Self-handicapping Behavior with Decker and Mitchells Theory

Self-handicapping Behavior with Decker and Mitchells Theory Introduction As a part of initial few assignments, I took the series of self- handicapping survey suggested and designed by Prof. Phillip Decker and Prof. Jordan Mitchell to determine the self-handicapping behavior during general work situation, people management, and leadership role, and identified the traits and knowledge that I need to acquire, learn and practice to be a good team member and leader. But after reading through specific chapters based on identifying self-handicapping situation and behaviors relating to key managerial and leadership role such as accountability, tunnel vision, engagement, analysis and decision making; I have identified many more areas in my professional and personal life which I was practicing and was holding myself back, making excuses and creating obstacles for myself, about which I wasnt aware of. Some causes for handicapping are similar to the earlier findings of self assessment exercise like poor listening habit and low self esteem, and some of them I wasnt aw are of. I consider this as an opportunity or blessing in disguise, being an international student and moreover for a person planning a career shift, assessing my strengths and weakness, determining the behavioral aspects and personal approach techniques that handicap my progress honestly, at this point of time is very pivotal. Today as well, I find myself looking for excuses to this mentioned shift when I dont understand anything or I am unable to achieve the desired results and moreover create hurdles for myself which really affects my learning process adversely. So, during the course of this report I will be discussing my experiences and behaviors that I now recognize as self-handicapping my professional development and learning path with respect to most relevant and related key managerial areas; accountability, tunnel vision, engagement, analysis and decision making; devising a firm action plan to slowly and gradually incorporate a small, positive and permanent behavioral change in profes sional and personal lifestyle. Reading through the four book chapters, I took the brief self-assessment survey in the self-handicapping book by Dr. Phillip Decker and Dr. Jordan Mitchell to identify key management and leadership areas out of the four that I really need to focus on to bring around positive change in personal and professional approach following the recommendations and baby steps mentioned in the book. My Score Accountability 11 Tunnel Vision 15 Engagement 8 Analysis and Decision Making 7 Accountability At the start of the career, I was more focused on taking care of my responsibility and wasnt concerns about the accountability part or maybe at that time I didnt know the difference between being responsible and accountable in the true sense. It took me some time to learn the meaning of accountability through a fair share of good and bad experiences and bit of mentoring, now I understand that personal accountability is about understanding and accepting the task, taking actions to achieve agreed-upon results, answering and taking ownership of the results obtained, regardless of the outcome. In the book The Oz Principle: Getting Results Through Individual And Organizational Accountability authors Roger Connors and Tom Smith defined personal accountability as, making a personal choice to rise above ones circumstances and demonstrate the ownership necessary for achieving desired results; to see it, own it, solve it and do it. Based on the what they have mentioned and experienced, I infer that accountability is something you choose to demonstrate, it is not something that is consigned to you. Going through the chapter and relating to my professional experiences and management roles, I realized that I have been self-handicapping myself by not prioritize tasks based on the importance, avoiding accountability and in confronting peers, boss and customers at times, and most importantly due to lack of self esteem not taking difficult tasks and assignments which really dented my career progression and learning curve. In a group task or in a leadership role, I observe that at times I procrastinate and put stress on myself, teammates and subordinate. Also lacking to define the roles and task boundaries which tend to overlap and create confusions; moreover most of the times I find myself doing most of the correction works for my subordinates rather than managing resources which in the end, puts more pressure on me playing as the person who is responsible and accountable. The key skills that I need to work on in order to progress would be to reduce and eliminate the fear of accounta bility; plan, learn and improve self-efficacy. Personal Accountability Self-Handicap What is the Situation Triggers Impact on Others What to Do Specific Behavioral Plan of Action Timeline Assessment Lack of what/how question asking I avoid asking my senior/ boss regarding work related issues and try to find solutions by myself. Avoidance and Fear Due to lack of knowledge and self confidence, I procrastinate and put stress on my teammates. Also I try to find the answers to what I dont know myself or consult a peer and the resultant of the approach sometime works in the favor of the team and at times effects the task timelines. (Improve Self confidence, look, listen and learn new knowledge and skill sets) Start believing in my abilities by shifting locus of control internally, to enhance knowledge base and become more approachable. 