Category: Personality

On the journey of pursuing my career, I tend to think what would be the best way to brand myself on LinkedIn. My goal is to let professionals find me and land a job with related field that I am in. Moreover, I want to make people know who am I, what do I do, and why should they like me.

How I plan to achieve it

In order to achieve my goal, I am going to assume that I am a product in the competitive existing job search market with tons of talented people. How am I going to stand out from those competitors?

First, I have to select target markets that fit me well because those companies are the ones I will be branding myself and talking about the value I am going to offer them. My target audiences will be technology companies and financial companies. Looking at what those customers have in common in the job qualifications can definitely make me improve myself.

Secondly, similar to the importance of showcasing a product on a nicely designed website or an advertisement in order to sell the product to prospective customers. I will optimize my profile on LinkedIn by having a nice and professional headshots, creating a dazzling short introduction telling my personal story, focusing on the right keywords which recruiters usually search to drive my LinkedIn visitor traffic. I will also add headline under my photo which will be “ Aspiring data analyst” to make my brand more attractive.

Next, I have to differentiate myself among those competitors. I will be posting valuable posts to share my knowledge, values and experiences to make myself stand out of the crowd. By posting contents regularly once a week will help me stay on the top of people’s mind. A high quality posting will also make more comments and interaction with people, therefore I will be able to reach more people.

Last but not the least, I will make connections with potential customers. Building connections is extremely important because connections allows me to sell myself to potential customers. Each connections gives me the opportunity to get a job recommendation, understand what people is doing in this field and what is their daily life like or even making more connections with their connections.

Conclusion

By applying the concepts I learned in marketing class, I am confident that I can effectively brand myself on LinkedIn which will ultimately lead me to a great data analyst position. Not only make more and more people see me, but also make an influence on them.

Abstract

The following paper attempts to understand of how “ the self ” is at the peak of disorientation and personal crises, identification of the psychological calamity and how the self is able to co-relate that with the advancement of different soul ages. The purpose of this study is to understand the essence of a young person’s journey of psychological disorientation stemming from disruption of belief system to self-actualization using Heuristic inquiry.

The current study is based on the data from the narrator’s past experiences. And how Dance Movement Therapy proved to be a tool of self-reconstruction in case of catharsis and provide self-awareness to progress towards and self-actualization.

Infant Soul Age

My self-journey that led me to Dance Movement Therapy is explained on the theme of heuristic enquiry of soul ages at different stages of my journey.

Soul Ages are based on different levels of advancement a soul obtains throughout its journey. As a person progresses through the hierarchy. It is said that he or she is free to return to universal and infinite consciousness at the end, achieving final liberation. (Appendix 1.1)

10th May 2013 is the date I consider that my very own Journey started. The day when my life took a turn, the day My Marriage fell apart. This is so; I am from a North Indian traditional family with a patriarchal environment. My values system groomed me for marriage and married life from a very young age.

Hence this incident of my life was a True Turning Point. I was questioning every element of 28 years of my existence. There was a personal crises leading to emotional imbalance, self-identity, growing insecurities, vulnerabilities, social acceptance, such that I questioned my a old set of belief system. Hence I identified this particular stage of my life as an Infant Soul. A soul age where lessons to learn were basic Life skills, survival, and mortality. There was a constant battle of my life conditioning to the current situation in I dealt with. Battling a personality well described by Erich Fromm (Appendix 1.2) Psychological Theory “That personality is based on two primary needs: the need for freedom and the need for belonging. He is the one who believed that character is something that stems both from our genetic inheritance and from our learning. I developed an extremely polarized and rebellious behavior at this phase of my life. There was a significant psychological effect on my mind and my body became a reflection of that.

Revisiting my married life where I suffered from major Digestive Issues stemming from the mental stress I was subconsciously going through. Which did restored somewhere during the next stage that is the Baby Soul Age when my mental stress mellowed down with time. I came upon a very interesting article which also supported my deep personal experience of mind body connection that “the belief you hold about yourself and the world, your emotions, memories and habits all influence mental and physical health. This connection between what is going on in your mind and heart, and what is happening in your body, forms the psycho-emotional roots of health and disease (Appendix 1.3)

Baby Soul Age

The second age in soul ages is the Baby Soul, where Lessons to learn were social structure, roles, and human relation. Around a year and a half into the age of Infant Soul I started developing a structure, a social balance, value in my human relations all over again. There came a sense of tranquility and stability in my life. Hence, I identified this this transition as the start of my Baby Soul Age.

Even though I faced a lot of challenges or struggles in my personal life. I learned to deal with it effectively between the old and the new set of ideologies. There was compliance, discipline, and blend between the traditional conditioning to the new strong values that I discovered.

The illusion that I was living in at the Infant Soul age was calming down and there was a need to make meaning, into my existence and find an order and stability out of the chaotic and uncertain nature of my life for past 2 years. In order to find my own self-identity it became vital to liberate myself from the patriarchal system I had enveloped myself in. So my search for self-awareness at the time started from being a student of spirituality to be able to spread love and light through a small initiative by the name of SoulConnect by my mentor Late Mrs Veena Minocha and me.

My quest led me to discover different healing techniques, and I trained myself as a “Reiki” Healer. Reiki is a technique of channeling energy through the healer and restore the flow of energy in the subject. I also learnt Tarot Card Reading. Tarot cards represents karmic and spiritual journey of an individual, these cards through the flow of energy depict the various situation we encounter day-to-day also provide guidance for current energy flow of an Individual.

