Motivation Reflective Essay

Introduction

This Professional Development Portfolio aims to explain and critique my personal development goals in the form of SMART goals. Using my own skills to self-reflect on my strengths and weaknesses, I will be able to build and improve the skills that will be essential for my future as a student and as a future graduate seeking employment. This skill development will be assessed based on theoretical concepts, academic journals as well as results from group activities. As part of the self-reflection, this report will also include improved SMART goals that have been altered based on my own personal experiences since the PDP checkpoint.

Section 1: self-reflection

A) Motivation

“Motivation is the driving force that empowers action” (Lai, 2011, p. 17).

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Since the creation of my SMART goal in regards to increasing my own personal level of motivation as well as others, I have made significant progress. “Employee motivation is considered as a force that drives the employees toward attaining specific goals and objectives of the organization” (Shahzadi, et al., 2014, p. 159), although in this case, it is not with employees but with university students, my mindset is justified by Shahzadi’s academic journal. My own personal motivation thrives from wanting to do well and get good grades, which correlates to McClelland’s Acquired Needs Theory (Kinicki, et al., 2018, p. 405) in particular the achievement aspect (refer to Appendix B). Since this course relies on teamwork for some of the marks, I tried to engage and draw out my teammates’ own motivation for doing well in this course. The way I went about doing this was based on reinforcement and extrinsic rewards (Kinicki, et al., 2018, p. 422, p. 418). Using positive reinforcement, I was able to instill a sense of community within the group. This friendly culture allowed for my teammates to speak freely and not be insecure about their level of English and thus, we were able to be an effective team for the Liberty Air Gamulation. Also, another factor which had contributed to my teammate’s high level of motivation was the risk of failing. During our meetings and tutorials, I emphasized the risks of failing a course, which further improved their attitude to studying.

The level of motivation that I instilled within my team is apparent with the Liberty Air Gamulation marks. Although our final marks are not substantially high compared to the rest of the cohort, there was a big increase between crises 1 and 2, and crises 3 and 4 (refer to Appendix A). My teammates, who are predominantly international students, tend to keep to themselves and due to the language barrier, communicating with them has been a struggle. However, this did not deter me from wanting to draw out their full ability to do their very best in this course. There were countless occasions during the hours that we met up for the Gamulation when I attempted to increase their level of motivation. This can be proven by the peer feedback that I received from one of my teammates (refer to Appendix C). To increase the level of motivation within my group, I adopted Herzberg’s Two-Factor Theory (Kinicki, et al 2018., p. 407-408) as well as Shahzadi’s beliefs that “... intrinsic rewards positively motivate employees and ultimately affect their individual performance”. In particular, I adopted the theory of motivators to ensure that they were satisfied with completing the Gamulation to a high standard. This theory is also discussed in Shahzadi’s academic journal. With the use of a team agreement that was given to us in our tutorial, we were able to adapt that to the Liberty Air Gamulation. Thus, everyone was able to understand their roles and were accountable for their actions and their impact on the satisfaction scores. According to Herzberg, the aspect of accountability is a motivating factor. Using this, I was able to encourage my teammates that they try their hardest in order to not let the team down. This increased level of motivation can be further reinforced in the marks given in the peer review (refer to Appendix E). For crises 1 and 2, my teammates gave me an average score for motivation and conflict management of 4. This was increased by 0.3 to an improved score of 4.3 for crises 3 and 4, hence, qualitatively showing how I increased my level of motivation as well as my teammates.

B) Teamwork

“Trust is essential and without it, social groups cannot function properly” (Illes & Mathews, 2015, p. 5).

My SMART goal for teamwork, to be specific, the ability for me to develop total trust for my whole team has not been achieved. That is, I need to have “assured reliance on the character, ability, strength, or truth” (Becton, et al., 2002, p. 1) of my teammates. This trust includes having faith in my team to turn up for group meetings, replying to the intended communication channels that were agreed upon, and ultimately, trying their best in cases where group work is needed such as the Liberty Air Gamulation. Initially, I adopted strategies to increase trust by focusing on creating an open and friendly culture, as well as having clear and mutual accountability for the roles that were assigned (Kinicki, et al., 2018, p. 447). However, since the PDP checkpoint, I have come to realize that this method was not working. Although I have instilled motivation within my teammates, I cannot seem to have complete trust in my team. Instead, of focusing more on teamwork, I believe that having a key leadership role is essential for my team to work efficiently and deliver high-quality results.