1. Be assertive, come out of my comfort zone, reach out to people for knowledge and advice. 2. Take a honest self assessment of specifics management traits to identify the management traits where am I lacking, verify and validate the findings through third parties consultations such family, friends, peers and trustworthy seniors. 3. Find mentors and learn from their experience and knowledge. 4. Engage myself in constructive and supportive managerial/ leadership activities to increase self efficacy. 5. Take steps to create positive environment to promote free flowing ideas and exchange knowledge on management related subject matter. 6. Break-down the difficult tasks into smaller meaning parts, and as I gain confidence in achieving those goals and increase self-efficacy, aim at mastery completing complex, challenging and autonomous jobs. Mar-2017 Feb-Mar 2017 Feb- Apr 2017 Mar- 2017 Mar-2017 Feb-Apr 2017 Analysis my progress with respect to this particular dimension by noting how many times I went up to my boss for a question/ suggestion/ idea and the severity of impact of that on the task or project. Compare the findings with past results. Do a 360-degree feedback to verify and validate the applied behavioral changes. Take advice, rectify the approach if necessary and reassess. Personal Accountability Self-Handicap What is the Situation Triggers Impact on Others What to Do Specific Behavioral Plan of Action Timeline Assessment Rather just hide or do my old job Due to lack of knowledge on work related subject matter and conservative nature, I often dont participate voluntary or optional work related assignment for professional growth, like seminar training and during a business presentation or conference, I usually sit at the corner or at the end to avoid interaction and answering to a question. Expedient avoidance Due to my conservative nature, I have become really restrictive, I hesitate to share ideas or constructive dialogues with the team and likewise. At times feel left out in a group meeting. (Improve self- efficacy and facenew challenges) Improve the public image and socialize, so that they recognize me and my ideas. Create a positive image for me amongst the people around to remember. 1. Practice empathy towards work, people, environment and most importantly towards self. 2. Set small meaningful personal and professional daily targets for me like reading an article or writing a blog about things that interest me and professional related. 3. Present paper at a conference or work related seminar to boost the confidence for public speaking. Thoroughly practice and prepare for the subject matter. 4. Be visible on social media, and connect to profession related group and people, to share thoughts and idea about a subject matter and recent development to mark my presence in the professional circle. 5. Seek mentorship, to verify and validate my ideas before presenting. Mar-2017 Feb-May 2017 Feb- Apr 2017 ongoing Mar-Apr-2017 Take feedback from external sources and compare the findings with initial documents to identify the area that I have improved on and what needs further rectification. Observe and note small behavioral changes made that have made been made and evaluate whether they have become a habit or not and permanent part of the routine. Set new goals or re-devise the implementation part to improve on them. Poor presentation of self and speech in presentation, social media Avoidance and Fear Holding Other Accountable Self-Handicap What is the Situation Triggers Impact on Others What to Do Specific Behavioral Plan of Action Timeline Assessment Not holding peers accountable There have been many instances in my managerial career that at the time of job performance evaluation, my subordinates often respond to accountability questions by they werent aware of the criteria, even though I had mentioned to them in the initial project stage. Self Deception Such situation put too much pressure on myself on behalf of the team to get the things done, and at times finds myself getting things done for my subordinates and peers just to meet the project timeline. Deliberate Action Design proactive approach on task accountability for the subordinates and peers. Discuss and communicate with them before finalizing, and document them. 1. Hold a daily morning meeting with the team to review performance and discuss what needs to be done and how, so that peers can suggest better advice to complete specific tasks, prioritize and assign workload with realistic timelines and set accountability goals. Include buffer in the schedule to accommodate unexpected events. 2. Make daily meeting note or place a white board for everybody to see, on which task timeline with an accountable person is mentioned, and is updated every morning after the meeting. 3. Publicly acknowledge peer and subordinate performance. 