My journey into this knowledge led me through Suruchi Bazaz who awakened me to the deep-rooted Guru shishaya ritual of our culture. I am currently her student of scriptures Bhagvad Gita and Vedas.

Dance has been an integral part in my family with every member trained in Indian classical dance form. So it was natural step for me to be learning dance as a child. Once settled in Delhi in early 90’s, I was enrolled in Bharatnatyam, which was huge compulsion for me at the time. But my heart was growing fond of this art form too. Sometime later at the peak of my education I had to take a short break from dancing. But later during my Infant stage I realized my love for Indian Classical Dances, and I started to learn and teach Kathak.

My Past experiences had made me extremely curious about human behavioral patterns. This need in me to interpret the functioning’s of Conscious and the Sub- conscious Minds, which came from my personal experiences in Life. And there I found myself interested in “Psychology” as a subject. My social conversations familiarized me with the term Dance Movement therapy (DMT). The more I read about it the more Intriguing it became. Dance has always been a passionate art form for me.

And my search ended when I read about CMTAI and its presence in Delhi. Dance, Emotions and Psychology, DMT sounded like a perfect blend for me to be a part of. Before I could enroll myself in 2018 DMT summer course I indulged in 2 workshops on DMT facilitated by Mrs. Tripura Kashyap (Co founder of CMTAI) in the year 2017 and also experienced Music Therapy Workshop in early January 2018 Facilitated by Nina Cherla.

Young Soul

Transition of self

My Transition from Baby Soul Age to Young Soul Age was a swift one. I believe my DMT journey initiated this transition. . A stage where I was ready to delve a little further into seeking Independence and was ready to empathize in my relations all over again. Carl Rogers (Appendix 1.4) explained the theory of Self Concept into three categories a self Image – “how you see yourself,” self esteem “how much you value yourself” and Ideal Self as “how you wish to be.” After learning this theory I realized that My Ideal Self was now in Congruence with my Real Self.

My DMT course started in mid May’18. My limited knowledge of Psychology was making me reluctant but my excitement for DMT learning helped me to overpower my fears. And I determined to start my journey into it. The Theories and Studies of different psychologist were extremely enriching. Freud’ psychoanalytic theory (1856-1939) to Erikson’s Psychosocial Development (1958-1963) to Kohlberg – Moral Development stage bought the first wave in the field of psychology.

DMT Journey

Our Batch comprised of 15 individuals, coming from different walks of life. There were many interpersonal relationships that developed within the group. For the first few days into the class I could relate my psychological condition with Alfred Adler’s ”Individualistic Theory” a state of feeling of inferiority, inadequacy and incompleteness stemming from the fact that I lacked a considerable knowledge of psychology (Appendix 1.5). Realizing that most of the group members had psychology background. There was this inherit need in me to be able to fit myself in the group.

The facilitators provided us with empathetic environment with unconditional positive regard where the group members were able to freely express their unresolved issues. This environment enabled us to accept and formulate more adaptive perspectives for our overall comfort. Isadora Duncan one of the pioneer in Modern Dance later contributed to what we now know as Dance Movement Therapy.

Isadora Duncan a predecessor in formation of modern Dance was inspired by classical Greek arts, folk dances, social dances nature and natural forces and new American Athleticism such as skipping, running, Jumping and abrupt movement with her stress on the center. She also contributed to the incorporation of Humor into emotional expression. Sometime later Loie Fuller also experimented with Dance, developed a form of natural movement and improvisation. This introduction of Unstructured Movement in DMT fascinated me further into Movement Therapy. My experience so far in Dance has only been in the form Indian Classical Dance forms of Kathak and Bharatnatyam. Which works on defined structural format. During certain Experiential Movement Activities I could feel my body being rigid and unable to adapt to the unstructured movements. But at the same time I was adamant for my body to adapt that. Challenge was to break-free form the structured dance format to free-flow movement.

Authentic Movement was developed by Mary Starks Whitehouse in 1950’s an important technique used in Dance Movement Therapy. “.” She believed “Movement is Depth.” “Authentic Movement” is “an expressive improvisational movement practice that allows a group of participants a type of free association of the body.” Her aspect involved how a witness passively observes the moving participants, where the witness observes without judgment, projection and interpretation. (Appendix 1.6)

Experiential Learning

As we all dived deeper into the Experiential learning of Movement Therapy, there were many different facets of my personality that I started identifying.

One such experiential learning was that of Genogram (Appendix 2.1) By one of our Facilitator that led my guards down. This learning also made me discover that even after reaching out to spirituality as a healing tool during my soul ages, there were still many unresolved emotions deep inside of me. By rummaging through my previous emotional state by creating a genogram of the meaningful messages of my life up till now. This got me into the state of “Introspection” I started to examine my own internal thoughts and feelings post the activity.

But Genogram activity at an early stage of the course also helped me break the ice with my batch mates.

Embodying the role and characteristics of our significant others in our life’s and expressing that in movement had a deep impact on me. I embarked a sense of gratitude and acknowledgement for them. I could see a part of me was moving towards the next Soul Age of Mature Soul, where one basic skill is to co-exist with others. Thereafter I started to empathies in my relationships.

There was this activity of Voice Modulation where we were asked to embody a character in a kingdom, which resonates with you. I embodied the role of a King. We were taken into a guided imagery party where all the characters in a party displayed their personal traits into the embodied character. Followed by expressing it into an artwork. This artwork reminded me of my intense need to be in control of my life. A desire of fulfillment along with compassion. (Appendix 2.2)

One activity of selecting clippings from a magazine and categorizing them in where I am and where I want to be had an incredibly pervasive urge in me. The basic realization of an Individual is to “always striving to Improve.” an activity that intensified my need for constant need of self-improvement. (Appendix 2.3)

Gabrielle Roth devised a movement meditation practice known as 5Rhythms, a practice to put the body in motion in order to still the mind.”

