Defining Self-Leadership and Goal-Setting - Essay Example

?Self Leadership and Goal Setting The most recurring question about leadership is about how people become effective leaders. Are leadership skills acquired over the years or is it simply that people are born with such traits? Definitive answers for these questions have been provided by experts in the field. Leadership is defined as the capability to decide where an individual wants to go and how do they intend to get there; their followers will then tend to perform the same tasks and support the efforts of their leaders (Topper, 2009, p. 561). However, it should be borne in mind that leadership is not only concerned with encouraging people to perform preferred tasks within a group, and that leadership skills can be learned and exercised by any individual within a group in order to complete the desired tasks. Therefore, leadership is not only about leading people but should also motivate others to become leaders themselves. The latter process, which is referred to as self-leadership, can also be defined as an internal process that influences and controls behaviour, using behavioural and cognitive strategies (Neck & Houghton, 2006, p. 270). One strategy, which is widely adopted, is goal setting and hence the main purpose of this paper is to discuss the goal setting theory and to ascertain that it is an important strategy, which needs to be adhered to, in order to attain self-leadership. This paper provides an overview of the goal-setting theory and a summary of the ideas behind the theory, various arguments, their strengths and weaknesses. Goal setting is considered to be the most influential and widely represented framework within the self-management literature. Several self-management studies, which have been carried out with different purposes and contexts, have consistently favoured the notion that individuals can improve their performance and develop an ideal behaviour when they set specific and challenging goals for themselves. (Ordonez, Schweitzer, Galinsky, & Bazerman, 2009, p. 6; Clarke, Crowe, Oades, & Deane 2009; Fu, Richards, & Jones, 2009). A number of studies and research has documented this topic, each providing a different definition for goal setting. According to the Goal-setting theory, setting goals will have positive effect on the performance level of an individual and when the set goals are more specific, challenging and taken seriously by the individual their performance will only be enhanced further. In addition, the goal-setting theory also hypothesizes that aim of goal-setting is not simply limited to enhancing immediate performance levels of an individual. (Marsh et al., 1995, p. 5). Locke and Latham (2006, p. 265) also provide similar arguments in their article about how goal-setting drives an individual’s performance and also emphasize that when the goals set are vague or abstract such as those which rely on delivering one’s best effort, the result of the performance often turns out be inadequate or ineffective. The goal-setting theory also argues that a positive relationship between goal difficulty and task performance can be expected only when an individual possesses the capacity to complete a task without the interference of conflicting goals and thoughts. (Locke & Latham, 2006, p. 265). In relation to issues concerned with professional development such as time-management (Fitsimmons, 2008, p. 61), improvement of employee behaviour (Houghton & Neck, 2002, p. 673) and performance and career management (Greenhaus, Callanan, & Kaplan, 1995 p. 3; Orpen, 1995) goal-setting has always had a positive impact on an individual and the skills gained through these issues constitute important aspects of self-leadership. This has also been reinstated by Topper (2009, p. 561) who believes that time and career management, and improving behaviour and performance of an individual are all vital aspects of self-development. Topper (2009, p. 561) defines self-leadership as a strategic approach undertaken by an individual to attain self-development and which provides tools that could be employed throughout one’s life both as an internal and an external resource in order to gain a new perspective and also to enhance both personal and professional performance. As an example, the skills and personal qualities (internal resource) of an individual could be put to use in their professional life to help implement suitable career strategies and in many cases individuals build their internal resources if they consider them to be vital aspects of self-leadership. (Greenhaus, Callanan, & Kaplan, 1995, p. 4). Goal-setting is implemented in the initial planning phases in case of time-management processes. During the planning phase, in order to achieve the desired outcome, individuals can set one or more goals. These goals can pertain to time-management in daily routine activities and can also involve benchmarks in order to enhance the individual’s skills in time-management. (Fitsimmons, 2008, p. 61). The process of benchmarking involves adopting the best time management skills and practices which are being applied in industries such as manufacturing, and implementing these skills and practices as a benchmark to improve the time management skills of the employees working in the same industry. Therefore, benchmarks are often referred to as goals in goal-setting theory (Meybodi, 2009, p. 88). The goal-setting theory has also found wide applicability in career management as it helps an individual to thinking more clearly and precisely and offers the required motivation. It has a positive influence on behaviour and also prepares an individual to plan their career strategies. It has been proven that when people adopt goal-setting practices they are able to take