4. Set daily personal task and note them down based on the priorities. Feb-Apr 2017 Feb-Apr 2017 Feb-Apr 2017 Feb-Apr 2017 A good indicator of this change would be to evaluate peers and subordinates the task related approach and behavioral change in the daily morning. If I consider the things not improving, have a private talk with the person and try to understand his perspective. Instead of yearly performance review, have a monthly or quarterly review, to assess the performance, and correct them if required. Key behaviors and Baby steps: (derived from Self-Handicapping Leadership- the nine behaviors holding back employees, managers and companies and how to overcome them, by Phillip Decker and Jordan Mitchell) Most of the behavioral changes are focused on improving self-efficacy and regaining confidence to complete difficult tasks and face new challenges. Arrive at the next meeting/ class before time and prepare for it respectively. I heard an interesting technique for time management from a third person that Reaching a meeting 5 mins early is being on time and reaching on time means youre late., I will try to implement this philosophy. Be humble and honest in accepting my shortcomings. Enhance my understanding for the respective, seek assistance and push myself in questioning and analyzing regarding the unknown. Start writing a daily diary to self-analysis, what I have achieved and lost during the day, and mark positive events and their outcomes. Try to incorporate small positive behavioral change around my daily routine, like reading, writing and meditating. Resultant of these activities would be: I would feel confident when I walk into a meeting or class. The desire to learn and improve would push and drive me to accept my shortcomings and reach out people to overcome them. I would be better able to identify positive and negative behavior, devise a personal action plan for them. Incorporating small behavioral change around daily routine would soon become a habit and will have a positive impact. Tunnel Vision: Reading through the chapter and relating it to my previous professional and limited managerial experience, I consider tunnel vision as one key self-handicapping factor that executives and professional face as a hurdle in the growth and more importantly remain unaware about this shortcoming. We always ask our self why arent we getting a promotion and the other person is, even though I have more knowledge and experience, now I understand that the reason for it is tunnel vision. The top management looks at the person from various dimensions but the most critical and important one is they see whether the person takes into account the bigger picture and absolute goals when approaching smaller tasks, their understanding of what is happening beyond the boundaries of our particular job, department or organization. We need to avoid blindness in relation to information, internal and external environment, and understand the fine line between company vision and tunnel vision. During the process of identifying behavior and self-analyzing my work philosophy with the newly acquired knowledge and understanding of tunnel vision, honestly found out that I focus on whats in my inbox and isolate in my workplaces, working in my particular department, head down, and focusing on the specific job. I have little to no awareness of what may be going on outside of my little sphere. Often, restricting myself to useful information from the colleagues which could assist me in decision making. Reviewing and revisiting my 7-year career in textiles, I can well identify the decisions and approaches where I exercised tunnel vision. Switching jobs for small benefits and not taking into account the learning path early on in my career; which dented my resume and progress. Later on, in the managerial role due to my introvert nature, the team often got pressurize to meet the result and had to go though unnecessary efforts to meet the timeline. Digging into reasons, taking the self-assessment and analysis test, talking to friends, family and close acquaintances relating the findings to my previous limited professional experience; I found out the lack of self-confidence and self-efficacy in my abilities as one of the prime reason of self-handicapping and exercising tunnel vision. Due to the mentioned I never reached out to people and connected to them, exercised poor listening and writing skills which added to the misery and always procrastinated to make things even difficult for myself and people around me. During the action plan and baby steps, I would be primarily focused on improving my listening, writing and networking skills to open myself up to new idea and experiences which would help in the longer run. Implementing a behavioral change around my routine schedule, so that they slowly and latterly become permanent and a positive change. Tunnel Vision Self-Handicap What is the Situation Triggers Impact on Others What to Do Specific Behavioral Plan of Action Timeline Assessment Deal with procrastination I consider myself as not a good writer, and always try to avoid or take too much time doing it. I try to mask my shortcomings and indulge myself other non-related activities like social media to avoid the task at hand. Apprehension In a group project setting, due to my habits and I tend to put too much pressure on myself by procrastinating things, which is later transferred to other team members, resulted is there is a hassle to meet the project timeline and often we have compromise on the results. Face it I need to focus on building my self-confidence and writing abilities. I have to face my fear and take baby steps to convert my weakness into strength. Timely manage my work to effectively and efficiently get the required results. 