• Flowing: introduction of movement in our bodies.
• Staccato: a movement to generate masculine energy in our bodies
• Chaos: a rapid movement of catharsis
• Lyrical: loosening of the rapid movement of chaos, calming down
• Stillness: experiencing the movement in stillness.

This activity penetrated deep inside of me and gave me a deeper understanding of my insight. After the experiencing 5Rhythm we were asked to share our feelings into artwork. This artwork made me realize of my self-acceptance of myself during my soul-ages. My need to get out of the Chaos I was into achieving Stillness, Liberation. (Appendix2.4)

Internship/Co-facilitation

In August 2018, we all started our internship in DMT. I decided to co-facilitate my internship with my fellow batch mate Sonali Pathela. Sonali and I have extremely different facets to our personality. Having done Maters in Psychology she bought the concept and I contributed personal experience during

our Internship phase. Sonali being 10years younger to me provided the next generation’s perspective to our team. Even though we complemented our each other well within a team but there were times of divergence of ideas due to difference in perspectives. In times of differences with my co-facilitator I would strive to revisit DMT theories and inculcate them within myself.

On a personal front I was constantly struggling with Verbal processing as concept, which I have identified as my personal scope of Improvement. Our Co-facilitation was a blend of Directive and Non-Directive facilitation skill. We started to work with 2 NGO’s for children in the age group of 6-19. Although there were many positive realizations that emerged I also discovered an impatient side of me while facilitating them. Lack of punctuality in children and discipline at times would test my patience and give rise to anxiety. This also led to situations where I could feel that my needs are overpowering the group needs.

I also had a chance to facilitate workshops for Faculty member of Management Institute. Thereby adding to my confidence of working with adults and realizing that High Functioning Individuals are my comfort population.

Personal Counseling/Supervision

My inhibition to undergo Personal Counseling was stemming from my Infant Soul Age. But Nevertheless I had to since it was part of my course requirement. My personal Counseling started sometime in

August. I realized the importance of it when I experienced Catharsis. I was in an environment where my counselor provided me with a non-judgmental environment, and I experienced a release of all my emotional baggage’s accumulated inside of me. My Counselor introduced me to various therapeutic strategies.

Few of the strategies that connected well with were Self-talk and Socratic-questioning where I was encouraged to have positive conversation with myself, this strategy helped me to refocus my negative thought processes into positive and adaptive ones. Problem solving was also introduced as another strategy where I was made to think of multiple solutions to problems that I identified in my therapy sessions. This helped me to break my functional rigidity and think of creative ways to solve a problem.

Simultaneously I was also involved in supervision calls as an imperative requirement for the course completion. We were clubbed into group of 4 and each group was assigned a facilitator to supervise. The supervisor led us throughout our Internship phase being our guide and providing a safety net as we learned the art of DMT. An emotionally safe space was created to allow each one of us to fully experience our respective DMT Journeys and also allowed us to share it within the group. During the internship my population was kids from different NGO’s with whom I conducted 72 1-hour sessions. With supervision call scheduled after 5-6 sessions. Each supervision call with my supervisor was for evaluation of the learning’s and challenges faced since the last call.

My personal and supervision sessions always had an overwhelming effect on me.

Mature Souls/Conclusions

Mature Soul age is an age where an Individual is seeking Co-existence with others; there is interdependence in relationships, self-awareness. Which I re-discovered and re-instilled them in myself process of self- evolvement during the different soul ages. Self-actualization as explained by Maslow the ability to become the best version of oneself (Appendix 3.1)

My thoughts often wander into my past and but now am able to evaluate the chaos that am emerging from to be able to reach my Self Actualization. I believe My further exploration into DMT will somewhere lead me to achieve and reach the Old Soul Age of gaining complete autonomy on my existence, achieve a state of non-attachment and followed by adequate spiritual awareness.

DMT experience of learning’s and Internship up till now has intensified my need to search within. Having experienced Movement Therapy for over a year now through experiential and as a facilitator I would love to continue my Journey into DMT further as possible be a part of such a mystic world of Dance and its therapeutic application. My preferred group of population would be High Functioning Groups.

In the scene with Maureen, Pecola’s response is inertly passive, as compared to that of Claudia’s and Frieda’s, which shows they welcomed the “chance to show anger” (The Bluest Eye, 59). Although surprised at first by the meaning of Maureen’s declaration, they collected their pride and shouted back, “the most powerful of their arsenal of insults”. (The Bluest Eye, 61). Pecola, however, shrouded with shame “seemed to fold into herself, like a pleated wing” (61). Her gesture infuriates Claudia, who says –

“Her pain agonized me. I wanted to open her up, crisp her edges, ram a stick down that hunched and curving spine, force her to stand erect, and spit the misery out on the streets. But she held it where it could lap up into her eyes” (The Bluest Eyes, 61).

Similarly, when Geraldine throws Pecola out of her house,

“Pecola backed out of her room, outside, the March wind blew into the rip in her dress. She held her head down against the cold”(76).

