Reflective Best Self Analysis- Elena Balasa

I sent out over 27 emails to my husband, friends, mentors, and co-workers to help me gather data for this analysis. I was pleasantly surprised when I got 23 emails back. Below you will find common themes with comments from the feedback I received, and my interpretation/ insight on the feedback.

COMMON

THEME

EXAMPLES FROM SOURCES INTERPRETATION

Enthusiasm,

optimism

She finds purpose in everything she does and that is

where she comes alive and engaged. If something

lacks purpose, it is of little interest to her. Everything I

have seen Elena do, she does with enthusiasm.

Difficult tasks that others are unwilling to pursue or

have been unsuccessful in the past. You thrive on the

positive energy from high performing teams and the

qualified input to the effort.

You seem to enjoy resolving obstacles and achieving

objectives.

Strengths and talents include strong desire to

succeed even when faced with challenges, leadership

ability, team building (promoting the team), and ability

to see strengths in others and motivate others to

perform their best.

In addition, you have a very positive attitude even in

the face of hardship that always serves to motivate

others.

Drive, charisma, determination, and organized mind,

My optimism and trust that I will prevail, no matter

how difficult it is, helped me see the challenges

ahead of me as opportunities, as I understood them,

and then planned how to overcome them.

“Exploiting opportunities produces results.” and

“Above all, effective executives treat change as an

opportunity rather that a threat.”-according to

Drucker.

high energy level.

Being positive and persistent.

Your ability to remain positive in light of failure around

you. I feel that there have been times when you have

been faced with high stress and high failure

situations, and your positive outlook (while still

realistic of the situation) has provided the leadership

and direction others needed to succeed.

Solve difficult

problems,

perseverance,

resilience,

determination,

work hard

Solving the hard problems from which everyone else

runs.

Her talents and strengths are working hard and not

giving up.

You fall and rise quickly.

You try harder than almost anyone else.

Tenacity, persistence, hard work, attention to details.

Willingness to solve the toughest tasks and the

fortitude to persevere. You ask tough questions and

only accept the best from everyone.

You have a talent for asking penetrating questions

that get to the root of the problem.

You are resilient. This is a great gift because you

never give up.

She never takes the short cut and does what is right

at all costs. I admire this quality in her above all

others. It is rare to find an individual that will

consistently stand up for doing the right thing even

when there are numerous environmental pressures to

I am setting the vision for my teams, and we will

work hard to achieve this vision. I like solving the

difficult problems that nobody wants, as I know that

this is what it is the right thing to do for the

enterprise. I ask what needs to be done, and my

determination helps me to continue to push toward

achieving the goal until we achieve it. I ask what it is

right for the enterprise not just for my specific project.

As per Drucker a leader asks” What needs to be

done?” and “What it is right for the enterprise?”

do otherwise.

Social skill, make

friends easily,

draw people to

me, generosity,

kindness

She is gifted at being a friend to those in need.

You have a big and pure heart that comes through

when people meet you.

I like how she interacts with others.

You love people and you like sharing your talents and

gifts with them.

You make people really feel like contributing team

members with the way you give out thank you cards

and little notes.

You have a beautiful soul and your kindness and

generosity shines through.

You like when people come to you for help.

In your position, everyone is a customer even if they

are providing a service to you. You are well respected

and it is because of the spirit you bring into the work,

and the passion you radiate with those you interact

with.

I enjoy meeting new people, and building long lasting

relationships with all kinds of people and

nationalities. I like networking, and this skill helps me

influence others to join me and my vision, so I can

keep moving forward with the goal. You can’t get

things done if you do not have followers. I continue

to improve gaining people’s trust, and as result they

will offer their help and support to our projects. As

per Goleman a leader has to have EI, and one of the

skills is “Social skill- building rapport with others to

move them in desired directions”

Communication,

empathy,

openness, easily

builds trust

You are at your best when dealing with people and

chaos. Using the balanced thinking versus feeling

approach, you can understand what people go

through, while sorting through difficult situations and

in the end figuring out the best option for resolving the

matter and bringing order back to life.

You love people and are deeply compassionate. You

try to lift others whenever possible. You have great

ideas for improving things and including people in

I like being around people and mingle with them. I

like to listen with my ears, my eyes, and my heart. I

learn so much from their experiences, and I learn

how to respect them by listening to their amazing life

stories. This helps me understand who they are,

what matters for them, what they like, and what their

strengths are. Because I am interested in others and

willing to acknowledge my shortcomings, they will

give me tips, help me with information that is not

your plans.

You contribute the gift of lifting up others and helping

them to succeed, helping them to realize their full

potential, as well being a leader to help motivate

teams to achieve a goal even in the face of

challenges that might otherwise cause some of the

team to become discouraged.

Your compassion and concern for others, and ability

to provide mentoring while being very organized and

prepared are all strengths that I feel are essential for

teaching and helping others.

I enjoy watching you work with your operations team.

You always maintain a positive attitude and inspire

others to excel. This open environment inspires

others to look outside of the box to solve difficult

problems.

