Self-Leadership Skills - Essay Example

Table of Contents My self-leadership skills portfolio underlying the skills possessed by me and the identifying the areas which needs improvement. 1 Introduction 1 Step 1: Self-leadership skills literature overview 2 Step 2: Current skill level incorporating 360 degree feedback 4 Step 3: Reflecting on an area of strength and an area for improvement 6 Step 4: Achieving personal and professional change 8 Conclusion 10 My self-leadership skills portfolio underlying the skills possessed by me and the identifying the areas which needs improvement. Introduction This paper gives an insight about the role played by self-leadership in developing an individual’s effectiveness to accomplish specific tasks. Understanding one’s self-leadership skills helps an individual to understand the elements or the factors which would help in increasing the levels of ‘self-motivation’. Self-leadership skills are vital for goal setting and helps in identifying the actions that an individual needs to adopt to achieve the same. Self leadership helps in increasing job satisfaction and performance levels of an individual. Self leadership not only helps one to achieve the professional goals but also enables to meet the challenges offered by one’s personal life. It not only takes into account the mental well being of an individual but also considers the effects of behavioural factors in one’s overall well being. Self leadership plays a determining role in one’s promotion, career development and also in the personal development of an individual. This paper would help in estimating and thereby analysing the self leadership skills possessed by me. With the help of this analysis, the strengths possessed by me will be outlined and the areas which need to be improved would be identified as a result. Based on the deductions made, suitable suggestions or ways to improve those skill bases would be chalked out. Step 1: Self-leadership skills literature overview The term of ‘Self-leadership’ was coined in 1980s by Manz (Neck C. P., 2006). This term was developed based on the initial concept of ‘self-management’. The term was defined “Self-leadership as a process through which individuals control their own behaviour, influencing and leading themselves through the use of specific sets of behavioural and cognitive strategies.” (Neck C. P., 2006). This concept was based on the ‘clinical self-control theory’ and Jermier and Kerr’s theory of ‘substitutes for leadership’ (Neck C. P., 2006). During 1990s, this concept was used to understand the role played by self-leadership in ‘self-managing teams’ and in ‘empowering leadership’ (Neck C. P., 2006). It was pointed out that the theories of self leadership were largely based on the classical theories of motivation. But critics pointed out that the distinction between self leadership theory and motivation theories were narrow, which made the self leadership theories to be considered as ‘descriptive or deductive’ models rather than ‘normative’ models (Neck C. P., 2006). The methodologies adopted to solve a particular problem is totally different for both the theories so the critics suggested that one should understand that the self leadership theories do not adopt the same mechanisms as adopted by the motivation theories. I want to talk about the role that motivation plays in enhancing my positive attitude which is vital for ensuring an overall professional and personal development of an individual. ‘Positivity’ in attitudes is an important aspect of empowering self leadership within a person. So, I would like to focus my discussion on the role played by positive attitudes and the concept of rewarding one-self in strengthening self leadership within an individual. Self leadership helps an individual to develop a positive attitude which is one of the most important factor shaping the behavioural component of one’s personality. Having a biased free approach in solving problems and making vital business decisions are the key to one’s professional growth. Strengthening self leadership skills helps an individual to set proper goals to achieve tough ends. It empowers an individual to think logically and rationally and then take important decisions, which is considered as a prime requisite for the career growth of an individual. Self leaderships skills helps an individual to anticipate changes that can affect the operations of an organization and thereby take appropriate action to prevent the occurrence of the same. Step 2: Current skill level incorporating 360 degree feedback After conducting a survey before the commencement of the ‘Positive Self-Leadership program’, it was found that my colleagues and friends have found me career oriented, ‘good listener’, straight forward and very positive minded. The ‘Pre-training feedback report’ helped me to understand the self leadership skill sets possessed by me. The feedbacks received on the cognitive component of this theory enabled me to understand my levels of expertise as far as the cognitive component of this theory was concerned. As per the feedback on the ability to scorn off fraud concepts and thoughts is concerned, it was found that I do not get negatively biased or follow a negative thinking pattern. I am very positive minded and is always looking for the good in bad things. Ratings on the strategy of ‘positive self talk’ were reported to be reflecting the high optimism in me. As per the 360 degree appraisal, it was found that I analyse the pros and cons of an issue before putting it into practice. This helps to enhance my success rate in accomplishing a task on a timely basis. I was found to be keen in minimising undesirable traits in my performance. Feedback on the behavioural component of the self leadership theory helped me to understand and identify my skill