Identity, Values and Strengths Exploration

1) Explain a situation where you have made an ethical decision. Discuss how you weighed up the values involved in that decision, the decision you made, and how you reflect on the decision now.

I had a situation where I was the person who was wronged, but in order to de-escalate the situation at the time, I chose to apologise to the person who wronged me. I recognised that what that person needed at the time was compassion and understanding for their situation, and this was more important than my need for justice or fairness. In the end, I still believe I made the right choice at the time, because their need was greater than mine.

2) Describe how your culture and the people around you have influenced your values and identity.

Chief among my values are compassion and empathy. My parents always impressed upon us the values of empathy and compassion for others. Growing up with two siblings, there were ample opportunities for putting these values into practice. Empathy for each other made it easy for us to help each other or share something with one another, no matter how tempting it may have been to keep it all for ourself. Having compassion for others meant that no matter how huge of a mistake we made or how one of us may have wronged the other meant that we found it in ourselves to be understanding and kind to each other. Being in a multicultural family, and growing up in a multicultural country means that “identity” is something quite nebulous for me, but it’s influenced me to view that without any problems. Identity can fluid and that’s completely fine by me.

3) Identify your strengths and how they will support you during your learning journey.

According to the VIA character survey provided to me, my strength is humility. I think this could support me in my learning journey during the Bootcamp portion of the course, when working in teams or pairs. It could also be helpful in my learning journey because I would likely be more realistic in terms of expectations for myself and my pace of learning.

4) Evaluate your limitations in terms of your learning and career development. How might these affect your learning journey?

My mind tends to wander a lot, and I find it difficult to stay focused on a task. This would definitely be a hindrance to my learning journey and I wouldn’t be as efficient as I should be. This is more of a problem when I’m by myself however, when I’m with others I’ve found that even just sitting at a table with other people who are working on their own thing helps me to stay focused on my own task.

5) Share an example of when you were trying to work productively with others, but there was resistance or tension. Discuss strategies you tried at the time, how effective they were, and your reflections on what other strategies you would try now and why.

One time there was tension over a disagreement over the direction a project would take. One of the strategies we tried as team at the time were to have the strongest advocate for each direction to argue for their idea and let the better argument decide the direction. Although this strategy let us move on to the next step, it did leave half the team unsatisfied. A strategy I would try now would be to let each member of the team voice their opinion or idea, and discuss as a team with the aim of finding a solution that everyone can be happy with, rather than arguing with the mindset of winning over the others.