Understanding Organizational Behavior
Adding to Your OB Toolbox
Your OB Toolbox
OB Toolboxes appear throughout this book. They indicate a tool that you can try out today to help you develop your OB skills.
Throughout the book, you will see many OB Toolbox features. Our goal in writing this book is to create something useful for you to use now and as you progress through your career. Sometimes we will focus on tools you can use today. Other times we will focus on things you may want to think about that may help you later. As you progress, you may discover some OB tools that are particularly relevant to you while others are not as appropriate at the moment. That's great – keep those that have value to you. You can always go back and pick up tools later on if they don't seem applicable right now.
The important thing to keep in mind is that the more tools and skills you have, the higher the quality of your interactions with others will be and the more valuable you will become to organizations that compete for top talent. It is not surprising that, on average, the greater the level of education you have, the more money you will make. In 2006, those who had a college degree made 62% more money than those who had a high school degree. Organizations value and pay for skills as the next figure shows.
Figure 1.4
Education and training have financial payoffs as illustrated by these unemployment and earnings for workers 25 and older.
Tom Peters is a management expert who talks about the concept of individuals thinking of themselves as a brand to be managed. Further, he recommends that individuals manage themselves like free agents. The following OB Toolbox includes several ideas for being effective in keeping up your skill set.
Your OB Toolbox: Skill Survival Kit
- Keep your skills fresh. Consider revolutionizing your portfolio of skills at least every 6 years.
- Master something. Competence in many skills is important, but excelling at something will set you apart.
- Embrace ambiguity. Many people fear the unknown. They like things to be predictable. Unfortunately, the only certainty in life is that things will change. Instead of running from this truth, embrace the situation as a great opportunity.
- Network. The term has been overused to the point of sounding like a cliché, but networking works. This doesn't mean that having 200 connections on MySpace, LinkedIn, or Facebook makes you more effective than someone who has 50, but it does mean that getting to know people is a good thing in ways you can't even imagine now.
- Appreciate new technology. This doesn't mean you should get and use every new gadget that comes out on the market, but it does mean you need to keep up on what the new technologies are and how they may affect you and the business you are in.
A key step in building your OB skills and filling your toolbox is to learn the language of OB. Once you understand a concept, you are better able to recognize it. Once you recognize these concepts in real-world events and understand that you have choices in how you will react, you can better manage yourself and others. An effective tool you can start today is journaling, which helps you chart your progress as you learn new skills. For more on this, see the OB Toolbox below.
OB Toolbox: Journaling as a Developmental Tool
- What exactly is journaling? Journaling refers to the process of writing out thoughts and emotions on a regular basis.
- Why is journaling a good idea? Journaling is an effective way to record how you are feeling from day to day. It can be a more objective way to view trends in your thoughts and emotions so you are not simply relying on your memory of past events, which can be inaccurate. Simply getting your thoughts and ideas down has been shown to have health benefits as well such as lowering the writer's blood pressure, heart rate, and decreasing stress levels.
- How do I get started? The first step is to get a journal or create a computer file where you can add new entries on a regular basis. Set a goal for how many minutes per day you want to write and stick to it. Experts say at least 10 minutes a day is needed to see benefits, with 20 minutes being ideal. The quality of what you write is also important. Write your thoughts down clearly and specifically while also conveying your emotions in your writing. After you have been writing for at least a week, go back and examine what you have written. Do you see patterns in your interactions with others? Do you see things you like and things you'd like to change about yourself? If so, great! These are the things you can work on and reflect on. Over time, you will also be able to track changes in yourself, which can be motivating as well.