The most poignant illustration of Pecola’s failure to act occurs in the scene where she is raped by her father, Cholly. Pecola passes out and does not recognize what has happened to her. Her descent into madness occurs only when she unwittingly participates in Soaphead Church’s plan to kill old dog Bob by giving the animal poisoned meat. The death of the dog presents to Pecola something similar to a dreamscape that represents the rape through a distorted lens that blurs the clarity of the victim and victimizer. Being a victim himself, the dog becomes a symbolic substitute for Cholly. The dog’s death again represents Cholly’s orgasm. Before raping Pecola, Cholly approaches her “crawling on all fours” (162) and like the dog, which eats the meat before his spasm, Cholly nibbles on the back of Pecola’s leg. Pecola is in full consciousness of what is happening to the dog, unlike the moment when she was raped by Cholly-

“Choking, stumbling, he moved like a broken toy around the yard. The girl’s mouth was open, a little petal of tongue showing. She made a wild, pointless gesture with one hand and then covered her mouth with both hands. She was trying not to vomit. The dog fell again, a spasm jerking his body. Then he was quiet. The girl’s hands covering her mouth, she backed away a few feet, then turned, ran out of the yard and down the walk”. (The Bluest Eye, 176).

Pecola is easily made a victim- physically and psychologically, which ultimately leads to her escape into insanity. Throughout her life, she lacked the courage to “stand erect and spit the misery out on the street” (61). As Claudia states, she “held it in where it could lap into her eyes” (61). Pecola’s insanity finally makes her successful in escaping “folding into herself” and making herself disappear, as she once did by covering herself with a quilt while listening to her parents battle – “Please God…..Please make me disappear”. She squeezed her eyes shut. Little parts of her body faded away. Now slowly, now with a rush. Slowly again. Her fingers went, one by one; then her arms disappeared to the elbow. Her feet now…..the legs all at once. It was hardest above the thighs….Her stomach would not go. But finally it, too, went away. Then her chest, her neck. The face was hard, too……only her tight, tight eyes were left. They were always left” (The Bluest Eye, 39).

Morrison presents Pecola’s painful experience and sheds light on her physical, psychological, and sexual abuse and how she is robbed of her girlhood in her struggle for survival. Morrison, through the character of Pecola, protests against a gender system that designates a woman a secondary position, and against a social system that overlooks what befalls a poor black girl.

Procrastination exists almost as long as humanity exists, which makes me wonder which characteristics in human that contribute to this long-lasting incurable ‘disease’. Based on my self-exploration and conversation with friends, I assumed there were two categories of reasons behind this symptom: personalities and tasks. Like the clear distinctions between the personalities of morning birds and night owls, there is a solid line between high procrastinators and others. People are more likely to find similarities in a group of people. Thus, it may be easy to make some generalizations. However, when it comes to task-oriented reasons, those vary among individuals. For example, someone may postpone math assignments to avoid a headache, and meanwhile, someone delays English writing because of perfectionism. It appears that personalities are the causation of these behaviors. To understand if personalities are behind all this, I searched for some articles online.

Judith L. Johnson and A. Michael Bloom studied the contribution of personalities in academic procrastination and published ‘An Analysis of the Contribution of the Five Factors of Personality to Variance in Academic Procrastination’ in Personality and Individual Differences. In the introduction part, the authors defined procrastination, and divided existed theories into two classes: task-oriented and personality-oriented. They claimed that personality-approach is more systematic, and no one had ever used the five-factor model of personality (Conscientiousness, Neuroticism, Extraversion, Agreeableness, and Openness to Experience) to study procrastination. Thus, they conducted an experiment with the model and Aitken’s Procrastination Inventory to explore which personality was able to explain the most proportion of variance in procrastination scores. 202 Villanova undergraduates participated in the experiment voluntarily by filling a set of questionnaires regarding different facets of personalities and procrastination. After processing the responses, the researchers concluded that gender, extraversion, agreeableness, and openness to experience were not a significant contributor to procrastination. In addition, conscientiousness accounts for a significant proportion of the unique variance in academic procrastination. The facets of conscientiousness, competence, order, dutifulness, achievement-striving, self-discipline, and deliberation all share a negative correlation with procrastination, which indicated disorganized, absent-minded, inefficient, lacking industriousness, lower ambition, determination, persistence, and self-confidence, and resourcefulness. Moreover, the experiment showed that procrastination also associated with Neuroticism, which reflected the neurotic features of procrastinators, such as vulnerability and impulsivity, with a feeling of anxiety. The authors mentioned at the end of the article that understanding the significant factors would help form more specific treatments such as following daily routines or making an ordered to-do list.

Besides the five-factor model, Murat Boysan and Erkan Kiral did research on other personalities. They published their research article, ‘Associations between procrastination, personality, perfectionism, self-esteem, and locus of control’ in the British Journal of Guidance & Counselling. They demonstrated their hypotheses at the beginning of the paper, which were: ‘academic procrastination is strongly associated with personality traits, particularly conscientiousness.’, ‘procrastination is significantly related to the aspects of perfectionism, specifically organization.’, and ‘self-esteem and internal locus of control are inverse associates of academic procrastination.’ To testify their hypotheses, they recruited 242 adult volunteers to complete five different questionnaires, such as the Aiken Procrastination Inventory, Levenson Multidimensional Locus of Control Scale-Short Form, Big Five Inventory, Frost Multidimensional Perfectionism Scale, and Rosenberg Self-Esteem Scale. After analyzing the data, researchers found that conscientiousness, organization, internal locus of control, concern over mistakes, and parental criticism had correlated with academic procrastination. However, for the relationship between self-esteem and academic procrastination, there was no direct evidence that could support the hypothesis. According to the authors, that might be caused by a lack of academic achievement data. At the end of the article, the authors said that the findings of this research could be used to prevent and intervene in procrastination.

