PADM594:

Challenge 1

Challenge - Assess Yourself (1 of 5)
Challenge - Assess Yourself

Challenge 1: Assess Yourself

This is a story of two individuals preparing for a major event in their lives – an interview for a position in the prestigious State Management Career Intern Program. It is fictional – but a realistic example of how important communications skills are. More than just skills, it is about self-awareness and the willingness to confront one’s shortcomings in writing, speaking, and the use of technology and take appropriate steps to improv .

On the surface, Jeffrey Samuel and Christine Novak seemed remarkably similar. Both were recent graduates of major public universities with masters degrees; Jeffrey in Public Policy Studies and Christine with an MPA. Both were good, but not great students, with grade-point averages of 3.5 for Jeff and 3.4 for Christine. The two had become friends, after meeting at a reception for interested students held prior to the application process for the program. What follows is a conversation on the evening before the interviews were to be conducted.

Read the conversation, and then go to page 2.

Jeff: Hi, Christine. I guess we are going to be competing against one another tomorrow. Have you done much preparation? Or is that a trade secret you don’t want to share?

Christine: Jeff, I not so sure I see tomorrow that way. I see the interview as much a competition with myself as much as with others. By that I mean, I’ve been preparing to deal with what I see as my shortcomings and not worrying about what others are doing.

Jeff: I guess I see what, you know, you mean. But it’s like, you know, based on what we know and I think I can show, you know, a great track record in courses I took, and so on.

Christine: Jeff, we are friends and I would like to suggest a few things. First off, watch those little verbal tics of yours: "You know"? "Like"? Those words are incredibly irritating to hear over and over again. When I was an intern at City Hall last year they drummed into my head over and over to think before I talk and be short and decisive in my speech and writing. You can do this too. Practice in front of the mirror if you have to. It's absolutely necessary to practice speaking and writing for the kind of audience we are going to have to impress tomorrow.

Jeff: Well, I never got that sort of experience. I didn’t have, like, any sort of training and no one in my grad program made us do oral reports. Mostly it was analysis of programs, relating it to theoretical issues, and lots of economics. You know, number crunching, not much in the way of packaging it to users. Most of our assigned papers were long term papers using academic sources. Plus, I never, like, got any feedback from the instructor on writing, just a grade based on content. "Not my job to teach writing", they usually said.

Christine: That is unfortunate. It was not the case with my program. Lots of short individual papers and some group assignments. Tough at first. The profs were incredibly demanding, when it came to following instructions. The best advice came in classes where you were given a realistic, professional writing exercise and told the prof would grade it, not from an academic but rather a practical, applied perspective. Most students had worked in government, so they saw stuff like this all the time. It was incredibly hard to do at first.

Jeff: So you’re going to be, like, incredibly prepared compared to me. What can I do before then to, you know, catch up a little?

Christine: It’s really, really hard to do without a lot of practice. But, you could think about  a few tips I got from my intern supervisor, who also taught in my program. She always reminded me of four rules:

  • Know yourself. Recognize your strengths and weaknesses and use that knowledge. Don’t sell a bogus version of yourself; it will come back to haunt you. For example, if you aren’t a good writer, but are good with numbers, be honest about that. If you are shy and not good at public speaking, speak simply and directly and don’t try to impress with big words.
  • Adapt to your audience. She told me public speaking was like knowing what sort of conversation you needed to have. Think about your audience and what they need to hear. For example, think of something, let’s say the need for a balanced budget. Think how you’d converse with your uncle, or your best friend, compared to an expert in the field or someone who wants you to work on that sort of thing. Know when to stay with facts and when you can express an opinion.
  • Show interest in what you are discussing. Be engaged with the subject you’re discussing: show some personal interest and enthusiasm. Otherwise, you will be either boring or come across as pompous.
  • Listen and not just talk. Make sure you communicate that you are a good listener and interested in what the other person thinks. Listening carefully will open the door to questions the interviewers will be interested in hearing you answer.

Jeff: Yeah, sounds good. But I do, like, two things when I get in a situation like that. Either I run off at the mouth and can’t seem to shut up or get so uptight I can't, you know, can’t get the words out or something. I can’t usually look someone in the eye very long and still talk, you know?