I made a decision my first month on second shift. You

emailed me with some questions and I replied to your

questions. Within three or four minutes you were at

my desk. I knew how important these were for you

and so I was prepared to be “spoken down to” to be

“made to understand”. Instead you came down and

introduced yourself, asked me how my day was

going. You did not know me, you knew about my

decision and even though most did not agree, you

allowed me to demonstrate why I felt how I felt. It was

very important day for me. I was a recent graduate, a

new hire, and alone on second shift. My decision

easy to find, and give me the bad news that will help

our team resolve the issues before they are too big.

“Empathy - understanding other people’s emotional

makeup” as per Goleman.

I understand that I am not perfect, and I have my

unique strengths and weakness. I am looking for

people that have strengths that I do not have so we

can make a great team and complete each other,

thus resulting in a better team and better results. As I

tried to relate to their challenges and help, this skill

helped build trust in our teams. As per Ancona,

Malone, and others, it is important for a leader to

relate “Building trusting relationships, balancing

advocacy (explaining your viewpoints) with inquiry

(listening to understand others’ view points), and

cultivating networks of supportive confidants.”

meant a lot to me because you cared to respect it. It

was your project, you made the calls, and you could

overrule me without thinking. You did not ask to call

someone with more experience, you just believed me.

Likes challenges,

brings chaos to

order, ingenuity

I believe that at the core of her passion is a desire to

solve problems, to tackle a difficult deadline with an

innovative solution.

You seem to have a knack for data- finding it,

organizing it, analyzing it, investigating it, using it.

The way Elena was able to bring the team together

and lead the team to success. She dedicated a lot of

her time to the project and made sure the deliveries

were made on time and under budget.

Recently you brought a group of people into a

conference room and told them that we weren’t

leaving until we understood every failure that had

occurred on a group of hardware. As the discussion

progressed we identified trends and gained a

significantly better understanding of the problems

faced by each other. This was particularly useful

because it helped different portions of our company to

see what others were doing and built confidence in

their competencies.

While others can become easily bogged down with

frustration it seems Elena thrives on challenge. Her

tenacity is an asset in an environment that is rather

stressful and chaotic…. Must be why she is so

As per Gofee and Jones a leader has the quality of

being different “Dare to be different, capitalizing on

your uniqueness”. I like to be different and to

distinguish myself, thus having a unique skill that will

help our teams. My uniqueness is that I like

challenges, as taking chaos and make it work, by

using techniques that I developed through years of

work. I took projects that other people run away from

them, as they were chaotic. I put together a great

team, and we succeeded to transform a chaotic

program into an organized one, by using different

techniques than used by other teams for other

projects.

successful and creating such a great reputation!

Ethics, loyalty,

honesty

You are quick and not afraid to speak up when

necessary. You won’t bend the truth or compromise

your values.

You like to work with like-minded people who have

strong core values.

Overwhelming sense of responsibility to give back to

the community and those in need.

When I was first a PM I had very little experience in

what needed to be done, what the order of events

were, and what you needed from me to do your job.

You were willing to show me what you needed and

then go off on your own to perform the plan once you

had what you needed from me.

Your intelligence, common sense, determination,

toughness and work ethic.

I am happy to be working with you on our current

MRO project and feel that you balance-out our efforts

very effectively and will be a huge contributor to the

success. At this point, as you put it the other day “our

leaders aren’t sure what they want or need; it is our

responsibility to help with that”.

Elena would be and is an excellent leader. We need

more people as honest, dedicated and intelligent as

she is, in positions of power and leadership.

I am committed to honesty and ethical behavior in

whatever I do in my personal or professional life. By

choosing to do the right thing no matter what, I

gained the trust of the people around me, and this is

very important to me as it creates timeless

relationships. Because of the trust I built with my

teams, they are not afraid to tell me the truth and bad

news, which helps our programs be successful. This

also helps when I ask for candid feedback for

improvement for my own development. According to

Lencioni two of the five dysfunctions of a team are

“absence of trust” and “fear of conflict”.

Influence, vision,

leadership, strong

You are fearless! You are very determined.

You willingly challenge others who you believe are

I see the big picture, and the positive outcome

energizes and motivates me. I enjoy communicating

will, fearless wrong. You seem to like a challenge and you like to

succeed where others have failed.

See the big picture, but can focus on details when

necessary.

I think that you are unstoppable and could contribute

anything you set your mind to.

Motivating others to action.

You recognized that we needed to understand

something, but we didn’t. You helped us gain that

understanding. You weren’t attempting to assign

blame for failures, or interpret the results. You were

humbly asking for people to explain what the

ramifications of each failure were and how they

related to others.

I think that overcoming challenges is one of the items

that keep you engaged. You are passionate about

success and are willing to put in whatever effort

necessary to succeed both personally and as a

member of a larger team. I’ve seen you put in

significant extra effort to help the team succeed even

in areas that are not necessarily your area of

responsibility.

Making things happen, no matter what! Share your

past and dreams for the future to encourage others.