However, Minda Zetlin and Alice Boyes separated procrastination and personalities and wrote ‘Procrastination or Anxiety? Here’s How to Tell the Difference, According to a Psychology Ph.D.’ on Inc. This Morning. Alice referred to procrastination as laziness or self-sabotage and distinguished it from postponing work because of anxiety and fear. Minda used her own example to explain this idea at the beginning. Since she was too afraid that something went wrong about her household finances, she kept delaying some long-overdue tasks around it. Then, Alice gave three signs to identify whether it is anxiety or procrastination that causes postponing behavior. The first one is, ‘You’re blaming someone else for your delay.’ The article mentioned that if people used others’ fault as an excuse for unfinished tasks, that might be because they paid too much attention to others’ contributions and obstruct work, which led to lower self-responsibility. The second one is, ‘You’ve done this before, but now something’s changed.’ Alice said that, when the situation changed, such as being evaluated for promotion, the daily routine could be frightened as well, but since people have done this before, they may not be able to identify the fear. The last one is, ‘You’re trying to make it absolutely perfect.’ Authors believed that perfectionism could also be caused by worrying something might be wrong. At the end of the article, the authors gave two pieces of advice to conquer this problem. The first is to be aware of the source of the fear, and the second is that after identifying the fear, people need to change their minds to fight it.

The first two sources are peer-reviewed articles I found in Purdue Library; the last one is a news posted on a non-mainstream news website. From the findings of the first two articles, we can see that some personalities do contribute to the variance of academic procrastination. Whereas, authors of the news did not agree with that the behavior of delaying tasks because of anxiety and fear can be called procrastination. However, all three articles mentioned identifying the causation and correlation of academic procrastination can be helpful to prevent or alleviate it.

The personality profile of a design thinker can be compared with the characteristics of a successful entrepreneur on the following basis; The successful entrepreneur and a personality profile of a design thinker have the major contribution of empathy which lead them to successful entrepreneur (Brenner, Uebernickel and Abrell, 2016). Entrepreneurs who focus on empathy tend to visualize the world from various perspectives and don’t cling to their own built ideas. They focus on meeting the needs of customers, users, clients, and colleagues by adopting a “people-first approach” which means observing the world from others’ perspectives (Serrat, 2017). Successful entrepreneurs are always known for being world-class nurturers because they are quite active listeners and hold good hearts in dealing with others’ problems. The same characteristics of the personality profile of design thinkers possess.

The personality profile of a design thinker as well as a successful entrepreneur goes for the experimental approach. This means posing questions and exploring expected constraints first in a creative manner that leads towards entirely new ways. The assessment of constraints enables design thinkers to work according to the situation and helps them in deriving better results (Chou, 2018). Likewise, a successful entrepreneur also believes in experimenting with a situation and not making assumptions only because assumptions do not lead towards the actual result with great direction. As per Chou (2018), experimentation, design thinking, and a successful entrepreneur save a lot of precious time and money and reach the best outcomes. The best outcomes in terms of high-profit ratios and maximum market share in the business world. This kind of design thinkers work in a group of people and don’t find it appropriate to work alone because working alone don’t bring great ideas and outcomes in a long run. This is the trait that a successful entrepreneur also possesses (Chou, 2018). In the present era, it has become very difficult for businesses to grow because of the complexity of products, services, needs, etc. Collaboration is necessary in order to solve complex issues with multidisciplinary skills as well as experience as leaders alone may face difficulties in leading a business efficiently. In the light of Huq and Gilbert (2017), a successful entrepreneur also assumes working together as a team may prove to be fruitful for the business and will bring prosperity to the company. A successful entrepreneur always thinks optimistically. Being optimistic means considering one better solution to a problem instead of existing alternatives (Sundstrom, Lounsbury, Gibson, and Huang, 2016). The personality trait of design thinking also lies in the optimistic side of running a business. Time and money both are important constraints to running any business and therefore, it is highly crucial for a designer to save both of these constraints as efficiently as they can. As discussed by Chou (2018), the investment of money and time over one best solution leads to great business success and provides good profitability and market share in the market.

Finally, this kind of personality profile of a design thinker aims to create those solutions which are beyond existing alternatives (Kallio, 2015). It means they possess the ability to view all the important aspects of a confounding issue and provide smooth solutions that lead towards extra improvement of the problem as compared to the existing alternatives. Same wise, a successful entrepreneur looks towards the creative approach of solving problems and generating resolution in terms of new models which contain new opportunities as compared to older ones.

Introduction.

All people are different: they behave, react, feel and think differently. According to Lewin’s (1951) model of people’s behavior, where P and E are personality and environment, and B is behavior; people are affected by both internal and environmental factors and their behavior is a result of continual interaction between these factors.

Factors influencing individual behavior

• Internal Factors
• Environmental Factors
• Personality
• Family
• Abilities
• Personal life experiences
• Values
• Work/organization factors
• Perception
• Peer-group pressures. Source: Brooks (2009)

Personality theory assumes that personality is consistent – its characteristics are considered to be stable, in other words, personality characteristics are a person’s qualities that do not change over an extended period of time, which means that personality does not take into account such things as mood swings or any disease-related behavior.

Defining “Personality”:

• “The relatively stable set of psychological characteristics that influences the way an individual interacts with his or her environment” (Johns & Saks, 2011).
• “The relatively enduring pattern of thoughts, emotions, and behaviors that characterize a person, along with the psychological processes behind those characteristics” (McShane, 2013).
• “Personality is the overall profile or combination of traits that characterize the unique nature of a person.” (French et al., 2015).
• “Specific characteristics of individuals which may be open or hidden and which may determine either commonality or differences in behavior in an organization” (Brooks, 2009).
• “The psychological qualities that influence an individual’s characteristics behavior patterns, in a stable and distinctive manner” (Huczynski & Buchanan, 2007).