1. Get out of my comfort zone and embrace myself for change. 2. Self assess and take professional help to identify areas where I need to improve, learn new skills and new perspectives. 3. Write a daily personal and professional to do list, in the order to priorities. 4. Identify and park/ block unproductive activities during work hours like face- book and whatsapp. 5. Find a method of meditation and exercise daily for 10-15 mins to self reflect on the changes happening, analysis them and gain positives out of them. 6. Set small meaningful personal and professional daily targets for myself to write a blog or personal article about things that interest me. Take feedback from close friends and family, also professional acquaintances like ex- boss about respective piece of writing, listen to the criticism positively and implement the changes gradually. Feb-2017 Feb-Mar 2017 Feb-Apr 2017 Feb-Apr 2017 Feb-Apr 2017 Feb-Apr 2017 Take 360-degree feedback to check the progress and rectify the shortcomings. Self-evaluates the consistency in the mentioned behavioral change. Honestly, answer the important question Have they became a habit and are they having a positive impact?, if required make necessary changes. Tunnel Vision Self-Handicap What is the Situation Triggers Impact on Others What to Do Specific Behavioral Plan of Action Timeline Assessment Ignoring people after get your way At times, I find myself so much into things that I blind side myself by not hearing to what others have to say or suggest and what is happening around me. Self Deception Due to my introvert nature, I restrict myself to new ideas from my peers and subordinate, create a perception about them without knowing their story and thoughts; which really effects my ability to approach them during an assignment and after also. Resultant of this affects group cohesion and ability to achieve better and positive team efforts. Look and Listen One of the reasons that I self-analyzed during the initial assignments that I am not a good listener and have low self-esteem which greatly impacts my people interaction. So my prime objective would be to improve my verbal and non-verbal communication techniques to gain self-confidence. 1. Practice being patience during a conversation and discussion. 2. Divert my full focus and attention to the speaker and to what they are saying. Avoid distraction from the surrounding. 3. Clear my mind, try to visualize what the speaker is referring to and not jump to conclusions. 4. Respect the person speaking and their ideas. Contain the urge to ask unnecessary questions and learn the art of supportive questioning through taking support from mentors and reading articles based on it. Monitor my self-talk. 5. Learn to use and interpret non-verbal communication through reading and observing the people and surrounding. 6. Every day, greet people around me with a simple smile or hello; and if the conversation follows, go with the flow. Have an open and casual discussion with team members. 7. Join team members during lunch and tea time and have a casual non-work related conversation in order to understand the person and likewise. Feb-2017 Feb-Mar 2017 Feb-Apr 2017 Feb-Apr 2017 Feb-Apr 2017 Feb-Apr 2017 Feb- Mar 2017 Take different listening psychometric tests , and get it evaluated through third party to compare the finding with self analysis. Take 360-degree feedback to check the progress and rectify the shortcomings. Self-evaluates the consistency in the mentioned behavioral change. Honestly, answer the important question Have they became a habit and are they having a positive impact?, if required make necessary changes. Key behaviors and Baby steps: Â   Â   The baby steps are particularly focused on reducing the personal isolation, socializing and exposing me to new information, opportunities and challenges. Set up Google Alerts account and set a preference to the areas that I need to improve and profession related update, this will bring information to me. Take out 10-15 mins daily to go through the information. Seek advice and network with people not having same preference or profession, and share ideas and discuss on general issues this will give me more perspectives and new angles to approach an issue. Develop a regular questioning habit and a focus on finding the right questions to explore. Develop a habit to reassess my strength and weakness by taking into account external factors, if required take help from family, friends and close acquaintance. Resultant of these activities would be: Reading through profession related topic would really enhance my knowledge and by commenting on them on social media like Twitter and LinkedIn would improve the thinking process and articulating skills. Seeking advice and networking with non-profession related people will help me bring in information and ideas that will reinvigorate what I do and how I do it, providing me new interesting perspectives and ideas that will improve my general management and leadership skills. During the professional career shift, continuously reassessing my strength and weakness in connection to what is happening in the outside world would help me in providing a clarity that what I need to fight career tunnel and realign my action plan accordingly to focus my efforts towards better personal development.

