IILM Institute for Higher Education

3, Lodhi Institutional Area

New Delhi – 100 003

Course Manual

LDU Workshop – Personal & Professional Effectiveness

Duration - 2.5 hours

PGP 2010-2012
 Course Overview

Course Topics:

1) Understanding the concept of effectiveness

2) Understanding negative thinking patterns
3) Introduction and conduction of personal effectiveness scale
4) Understanding the three dimensions of personal effectiveness

Learning Objectives:
After the completion of this module you should be able to:

• Describe the concept of personal effectiveness

• Identify your own personal effectiveness
• Identify ways to increase your personal effectiveness

Slide 1

Slide 1: 10 mins.
Personal & Pr
Effective
Introduce the topic. Ask students what they understand by personal and professional
effectiveness. Map their expectations.
Slide 2

Learning Ob
After the completion of this
able to:
Slide 2:

Show the slide

• Describe the concept of p
• Identify your own persona
• Identify ways to increase
effectiveness
Slide 3

Slide 3: 5 mins

Discuss what was done in the previous session.

Reca
Ask how successfully were they able to implement their plan of action.
Relate last session to this session.

SWOT An
Johari Wi
Slide 4

Understanding Negativ

 “There is nothing good or

Slide 4: 5 mins makes it so.” -- Shakespea
Relate it to self awareness and effectiveness:

 “The mind is its own place

of heaven or heaven of he
Slide 5

Common Styles of N

• Negativizing

Slide 5: 15 mins.
• Minimizing
To introduce how negative thinking and mindsets become a road block to achieving personal
and professional effectiveness, some of the most common ones used are:

• Magnifying
• Negativizing
• Minimizing
• Magnifying
• Generalizing
• Blaming

Negativizing
• Generalizing
Filtering out positive aspects of a situation, while focusing only on negatives. The person
ignores all the
positive events that are happening (or have happened) but focuses primarily on the negative.
They may concentrate on their own negative personal qualities or on negative experiences
while ignoring their positive characteristics and experiences.

• Blaming
For example, a person may realistically recognize that their boss was not pleased with part of
their work. At the same time they may not remember that this is the same boss who has
recently given them a raise and praised their performance.

Example: “This job is nothing but one headache after another”

Alternative: “This job has many negative things about it, but then it has some positive ones
too. Like most things it is a mixture of good and bad”

Generalizing
Generalizing from a single piece of information to all or most such things. To generalize
instead of looking at each situation or circumstance accurately. The key element in this
unhelpful thinking style is to take one instance in the past or present, and to impose this on all
current or future situations.
As e.g., “This is just so typical!” telling yourself that this is “how things always are”, or
“everyone’s like that”, or "things never turn out well for me". Making broad, generalised and
global conclusions on the basis of only a little evidence can leave one thinking that things are
really uncontrollable, inevitable and out of one's hands. A sense of helplessness often
accompanies such overgeneralisations.

Writers will often use overgeneralizations to take a single setback such as a bad review, a
rejection, a missed deadline, a poorly written piece or a miscommunication and turn it into a
major problem such as writer’s block.

Example: “People like her can’t be trusted”

“You never listen to me“
“He always interrupts me”
“I always mess up”
Alternative: “I've messed up this time but I can learn from my mistake. “
Example: I had a bad week at work so I need to quit.
Alternative: The last was not so interesting, but it does not mean that every day is the same
day.

Magnification or Minimization
Magnification involves mentally magnifying an event. An example would be getting a minor
criticism from one's boss and then thinking,
"He really chewed me out."
In this thinking style, individual magnify the positive attributes of other people and minimise
one's own positive attributes.

Minimizing involves diminishing the value or importance of something to less than it

actually is.
Example: I know my boss said most of my submission was great but he also said there were a
number of mistakes that had to be corrected...he must think I’m really hopeless.
Example: “I wish I could be more like my friend, he’s the most popular guy in the world and
everyone wants to be around him.”
Example: “I guess I’m somewhat likable, but I think I talk too much, I get really anxious
around others at times, and I hate that I don’t have as much money as my friends.” Thinking
this way leaves little room to remember the fact that you are actually a likable person.

Blaming
Attributing responsibilities of events, specially negative ones, to someone else, even when
such responsibilities rightfully belongs to the self. In this thinking style individual holds other
people responsible for his/her pain, or take the other tack and blame him/herself for every
problem. Blaming often involves making someone else responsible for choices and decisions
that are actually one's own responsibility.

Example: “My poor grades are a result of faculty's strict evaluation.”

Alternative: “It would have been nice if the evaluation was not so strict. However, I am
responsible for my poor grades. “
Slide 6

Break Free
Unhealthy Think

Slide 6: 10 mins.
Briefly describe a
situation where you With who
Do this activity in class. Ask students to recall their past experiences.

have
Instructions: Students to be asked to identify a situationused used each the thinking used the
where theyeach
style, with whom they used the same and for what purpose they used the style. Students are
thinking
also required to mention any improvement within
assignment.
their thinkingstyle?
pattern during the

Assignment: Ask students to keep a record in their journal at least for two weeks.
Slide 7

Exercise: Tarun
Tarun was
with sever
SLIDE 7: 10 mins.
because o
Ask:
How do you think these thoughts made him feel?
Can you see where his thinking is distorted or inaccurate?
What thoughts would you suggest he think instead? He felt bu
and guilty
depressed

He kept th
I’m letting
Slide 8

Activity
Instructions:
Read each statement given below. Use t
response to each statement on a scale fr
close it is to your behaviour. Indicate th
Slide 8:
space that follows each statement in the
Self explanatory
wrong answer.

