Comparing Self-Assessment Tests

Using Johari Window for comparison

In this paper, my aim is to compare the results of the self-assessment tests that I have undertaken online namely Howard Gardner’s Basic Multiple Intelligences Test and Daniel Goleman’s EQ Instrument with that of my friends. The paper will be divided in three parts – Part 1 comparing the results using Johari Window, Part 2 analyzing my strengths, weaknesses, and Part 3 reflection on what competencies I want to develop to be a global citizen. The Johari Window involves four quadrants – open, blind, hidden and unknown – with which I could easily compare and contrast the results. After comparing and contrasting my test results with that of my friends, it would be easy for me to see what are my strengths and weaknesses.

There is a large expansion in business by 21^st century organizations in order to cater varied needs of society (Goffee, and Scase, 2015). It is presumed that organizations seek for people with creative and problem-solving skills as it will create competitive advantages to the organization. It is important to identify my capabilities, and potentials in order to prepare myself for career opportunities that I will have in future. In this paper, I will compare my result with two other friend of mine that we have obtained from Daniel Goleman’s EQ instrument.

To compare the results I will make use of Johari Window. Created by psychologist Joseph Luft, a technique that helps in better understanding of relationship with self as well as others is called the Johari Window (Saxena, 2015).

Open

The first quadrant includes characteristics of my personality that are known not only to me but also to others. In addition, it includes elements that might be known to others but not to self. According to the EQ instrument, I understand that several qualities in me are different from my friends. I am a linguistic person; I find the right words to express what I mean. I know that I am a good guitar player, very focused and good listener as well. Apart from that, I am quite sporty, helpful, realistic, confident, kind and knowledgeable. I am very logical and wise as well with good adaptive qualities. I do not shy away from helping others and do not fall for unrealistic things.

Blind

However, there are certain qualities that I did not know I had but Deepthi and Ginto knew. Their results revealed that they think I am self-loving, compassionate, cheerful, energetic, sensible, and accepting and mature. Prior to taking the EQ test, I had no idea about my qualities and the qualities I had according to my friends. Both Deepthi and Ginto gave a score of 34 in Interpersonal qualities whereas I had given myself just 31. This shows that they are more aware of my self-loving and other interpersonal qualities than I do.

Results comparison with friends and identifying strengths and weaknesses

Hidden

I have certain qualities that are not known to others but only known to me. My friends do not know that I am a very good liar and I can lie without even blinking my eyes. My friends are also not aware that I am very cunning because I am capable of lying. I could make things go in favor by manipulating others even when the situation is not in my favor. Another quality that I have and that my friends are not aware of is that I am an extrovert. I pretend to be an introvert just to see what others think about me.

Unknown

Some qualities that were unknown to both my friends and me were also revealed from the test results. The results revealed that I have a tendency to keep searching until I find the solution any problem. In addition, I tend to become tensed in certain situations, which I did not know previously. I used to avoid certain situations claiming that my presence there was not needed but I did not know that it actually meant I was tensed. Even my friends Deepthi and Ginto did not know this aspect of my character.

According to the theory presented by Howard Gardner, there are six kinds of intelligence that are essential for fuller human development (Calik and Birgili2013). Based on the skills I have compared my results with my friends Deepthi and Ginto. Through the results of Daniel Goleman’s EQ Instrument, I have got the chance to know my qualities and traits. The test helped me understand my capabilities and the areas I needed to upon. According to the result, the intelligence type that gave me high score are logical-mathematical and interpersonal.

Since I have highest score in these two aspects, I have good logical thinking capability as well as good at understanding other people’s feelings. I have the potential of detecting patterns, scientific reasoning and deduction and analyzing problems. I can perform mathematical calculations which is a very useful quality. I have the capabilities of understanding relationship between cause and effect towards a tangible outcome or result. In any place if the learning style consists of numbers and logic, I will be a quick learner. Other strengths of my personality are the ability to relate to other, interpretation of behavior and communication. I can understand the relationship between people and their situations, even involving other people. When learning techniques such as self-refection and self-discovery is used I am most efficient.

The weaknesses of my personality are, musical ability and body movement control. I do not have much awareness regarding music involving appreciation, recognition of the tonal and rhythmic patterns. Also, the relationship between the sound and feeling is not clearly understood by me. I have less capability when manual dexterity, physical agility and balance is considered. Also, when the eye and body co-ordination is considered I have vey less score which indicates that I have very poor capability in this aspects.

The best behavior is what called to be the most competent and only through the right attitude one can achieve that. The concept of competency has become very popular in business. It is defined as skills, ability to perform, knowledge and capacity. It is the sum total of knowledge, skills and attitudes that is manifested within a person in the business environment. The skills that I would like to work on apart from constant work on reflection on the link between globalization, diversity and cultural intelligence, are:

• A global way of being: This will include qualities that will help me become a leader, motivator, negotiator and team builder in order to become a good citizen that is helpful to the world community. It is well know by now the way globalization has been impacting on business. Therefore, to survive and strive in the market one has to be aware of the not only technology and economic factors but also political and cultural spheres. It is not only intelligence that is needed in the modern society. According to Gardner, human intelligence consists of three components, skills to resolve genuine problems, ability to offer valuable service in one’s culture and the potential of creating problems that helps gaining new knowledge. For example,  I would like to make myself able to work as per situation’s best requirement.
• Values including respect for environment, religion and human rights: my personal skills will include aspects such as gender equity, poverty alleviation, conflict prevention, elimination of weapon and many more. As Gardner stated, the set of skills mentioned by him are belonged by everyone and every person is capable of developing the traits. For example, emotion intelligence is vital in this modern business world and my personal skills aims to improve the aspects mentioned by Goleman’s EQ model, self-awareness, social awareness, self-management and relationship management.
• Business skills including collective awareness: Although business skills would specifically depend on my job role, I would still like to work on self and others surrounding me. Another important aspect I would like to work my communicating skills and grow my knowledge on cultural diversity. For example as the theory of Hofstede states, the existence of cultural diversity and its understanding will provide me with added advantages of building business overseas or in another culture easily. Global citizenship is interlinked with culture and it is essential to understand the forces of globalization in order to bring growth in business.

Conclusion

The analysis thus reveals that I have certain qualities that would help me in the future to achieve my goals but certain weaknesses that I have would drag me down. The analysis helped identify my strengths and weaknesses through taking certain online tests and comparing those with my friends’ tests.

References:

Calik, B. and Birgili, B., 2013. Multiple Intelligence Theory for Gifted Education: Criticisms and Implications. Online Submission, 1(2), pp.1-12.

Collins, C.S. and Cooper, J.E., 2014. Emotional intelligence and the qualitative researcher.International Journal of Qualitative Methods, 13(1), pp.88-103.

Goffee, R. and Scase, R., 2015. Corporate Realities (Routledge Revivals): The Dynamics of Large and Small Organisations. Routledge.

Lunenburg, F.C. and Lunenburg, M.R., 2014. Applying Multiple Intelligences in the Classroom: A Fresh Look at Teaching Writing.International journal of scholarly academic intellectual diversity, 16(1).

Saxena, P., 2015. JOHARI WINDOW: An Effective Model for Improving Interpersonal Communication and Managerial Effectiveness. SIT Journal of Management, 5(2), pp.134-146.

Stahl, G.K. and Tung, R.L., 2015. Towards a more balanced treatment of culture in international business studies: The need for positive cross-cultural scholarship. Journal of International Business Studies, 46(4), pp.391-414.