The Crisis in American Education

The crisis in American education Every American is required to attend and complete public school education. A person needs to be literate and properly educated to progress in life. However, there are many things that can impact a person’s education and personal life. These issues include illiteracy, drug abuse and violence at school. These issues combined with others create the crisis of American education. Getting an education today is very important because jobs are demanding in their criteria for job applicants. It is vital to survival that everyone knows and understands the English language.We have all gone to public school at one point or another, so we have all seen the dangers lurking about in our public schools. School violence is an issue that plagues each and every high school in the world. Teens are sometimes so afraid that they will skip school. Drug abuse is also getting to be a terrible problem in public schools as it affects the education of the student. As we h ave seen through Columbine and the Virginia tech massacre, there are some issues surrounding safety of schools and their children. There is a question of â€Å"who’s next? It’s very important that we recognize the warning signs in our students early on so that we can stop the violence before it ever happens. There are many solutions to the issues that affect our public schools ranging from gathering volunteers to just loving your child. In this essay, we will examine three main issues in public schools along with the causes, effects and solutions of each issue. There is a multitude of problems facing the public schools today including teen violence, drug abuse, and illiteracy and we need to find the tools necessary to rebuild a more positive learning environment.Illiteracy is the inability to use language, read, write, listen and speak. Illiteracy is one of the main problems facing our public schools today. It has only been getting worse over the years. In the colonia l days, parents were responsible for teaching their kids how to read. If they failed to teach them, they were fined by the state. Boy, have times changed. The three main causes of illiteracy are poverty, learning disabilities, and lack of family literacy. These problems have contributed to the whopping 32 million Americans who are illiterate today.Children in every public school are affected by illiteracy, sometimes because of a learning disability, like dyslexia. Between 1992 and 2003, there were 23 million people added to the population. 3. 6 million of those people were illiterate (enotalon. com). People have been illiterate for as long as the earth has been around. An incredible 75% of unemployed adults cannot read and write at a basic level. There was an organization formed called ProLiteracy. It is a group that teaches adults to read and write.It also distributes materials used to help teach the adults reading and writing. Illiteracy costs about $60 billion in lost productivit y due to illiteracy. The U. S . has not made any progress in changing the illiteracy rates. Illiteracy affects every aspect of a person’s life. They may be ashamed or feel inadequate in life due to their literacy problem. There are solutions to the literacy problem in America. A first solution can be training our teachers better so they can better teach our children. A second solution can be to offer after school help for children.A third solution would be to change the environment at home. In 1985, Six Flags Marine World designed â€Å"read to succeed†. Read to succeed is a three unit program for third through eighth graders. It has grown to 209,000 students from 166,000 students in the year 1989. Read to succeed is designed to introduce youngsters to a lifetime of fun through reading independently. The program presents kids with interesting and fun topics. Each and every one of these solutions will be a definite help in solving the literacy problem.They will work tog ether to create a working educational system comprised of adults and children. Children will no longer suffer from shame of being illiterate. Adults can gain the tools they need to survive in the real world. Illiteracy is an international problem that affects the student, family, community and the economy. With these solutions, we can learn to successfully combat the war against illiteracy. Bullying and school violence is a very scary, but real part of our everyday lives. Bullying is when kids use their power to control or harm others intentionally.Bullying includes making threats, name-calling, spreading rumors, or attacking someone verbally or physically. 1 in 4 kids are bullied every year. It has been proven that bullying affects a child’s ability to learn because they become so preoccupied with escaping a bully or feeling depressed about an incident that they cannot focus on their schoolwork. There are many causes to bullying, most dealing with outside influences. A first cause of bullying could be a history of family violence. Another cause could be learned racial, social, or religious prejudice.Another factor could be the violence portrayed in the media. Substance abuse is another cause of bullying. Bullying has many causes and many effects, so what can we do about it? We can assess bullying by participating in surveys that help determine the frequency and locations of bullying. First, you choose the survey you want, then, you obtain consent to take the survey. After you gain consent, you will administer the survey. When it is done, you will analyze and distribute your findings. You should always have a clear plan ready.Surveys can also gauge the effectiveness of a current prevention or intervention effort. Surveys also ask the schools and their communities about their experience and thoughts on bullying. This is a great way to understand the underlying causes and effects of bullying and who its victims are. Engaging the youth and parents can make a student feel safer, focus more on learning, and have the parent worrying less. Ways that a student can help is to contribute their experiences or views on bullying. They can promote respect and communicate regularly with their peers about the dangers of bullying.Parents can contribute by volunteering at school improvement events. School staff can keep parents informed about bullying and set up meetings convenient for the parent and child. School safety committees are groups of people focused on the concerns of school safety; where teachers can give their insights and administrators can answer questions. School safety committees plan prevention programs, develop communicate, and enforce bullying prevention policies and rules. They educate the public on bullying and evaluate bullying prevention efforts.It is very important that we build a comfortable environment for our students everywhere. We need to establish a culture of positivity and safety. We need to promote respect in every classroom. To make sure that our bullying prevention efforts are working, our school staff needs to be trained on what bullying is, what the school’s policies are, and how to enforce the rules. Training is most successful when a teacher feels their voice has been heard. I think that everyone would feel successful if they felt their voice was heard.

