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How to Improve Upon My Career Strengths and Weaknesses

In: Business and Management

Submitted By pcbtmmgr
Words 606
Pages 3
Understanding your own value and preferences can help you appreciate what types of careers might be a good fit for you. While your standards and preferences are only two pieces of the puzzle, they can have an immense impact on not only what you do as a career, but how and where you do it. This paper will examine my approach to achieving success in the future based on the Intentional Change Theory and how I will improve upon my strengths and weaknesses to better my career goals.

Richard Boyatzis, a professor at Case Western Reserve University, developed the Intentional Change Theory as part of his work on individual and organizational change. According to Boyatzis (2006), the Intentional Change Theory “describes the essential components and process of desirable, sustainable change in one’s behavior, thoughts, feelings, and perceptions” (p. 609, 610). There are five steps to this theory in which I think that I could potentially have success.

Change is never easy, but is necessary to improve upon your career if you have discovered that you have weaknesses and also to improve upon your strengths also. But, if you are not prepared to change, this will not come easy. Because I am willing to make this transformation, I think that I will be fruitful in my attempt.

The first step is to discover your ideal self. Most times, there is a difference in where we are in life and where we would eventually like to be. This is where the intentional change comes into play. We must first figure out our goals, both long and short term and what we need to do to change to get to that point.

The next step is to discover your real self. I took the WPI Career Transition Report to find out exactly what my strengths and weaknesses are and what their suggestions are on how to change those for the better. I found that my strengths were independence, leadership, dependability and rule following. However, I was quite surprised to find that my worst weaknesses were self-control, teamwork, empathy and analytical thinking.

Step three is to create your learning agenda or your personal agenda plan. I think that I need to work on my weaknesses first because without that, I cannot improve any of my strengths. I believe that knowing my strengths and weaknesses is the first step in the right direction so that I can work on each with a different approach.

The next step is putting the plan into action and practicing new habits. One of my weaknesses was teamwork and I had always thought that I was a team player. That will be the first for me to change. I am going to put my best foot forward and volunteer for more group work to put myself out there for the new plan to work.

And finally, the last step tells us to get support. Not only will I be depending on my friends and family to help me make this change, I think that building a solid work relationship with my co-workers will greatly impact my success for the future.

In conclusion, I think that if I were to put this plan into action, I will be able to further my career and have a much better chance for success.

References

Intentional Change Theory. Retrieved on September 11, 2013, from http://www.mindtools.com/pages/article/intentional-change-theory.htm.

McLean, S. (2010). Business Communication for Success. Irvington, NY: Flat World Knowledge, Inc.

Boyatzis, R. (2006). Intentional Change : A Complexity Perspective. Retrieved from http://site.ebrary.com/lib/apus/docDteail.action?docID=10146642.

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