Follow the instructions
Purpose
Building keen understanding of our talents is not often the most comfortable or straightforward process. The Reflected Best Self Exercise will help to facilitate this self-development experience. This exercise consists of several steps to facilitate the process of identifying your strengths. Based on information gathered throughout this exercise (i.e., data you collected), you are required to analyze feedback from your respondents and your own best-self stories, and write a report (i.e., self-development paper).
Assignments
PART 1: Reflected Best Self Exercise. The following table includes a suggested schedule for key deliverables. You should refer to the Reflected Best Self Exercise packet for detailed instructions of each step.
| THE PROCESS – Reflected Best Self Exercise – Suggested Steps | Timeframe | Detailed instructions in Reflected Best Self Exercise packet |
| Step 1 & 2: Identify and contact at least 10 respondents (including peers, colleagues, family members, supervisors, and/or teachers) asking them each to share their thoughts on your key strengths with specific stories that help illustrate these strengths. Based on past students' work, a total of 15-20 stories would be a good number for analyses and writing the paper later. **Note: no more than 1 student from this class can be one of your respondents | 1/11 – 1/25 | Phase 1, Steps 1 &2 |
| Step 3: Reflect and write 3 your own best-self stories. | 2/8 – 2/22 | Phase 1, Step 3 |
| Step 4: Analyze data (all best-self stories) from your respondents and yourself. Identify themes and reconcile inconsistencies. Integrate others’ feedback and your own assessment. Optional step: Have a trusted group member or friend read your and others’ best-self stories to see if they come up with different themes or interpretations. | 2/22 – 3/01 | Phase 1, Step 4 |
| Step 5: Compose the best-self portrait | 3/01 – 3/15 | Phase 1, Step 5 |
| Step 6: Craft a list of personal, relational, and contextual factors that enable or hinder your best-self at work. (3-6 enablers & 3-6 blockers) | 3/15 – 4/05 | Phase 2, Step 6 |
PART 2: Self-development Paper Develop a paper that (1) explains your analyses process, (2) presents themes from data, and (3) documents your core learnings from the Reflected Best Self Exercise. Deliverables in Part 1 should directly feed the self-development paper you will ultimately turn in. the paper should follow the below format:
Introduction
Initial Perspective on My Strengths
Feedback Process
Best-Self stories from respondents
Analyses of respondents’ feedback
Integration between respondents’ feedback and my own reflections
Final Best-Self Integrated Portrait
Learning & Application
Which are the enablers and blockers? What is my action plan? How does your best-self portrait correspond with the sorts of things that you spend the bulk of your time doing? What situations or contexts encourage your best self to emerge? What keeps you from operating at your best more of the time? How will deeper understanding of your strengths enable you to be a better employee, team member, manager of processes, and/or leader of people? What can you do differently? What might you consider not doing anymore? Are there certain contexts you can put yourself in to maximize your potential?
Include all the deliverables from Part 1 in the Appendix of the final paper. If you feel you want to include any diagrams or try a very creative way of describing your best-self-portrait (e.g., a poem, a picture, a song), you can also include it in the appendix.
“The paper should be 10-15 pages (excluding appendix, references, footnotes; double-spaced, 1 inch margin, 12-point font). 3-5 points will be deducted from the final grade if the paper is too short or too long.
Grading rubric
| Clarity and organization | 5 points (25%) | Difficult to follow | Repeated information in different sections, no main ideas, arguments, or thesis statements | Clearly separated sections with clearly articulated main ideas, arguments, and thesis statements in each section | Very easy to follow, sections and ideas organized clearly and logically |
| Identifying themes and reconciling inconsistencies if necessary | 5 points (25%) | No theme at all | Themes overlap or contradict each other, too many themes | Clear themes | Extremely clear themes that are coherent and organized logically |
| Quality of integration between respondents’ feedback and your own best-self stories | 5points (25%) | No integration | Simply draw a conclusion without explanations or analyses | Integrated based on superficial reasons | Integrated based on in-depth analyses and well-reasoned logic |
| Thoughtful consideration on how to maximize use of strengths | 5 points (25%) | Did not discuss | Enablers and blockers are listed | Plan is developed but lacks details or do not seem realistic | Detailed, actionable plan |
FAQs
Q: What is the difference between Best-self exercise and Strength Finder test?
A: Data source and analyses process. Strength Finder test is based on your own evaluation of yourself whereas Best-self exercise collects information about you from others (e.g., your parents, friends, colleagues, etc.). Strength Finder test generates a report for you automatically based on Gallup’s database whereas Best-self exercise helps develop your skills of writing an analyses report.
Q: Can we incorporate our Strengths Finder results into the paper?
A: Yes, but keep in mind these results are based on your own observation of yourself. It is possible they differ from your respondents’ feedback.
Q: Does my paper have to have the exact sections as suggested above? Do I have to repeat the same materials multiple times?
A: You don't have to strictly follow the outline. You can combine or break down the suggested sections. As long as all the deliverables/notes from the best-self exercise feed into the paper and you provide analyses on your strengths, you can organize the paper the best way you see.
Q: Any suggested format style to follow?
A: You can use
APA (American Psychological Association: https://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/resource/560/01/),
Chicago (https://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/resource/717/01/),
MLA (https://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/resource/747/01/).
Make sure the whole document is following the same style.
Q: Can I have subsection headers?
A: Yes.
Q: How do I cite the sources of the story in the text?
A: For this paper, you can say “according to my mother, I was…”. Minimize the amount of direct quote from your sources.
Q: What’s the purpose of the “introduction” section?
A: To provide an overview of the paper itself and/or briefly describe the best-self exercise as the background of the paper
Q: Would you recommend people submitting their stories about us through email, an online form or survey, or another form of communication?
A: Please feel free to use the best communication that works for you and your contacts. For your deliverable, please include all the stories/feedback from your contacts in one document.
Q: Is quote from famous people required.
A: No.
Q: Can I adopt a very creative style in my paper?
A: This paper is essentially a report of what you have done/learned from the reflected best-self exercise. It's a REPORT, which should follow academic/professional writing style. If you want to be creative, please, please, please make sure your basic ideas are still clearly structured and communicated.
