How Can Self-Awareness Support the Work of Managers - Article Example

 How Can Self-Awareness Support the Work of Managers? Executive Summary Purpose- The fundamental purpose of this report is to explore the concept of self-awareness and its contributions to personal success of leaders and managers as well as organizational success and to appreciate and recognize its importance and role in organizations of today. Scope- While the concept of self awareness is touched upon at various points in this report, the relevance and contribution of this paradigm is discussed at greater lengths with an attempt to trace the link between self-aware leaders and managers and organizational success. Methodology- The report uses published literature on the topic as a foundation for the points made. Secondary literature used includes scholarly articles, peer-reviewed articles as well as books and Thesis abstracts. Much of these articles pertain to the recent years, reflecting up-to-date research. Findings- The concept of self-awareness is simple and basically rests on the ability of managers and leaders to see through themselves and appreciate their strengths and weaknesses. The idea is to develop the strengths further and to eliminate or overcome the weaknesses. Leaders and managers can become self-aware through numerous ways that have been discussed along with their implications. The most important of these include feedback, participation, self-criticism, open discussion and empowerment. Introduction Managers and leaders of today must possess a set of attributes fundamental to their survival and progress in organisations. One of the most crucial attributes is self-awareness which, in the case of managers, helps individuals understand their internal strengths and weaknesses which puts them in a better position to deal with external opportunities and threats (Spellman, 2011). Self-aware managers avoid getting involved in behaviors that contradict their goals of stability and provision of sense of direction to the organization. On the other hand, this vital attribute is also a part of a leader’s portfolio which consists of five groups of attributes: self-awareness, social-awareness, self-management, relationship management and the cognitive group (Niculescu-Mihai & E., 2008). Research has proven that self-awareness is a powerful determinant of a leader’s performance and can reap immediate benefits to organizations since it enables the leader to tap onto his/her core competencies and apply those skills while dealing with the workforce (Mullins, 2001). Hence, self-awareness or self-realization is a fundamental component of leadership and managerial success. Research and Discussion Before delving into the role of self-awareness in supporting leaders and managers in corporations, it is important to define what exactly self-awareness is. Self-awareness, at the most basic level, refers to a realization of one’s internal strengths, weaknesses, emotions, skills, traits and attributes (Whetten & Cameron, 2008). Self-awareness simply means coming to terms with the fact, as leaders and managers (and any other individual), that there are things that the individual may not know which provides room for learning. It involves admitting responsibility for one’s mistakes and adopting a more internal locus of control (as opposed to external) which strengthens oneself and one’s position in the organization because it enables greater self-confidence (Ferrari & Sternberg, 1998). It is a common fallacy to think that effective leaders and managers are those who pretend to know-it-all (Musselwhite, 2007). Effective leaders and managers today are those who are honest with themselves and accept the areas where they lack. Furthermore, self-awareness leads to quality control of an individual by enabling the individual realize what behaviors/attributes need to be replaced or done away with and which ones need to be maintained and honed. The concept goes beyond the mere identification of one’s strengths and weaknesses- it includes the element of ‘feedback’ from others which ensures better communication and co operation with one’s employees and thus, better performance in terms of achievement of organizational goals (Whetten & Cameron, 2008). Furthermore, research has suggested that self-awareness is an important component at determining an individual’s perceived control over events and consequences in their lives (Sosik & Megerian, 1999). However, it is more than just a mere acknowledgement of these elements: self-awareness at a deeper level refers to a critical evaluation or critical appraisal of one’s characteristics and skills. Research has suggested that individuals high on self-awareness tend to engage in open and positive self-criticism and are not hesitant to engage in open discussions pertaining to their strong and weak points (Kondrat & Ellen, 1999). Since it is human nature to avoid self-criticism, most managers or leaders often find the practice of self-awareness derogatory to one’s self-perception. Hence, in the simplest cases, managers and leaders tend to evade this practice. It is important to recognize the fact that managers and leaders differ in their goals, traits and characteristics. Thus, self-awareness adjusts its role accordingly to enhance the performance of managers and leaders in unique ways. Managers are often associated with the tasks of planning, organizing, leading and controlling. They are individuals who bring out the best in their employees and more often this requires consultation and feedback from employees before any decision