Personal Learning Paper

My primary learning style is by applying the theoretical concepts in real life. As I saw during PG
lab, having done a course on organizational behavior once during my undergrad I found it very
unrelated to how people work in organizations, but after experiencing the events in PG Lab in
which our batch was divided into groups on various behavioral traits helped me connect the
concepts and theories that I had learnt during my engineering course and also during the course of
PG lab.
As someone who learns by experimenting, I have observed during the various internships that I
have taken whether it be for a startup or for a matured public-sector organization I was able to
learn very quickly and upskill myself. I think this is one of my key strengths that I can learn and
adapt to my needs and can contribute my fullest. But during my PG lab I also observed that I have
a better recall memory than most of my peers and that became one of the major advantages that
helped us win the treasure hunt as I remembered most of the instructions given by our instructors
during the demonstration of the tools that we used in the event.
I believe that I am a hard-working, friendly open, smart, honest, sympathetic, person, flexible and
a proud person. I find my motivation to do work from my inner self. I do my work because I like
it. I try to develop more discipline into my daily life to carryout my work with utmost sincerity.
Getting selected into the GMP program was the easy part. But this program requires a lot of
discipline to sail through as it ultimately prepares us for the job market in the European countries.
People also find me to be a creative, courteous, closed and a decisive person. As per the Johari
window my blind spots traits are: emotional, closed, decisive and sensitive. Although these are not
something to be afraid of but having said that I will try to acknowledge these traits and will try to
empathize with people around me.
I am an introvert and often I connect with people when I am working with them in groups. It is
only after sometime I open up to people. Most of the people that I interact with are the people that
I find to have some common goals same as I have. My friendliness, flexibility and open nature
helps me connect with people easily once I get to know them.
The MBTI tests concluded my personality type to be ESTJ, that is: Extroverted, Sensitive, Thinker,
and Judgmental. I believe myself to be an introverted person in most of the social gatherings but
in a work environment I am an extroverted person as getting the job done is of utmost importance.
And being a friendly and approachable person helps me connect with my colleagues and make the
job to more fun.
Before PG lab I only had three or four friends, but due its various events and activities I got to
know many people and it was only due to these events that I made many good friends whom I
would have interacted only after some time as the GMP course progressed.
The treasure hunt activity task was the task that I enjoyed the most as being a civil engineer I had
a very good sense of directions due to the rigorous surveying course that I had done during my
undergrad. I was able to connect with people and guide them very efficiently through the area.
I am very sincere about the work that I have been assigned and I often find in group activities that
some members don’t contribute enough as they should have. It is sometimes hard to be firm with
people I know. But being an extraverted person often helps me to communicate my thoughts as
motivate them to contribute in the assignment equally. I try to improve my communication skills
as it is one of the most important skills that one needs to effectively work in groups. During PG
Lab I was able to develop this skill in the group activity in the morning session.
As rightly concluded from my MBTI, I fall under the T-Category that is, “Thinker”. Most of the
times I don’t let emotions control my judgement as I have often observed that actions taken on
emotional grounds leads to a drastic outcome. I often take a calculated guess in uncertain
conditions as a manager I need to know most of the outcomes that I might have to manage that in
case something goes wrong. This helped me in the A-frame task when my group members were
trying to think of a strategy of doing the task, I suggested a solution based on my calculated
approach on balancing the frame to move it forward, which helped us finish the task much earlier
than all the other groups in the event. I always try to think before I speak and take actions now as
in the past this has proved to be fatal. As per my EQ map my emotional awareness and emotional
expression are in the vulnerable zone as I do not express my feelings often in a work environment
also my trust radius is very small, I will try to improve this as in the next few months I would be
working in different groups , I would try to interact with other people more often than I do now
and express myself as I believe to be correct. My strengths include: life events, work pressure,
personal pressures, emotional awareness of others, general health, intentionality and general
health. I aim to build upon these skills as I enjoy whatever I am doing, which helps me to handle
pressure easily.
During the trekking activity I learnt a lot about myself, at the beginning I thought I wont be able
to complete the trek as I was feeling nauseated while climbing the hill till we reached the
basecamp-1. It helped me realize that I have a lot of perseverance in me that I didn’t know about.
It was my internal motivation that I need to complete this trek anyhow that pushed me to complete
my journey till the basecamp-1, after that it was fairly easy. Our interactions with our guide gave
us the exposure about the local people and their culture.
My primary motivation towards anything in life is learning. During my undergrad I tried to learn
as many skills that I could, that was not from my domain, to get a holistic knowledge of how things
work in the industry. During my internships I found my primary motivation to be to perform better
than others and to test my limits. In doing so I got recognized by the CEO herself. That was a huge
deal for me.
Growth and learning are the two motivators that helps me to get the energy required to do any task
at hand and perform well in it. As stated in Herzberg – two factor theory, I find my internal
motivations to get a sense of job satisfaction and often it is the external factors that are my sources
of discomfort like people in the team not working effectively, etc. My motivations keep me in
check as how I interact with other people as seen from my EQ score: Interpersonal connections
and relationship quotient are in the vulnerable category, I would like to work on this and improve
it in the coming future. As improving my interpersonal skills will help me to network better in
Europe and gain access to all the opportunities in the foreign country.