Network Consultant Scenarios Essay

Complete Case Projects 3-1, 3-2, & 3-3 of Guide to Networking Essentials. After determining if a client-based or client/server model will be used, substantively justify your choice in 200 to 300 words. Case Project 3-1 The changes in equipment that are required to bring this company’s network up to date to solve the shared bandwidth problem is replacing the hubs with fast ethernet switches and a router. You could make subnets for each department of the company, creating different collision domains which would eliminate dropped packets. The throughput would be increased based upon the upgraded switch/router. Also Setup a file server to store the large files. I would the issue of this problem by using a mesh topology and run over 300Ft of Cat 5 cable to a single point. You could also run the cable through metal conduits along walls or on the floor or you could always implement a wireless system to solve the ceiling issue. Case Project 3-2 The topology that should be used in this network is an extended star topology because it is a bit more advanced than the regular star topology. Instead of connecting all devices to a central unit, sub-central devices are added in. This allows more functionality for organization. The Extended Star Topology is all but necessary to prevent degraded signals and it is also better for bigger networks. Also the network would be server based because connection will be coming from one central point for all computers allowing for information to be shared between users. There will be as many computers needed for each user of the company, E.biz had 250 computers and five servers so I would probably stick with the 250 computers. The easiest device to reconfigure in an extended star topology would be computers because they would be the last to be connected in the topology. The device that offers the best access to the network medium’s bandwidth would be the hubs connected to the central poi nt because it will be the middle man between the  computer and central point device. Case Project 3-3 This network will be server based because since employees need to access company information and it can be confidential the security level on using a server based network will help control the access of files. There would need to be at least 45 computers connected to the network for the 25 users in the front of the factory and 20 for the workstations on each factory floor. The topology to be used in this case would be physical star topology because all connections will come from one central point, since there are many areas of the factory that will need connection having a central point for connection makes more sense.

Analysis Of Metasploit Runs On Unix ( Os X ) And On...

Metaspoilt Framework is not just an application but a framework which allows the user to customize his tool based on his requirement. It can be used to develop the tools, test the system and exploit the vulnerabilities. Metasploit runs on Unix (including Linux and Mac OS X) and on Windows, and the Metasploit Framework has been translated in verbose to dozens of languages. Outcomes: †¢ Simulate real-world attacks against your defenses. †¢ Uncover weak and reused credentials. †¢ Pinpoint weak links in the attack chain. †¢ Closed-loop integration with Nexpose for remediation. †¢ Run penetration projects at scale. †¢ Reduce user risk using phishing campaigns, simulation risk. Usage: 1. On getting started, the exploit to be targeted should be selected and configured which is the code that targets the system with the intention of taking advantage of system. Once found, it can be validated if it is susceptible. 2. Configure a payload that will be used. This payload represents the code that will be run on a system after a loop-hole has been found in the system and an entry point is set. 3. To evade the intrusion detection system easily, the encoding schema should be selected and configured. 4. Now, the exploit can be executed. This framework mainly has three types of environment namely msfconsole, msfweb interface, msfcli interface out of which msfconsole comes handy due to an efficient command line interface. It can also be widely used by integrating it with the Nexpose tool, usedShow MoreRelatedVulnerability Assessment ( Va )3159 Words   |  13 Pagestransfers of the 1990s have been replaced by traded zombie proxies of today, made through the mass exploitation of regular vulnerabilities. An inquiry regularly asked is, â€Å"Why would somebody focus on my system? The answer is that most exploited frameworks were not focused on; they were just one more address in a system range being checked by an attacker. They were focuses of chance, not decision. Spammers couldn t care less whether a system has a place with a universal bank or your grandmother;