Brand Yourself Experiment

Objective

To understand my strengths and weaknesses with the hopes of capitalizing on them in the future.

Methodology

For this project, to start off, I sent a series of questions to my family and friends. I tried to make the set of people diverse so I could also see whether there are differences in the past five years. I also asked for elaborations, especially for strengths and weaknesses that do not align with most responses or ones that I never thought of having aligned with myself.

Results

STRENGTH

Reading the results was very eye opening. Though for some qualities I know I exhibit, I never knew I exhibited them very strongly till the point of being very noticeable. For instance, one quality that came showing repeatedly is that I am a peacemaker. This quality resonates with me very well because I feel that conflict is usually the lesser of the two option that I have. Thus, finding a middle ground of compromise for everyone is something I do often when working in groups, whether it be for leisure or academic. Naturally, I feel that harmony within a group can be maintained, which in the long run boosts productivity and betters the group dynamic.

Another strength that I elicit is dominance through leading. When doing group projects or going on road trips, although I might not be the “official” leader, I would on many instances end up leading. This tendency is partly due to the fact that I like being organized. Planning is something I find pleasure in because I would rather have things arranged. Therefore, when things seem to fall apart or need a little push, I would rise myself to the challenge to contain or fix the crisis. So, on many occasions, it does seem like I can be relatively dominant.

A final quality that I show is logic. Growing up with three other sisters has always made me in check of viability. There was always so much things to calculate and weigh on; from time to portions of servings. Hence, I exhibit that quality very strongly to this day. I will always look on viability before creating suggestions. When things start to falter, I will make sure to have a second plan that is safer and can be constructed within a shorter time.

WEAKNESSES

Weaknesses has always been something that I beat myself about. It must be noted that it’s not due to the lack of it, but rather, its persistence to remain as a weakness despite my efforts to improve has always vexed me. Reading the survey response has definitely put things into context. The most consistent weakness that I exhibit is stubbornness. I must admit that there have been many cases where I feel that I have passed the best judgement and would not change my decision. This is definitely a big fault because working in groups mean listening. This might actually be contradicting to my strength of maintaining harmony. However, if I feel strongly about something, I will do everything in my power to sway people to be on board with my ideas. This is not just dangerous for the group dynamic, but it could also be at the stake of a great idea.

I also have the biggest difficulty in letting go whether it be a responsibility or a wrongdoing. For the former part of the sentence, this has become very unhealthy habit as I would not delegate tasks effectively. This not only results to delay in organizing plans but also jeopardized the quality of work. In the long term, I end up creating a hostile environment for those who I work with. As for the latter part of the statement, I actually build on first impressions. If someone starts doing wrong in ways I find unacceptable, there is usually little room to gain full redemption. There will always be a big room of skepticism lingering about that particular individual. I admit this is a big flaw as people can change overtime and slip ups are mainly a path to learning.

Finally, a weakness that I portray is not being able to be spontaneous. Somehow or rather, starting college has contributed to me being more shy to contribute. This is largely due to having been to used to preparation. I like having my facts checked before contributing. Thus, extemporaneous speeches have started to become a challenge for me. I remember in a class setting during a discussion, I wanted to contribute to a topic which I strongly felt about. However, the fear of getting my facts wrong and unchecked made me back out and sit quietly in my chair.

Analysis

The strength and weaknesses results from the survey mostly made sense to me. In the beginning, I felt that there was lacking in congruence as I could not put myself in the perspective of others to envision my characteristics as how they describe. For instance, I would never have enlisted dominance in leadership as a quality that identify with. However, after reading the surveys in more depth, I could finally understand why. Some of the these qualities, as I have stated earlier, I tend to exhibit them stronger than what I believe to have. As for weaknesses, it somehow became a sort of a relief to finally acknowledge my lack of task delegation or task hoarding. I know that it is a healthy step and that I should plow through to fixing it. As for surprises, there were weaknesses that I enlisted that became a strength on other people’s list. One thing that I noticed while self-analyzing, I had such a long negative list while coming out with a rather short strength list. This shows how I have a bad habit of always nitpicking all my bad qualities and quickly labelling them as weaknesses.

Conclusion

My feature benefit is that I am a hustler. The strengths and weaknesses has very much demonstrated how my feature benefit is in alignment with my analysis. I fight to get things done and ensure the best outcome. I have come to hold leadership positions because I always strive for what I feel is best and prioritize accordingly. On the other end of the spectrum, I have also on multiple occasions taken the back seat if that would be the best plan of action to achieve success. Thus, I feel, in the long run, this would definitely help me in my future endeavors, whether it be settling in corporate or working with policies.