is made (Mullins, 2001). If managers are fully self-aware they do not engage in behaviors that result in the blame-game. Managers who lack self-awareness often suffer from insecurity regarding themselves and view others cynically by viewing them as potential threats to their power and position in the organization. Research has also demonstrated the fact that most of the leaders and managers tend to be unaware of themselves. This is common phenomenon if the individuals are either originators or conservers (Musselwhite, 2007). The former are individuals who are quick at taking decisions; they do not fear risk taking and are ‘not’ risk-averse. The latter (as the name suggests) are slow decision makers and averse to changes and conflicts. Self-awareness is also closely related to employee empowerment and motivation. Self-aware managers are often those who listen to their employees’ views, demonstrate trust in them, treat them fairly and have everyone’s voice heard in the organization (Whetten & Cameron, 2008). This directly translates to an empowered and motivated workforce since self-aware managers tend to demonstrate greater attributes of democratic management style as opposed to an autocratic one. Employee development is a crucial task of the manager and this is best achieved through greater self-awareness. Ignoring the self-awareness paradigm, on the other hand, translates to a restrictive culture where employee morale is low, creativity is throttled and risk taking takes a backseat. Thus, the link between self-awareness and organizational performance becomes clear through the above depiction. As far as self-awareness in leadership is concerned, it can be categorized into few core components including knowledge shared between us and others, others’ knowledge which is not known to us, our knowledge which is not known to others and, finally, knowledge that is not known to either us or others (Ferrari & Sternberg, 1998). It, therefore, has a strong role to play in leaders’ personal development to the extent that it ensures more productive working habits, positive working relationships and fosters self-confidence. Self-awareness provides enrichment to one’s life because it provides a sense of direction to individuals- it allows managers and leaders to capture those values that are closest to them and work towards fostering these values amongst their employees. Researchers have also pointed out that self-awareness has a major role to play in leadership effectiveness by enhances one’s trust in others as well as one’s credibility, both of which enhance effectiveness as leaders (Musselwhite, 2007). According to Musselwhite, corporations are better off having leaders who acknowledge the fact that they may not know something rather than those leaders who fake up knowing everything. Thus, self-awareness throttles the negative attribute of over-confidence which is one of the key factors that throttles success of leaders and organizations. Not only this, self-awareness is the key driver behind the personal success of managers and leaders in organizations. Self-awareness enables leaders achieve transformational changes as it enables them face the reality by acknowledging what’s wrong in their leadership and how to rectify those weak points in order to steer organizations towards change. Furthermore, change management is a crucial component of leadership these days which requires a motivated, empowered workforce. As demonstrated earlier, self-awareness enables a productive, well motivated workforce through the paradigms of consultation, participation and joint decision making authority. Research has demonstrated that leaders and managers who rank high in self-awareness are more successful than those who are not (Yukl, 2009). Furthermore, the role of leaders and managers requires them to engage in problem solving behavior- at the very least, self-awareness enables these individuals to recognize and identify the fact that a problem exists which becomes the basis of problem solving in organizations. Once the fact that a problem exists has been identified, the problem can be indentified which, in turn, generates possible solutions for solving it. A difference regarding this paradigm can, however, arise between the leader and the manager since the time horizon or focus of both individuals is different. Where managers often focus on short-term solutions, leaders often engage in long-term view of the problem, thus, self-awareness differs for both of them resulting in varying ways to approaching a task (Worrall & Cooper, 1998). Conclusion To conclude, the know-it-all attitude that leads managers and leaders to ignore their mistakes and engage in blame-games, gives way to behavior which produces a direct, negative impact on employees for whom the leader/manager is the role model. Such attitude instills in employees, the belief that the employees also know everything (like their leaders/ managers) and that there’s no room for learning since they know everything. Such beliefs shatter the foundations of learning organizations and give way to complacency which is detrimental to organizational success. On the contrary, managers and leaders who rank high in self-awareness tend to display a learning attitude which results in similar attitudes amongst the workforce. Such leaders empower their employees and do not fear giving employees a chance to voice their opinions. Collaboration, feedback and participative decision-making are the core values associated with such leaders and managers. 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