Traducción Ponga el acento en sus fortalezas terminada y corregida

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After ten days, Robert received eleven e-mail responses from all eleven people who described specific instances when Robert had made important contributions, among them, to privilege the high quality despite the tight delivery time, being inclusive with his communication in a diverse group, and figure out critical information. The answer surprised him, as an ex-soldier and professional technician with an MBA, Robert rarely shows his emotions. But after reading all the answers, he felt completely touched, like he was having speeches of regards in a party made in his honor. The answers were completely convincing. Robert had more strengths than he knew. (For more on step 1, see figure “Gathering Feedback).

GATHERING FEEDBACK

A critical step in the Reflected Best Self exercise involves soliciting feedback from family, friends, teachers, and colleagues. E-mail is an effective way of doing this, not only because it’s comfortable and fast but also because it’s easy to cut and paste responses into an analysis table such as the one in the next page.

Below it is the feedback that Robert, an executive we observed, received from a current colleague and from a former colleague in the army.

From: Amy Chen

To: Robert Duggan

Subject: Re: Request for feedback

Dear Robert,

One of the greatest ways that you add value is that you stand up for doing the right thing. For example, I think of the time that we were delayed on a project for an influential client and quality began to decrease. You called a meeting and planed that we had two choices: We could get a C by satisfying the basic requirements or we could get an A by doing an excellent work. You reminded us that we could contribute to a better outcome. At the end, we met our deadline and the client was very happy with the result.

From: Mike Bruno

To: Robert Duggan

Subject: Re: Request for feedback

One of the greatest ways you add value is that you persist in the face of adversity. I remember when we were both leading troops under strict security. We were getting contradictory information from the front and from headquarters. You insisted on getting the front and headquarters people to communicate each other despite the strong time pressure. That information saved our lives. You never lost your calm, and you never stopped waiting or demanding the best from everyone involved.

Step 2

Recognize patterns

In this step, Robert looked for common topics in the received feedback, adding his own observations to the examples and then organizing all the information in a table (to see parts of Robert’s table, see “Finding common topics”). Like many of the participants of the RBS exercise, Robert expected, given the diversity of the interlocutors, the comments he would receive would be inconsistent and even contrary. Instead of that, he was impressed by their uniformity. The comments of his wife and relatives were similar to the ones of his friends of army and colleagues of work. They all mentioned Robert’s courage under pressure, his high ethical standards, his perseverance, curiosity, adaptability, respect for diversity and skills in forming teams. Robert suddenly understood that even his minor and unconscious behaviors had caused a big impression in others. In many cases, he had forgotten the specific examples mentioned until he read the feedback, because his behavior in those situations had been absolutely natural to him.

In the case of Robert, the RBS exercise confirmed the sense of himself, but for those who are not conscious of their strengths the exercise can be really illuminating.

Edward, for instance, was a recently graduated executive from MBA in an Automobile Company. His colleagues and subordinates were older and with more expertise than him, and he felt uncomfortable disagreeing with them. But with the RBS exercise, he learned that his colleagues appreciated his ingenuous alternative glances, and they respected his diplomatic and respectful way in which he did his statements. As a result, Edward became more determined to stand for his ideas, aware that his boss and colleagues were listening, learning, and appreciating what he had to say.

In other cases, the RBS exercise generates a more nuance light about abilities that are taken for granted. Beth, for instance, was a lawyer negotiating in the name of a non-profit organization. All her life she has been said she was good at listening, but the interlocutors of her exercise said her interactive, empathic and perceptive way of listening made her specially efficient. The feedback specialty encouraged Beth to assume leadership in future negotiations that require a delicate and diplomatic communication.

For naturally analytic people, the part of the analysis of the exercise is useful both to integrate feedback and to develop a wider perspective of their capacities. Janet, an engineer, thought she could study her feedback just like she could study technical levels of a hanging bridge. She saw her “Reflected Best Self” as something to question and improve. But reading her family, friends and colleagues comments, she saw herself in a broader and more human context. Eventually, what she read about her enthusiasm and love for design, help her reconsider the course of her career towards more executive roles, in which she would be able to lead and motivate others.

Step 3

Compose your self-portrait

The next step is to write a description of yourself that synthesises and reveal the accumulated information. The description should weave themes from the feedback with your own observations into an amalgam of who you are in your best side. The self-portrait are not designed to be complete psychological and cognitive profiles. Rather, it should be a perceptive image that you could use as a reminder of your previous contributions and as a guide for future action. The portrait itself should not be a set of isolated points, but a composition in prose that is meant to begin with the phrase: “When I give the best of me, I…”.The writing process from two to four paragraphs narration builds the image of your best self in your consciousness. The narrative also helps you draw connections between your life issues that previously may have seemed unconnected or unrelated.