appropriate decisions wherever necessary such as improving their communication and leadership skills or learning extra courses to better their career. Having a concrete goal plan also urges them to ask for further feedback from people regarding their professional progress and the usefulness of their learning. (Greenhaus, Callanan and Kaplan, 1995, p. 5) In a research carried out by Medlin and Green Jr. (2009, p. 951), those employees who adopted goal-setting to better their career prospects were found to be highly optimistic regarding their job which in turn helped them to better their individual performance and hence improved their career prospects. The research also noted that performance of individuals drastically increases when goal-setting is effective and followed properly. Hence managers seeking to improve their individual performance as well as that of their team members should adopt and recommend the goal-setting process. Goal-setting has several advantages as it creates a sense of awareness about specific responsibilities and also allows for provision of the required resources. It further encourages the employee to engage better with the workplace which could alter their perception about the workplace and their colleagues thereby helping them to achieve their goals more easily. Studies have shown that such an optimistic approach within the employees elevate their performance levels compared to those who are less optimistic. (Medlin & Green Jr., 2009). Despite the various proofs garnered on the goal-setting theory as a valuable tool for self-leadership, the theory has its own weaknesses such as the inability of the theory to integrate other strategies which would also enable individuals to become effective self-leaders. It should be recognised, however, that when goal-setting is integrated with other strategies such as those requesting for feedback, it could doubly enhance the performance and behaviour of the individual (Stansfield & Longenecker, 2006). A good example of such an integration is the study carried out by Vigoda-Gadot and Angert (2007, pp.126-127), which apart from ascertaining the need to possess specific goals also emphasized on the need to integrate other strategies such as adequate feedback as mere goal-setting alone would be inadequate to achieve the end result. By adopting this principle, the study found that appropriate feedback which was obtained in addition to gaol-setting contributed to improved performance of the employees (Vigoda-Gadot & Angert, 2007, pp. 126-127; Venables & Fairclough, 2009, p. 63). The study conducted by Soriano (2008) also followed a similar strategy and found that inclusion of feedback improved organizational behaviour and performance. In addition to incorporating feedback to enhance performance and behaviour researchers have also stressed on the need to integrate the internal locus of control factor to achieve better performance, career management and improve self-leadership. Zajas and Brewster (1995, p. 15) suggested this integration in their study on marketing executives. By including the internal locus of control factor, they found that the individuals were able to achieve a higher level of career planning and were more successful in career transitions compared to the others A last and final factor that needs to be integrated along with goal-setting is identity resolution, which involves awareness about an individual’s own interest, values and skills. This could also include the ability to create one’s own niche in the professional setting and when there is a higher degree of awareness about the individual’s identity success in career management would no longer be a far reach (Zajas & Brewster, 1995, p. 16). Conclusion In conclusion, this paper has reviewed in detail the goal-setting theory and its relating ideas and arguments. The paper has also analysed the importance of self-leadership as an internal process which could influence and control an individual’s behaviour such as directing an individual to use cognitive and behavioural strategies to improve their performance (Neck & Houghton, 2006, p. 270). The usefulness of the goal-setting concept in various areas related to the professional development of an individual such as time management suggested by Fitsimmons (2008, p. 61), improvement of employee behaviour as argued by Houghton and Neck (2002, p. 673) and performance and career management as claimed by Greenhaus, Callanan and Kaplan (1995, p. 3) has been reviewed in this paper. However, it was also noted that all the above literatures excluding those of Greenhaus, Callanan and Kaplan, did not recognize the need for integrating other strategies and dimensions which are required to achieve more effective self-leadership skills. This paper also argued that goal-setting could become more effective when integrated with other useful strategies such as feedbacks, internal locus of control and identity resolution. The paper recognizes the various inconsistencies in literature relating to the goal-setting theory, however, it should also be borne in mind that goal-setting has broad applicability to various industries and this fact should suffice to explain the inconsistencies found in the various articles. This paper also stresses on the need for a better analysis of applying different goal-setting patterns to various industries and the relevant strategies which would be required for every varying pattern. References Clarke, S. P., Crowe, T. P., Oades, L. G., & Deane F. P. (2009). Do goal-setting interventions improve the quality of goals in mental health services?. Psychiatric Rehabilitation Journal, Spring2009, 32(4), 292-299. Retrieved December 13, 2010, from Academic Search Elite. Fitsimmons, G. (2008). 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