Best Self Exercise

This exercise is designed to reveal your unique competencies and skills, that is, the special capabilities you bring to your work and to others. It will generate awareness of how others see you at your best.

1. Identify 5-10 people who know you well. These may be coworkers or fellow students (former or current), friends (old or recent), family members, professors, or anyone else who has had extended contact with you. The more diverse this list is the better (e.g., try not to select all friends or family). Since people are often busy, recognize that everyone may not respond in time. A minimum of 5 respondents is needed to complete the assignment. It is important to choose people who will give you an honest opinion.

2. Create a Feedback Request Form and email it to the 5-10 people you select in step 1. There is a sample of this request form on the next page. Although this request may feel awkward or difficult, many people have participated in this exercise previously and found it a profound learning experience, and one that significant others are quite willing to assist with.

Please attach copies of the feedback that you receive, including the names of the people you receive the feedback from as well as their relationship to you.

3. Interpret Your Feedback, by reading it all and making notes on the key insights you develop. Look for common ideas across the responses you received and create themes that you can illustrate with several examples.

4. Compose the Reflected Best-Self Portrait by writing a description (1-2 pgs.) of your BEST SELF that reflects the insights you acquired from the feedback.

For example, a self portrait might indicate what you do when you are at your best, how you solve problems or communicate with others effectively, and the ways in which you help other people.

5. It is important that you also incorporate some insights (i.e., at least 2-3) you have gained from the self-assessments (values, personality, decision-making style, & conflict management style) - which may relate to the feedback you receive.

Excerpts from past write-ups:

"The comments I received in this regard are affirmed by the high agreeableness score that I received in the Big-Five Personality self-assessment. Individuals with high agreeableness scores are thought to be pleasant and to have a strong interest in the well-being of others. I believe this trait or strength contributes to my success in team-building. As I work to build on this strength, I would like to apply this in building up our management team, which has had several interpersonal and job-related issues over the past year.

People know that I am open to a lot of ideas and encourage them to speak their minds. By being very interested in what others have to say and positive about the contributions they make, I encourage creativity and tolerance. I am able to deal with people from many different backgrounds."

Two Sample email requests for feedback (consider including the examples as well):

1. As you are aware, I am currently pursuing a Master in Business Administration degree from the University of Michigan, Flint. As part of the Organizational Behavior class I am gathering and analyzing information that will help me understand my strengths. I want to better understand how I best add value to the groups and organizations I belong to. In other words - how would you describe my performance and capabilities when I am at my "best"? If you would like to add other comments, I'll accept that information as well - but this project is really to help me understand how to maximize my strengths.

I am reaching out to a number of people who have worked/interacted with me in the past and requesting that they share their thoughts with me. Please consider our interactions, my contributions, and provide an example or two, if possible. It does not have to be work-related - it could be personal, social or otherwise. If you can include specific characteristics that describe my "best self", that would be most helpful. I have provided an example of what these accounts could look like below. Please use this only as a guide.

I appreciate your taking time to do this for me. Please share your comments with me in writing by [insert the date that you would like them to be returned]. Thank you again for your assistance with this exercise.

2. As part of my MBA program, I am taking a course that requires me to construct a profile of the ways that I add value and make a contribution. I have been asked to contact 5-10 people who know me well. I am to request that each person provides me with 2 or 3 stories or accounts of when I was at my best. I would like to invite you to help me with this exercise.

I appreciate your taking the time to do this for me. This will require you to think about your interactions with me and to identify those incidents/behaviors when I was at my very best in your eyes. In writing, please be sure to provide examples so I can understand the situation and characteristics that you are describing. I have provided an example of what these stories could look like below. Please use this only as a guide.

Please email your responses to me by [insert the date that you would like them to be returned]. Thank you very much for your assistance with this, I really appreciate it.

Feedback Examples:

1. One of the ways that you add value and make an important contribution is: The ability to get people to work together and give all they have to a task. For example, I think of the time that: We were doing the alpha project. We were getting behind and the stress was building. We started to close down and get very focused on just meeting the deadline. You noticed that we were not doing our best work and stopped the group to rethink our approach. You asked whether we wanted to just satisfy our requirement or whether we wanted to really do good and important work. You reminded us of what we were capable of doing and how each of us could contribute to a better outcome. No one else in the room would have thought to do that. As a result, we did meet the deadline and created a product that we all felt proud of.

2. One of the ways that you add value and make an important contribution is: Helping others to focus on global issues. For example, I think of the time that: We were working on the strategic plan. You introduced information on trends in the European market. None of us had seen this information or considered the non-US implications. You kept pushing us to think in global terms.