Just because my time at college is coming to an end doesn't mean my learning also has to come to an end. I feel that it is important to continue learning still, be it on my own within books or the web.

It’s hard to believe that my college life is done. I have learned so many important things and I’m excited and can’t wait to go out into the world and put that information to good use – starting my career and making a name for myself in this big world of ours.

But, as the saying goes, “when one door closes, another opens;” so too does my education.  I must now learn hands on within a company how they function – gaining experience to someday be able to pass on my wisdom to others.  At that time, the circle will be completed – but until then, I will enjoy the next chapter in learning what life will teach me!

One of the lesson that I have learned that has really stuck out with me is in the aspect of how we word things. To not have an "I" view, but an "you" perspective instead. Kind of a walk in my shoes perspective. The second thing that I learned and had really stuck out was in the important of feedback. And how in order to improve oneself, one needs some type of feedback. How else would they know if they are moving forward in the right direction, or if they're moving forward at all.

Today we live in a very technology based world where often we find ourselves doing multiple things at once. For example: we will work on a school assignment while listening to tunes, surfing the web, and talking to our friends on Skype. Through all of this multitasking, how much of it are we just hearing vs. listening to? According to stats studies, the mind is compatible of listening to 800 words per minute, yet we only speak at about 120 to 190 words per minute - it’s no wonder why we feel the need to multitask. Plus, most of us learn best visually - which would explain why a person’s body language makes up for 80% of the conversation. It’s also why good descriptive stories stick with most of us so well - they paint a picture in our minds. So, while our eyes are reading a person’s body language, our ears are supposed to be listening to the remaining information being presented. The problem, however, is that our minds start to wonder - it needs more data to fill the remaining gaps. As innovate technology continue to expand, it seems so do our needs and capabilities at keep up and learn things faster, because technology is providing it to us at greater speeds than ever before making it easier to fill those gaps.

Believe in your workers skills and talents they bring, it will help you to succeed. Take pride in all you do, in doing so, other will follow. Start with small change and involve team member in the process and remember change takes time. Be honest, accessible, considerate, and fair; by always meaning what you say will help to build a trusting relationship with others - in which will make it easier to empower or delegate to them when the time arises. Be clear in your directions and allow others to join in – this will give a feeling of belonging and empowerment that will continue to grow, along with a supportive, encouraging environment.  Listen and provide feedback often, also take it, so you too can learn and grow from it. Rewards members for their accomplishments, even the little ones can lead to greater successes in the future. Remember encouragement helps us know were on the right track and eventually little strides will lead to bigger ones. 

Leadership to me is best defined as someone that inspires you to achieve greatness, through clear communication, understanding, flexibility, listening, implementation action, and continuous positive feedback. My goal as a leader is to be a participative leader that ask questions, when I don't know the answer (to be humble). To stand my ground when I know that the change occurring will be an improvement. To be flexible and listen to others, while giving them an opportunity to have a say, act on it, and thank them for their idea. I'll try to do my best to communicating things clearly and passionately to each employee's unique personality with timely feedback, so they in return can make well-informed decisions. To help others in identifying, recognizing, developing and growing their skills, so they can reach their full potentials. I'll make ethical sound decisions that I can feel proud of. I will also plan to continue to learn, grow and adapt my skills, so I too can grow to my full potentials.  

As a perfectionist, I desire specifies on what is to be expected & how much time is needed. Things need to be accurate, thorough, fair and objectively done. If it's worth doing, it's worth doing it right - I take pride in my work! 
When working on projects I'm hardworking, but I will take longer because of the detail.
Idealistically, I wish to educate others to help them improve themselves and help others in avoiding mistakes.
The opinions of my supervisors are often needed because I am constantly striving for self - improvement and expect others to do the same.I need reassurances, personal attention and often long for positive feedback, as this will help me with acceptance and build my confidence. 
I'll always act ethically in accordance with my high standards, moral beliefs, philosophies and principles. 

Read more about Perfectionist at:  
http://www.enneagram.net/type1.html

My Big Five, here’s what I’ve discovered.

My results from the Big Five Locater self-assessment were interesting to read about. The test didn't give out any ranges with-in the middle, meaning either you were high or low, strong or weak. Having said that, I felt that my Extroversion, which I scored high on, was a surprising to me. I usually don't find myself to being assertive and talkative, but rather shy and quite, unless I’m introduced. The benefit to this is that I am a good listener. Going with the results provided here, I would guess that I'm working rather well on overcoming this, has it has stated here within this questionnaire, this could be a result of working 10 plus years of working retail too.

My Agreeableness score was high, meaning that I'm easy to work with as a team player, I'd agree with this - though I also don't mind working independently either.

The Emotional Stability area for my scored was strong. For myself, being a parent, this is an area that needs to be strong in order to bring up happy and positive kids, and I have three teenagers that rely on me for that, as well as, for my high score on conscientiousness. My husband laughed when he saw my score here and said, “Yep, that's you!” 

In the last area Openness to Experience, I was low. This is an area I never really gave any thought to. According to the questionnaire: I'm practical, conservative, have a depth of knowledge, efficient and expert and yet within the chapter material it states that I'm narrow-minded, not interested within the outside world and uncomfortable in unfamiliar surroundings and situations. To me these don't sound at all the same! I'm not sure that to think here about this (perhaps a book error), other than I find myself disagreeing with what the chapter material is saying about me. I find myself to be open-minded about a good many things. Even though I don't care to watch the news daily, it's not because I'm not interested about the outside world, it's just that for me, watching too much depressing news, troubles me too much. With the capability of the internet, I can pick and chose my news. I also enjoy traveling, trying some new things and learning about new cultures, so being uncomfortable in unfamiliar surroundings, also doesn't sound like a match either for me.

All in all, I think that knowing who you are is important, but I don't think that because someone’s questionnaire said that your this type of person or that type of person, that you now know and have a better understanding of who you are and what area's you can improve upon, you should have already know that before hand and how you react to others. I found that two different areas on this questionnaire were off a bit for me, which goes to show you that I already knew myself better than this questionnaire suggest. Not only that but we as humans are always learning, growing and changing in the process, so what maybe true of our personalities today, may not be the same later. I think our textbook stated (Interpersonal Skills in Organizations, page 8), it best when it said, "that personality are formed by social, cultural and environmental factors…it also stated that always trying to please everyone or conforming to gain everyone's approval…can be harmful to you in the long term." So I'm thinking about the wise words of…just be yourself and the best you can be, truly is the best advice one can receive.

The benefit of self-disclosure is unique to each individual, by how much they are willing to share about their self to others. The more we are willing to share, the more positive benefits we can enjoy. By sharing information about ourselves we help to create a more unified work environment by strengthening the team. This is because are team members will now have a better understanding of your weakness and strengths. Another benefit is that it is also a stress reducer. By sharing our frustrations with others we are often given an added perspective of viewing something differently, through a different perspective, often in a way we may not have thought of before; this in return can enhance our relationships. Sharing this type of information does not need to be very personal; there is a thing as sharing too much information(TMI), which can create problems. By trusting the person who we are giving the information to and how much information to release, one can help to eliminate the risks that comes with self-disclosure of information about ones self. Some of the questions relating to the risks could be can this information be used against you in your yearly work evaluations. Could the information you share be revealed to someone it was not intend for. You might even be judged in an unfair way. Yet, the benefits do out weight the cons. One should still be cautious until trust is gained and even then keep it to a professional status at work with a need’s to know basis and the personal stuff for your Doctor or Psychologist.