Determinants of Personality and Trait Theories.

Nature VS Nurture

Personality is considered a driving factor that influences a wide spectrum of individual characteristics. Besides, different theories suggest different approaches to personality, some say that personality is fixed and cannot be influenced by external factors (nomothetic theory) while other theories believe that it is built on environmental experiences while approving that individual does have unique characteristics identified by heredity (idiographic theory).

According to McShane (2013), there are two main determinants of personality – nature, and nurture. Despite the fact that the importance of each is still being studied and debated, most experts nowadays believe that personality is determined by both nature and nurture.

Shapes the personality over years due to gained experiences and influence of the society.

Nature influences the personality of the individual via genetic and biological factors, while nurture stabilizes an individual’s behavior via external forces (influences from society, culture, environment, and family). As an example of nature’s impact on human behavior, particularly in males, it has been identified that men with higher levels of testosterone tend to show more aggressive traits compared to men with lower levels of testosterone. In terms of nurture’s influence, children (mostly boys) who had suffered from domestic abuse are more likely to develop aggressive behavior.

Four key determinants.

Therefore, these two determinants were distributed to four more, which are:

• Heredity – hereditary or genetic origins (DNA).
• Environment – any social or non-social group that has an impact on a person’s behavior, decisions, and actions.
• Situation – day-to-day events.
• Locus of Control – the perception of an individual in terms of control of his/her life, including both internal and external forces.

Combination of forces affecting personality.

• Environment (Cultural factors; Social factors; Situational factors)
• Heredity
• Personality Source: McShane (2013)

Self-Analysis.

Instrument 1. Five-Factor Model of Personality – “The Big Five”

This model identifies five main traits of personality, called ‘OCEAN’: Openness, Conscientiousness, Extraversion, Agreeableness, and Neuroticism. Each of these is not a type of personality but a set of factors that include different traits with common characteristics or so-called elements.

The first instrument, which was used to describe my personality, is a test based on the “Big Five” model:

E – Extroversion

• My result: 29/40 – 73%
• Average: 51%

This trait identifies a person’s willingness to be around people and get energy from the outside (society). In other words, this trait divides people into two categories – extroverts (prefer being around people) and introverts (prefer being alone).

According to the test, I am highly extroverted, because my score is much higher than average. People, who score high on this factor, are considered to be friendly, easy-going, open to gatherings and small talk, enthusiastic, and excitable. In my opinion, the test result is quite accurate.

How I describe myself in terms of extraversion:

• Friendly – I do not face any difficulties while making friends.
• Talkative – I find it easy to meet new people and find topics to talk about.
• Enthusiastic – more often I will prefer to go out and spend time with my friends, rather than spending time alone. Also, I am often the one who offers and plans gatherings or parties.
• Work – between working in a group and doing an individual project I would choose a group activity because I often get tired of being all by myself.
• Self-time – when I spend time alone, I would always choose something entertaining like watching comedy shows or series, although sometimes I will spend it doing housework.

A – Agreeableness

• My result: 36/40 – 90%
• Average: 63%

Agreeableness shows an individual’s concern about people around them, his tendency to adjust, and his willingness to help others (put the needs of others ahead of his own).

As a person with a high level of agreeableness, I often empathize with people around me. I am a good listener and I can easily recognize the moods (thoughts, emotions, feelings) of my surroundings and mirror them in my own mind (feel in the same way). In other words, my own feelings and emotions are usually affected by others. Moreover, I feel good about helping and comforting other people and it feels rewarding to me to cheer up people around, especially the ones close to me. When I feel down myself, I usually expect people to comfort me as well; I prefer dealing with emotional difficulties with someone by my side, rather than facing them alone.

C – Conscientiousness

• My result: 28/40 – 70%
• Average: 55%

Conscientiousness is about how focused and hardworking an individual is in terms of goal achievement.

The test showed that my level of conscientiousness is higher than average, which means that I am considered a hard-working, reliable, and responsible person. I do agree with this statement, because I prefer to plan my time and not leave things, especially urgent matters, to the last minute. I often get stressed when my plans get interrupted or delayed, especially if it leads to rushing, and it takes time for me to re-adjust. While working on something, I am trying to put all my effort into the process, because I have a high sense of achievement. Due to that fact, I find it hard to work with people who are not organized and do not put the effort into their work.

N – Neuroticism

• My result: 17/40 – 42%
• Average: 54%

Neuroticism – shows how dramatic response of a person to negative events.

According to the test, my level of neuroticism is almost 10% lower than average. People, who score low on this trait, just like myself, tend to deal with negative emotions easier than the ones who score high. In fact, I consider myself a positive and cheerful person, which allows me to see things from different angles. I am the type of person, who will try to find something good, even in the worst-case scenarios. Also, I believe that everything happens with a purpose, for example, if the flight got delayed due to the weather conditions, I would not focus on being late or out of schedule as much as I would focus on the fact that it is good that it has been discovered before our plane took off and that I will have a safe flight later instead.

O – Openness to Experience

• My result: 20/40 – 50%
• Average: 58%

Openness is determined by how receptive people are to new ideas or ideas different from their own.

As was proved by the test, I am a down-to-earth person – very realistic and do not daydream a lot. Instead of coming up with new ideas I prefer doing things in a usual, already established way, because most of the time, I would consider the old way (traditional way) the safest. I have a low tendency to explore outside of my own boundaries, even when it goes to my food choices, due to the fact that I do not like things, which I am not sure of or which have not been proven. Basically, I would not take a risk of trying something that might work and choose something that will work.