During the first crisis of the Liberty Air Gamulation, I witnessed that there was a substantial amount of conflict present. At first, I had thought that this was due to the team having its first actual problems and it was our own way of working through it. However, for the second crisis, it became apparent that there were no more conflicts. Instead of engaging with others and giving reasons as to why each decision was bad, a majority of decisions were made via groupthink (refer to Appendix D). Each decision was made quickly due to nearly everyone “agreeing for the sake of unanimity” (Kinicki, et al., 2018, p. 451). At this point, I believed that the team just did not want to try anymore, and thus, was a moment that reinforced why I do not have faith in my team. This change in mentality from the team resulted in extremely poor results for the Liberty Air Gamulation (refer to Appendix A – Labor Perfect Storm). However, this changed for crises 3 and 4. Whilst there was a conflict during the first crisis, the third and fourth crises all had a dysfunctional conflict, one that “hinders the organization’s (in this case team) performance or threatens its interest” (Kinicki, et al., 2018, p. 454). The way that we approached each decision was very confrontational, with most decisions from each member’s respective roles being heavily questioned by everyone else. Although the management theory suggests that our performance should deteriorate, it was actually the opposite. Despite the team playing devil’s advocate and not putting forth one good point for any decision, our results improved. Despite this improvement, I still have a lack of faith in my team since, instead of making the arguments they put forth strictly relating to the Gamulation, some had personal effects on some members. This not only reduces the trust that I have in the team, but it also reduces the trust that the members involved have in the team.

Section 2: Smart Goals

A) Strength. SMART. Description of Goal #1

Specific

I wish to improve my leadership skills by understanding and applying suitable leadership approaches to various parts of my life. This may include trying different approaches to leadership such as valuing relationships over task completion or vice versa when taking on tasks in my society as well as doing group work and/or assignments.

Measurable

I will be successful on a variety of factors. These include getting above 70% satisfaction when peers review my leadership qualities within my society, the growth of subcommittee members by 30%, and having at least 3 different approaches to every problem that I encounter.

Attainable

To attain these goals, I will develop a team agreement that will clarify each team member’s role and task requirement before the project begins to ensure accountability for one’s actions. I will also be proactive in approaching members and helping with their inquiries with a high level of emotional intelligence and empathy.

Results-oriented

These goals will allow me to make the most of the opportunity to be given a leadership role within the society. It will also increase the level of commitment and motivation among those that are under my leadership.

Time-bound

I aim to meet this goal by the end of semester 2 in 2020.

B) Development area. SMART. Description of Goal #2

Specific

I wish to consider a wide range of decision-making approaches in a variety of different situations in order to reduce the level of emotion and bias associated with the decision. This will also make my decision-making process be done in a timely manner. This will include basing my decisions on a rational model that satisfies most of the affected parties (Kinicki, et al., 2018 p. 234).

Measurable

I will be successful when a peer review of my performance in instances such as group work reveals that my decisions were logical and were made in a timely manner.

Attainable

I intend to encourage group participation in the decision-making process as this will lead to efficient brainstorming of possible solutions to the problem. If this were to be an individual activity, all brainstorming would be done by myself. From here, to make the decision-making process as rational as possible, all solutions will be reliant on evidence-based decision-making, which “brings rationality to the decision-making process” (Kinicki, et al., 2018, p. 237). This can be done by rating all solutions on the same criteria and seeing which solution is ranked first, implying that said solution should be chosen.

Results-oriented

Improving on this goal will allow me not only to be efficient with my decision-making process, but it will eliminate any biases that may affect my decision-making. It will allow me to come across as a fair individual who makes decisions based on facts rather than my own personal emotions.

Time-bound

I intend to develop this style of decision-making by the week before semester 1 of 2020 starts, so I can implement it into my studies.

Conclusion

“An individual’s strong understanding of the reason why they pursue their own goals is a fundamental driver behind consistent work habits and achieving long-term goals (Sinek, 2018, p. 12). When an individual’s goals are based on a theoretical framework, their own critical self-reflection will allow them to realize what worked and what hasn’t. Through trial and error of different methods, it will ultimately result in the individual reaching the intended result. Through analyzing motivation and teamwork data that was collected from a wide variety of sources, I have found out that although I was able to strengthen what I already perceived to be my strength, that is the ability to have a high level of motivation as well as to be able to instill this to others, my weakness still lies with having trust with my team. As such, I have created improved SMART goals that aim to target this weakness. This report will allow me to explore different approaches that can be applied to motivation, teamwork, leadership, and decision making which will ultimately be useful in the future.

References

1. Becton, C. et al., n.d. Building Teamwork and the Importance of Trust in a Business Environment. [Online] Available at: https://edis.ifas.ufl.edu/pdffiles/HR/HR01800.pdf [Accessed 7 October 2019].
2. Illes, K. & Mathews, M., 2015. Leadership, Trust, and Communication: Building Trust in Companies through Effective Leadership Communication. [Online] Available at: https://www.allthingsic.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/02/Trustreport-1.pdf [Accessed 7 October 2019].
3. K., S.-L., P. & Williams, 2018. Management: A Practical Introduction, Sydney: McGraw-Hill Education (Australia).
4. Lai, E. R., 2011. Motivation: A Literature Review. [Online] Available at: https://images.pearsonassessments.com/images/tmrs/Motivation_Review_final.pdf [Accessed 9 October 2019].
5. Shahzadi, I. et al., 2014. Impact of Employee Motivation on Employee Performance. 6(23), pp. 159-166.