sets related with this component. The feedback helped me to understand that I scored high on ‘self –observation’, goal setting and in redesigning my job level. It was also found that I scored moderately as per as the reward strategy was concerned. It was revealed that I knew what it takes to enhance performance. It has been found that I have high levels of motivation levels. It also meant that I can understand what should be the methods that one needs to adopt to redesign the work to increase the levels of rewards in a particular job. Conducting a survey with the help of questionnaires helped me to estimate the ‘individual difference measures’. I scored high in ‘work–related self efficacy and general self-efficacy’, on ‘positivity’ and on ‘locus of control’. As I scored high in terms of ‘work-related self efficacy’, it meant that I can confidently carry out my job responsibilities even in a challenging work environment. It was estimated that I can perform at high levels in a challenging work environment. A high score in ‘general self-efficacy’ meant that I can handle situations confidently and can understand the aspects that should be dealt carefully to ensure better performance. As per the feedback, I scored high on the ‘positivity’ factor which meant that I bear a positive attitude no matter what the situation might be. This also ensures that I can take a proactive stance whenever required and can anticipate the occurrence of any problem from beforehand which helps me to understand the after-effects of implementing a strategy within an organization. The feedback also found out that I scored high on the internal locus of control which meant that I believe that the results of a particular situation are due to my own actions. This means that I have a higher level of job satisfaction and do not believe in escaping from any situation. A slight variance was noted in my perception about my self leadership skills and those identified by my associates. For example, in the case of the factor ‘positivity’, I had rated myself high but my associates had rated me at a slightly lower position. This means that they do not feel that I always bear a positive attitude irrespective of the challenges offered by the work environment. Similar differences in opinion were noted in the case of factors such as ‘work-related efficacy’ and ‘locus of control’. The associates had rated me slightly lower than my own ratings. Another important area is that I have rated myself lower and scored moderately in the area of ‘self-reward’. This type of assessment of self-leadership skills were done by using ‘Kolb’s learning cycle’ and ‘Johari’s window’. These types of ‘self-reflection’ practices enabled to understand the present skill sets possessed by me and identify the areas which need further improvement. With the help of ‘Kolb’s learning cycle’ I was able to understand that what had been my performance standards and the consequences of my past actions on my professional and personal well being. With the help of this assessment I was able to understand the areas which could be further improved and thereby set a goal to achieve the same. With the help of ‘Johari’s window’, I was able to identify the blind spots. Step 3: Reflecting on an area of strength and an area for improvement I feel there is a need to increase my ‘positivity’ factor as it determines my well being in both the personal as well as in the professional front. It is very important in today’s lifestyle to think positive. Since thoughts precede ideas and ideas precede actions, a not so positive thought process is going to hinder my performance in any sphere of life. More than this, being positivity will make challenges achievable. Another important factor that needs improvement as identified by the assessment is the factor of rewarding oneself where I scored moderately. Using STAR-L system, I would like to analyse the situation, task, action, result and the lessons which I have learnt from my past experiences. The situation was that I was given an assignment in my university where I had to sell a certain product within 2 weeks time to about 100 people. The task was to promote the product in the market and for that I started choosing a sample size to which this product would have an appeal. But people were very discouraging and I started losing motivation. I was gradually getting de-motivated but then realised that my other class mates, though were at a worse condition than me, were rewarding themselves internally which was increasing their levels of intrinsic motivation. It was not that I did not perform well or did not have the urge to perform well. So, finally, I also started motivating myself and was ultimately able to accomplish the given task. What did I learn learning from this experience was that if I can motivate myself by internally rewarding me, I would be able to accomplish any sort of task no matter how challenging the task is. So, I learnt that levels of internal motivation can be increased by rewarding oneself with some non-financial rewards. This process will enhance my belief of my capabilities and push me further to achieve higher targets. This also boosts one’s confidence levels. Rewarding one-self helps in increasing the levels of motivation. The most interesting aspect of self rewarding is that it is I who decide the benchmarks for the reward. Hence, I can make a true analysis of myself regarding the task accomplished and can undertake an unbiased stand for providing rewards. This enables in developing a more focused and positive outlook. I will also learn to be more responsible and disciplined in my approach towards any pre defined goal. This helps in ensuring better outcomes not only in the personal domain but also in the professional aspect. Rewarding one-self helps in reinforcing the