Instrument 2. Jung’s Personality type Matrix

Jung’s matrix identifies me as an Extravert-Sensor-Feeler-Perceiver (ESFP):

My type of personality is more towards extravert signs, I am expressive and enthusiastic, which makes it easy for me to organize everyone and everything around me and keep them happy at the same time. My actions are based mostly on my intuition and senses, rather than on facts and figures. It is rare to find me thinking or fantasizing about the future or “what might happen”, because I am focused on the present and very action-oriented, which does not leave me any time to think about long-term plans and leads to spontaneous actions. Although, I tend to analyze the decisions carefully, especially from a practical point of view: during the decision-making process I usually prefer necessity over desire. I believe that people like to be around me because I can be caring and sentimental, conventional and practical at the same time – it allows me to avoid conflicts and criticism.

Strengths / Weaknesses

• The optimistic approach in life.
• Organized.
• Energized, especially when surrounded by people.
• Concerned about others: loyal relationships (friendship, colleagues).
• Analytical: helps to make decisions fair towards everyone.
• Have a clear view of things that have to be done (goal achievement).
• Flexible in problem-solving.
• Tend to easily recognize the potential in everyone and everything.
• Have a realistic picture in mind of what I am able, or not able, to achieve.
• Able to respond to new ideas (or problems) at the moment.
• Too sensitive to others, which makes any decisions related to other people harder to commit.
• Impatient when it comes to someone who does not contribute to the teamwork.
• Impatient with those, who question my actions instead of following them.
• Get easily irritated when someone is not efficient enough during task performance.
• Easy to lose focus on the task, when there is a lack of interest.
• Not able to receive criticism very well, due to taking it too personally.
• Tend to underestimate my own talents and abilities, by taking them for granted or by considering them as something common.

Instrument 3. SPI 27 Factor trait (based on Eysenck’s model)

This test is based on the book called “Know Your Own Personality”. It was written by psychologist Hans J. Eysenck, who contributed a lot of work on personality traits and intelligence. His theory is based on four main traits: Extroversion vs. Introversion and Emotional Stability vs. Neuroticism. This test contains 27 traits, that are related to the mentioned theory.

Since some of the traits provided on the result slip above have been mentioned in the earlier discussion, only a few traits will be taken into consideration:

a) Attention-Seeking

Attention-seekers are those people, who often find themselves at the center of attention and do not feel anxious about it. I am very similar to that because my level of attention-seeking is relatively higher than others. I like to be recognized and have many social connections. During social events or gatherings (even simple parties) I usually get to know, or already know, a lot of people, which usually allows me to take a centre stage at the gathering. Although my attention-seeking is not excessively high, I do not like people who try to please or take advantage of me, I only enjoy being admired by people who truly like being around me. I seek attention that I know is based on honest feelings: I try to avoid being a part of groups, whose members I do not like. In fact, sometimes I prefer to escape from being the center of attraction so that I can relax on my own.

b) Adaptability

The test result suggests that my level of adaptability is fairly high – I am an adaptable individual. I cannot disagree with that, because I am quite good when it comes to dealing with changes. It is not hard for me to adjust to unexpected situations and their consequences, but it is hard for me to always stick to a routine because I tend to crave spontaneity, although I do have a balanced day-to-day plan. As it was mentioned, I easily get bored of the routine and that is what makes it comfortable for me to let changes into my life and even consider it a better choice.

c) Perfectionism

My desire for perfection is slightly higher than average. It manifests itself in many things, such as studying or even cleaning. When I start doing something, whether it is an academic project or a simple cleaning of my workplace, I cannot leave it at a point of “good enough”, I will try to make it close to perfect or at least up to the required standard. That is a reason why it is hard for me to take losing (low marks, non-appreciation, defeats).

d) Sensation-seeking

I am not a person who would go for risky adventures, such as skydiving or motorcycling, because I prefer safety over one-minute joy. That is why I score low when it comes to sensation-seeking. I do like exciting rides and other activities, but at the same time, I know that some things just do not worth a risk. I prefer to follow rules, so when risky opportunities appear I would be more likely to pass because I have a mature understanding of the consequences that may come from risky behavior.

e) Charisma

Charisma itself includes a wide range of factors: sincerity, friendliness, confidence, and “speaking” body language. My type of personality was identified as fairly charismatic. I assume that subconsciously I already know that I am charismatic because sometimes I do not even realize that I use it on daily basis. It helps me to navigate and smooth situations over. That is why I find it easy and almost natural to influence others and easily handle interpersonal relationships, as well as to be the first one to approach people or to speak in front of an audience.

References

1. Brooks, I. (2009). Organizational Behaviour: Individuals, Groups and Organisation. 4th ed. Harlow: Pearson Education Limited.
2. Buchanan, D. and Huczynski, A. (2017). Organizational behavior. 6th ed. Harlow: Pearson.
3. Buchanan, D. and Huczynski, A. (2017). Organizational behavior. 6th ed. Harlow: Pearson.
4. French, R. (2015). Organizational behavior. 2nd ed. Chichester: John Wiley & Sons.
5. Johns, G. and Saks, A. (2011). Organizational behavior. 8th ed. Toronto: Prentice Hall.
6. Kinicki, A. (2008). Organizational behavior: core concepts. New York: McGraw-Hill Ryerson.
7. McShane, S. and Von Glinow, M. (2009). Organizational behavior: [essentials]. 2nd ed. New York: McGraw-Hill/Irwin.
8. McShane, S., Travaglione, A. and Olekalns, M. (2013). Organizational behavior on the Pacific rim. North Ryde, N.S.W.: McGraw-Hill.
9. Robbins, S., Judge, T., Millett, B., and Boyle, M. (2014). Organizational behavior. 7th ed. Melbourne: Pearson Australia.

