Background
Making judgments about personal strengths and advantages is a task that can be more difficult than it might seem at first glance. Highlighting specific qualities that describe a person from the positive side is always associated with subjective assessment and uncertainty as to whether a particular property is developed enough to be called a strength. The main goal of this reflective paper is to describe my key strength, which I have identified after passing various exercises and utilizing relevant theoretical concepts. Among the positive traits that are inherent in me, I would name responsibility, trustworthiness, reservedness, and realism. However, when choosing from them, I would focus on responsibility as my main strength. Applying the theories of self-efficacy and self-esteem, locus of control, and planned happenstance, I intend to consider this feature from the perspective of my experience and related factors, particularly emotional and behavioral criteria. The analysis of situations in which this property manifested itself to a certain degree is an adequate mechanism to prove the existence of such a strength and its impact on my academic and career goals.
Responsibility as My Key Strength
While highlighting responsibility as my key strength, I analyze the situations in which I manifested this quality and reflect on how effectively I applied it. Responsibility can be assessed from different perspectives depending on its application. For instance, Lau et al. (2018) consider responsibility for learning and note that this property is valuable from the standpoint of achieving high academic outcomes. The authors also draw attention to the concept of self-efficacy associated with personal views on the available capabilities and the possibilities of their use to effectively achieve the set goals (Lau et al., 2018). In this case, the theory of self-esteem is also reflected since the ability to assess individual skills and knowledge adequately allows coping with specific tasks, thereby realizing personal responsibility to the full extent. I am aware of how these concepts help define the sustainability of responsibility as my force and why they are effective as measurement tools. In addition, I acknowledge that my efficacy is the marker that helps me relate planned goals to real ones and evaluate whether I can handle the work that I undertake and which I am trusted.
With regard to the related attributes that underpin responsibility, I can mention diligence and rational thinking. My personality type reflects my beliefs in taking a deliberate approach to work. I find it useful to discuss the concept of locus of control in relation to responsibility and the factors that drive me to be diligent. As Nowicki et al. (2018) state, this theory can divide people into two types. We are either internally controlled when our beliefs correspond to what we are involved in or externally controlled when accompanying events determine the results of our actions and behavior (Nowicki et al., 2018). By correlating my experiences with these types, I can say that I place myself in the first category because I focus on my tasks and am convinced that any result of the work done, whether it is success or failure, is the outcome of individual efforts. As a result, my responsibility is a consequence of the measures that I take to achieve results, and the more competently I do this, the higher performance outcomes I demonstrate.
Successful Demonstration of My Key Strength
In my practice, I have demonstrated responsibility successfully more than once, which has benefited me and contributed to increasing authority among classmates and colleagues. One of the cases concerns my high score on one of the school tests for which I prepared diligently. I have always realized that diligence and patience are important components of a successful outcome, regardless of the type of task. During that test, we were preparing individual projects in parallel, and each was involved in different types of assignments. As a result, many of my classmates ignored the teacher’s suggestion to get high scores for that task. However, I decided to do my best to prepare responsibly for the test, and my efforts helped me get the highest grade, thus saving myself the trouble of taking the exam at the end of the semester. Such a situation can explain my effectiveness in overcoming potential challenges to achieving the best possible result.
I believe that this approach is consistent with the theory of planned happenstance when seemingly insignificant events can be assessed effectively for promotion and career growth. Valickas et al. (2019) argue that the successful implementation of this concept in practice correlates directly with psychological well-being. My attitude to do my best and take the test responsibly helped me improve my emotional state. In addition, by interacting with people with extensive knowledge and experience, I also learned to demonstrate responsibility. I am sure that this position can also be associated with positive self-esteem since I, being self-confident, can realize my potential, which, in turn, bears fruit in the form of academic and career success.
Experiences of My Less Success
Responsibility is a personal trait that depends on individual motivation and willingness to work. This means that when interacting with others, for example, during teamwork, even diligence cannot guarantee a positive final result. For instance, negative emotions associated with teamwork, such as lack of initiative from colleagues, distract me. According to the Myers Briggs Type Indicator exercise, I tend to be introverted. When the task involves achieving success in collaborative practice, it can reduce my effectiveness because I tend to rely on my training. Once, I tried to find a common language with each team member to do joint lab work. However, I faced varying degrees of motivation from them, which, in turn, slowed me down too. I believe that such an outcome can be explained from the perspective of the concept of self-efficacy when a person is not ready to admit one’s real capabilities and strengths and gives up deliberately. Thus, even a high level of responsibility did not help me in some situations when a sustainable interaction among several participants was an important condition.
Developing the Strength in the Future
Developing my responsibility in the future may help me gain credibility and trust from my colleagues. In addition, by exploiting this strength to a greater degree, I will be able to get a profitable career advancement thanks to the diligence and recognition from the management. Trust is built on stability, and in my case, I intend to prove that I can be trusted with different tasks.
As an approach to developing my responsibility, I intend to pay attention to other aspects of my life. The health of loved ones and being around them is my highest values. In this regard, I want to strengthen individual responsibility by paying attention to the factor of work-time balance so as not to experience discomfort or fatigue from unnecessary stress. Perreault and Power (2021) note that this practice can have a beneficial effect on the perception of reality and reduce tension in interactions with other people. Therefore, I intend to pay attention to the possibilities of improving my work-time balance. The theory of self-esteem may help me obtain self-confidence and assess the importance of personal well-being outside of work circumstances.
Summary
When looking back at the work done, I can say that I agree with the results of the exercises that have allowed me to better understand my personality type and qualities, including my key strength. Responsibility, being an individual property that depends on motivation, is my main strength, but certain factors, for instance, poor team performance, affect my emotional state negatively and reduce my productivity. I devote much time to study and work, but in the future, I intend to pay more attention to achieving a favorable work-life balance to improve my morale and spend more time with loved ones. Relevant concepts are an important theoretical background that helps explain specific propensities or correlations and identify adequate causes of development or, conversely, lack of relevant skills or strengths.
References
Lau, C., Kitsantas, A., Miller, A. D., & Rodgers, E. B. D. (2018). Perceived responsibility for learning, self-efficacy, and sources of self-efficacy in mathematics: A study of international baccalaureate primary years programme students. Social Psychology of Education, 21(3), 603-620.
Nowicki, S., Ellis, G., Iles-Caven, Y., Gregory, S., & Golding, J. (2018). Events associated with stability and change in adult locus of control orientation over a six-year period. Personality and Individual Differences, 126, 85-92.
Perreault, M., & Power, N. (2021). Work-life balance as a personal responsibility: The impact on strategies for coping with interrole conflict. Journal of Occupational Science, 1-15.
Valickas, A., Raišienė, A. G., & Rapuano, V. (2019). Planned happenstance skills as personal resources for students’ psychological wellbeing and academic adjustment. Sustainability, 11(12), 3401.