Christine: I know, but you can work at it. Take right now: I’m not a scary person, but even with me you are mumbling, can’t keep eye contact, and so on. Remember, it’s normal to be nervous, but don’t let it paralyze you.

Jeff: I just wish they could let me take a written test or something. I'm pretty smart, you know.  But, this self-assessment exercise, I still don’t get it.

Christine: Well, it’s what they want and they’re running the show. They want us to rate ourselves on three factors: how well we can write, how well we can communicate orally, and how we work in groups. They’ve already screened us for the course content and what we should have learned from that. This is about how well we can assess our own strengths and limitations and suggest ways to improve on them.  Incredibly hard, but useful, I think.

Jeff: Well, I guess it’s like too late for me. I never was told how to do this kind of stuff. You and probably most of the others had some kind of help I didn’t. I’m a little upset about that.

Christine: Well, maybe this is a wake-up call. This is not the end of the world and not the only time you will need these skills. The key to self-assessment and personal growth, they told me, is practice . persent yourself, get honest feedback and practice some more; things will change, or at least you will have a better sense of who you are and what you can do. Like I said, incredibly hard, but absolutely necessary.

Jeff: Well, good luck, you know, tomorrow. And Christine?  Watch those adverbs, you know? They can be incredibly annoying too.

 

Thoughts (2 of 5)
Thoughts

Thoughts

Jot down your initial thoughts about the situation in the challenge by considering the following questions. Note that this is not a graded assignment. This is a process of helping you explore what you currently know about the challenge.

Challenge 1 Due Dates

Complete the activities found in the Challenge 1 Course Schedule.

Perspectives and Resources (3 of 5)
Perspectives and Resources

Perspectives and Resources

Objectives

By completing the Perspectives and Resources section, you will be able to do the following:

  • Recognize the importance of Communication skills.
  • Identify essential Communicative skills.
  • Become familiar with tools and procedures for self-evaluating one's Communication skills.

The goal of the Discussion Forums is to generate conversations and share thoughts between and among all the class participants, so be sure to visit, revisit, and reply to at least two of your fellow students' comments in each Challange Discussion Forum.

Pleases use the Christine-Jeffery pre-interview example as a resource by which to share your own thoughts and perspectives on effective professional Communication in the Challenge 1 Perspectives and Resources Discussion Forum. 

Note: This is your chance to share thoughts with your colleagues and begin to think more broadly about the many facets of professional Communication. The instructor will not grade or critique your entries, but it is important for everyone to contribute their thoughts and to respond to at the comments  of others – the more the better. You should have your first posting as soon as possible. This Forum assignment is due by 11:59 p.m., Thursday of the second week (ET).

Assessment (4 of 5)
Assessment

Assessment

Using your thoughts gathered from what you learned from the Christian-Jeffery, pre-interview talk, discuss your level of self-awareness about your Communication strengths and weaknesses in the context of your professional work.

Post your own self-evaluation (1-2 minutes) as an introduction to the class via VoiceThread no later than 11:59 p.m. Sunday of the second week (ET).

Wrap Up (5 of 5)
Wrap Up

Wrap Up

As we wrap up this beginning challenge, think back to the interview-preparation scenario and the discussion forums and consider how effective the material has been in helping you understand the critical importance of Communication skills in public administration.

Surveys of professional administrators have consistently identified capabilities in writing, group projects, oral communications, and general Communication mastery, as the most important skills or competencies they look for in employees. 

The goal of this course is to enhance your skill set in these critical areas in two ways: a.) by making you more self-aware of your own strengths and weaknesses as a communicator and b.) by providing examples of effective briefing papers and case reports, to enable you, through both individual and group assignments, to master the creation of such products. In Challenge 2, you are presented with sample briefing papers to review and critique, using specific evaluation criteria, as the next step in moving toward mastery of written skills in public administration.

Before starting the second challenge, think about these points:

This is not a graded exercise, and you are not in competition with your fellow students. Please share your wrap-up thoughts as soon as you complete the assessment. (Participation is part of your final grade).


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