Personal Narrative

Lauren Ortiz
INTRODUCTION indicate that while I perform well on teams
Over the past few months, I have collected and give strong input on tasks, I am perceived
data about how myself, current teammates, as slow to open up personally by my
and former teammates view me get a colleagues. My teammates view me as
comprehensive view of my professional dependable but less approachable.
persona and analyze how I communicate and
PEOPLE STYLE
the type of work environment I thrive in. In
People Styles is an assessment that categorizes
this document, I will discuss my core values,
individuals based on their assertiveness and
teammates’ perception of me, my people
emotiveness during communication and can
styles and culture map communications styles,
be used to judge how an individual is likely to
the disconnect in internal and external views
communicate in a professional setting.
of my culture map, external feedback, and
My People Styles results indicate that I am a
goals for the future.
Driver, which is an individual which is more
CORE VALUES likely to speak up and assert my thoughts and
My core values are curiosity, ethics, ideas in conversation, more task-oriented
dependability, timeliness, and tenacity. My when working on a team than people-oriented,
survey respondents describe me as reliable, and that I make decisions more rapidly.
perseverant, respectful, and honest, which are The results describe my communication
similar sentiments to my perspective of my similarly to how teammates view me in a
core values. The similarities between the group setting. The description suggests that to
external and internal values show that my be viewed as more open by teammates, I may
values permeate into my work environment, have to slow down and be less task-oriented
that I remain true to my values in a work during group work to build trust within my
environment, and that they shape how I act in team.
a work environment.

CULTURE MAP
The Culture Map is another evaluation that
determines how a person prefers to
communicate but is useful in determining how
people across cultures communicate. Thus,
Culture Map results are more useful than
People Styles when working with teams
EXTERNAL PERCEPTIONS composed of multicultural and international
Learning how my teammates perceive me is individuals because the scores are useful for
important because it provides a more well- comparison outside of just the United States.
rounded view of how I work in a group
environment. When my teammates were My Culture Map results differ from the
asked to state a few words that come to mind external perception of my Culture Map by at
when they think of me, I was described as least one out of four points in all categories
“Quiet yet [having] strong opinions" and except for Persuading and Leading. These
“hard-working and driven.” The responses scores show a significant disconnect between
 how I view my communication style and how I prefer consensual group input in decision-
my teammates perceive my professional making because of the variety of perspectives
communication. In some Culture Map and will likely thrive in an environment where
categories, these inconsistencies are irrelevant, I am able to have more input in the decision-
but some may cause issues or confusion in a making. But I do believe that top-down
team environment if they are not resolve decision-making is important, especially in
times of crises.

Communicating FEEDBACK
Feedback has focused on improving my
Low- High- credibility during presentations. My
Context Context teammates did recommend that I “Need to
Me Teammates share [my ideas] more often with the team
[and] participate more during team meetings.”
Deciding
This feedback is consistent with comments
made by former teammates in the external
Top-
Consensual data collection and suggests an area of
Down
Me Teammates weakness that I can improve. However, my
latest 360 feedback showed improvement in
this category because my teammates are no
DIFFERENCES
longer asking me to speak more during
Communicating
meetings.
My teammates perceive me as communicating
with high-context, more nuanced messages,
whereas I view my communication as low- PROFESSIONAL GOALS
context, clearer, and more direct. The Major takeaways from this evaluation are that
disconnect in communicating can lead to I am performing well in task-oriented work,
issues with how my messages are perceived if I but I need to improve how I build trust with
write a message that I view as direct, and my my team. My goal to change this in the future
teammates do not view the messages as direct. is to be more proactive in getting to know my
Without bridging this gap, then they may teammates initially by setting up team events
struggle to understand me over written out of work. Additionally, I plan to
communication. communicate more proactively with my
network.
Deciding
I scored myself 0.67 on Deciding, meaning CONCLUSION
This document discusses my core values,
that I prefer group consensus during decision
teammates’ external views of me, People Styles
making, but my teammates score me at 1.8
and Culture Map communication style results,
which means they believe that I prefer a
Culture Map discrepancies, and my
moderate amount of top-down decision
professional goals. If you want to get to know
making. This may lead to conflict if I believe a
more about me, please connect with me on
decision should be further discussed while my
LinkedIn at
team thinks I am satisfied with a decision and
https://www.linkedin.com/in/laurendortiz/ or
ready to move on.
email me at [email protected].