Building High Self-Esteem of a Good Leader - Essay Example

Reflective Journal about Building High Self-Esteem INTRODUCTION For the overall development and growth of human beings, there are many factors which contribute. These can be physical, emotional or psychological. Self-esteem is one of them. It is a term used to describe human being’s emotional evaluation of their worth (Mind, 2013). It can be explained as an attitude or a judgment towards self. There are various emotions encompassing self-esteem such as pride, despair, triumph and shame. Self-evaluations can be negative or positive. It can be influenced by the external environment or can be completely self-generated (Reece, 2013). Self-esteem can also be associated with self-consciousness. Resent research in self-esteem has suggested that it has a power influence on academic achievement, different exercise behaviour, workplace development and increasing employee morale (Bragar, 2009). The fact that presence or absence of self-esteem can be an important factor influencing the success or failure of an individual makes it an interesting topic. This study is basically intended to critically reflect upon the learning I received from the teachers and trainers. In the course module, we have mainly read about the theories and importance of self-esteem and critical evaluation of what I have learned during the programme and how can I apply this in my future career. In order to do this analysis, self reflection methodology will be adopted. In this study, I will demonstrate real life experience of my learning which was during my work in the bank and how I could relate the concepts and theories with practical learning. I will reflect upon how I can use those learning for my professional career. SELF REFLECTION OF ACADEMIC AND PROFESSIONAL LEARNING I always have high interest on human psychology since my college days. However, when I joined college, I was completely unaware of the theories and research work on human behaviour and human psychology. In addition, I was also unaware of the strong research and development activities that took place in the field of psychology. However, later when I slowly started to gain higher education, I came to know about the different facets of psychology and human behaviour. That was the time when I came across knowing the importance and influence of self-esteem in human psychosocial behaviour (Savolainen, 2000). As I started to gain further education, I discovered a number of new things which are of utmost importance to a society and nation. I will cite a real scenario in which I can clearly demonstrate the application of my learning. The real life example is presented below:- It was during the time when I was undergoing my internship program with one of the banks in our city. I joined the company as a management trainee and the total time period allotted to me for completing the project was only 4 months. My leader was the head of customer services for the bank. He had a work experience of 3 years and was a very helpful leader. I had many opportunities where I learned about various aspects of human relations, human behaviour, psychological influences and customer perception, which were of extreme importance. I can relate my qualities of leading and self-esteem to the time when I worked for the bank as a customer service manager for few months. However, I never got the opportunity to lead and supervise other employees. As a result of that, the management of the company thought that I lack qualities of leadership. Even after performing fairly well in my accounts work, I could not get good ratings. This decreased my self-esteem and my performance started to go down. However, it was after few days, my leader took leave for a few days and I took over the role of managing the team. In the meantime, a technological change was supposed to be occurring in the bank. The change was basically the implementation of new automation software in the company. As a result of this there were strong resistances from the employees about the implementation of the change. The resistance level reached a certain stage that the management found huge difficulties in implementing it. I found that there is a possibility of layoff and some employees may lack the skills required to work with this technology. However, after a detailed discussion with the executives and managers of the company, I discovered that the company is not planning to layoff any employees; rather the management is concerned about the training programs. Substantiating the information, I tried to convince the employees to accept the change that is about to get implemented. In addition, I also notified them about the benefits for the employees and lastly assured them that their current state will not be disrupted on account of the change. The discussion with the employee representatives turned out to be healthy and thankfully majority of them accepted the necessity of this change and avowed to offer full support (Rosete & Ciarrochi, 2005). After the successful completion of the implementation process, the management of the company highly praised me for exhibiting the leadership skills. This has not only uplifted my self-esteem but also allowed me to believe that I can be a good leader as well, which further ignited my desire to become a leader in human relations management (Riggio & Reichard, 2008). Therefore I believe I have strong determination to achieve what we intend to achieve and also sheds light on strong tenacity and determination. CAREER ACTION PLAN On the basis of the self assessments I have come to the conclusion that though I have qualities of a good leader and human relations manager, I will have to fine-tune my abilities and skills in order to gain recognition and subsequent achievement. From the self-analysis, I learned that negative self-esteem can result in negative self evaluation and thus can prove to be a pothole in success path. When my self-esteem, was low, I even wanted to leave the bank. But as I started believing in myself, my self-esteem grew and at the end I was successful. To be specific, I would like to undergo special training classes on personal development and achievement leadership and assessment skills in one year. In the coming 3 years, I expect to work and grow in the department of human psychology and human relations. And in a span of 5-7 years, I expect to open my own consultation. References Bragar, J. (2009). Practices that distinguish high-performing leaders. Retrieved from http://www.emeraldinsight.com/learning/management_thinking/articles/pdf/bragar_leaders.pdf?PHPSESSID=30cpsnv8p624j2g9ntui9au6v6 Mind. (2013). What is self-esteem? Retrieved from http://www.mind.org.uk/mental_health_a-z/8061_how_to_increase_your_self-esteem Reece, B. (2013). Effective human relations. Cengage Learning Riggio, R.E. & Reichard, R.J. (2008). The emotional and social intelligences of effective leadership. Journal of Managerial Psychology, 23(2), 169-185. Rosete, D. & Ciarrochi, J. (2005). Emotional intelligence and its relationship to workplace performance outcomes of leadership effectiveness. Leadership & Organization Development Journal, 26(5), 388 – 399. Savolainen, T. (2000). Towards a new workplace culture: Development strategies for employer-employee relations. Journal of Workplace Learning, 12(8), 318 – 326. Read More