to Sensitize Students to Diversity) Directed Development of Critical and Creative Thinking Skills for Case Analysis Implementing Total Quality Management in a Computerized Business Simulation Product Quality in Business Simulations Use of Simulation for Ethics Education in Management Satisfying the University's Customers through Total Quality Management Instruction: A Case Study Personality Characteristics and Group Performance in Total Enterprise Simulations Concepts of Interval Estimation and Quality Control Charts via Computer Simulated Sampling An Examination of the Effect of Team Cohesion, Player Attitude, and Performance Expectations on Simulation Performance Results The Effectiveness of Inventory Management and Production Scheduling Training in a Total Quality Management Environment Peer Group Indicators of the External Validity of Business Games: A five-year Longitudinal Study Political Strategies and Personal Actions Does Practice make Perfect? Observations on Simulation Trial The Use of A Non-Business Computer Simulation to Teach Marketing Management BankPro Commercial Bank Simulation The Production Game Pursuing Excellence: Work Strengths, Assets and relevant Values (An Exercise) Test of a Short Outward Bound Experience for College Students What is it that we want Student To Learn? Using Two TQM Philosophies when Playing Blackjack The Lagged Effects of Decision Variables on Financial Performance Measures Used in Two business Simulations The Development of an Experiential Exercise for Career Planning and Effective Job search Performance Measuring Quality in Management of Business Pedagogy Exploring Quality and Productivity Improvement: Using and Experiential Process Toward a Generalized Architecture for Intelligent Reactive Management Systems The Quality Game TQX: Using Expert Systems to Improve Training in Total Quality Management A Simulation of the Effect of the Medicaid Payment Lag on the Financial Position of Community Pharmacies The Use of a Board of Directors to Evaluate and Validate Decisions in a Competitive Graduate Management Simulation Course The Impact of Academic Dishonesty on Business Simulations and Experiential Learning Activities Picture Project: An Experience of Icebreaking and/or Decision-Making An Effective Role-playing Exercise for Teaching Requisite TQM Supervisory Attitudes/Behavior Computerized Management Simulations and Some Correlates of Students' Satisfaction The Timing and Stability of Reactions to Market Structure in a Single Player Simulation Environment A Graphics Application Extension for a Simulated Decision Support System Environment Aspects of a Group Project Utilizing Actual Business data and a Computerized Accounting System The Role of Universities' Extended Learning Department in Assisting Organizations Implement Total Quality Management A three-dimensional Learning Experience to Develop Total Quality Management Skills Estimating Quality Costs by Computer Simulation Applications and Examples of Quality Control Software Assessing Business Pedagogy A Demonstration of an Experiential Process for Exploring Quality and Productivity Improvement Processes An Action-Ethics Dilemma: A Demonstration Org Sim Jr.: A 2-3 Hour Version of the 2-Day Blanchard/Murrell Organization Simulation Building Buildings: An Experiential Exercise in Organizational Structure, Communication, Leadership and Group Dynamics Expert Systems for Organization Design: A Demonstration A Demonstration of Product Quality in a Business Simulation: Version 2 of CEO Two Revolutions, Total Quality Leadership, and the Baldy: The Story of Milliken Total Quality after the Award - The Xerox Story Building a Competitive Advantage through Customer Satisfaction and Reengineering Human Resource Planning: Managing the Only Renewable Resource for a Competitive Advantage Using Simulations to Teach International Issues: An analysis of the Multinational Management Game's Learning Environment Quality Function Deployment: A Tutorial Care and Nurturing of Teams Making a Good Thing Better: Adding TQM to Participative management Empowering Organizations to Redesign and Transform Themselves - Eastman Chemical Using Simulations in Field Management Development of an International Life Insurance Company Reinforcing the TQ Environment via Simulation Transforming a Business College into a Total Quality College