I have noticed you have a gift for identifying future

states. There have been several times that you have

been first to identify the issue, deadline, or concern

that would impact your programs. This has allowed us

the vision, and positive outcome of the vision with my

team. Because I can easily connect with people, this

will help me do lots of good things for people. As

Heifetz & Laurie say “get on the balcony” which

means to remain focused on the big picture.

When we have a clear vision, I am fearless of

leading the team to achieve the goals. I lead and

cheer the team, so the obstacles and challenges we

have on the road to success will not stop our team

keep marching. Collins says that “Inspired standards

demonstrate Level 5 leaders’ unwavering will. Utterly

intolerant of mediocrity, they are stoic in their resolve

to do whatever it takes to produce great results-

terminating everything else.”

to better prepare for you and for all of our other

customers.

You asked the question and the VP, answered it but

mostly dodged it. And you keep asking it stating you

wanted the details. Asking if the VP could elaborate.

You wouldn’t give up, you were resilient until he

answered it and said what we really wanted to know.

What impressed me was you didn’t care that it was a

VP. It didn’t scare you that they were hires up. You

had a question and you wanted an answer.

Desire to grow,

continue to learn

and improve

I’ve never known anyone as focused on self-

improvement as you.

Willingness to learn.

You have a desire to progress and improve, and you

are happy to share that with others.

Just sharing where you came from and how you got

to where you are today.

I appreciate your desire for growth and improvement.

You are not afraid to learn, grow, and share your

experiences with other for their betterment.

I understand that I am not perfect, and I learn every

day how to control my weaknesses while I improve

my strengths. I understand that if I do not learn from

the adversities I face, I can never grow and succeed

to leave a legacy behind me, and most of it to help

people around me to be at least as successful as I

am. As per Bennis and Thomas: Extraordinary

leaders find meaning in- and learn from- the most

negative events. Like phoenixes rising from the

ashes, they emerge from adversity stronger, more

confident in themselves and their purpose and more

committed to their work.”

Family, values Elena’s dedication to her family, work and her study.

One day when we were talking about dolls, you

showed me the beautiful handmade doll clothes you’d

been working on for Aileen’s doll. Your daughter

knows you care, and she knows you love her. She

knows you’ll be there for her, and with her.

Whether it’s tending flowers in your garden for

relaxation or stress-relief, or snow skiing with your

family; whether it’s studying for a test or working on a

paper, you’re engaged in things that matter to you.

I enjoyed all positive feedback I got from everyone,

and most of it from my husband and friends. I

learned that they appreciate who I am with all my

shortcomings. They see strength, strong will, hard

work, compassion, dedication, and love for my family

and people. I love my family, and what I do for a

leaving. I feel so lucky that we had the opportunity in

2004 to emigrate from Romania and came in US. We

have so many opportunities if we work hard, and do

the right thing. I love my adoptive country, and I feel

free, and that we are in control of our future. I had

great parents with great work ethic, which thought

me invaluable skills to be a good leader, wife, mom,

and friend. All people in my life positively influenced

my life, thus helping me become a better person.

What makes me feel good and human, is helping

others and listen to them with compassion. I love

being a mother, after five miscarriages, and being

the wife of my college sweet heart since 1990. I love

being able to help refugee women and their families

become independent. I love helping my coworkers

solve problems and be successful. Helping others it

is my mission in life. Because of all these good

people in my life, I am who I am today, as I continue

to learn and grow and shoot for excellence in what I

do.

References:

Drucker, P. F. (2011): What Makes an Effective Executive. In H. B. Review, HBR's 10 Must Reads: On Leadership. Boston,

Massachussetts: Harvard Business Review

Goleman, D. (2011): What Makes a Leader? In HBR's 10 Must Reads: On Leadership (pp. 1-21). Boston, Mass: Harvard Business

Review Press. Harvard Business Review. (2011). HBR's 10 Must Reads: On Leadership. Boston, Massachussetts: Harvard

Business Review

Goffee, R., & Jones, G. (2011): Why Should Anyone Be Led By You? In H. B. Review, HBR's 10 Must Reads On: Leadership.

Boston, Massachussetts: Harvard Business Review

Lencioni, P. (2002): The Five Dysfunctions of a Team. San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass

Heifetz, R. A. & Laurie, D. L. (2011):The Work of Leadership. In H. B. Review, HBR's 10 Must Reads: On Leadership. Boston,

Massachussetts: Harvard Business Review

Ancona, D., Malone, T.W., Orlikowski, W. J. & Senge, P. M. (2011): In Praise of the Incomplete Leader. In H. B. Review, HBR's 10

Must Reads: On Leadership. Boston, Massachussetts: Harvard Business Review.

Collins, J. (2011). Level 5 Leadership: The Triumph of Humility. In H. B. Review, HBR's 10 Must Reads: On Leadership. Boston,

Massachussetts: Harvard Business Review

Warren G. Bennis and Roibert J. Thomas (2002): Crucibles of Leadership. In H.B. Review, HBR's 10 Must Reads: On Leadership.

Boston, Massachussetts: Harvard Business Review.

My mission in life it is to lift people around me, so they achieve

their best potential, are successful in their jobs, and enjoy their

lives and families.