I try not have any preconceived notions about anyone I work with. And it is only overtime when I
get to know people I tend to form an opinion about them. After joining GMP I understood the
meaning of listening to other peoples’ views and opinion on the topics. It has helped to develop a
more holistic views on the matter and often come up with a better solution that I had in my mind.
Being a team player, I normally don’t blame it on external factors for my or my teams’ failure as
it never helps. It is only after we take the responsibilities of our actions, we learn new things and
become more well equipped to face the challenges in this VUCA world that we live in presently.
As discussed during the last lecture of our PG lab on gender biases while selecting a team in an
organization. It was concluded that doing so will only hamper the overall productivity of the
organization. I realized it at that moment that gender biases exists even at the most unexpected
places like a simple group activity during our PG lab. Lata ma’am correctly pointed out that most
of us are now used to see the society in a certain way which is not correct and we need to develop
a more holistic view. Her explanation on how these biases have developed in both the genders and
how to avoid such instances in the future was really helpful.
In my FIRO-B test, I scored:
I C A
e 6 5 1
w 3 5 1

Which indicates that I do seek include other people in the activities that I am involved in but I
don’t seek the same from others. As I believe that I cannot expect the same behavior as I treat
others with. I am quite satisfied with the relationships I have with other people in my life although
I would like to improve my affection towards others as it was indicated in the test. I do understand
this maybe due to my introvert nature. My score on ‘need for exercising control to get the work
done’ was balanced for both intrinsic and extrinsic factors. It correctly indicated that I don’t need
to put others around me under pressure to get my work done as I believe in mutual understanding
between me and my colleagues.
When we were made to work together in groups in the various activities during the PG lab I
observed on how the members interacted with each other. At first most of us were a bit reserved
in interacting with each other but as the task was assigned we started putting forward our ideas and
eventually we became comfortable in performing our work. And it was only after this stage we
started to perform at our maximum efficiency and outperform other teams in our class. And finally,
when our task ended we went to our initial group of friends that we came with. Although I had
read these concepts of how a group functions but it was during PG lab that I saw it in real time. I
really enjoyed this transition for being unique individuals to acting as a unit and working towards
a common goal.
I believe that it is only when we try to understand the difficulties of other people around us and
empathize with them, we truly become a team player and a better manager that is required in the
VUCA world today. This can be achieved by spending time with each other during the team work
or by going out in an informal setup with the team members. It is only when the team members
feel comfortable with each other we truly perform as one cohesive unit and give our fullest. Group
work helps us realize our collective potential and how we need to utilize everyone’s strengths to
achieve success in life. It gives s a chance to work for something much bigger than ourselves and
helps us gain much more satisfaction from our work which we generally don’t derive from an
individual work.
In the end I wish to conclude that PG lab was a really different experience for me and in a good
way. I learnt a lot about myself and people around me. I had never seen that a personality type
could be quantified on various types based on scientific methods and to such accuracy. This was
the course that brought our whole batch together and we all moved from “I” to “we” in the course
of those rigorous but enjoyable three days.
Analysis:
The EQ tests indicated that most of my personality traits including emotional self-awareness,
emotional expression, creativity, resilience and interpersonal connection are in the vulnerable
region. I need to work on that. As all of these are the characteristics that fall under the emotional
traits I will try to make more friendly relations with people around me and increase my friend
circle. This help me to express myself better and understand people around me much more that I
do know. During group activities I really understood that everyone around mt has their own set of
challenges I as a future manager need to understand it and use this skill to better manage the team
that I would be assigned to.
From the Johari window, the blind area was the largest among the other three windows. It means
that I neglect my shortcomings. I need to work a lot on my weaknesses by first acknowledging that
they exist in the first place. I can do this by actively participating in the group assignments and
taking honest feedback from my peers, on how to improve myself.
From my MBTI tests, I fall under the ESTJ category, which means I am Practical, realistic,
decisive, quickly move to implement decisions, organize projects and people to get things done,
focus on getting results in the most efficient way possible, take care of routine details, have a clear
set of logical standards, systematically follow them and want other to also. It was rightly indicated
by the test a I prefer to make most of my decisions based on logic and facts rather that on my
emotions. All these traits make me more suited for a job in the project management or in consulting
sector as these jobs require more data driven decisions which is a perfect fit for me according to
my personality type and my personal aspirations.
From all the various personality tests like MBTI, EQ test, FIRO-B test and group activities
performed in the PG Lab, I can conclude that I am a logical and a sincere person who like to plan
most of tasks that I need to do to utilize my time to the fullest. I am a leader when it comes to
performing a task as during most of the group activities during the PG lab I took the charge and
devised and executed the strategy to win most of the tasks. I am a person who is self-motivated
and I try to enjoy everything that I do. My strengths are that I can handle pressure comfortably
weather it be from my work or my personal life. I can balance these two quite efficiently.
Although I do need to work on my people skills as indicated my FIRO-B test. This can be achieved
by taking involving myself in activities with other people around me. This will also help me in
developing the networking skills that is needed when I land in Germany next year. Having
improved this skill, I will be much more equipped to compete in the job market in Europe.