positive behaviours that enables easy accomplishment of tasks, minimises possibilities of getting frustrated and thus eliminates chance of higher absenteeism. The aspect of self rewarding me will trigger my motivation and encourage performing better. This is going to be crucial aspect of my development in all the domains of life. Once the motivation is in place, I will seldom feel low and can deliver against all odds. This leads to higher chances of professional development and reduction of disturbances in one’s personal life. Step 4: Achieving personal and professional change I have identified two traits which would help me improvise my self-leadership skills- one is about rewarding one-self and the other is about increasing the levels of positivity. These are the two specific areas which have been identified by me. To measure whether I am able to improve on these traits, 360 degree feedback can be carried out after a certain interval of time to estimate whether the difference in opinion between my perception about these traits and my associates have minimised or not. I have to understand that these changes cannot come in a day or two, it’s a long term goal but I should initiate the process by breaking it into small components. This would make my goal achievable but at the same time challenging in nature. It is absolutely necessary to improve these traits which would help me to perform much better than the present level of performance. As these are long term goals, it cannot be exactly specified that within this time I will improve by these levels but within two months if I follow the methods identified in my goal setting exercise, I will certainly be able to achieve improvement. I chose to do with a similar task that I had done before. I took an assignment to sell a specified product to 100 people, this time in 1 month. I had fixed my minimum attainable target at 65%. This means that in 30 days, I should be able to sell the product to 65 people. Initially, the task looked daunting. I broke the task into following stages to ease the execution. This time I took steps to ensure that the process is organised. I wanted to feel positive and most importantly, sustain this feeling for the entire period of the project. Initially, I faced rejection from a couple of my clients. I analysed with a cool head the loopholes. I felt that I need to interact with my customers with increased enthusiasm. I tried to remain calm, poised and informative about the surroundings when I was selling the product. Gradually, I started gaining success. In 15 days, I had already sold 12 products. It was time to reward myself! A string of successful sales boosted my confidence. It increased my motivation subsequently and I was able to make presentations to my customers with panache. I realised that true to the previous self analysis and motivation development plans, I had turned out to be more competent than before. Going by the numbers, at the end of one month, I was able to bring forty customers. This episode provided me with on inner learning that I expect would be instrumental in shaping my performance in the professional arena in future. To bring about a noticeable improvement, it is necessary to change my beliefs and attitudes as required. A change in beliefs helps in bringing a change in the levels of ‘positivity’ possessed by an individual. Intrinsic motivation would be triggered if one possesses high levels of positive attitude and vice versa. I should always try to motivate myself by rewarding my actions which would increase my performance levels. Conclusion This papers helps in outlining the strong traits that I posses which determines my levels of self-leadership. This paper identifies the areas which needs improvement in order to strengthen my self-leadership skills and helps in chalking out the methods that should be adopted by me to achieve the same. This paper also helps in understanding the importance of self-leadership in bringing about an overall development in both personal and professional areas. The analysis regarding different aspect of personal and professional traits revealed certain features. I was going good on certain areas and lagged in certain others. I also, sort of, misjudged myself in analysing certain attributes in me. The most interesting part of the exercise that was conducted was that I could learn the importance of self-leadership through measurable instances. The importance of staying positive and focussed was realised. The importance of positivity in inculcating a motivation cannot be under estimated. These attributes of positivity, motivation and self leadership are interactive and disturbance in any one of them will hamper the self leadership qualities of any individual. I have analysed the same for myself. I have turned out to be a more matured personality in terms of all the components of self leadership. I expect that this will help me to achieve remarkable feats in both personal and professional life. Reference Neck C. P., 2006. Self-Leadership. Emerald Group Publishing Bibliography Blanchard K., et.al., 2005. Self Leadership and the One Minute Manager: Increasing Effectiveness through Situational Self Leadership. Harpercollins Manz C. C., 2005. Leadership Wisdom of Jesus: Practical Lessons for Today. Berrett-Koehler Publishers Meindl J. R. and Shamir B., 2006. Follower-centered perspectives on leadership: a tribute to the memory of James R. Meindl. IAP Nardi D.,2005. 8 Keys of Self-Leadership: From Awareness to Action. Telos Publications Riggio R. E., et.al., 2001. Multiple Intelligences and Leadership. Lawrence Erlbaum Associates Rima S. D., 2000.Leading from the Inside Out: The Art of Self-Leadership. Baker Books Steers R. M. and Porter L.W., 1991. Motivation and Work Behavior. 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