These days I am facing the lack of having a role model that I could learn from and from which traits I could borrow. Steve Jobs was indeed a person who left a big footprint on the planet Earth, so I decided that he might be a person that I could learn a lot from. So, after watching several movies, I decided that it was time to read the book, which is different in many ways and has a lot more details and stories. The first objective being settled, I considered that it would be a good idea to read a book about (maybe) the most iconic entrepreneurs from the Valley, as I will go visit San Francisco during my learning journey.

The book is about Steve Jobs’ life and the journey that he took with Apple – what was before this company was created, its early beginnings, and breaching into the market as a successful story. Apple’s story is marvelous in many ways: its capacity to innovate is amazing. They are the true definition of differentiating in the market with strong core values that were driven by Jobs. We could see how his traits and feelings became reality and this is awesome.

Jobs was a person who was mainly focused on product development – bringing to the table needs that people had no idea that they had. This is an example of a rare start-up that wasn’t born out of a perceived and researched need that the people had, but a gut feeling – something very risky that made Jobs’ job in the company hard: he had to convince people of the needs that people didn’t yet have. Which was hard. But one of his main abilities is to convince people of nearly everything and anything – no matter how hard, crazy, or impossible things may have sounded. I would qualify him in the “genius in identifying needs” league, which, combined with the execution, a top-tier team, and the capacity to adapt to the continuously developing market, led to their success. Jobs was the leader of the people that were creating amazing. I wonder if his skills were native or if they were trained.

The team: Jobs & Wozniak – is the perfect mix of business development, product design & tech that any startup needs. Business development and design were the top skills of Steve, while the technology part was left in the hands of the skillful Woz. Jobs – a bold and fixist, creative and visionary, while Woz was an introverted nerd, they had a perfect match that for sure influenced the way the company was built. The thing that left me was the relationship that they had during their journey: it was not pink since its beginning & their personality were radically different. They had episodes of good times & bad times. However, they got through them together until they became market leaders. I wish I would one day find a partner as Woz was for Jobs back in the time they started the venture.

Apple’s culture was another thing that I deeply discovered by reading the book. A company can not be better than its vision, values, and employees. Apple’s culture was born from Steve’s vision and now, in every product that they built, it can be seen – no matter if it is an iPod, iPhone, Mac, an app, or an in-store experience. Apple wasn’t all about the product, it was about how it makes you feel owning their products, social status, and seamless experience of their OS. Their attention to detail paid off, and one of my takeaways is this. I think I could implement a better approach to the details of my life and business after having these insights from the book. Jobs’ vision was that Apple had to be unique and genuine – not to become a copycat of IBM or Microsoft’s software – and this aspect was highly communicated inside and outside their organization. Their strongest asset, in my opinion, is the fact that people love their brand – they are visionaries that inspire others – and not followers. If they had followed Microsoft, for instance, they would not have become the company they are today, but probably a mediocre software company with no hope of achieving greatness.

Being the market leader requires lots of sacrifices also – Jobs had lots of difficult periods that he speaks about, but none kept him away from his dream of achieving greatness. I am curious what Apple would look like if Jobs was still alive, compared to what’s now. This thing would be impossible, though, I would have enjoyed looking at their evolution while Steve was still managing the company. Unfortunately, this is not possible.

Jobs mentions that Apple products are designed after the learnings he took away from a Calligraphy class, and my learning is that opportunities may come up from places and activities that I didn’t think of. I bet that nobody would have thought that a calligraphy class would be so important for a person, nor that this type of course may be useful for business at all. It is surprising to find out such details about this company’s creation.

Even though it’s a bit far-fetched, MemoShop couldn’t have gone from a startup launched in a garage to one of the most valuable businesses in the entire world, but I believe Flip has this big potential. We have the resources that we need to succeed. This book puts a brick in the walls of my dreams. What may I apply: the desire to build something big – a better product for our customers.

Another thing that I’ve learned about is how a board works and why is it important for a company to grow. It may bring a fresh and new perspective to the company. It is nice to also know now that the board has the power to fire even the CEO, as in Jobs’ case. After a few years, he came back as the CEO of Apple, with a fresh vision, and launched a few awesome new products.

On a human side, I see in Jobs a true leader who started in difficult conditions. He was given to adoption, adopted, and raised in a new family, in which luckily he was encouraged to deal with electronics from an early age. Then he got a job at Atari, which would be surprising for an entrepreneur in his state (made entrepreneur vs born entrepreneur dilemma). Afterward, he created Apple and its products, but it was never easy – he started sales from a garage and went to several pitches for investment but didn’t succeed. Still, he didn’t give up, built a team, and skyrocketed the business.

Indeed, Jobs is a role model, though he had downsides also, and did things that, in my opinion, were wrong – what I did not appreciate in him was that he was taking drugs, considering that this gave him a wider approach to business and life as well. I can not appreciate the way he treated his family life, even if he was a genius in imagining the products of the future. Success comes with sacrifice, and I consider if I should do such.

Steve Jobs’ biography is an example of what a person should be like to achieve having a company like Apple. I had a lot of learnings from getting to know his history and I wish I will apply as many learnings as possible. I will use the opportunity to learn more from the Learning Journey that I will be having in Silicon Valley.