Key:
• Write 4 if it is most characteristic of you
feel this way.
• Write 3 if it is fairly true of you, or you q
• Write 2 if it is somewhat true in your ca
• Write 1 if it is rarely true of you, or you
way.
• Write 0 if it is not at all characteristic of
this way.
Slide 9

I R S I R

*1 2
*4 *5
Slide 9:

7
Ask the students to draw this table in their notebook/ notepad.
8
*10 *11
13 14
Total - (__) Total -
Slide 10

Statem
1. I find it difficult to be frank wi
them very well.
Slide 10:
2. I listen carefully to others peo
Self explanatory
behaviour.
3. I tend to say things that turn o
4. Generally, I hesitate to expres
5. When someone directly tells m
behaviour, I tend to close up a
Slide 11

Statem
6. On hindsight, I regret why I sa
7. I am quite strong in expressin
Slide 11:
to a person, even if this may b
Self explanatory 8. I take steps to find out how m
perceived by the person with w
interacting.
9. I deliberately observe how a p
going to tell him, and accordin
10. When someone discusses his
spontaneously share my exper
problems of a similar nature w
Slide 12

Statem
11. If people criticize me, I hear t
not bother myself about it late
Slide 12:
12. I fail to pick up cues about th
Self explanatory
others when I am involved in
conversation.
13. I enjoy talking with others ab
and matters.
14. I value what people have to s
behaviour, etc.
15. I am often surprised to disco
were put off, bored or annoye
enjoying interacting with me.
Slide 13

Scori
Reverse your grades on those items m
Original Response
Reversed Respons
Slide 13: 10 mins

Instructions: I R S I R
1. Reverse your grades on those items marked with (*) as shown below
Original Response: 0 1 2 3 4
Reversed Response: 4 3 2 1 0
*1 3 1 2
Eg. If your response to statement 1 is “4”, mark it now as “0” in the space provided.

*4 *5
2. For items without (*) the score is same as the response. Eg. If your response to statement 2
is “4”, mark it as “4” in the space provided.
3. Total the grades in each of the three columns. The total score will range between 0 to 20.
7
• Classify the total in each column as low level or high level. Write L or H against each
column. If your score is 11 or less, write L. if your score is 12 and above write H.
8
• You will now be able to identify your level of effectiveness in the three dimensions: self

*10
disclosure, openness to feedback and perceptiveness.
*11
13 14
Total - (__) Total -
Slide 14

Three Dim
personal Effecti
• Self Disclosure

Slide 14: 15 mins.

• Openness to Feedback
Tell students that they have just taken personal effectiveness scale. To become effective as a
person, one should be high on all three dimensions. Also, there should be a balance between
the scores.

Dimensions Too high Too low

Self disclosure Egocentric Secretive
Openness to feedback Indecisive, unsure Inflexible, rigid

• Perceptiveness
perceptiveness Submissive Insensitive

Also discuss:
• When is self disclosure appropriate?
• How to give and receive feedback?
• How to become perceptive?
Slide 15

Fish Bowl A
Self Discl

Slide 15: 15 mins.

The fishbowl exercise is designed to help participants identify personal things that can be
seen by others that they feel comfortable disclosing to others. This activity may be done in
small groups/ in front of the class

Inside the fishbowl is an assortment of small cards, each containing a topic. Students select a
card and present a (1-2 minute) impromptu talk regarding an experience they have had
relating to a topic. Students use many descriptors as possible to allow everyone to be able to
understand and relate to the situation. Students should be expressive as they can be, telling a
story, emphasizing their feelings and those of the other people involved in the story, as well
as their and others’ reactions to what was occurring. Students should include:
• A description of the players- all those involved in the situation.
• Information about the setting, atmosphere, surrounding and so on
• Details about the situation as it occurred
• Thoughts and feelings they had about the experience as it unfolded
• Outcomes, including lessons learned, awareness gained, and others

Note- Students should pair up and take turns sharing stories as explained above-
• Your happiest/ saddest holiday memory
• Your most/ least enjoyable travel experience
• An accomplishment you worked hard to attain.
• A lesson you learned in childhood that remains with you to this day.
• A time when you felt angry/ happy/ embarrassed/ lucky
• A memorable experience from grade school
• What makes you frustrated/ angry/sad?
• What makes you happy/elated/ motivated?
Slide 16

T-Shirt Ac
Openness to

Name:
Slide 16: 20 mins.
Write every students name on a piece of paper separately (to make it more interesting ask the
students to draw a t-shirt on a piece of paper, write their names on it and put it in the
box/bowl.) Let everyone pick up one name and then they write one negative and one positive
feedback about the person without writing their name.

Positive
The trainer will collect all the chits and read out to the class. 1st positive followed by negative
The students have to be prepared for the negative feedback by telling them not to deny,
blame, argue. Even if it is a perception of another person. Relate the activity to negative
thinking styles and effectiveness.

Negative
Slide 17

Slide 17: 15 mins.

Sharing Ex
Perceptiv
How should students be sensitive to their classroom environment?
Share examples of how the person was unable to understand the verbal or non verbal cues/
message on same occasions.
Discuss how we can become perceptive.
Slide 18

Slide 18: 5 mins.

• Recapitulate
Questio
• Summarize
• Invite questions
• Give them the plan of action

Plan of A