The concept and characteristics of Leadership viewed through the JoHari Window - Essay Example

THE CONCEPT AND CHARACTERISTICS OF LEADERSHIP VIEWED THROUGH THE JOHARI WINDOW The Johari window was devised by two psychologists from the University of California back in the 1950s. These were Joseph Luft and Harry Ingham. The name 'Johari' is a combination of their first names: Joe and Harry The Johari window offers a way of understanding how personality is expressed rather than a measure of personality. It's an effective communication tool that can be used in the attempt to comprehend and improve understanding among individuals within a group setting. It also helps in self disclosure, self awareness, improved interpersonal relationship and personal development, understanding of group dynamics, inter-group relationships and team development. Emphasis is placed on behaviour, co-operation, empathy, interpersonal and inter-group development. The Johari window is often referred to as a 'Disclosure/feedback' model of self awareness and as a tool for processing information. It's a self awareness tool because it represents information on feelings, attitudes, views, skills, intentions, experiences and motivation that a person presents in relation to his team, from four different angles. The two main concepts behind the Johari window is that the individuals are able to foster relations based on trust by simply disclosing personal information about themselves and secondly, they can become better persons by dealing with personal issues with the assistance obtained from others [Chapman 2003]. Essentially, better understanding between individuals and groups can be created with the assistance of the Johari window. It is also applicable to the leadership of an organization as it is in understanding the concept of the Johari window that leaders are able to understand the value and importance of self disclosure. This then results to their appreciation of giving and receiving personal feedback. When the Johari window is administered with sensitivity, the team members are able to build trusting relationships amongst themselves, are able to deal with problems and consequently be more effective as a team. This automatically leads to improved productivity within the organization, which is an objective for any goal oriented organization. Loft and Ingham, the founders of the Johari window, divided this window into four quadrants as show below: Quadrant 1 Open Area /Public Area/ The arena Quadrant2 Blind Area / Blind Spot Quadrant 3 Hidden Area Quadrant 4 Unknown Area Open Area | Public Area | The arena This quadrant represents the areas that are known by both ourselves and others. These areas are such as our strengths and weaknesses which we openly choose to share with and display to others. Information known in this quadrant is both factual and behavioral. Factual information is such as one's name and place of residence. While behavioral information includes: wants, needs, feelings etc. This quadrant is a basic description of who one is. Whenever individuals meet for the first time, the size of this quadrant is small and individuals have the choice of whether or not to expand it by exchanging information. Blind Area / Blind Spot This quadrant represents the traits that others know about an individual but are unknown to the individual. These traits could be positive or negative and have an influence on how others respond towards the individual. These traits could be as simple as appearance or as complex as feelings of insecurity, inadequacy and incompetence. More often than not, it is difficult to communicate these traits to an individual as it may sometimes be viewed to be degrading or attacking. This poses a problem as the relationship can be compromised. Hidden / Avoided Area This quadrant represents information that an individual knows about himself but is unknown to others. Unless the individual deliberately decides to reveals this information, it remains unknown. Feelings of trust and comfort usually encourage people to reveal more about themselves and consequently, the window shade is pulled down; the hidden area is narrowed, while the open area is widened. This process is called self-disclosure (Yen 1999). Unknown / Private Area This quadrant represents information that is unknown to both the individual and to others. However, by being placed in new situations, individuals often discover information about themselves that was previously unknown. A person who has no faith in himself, for instance, may develop a sense of self confidence when entrusted with an important task. This means that a sense of new awareness and personal growth is triggered. Once this information is acquired, the open area is widened further. This is much like Maslow's self actualization concept (Yen 1999). The two most important keys to effective leadership according to Hay's study are:- 1. Trust and confidence in top leadership 2. Effective communication by leadership An effective leader must be trustworthy and must be able to communicate a vision to the employees within the organization. The Johari window enables a leader to improve on his communication and improve the level of trust and confidence others place on him or her. This is very important as the employees within an organization increase productivity as long as they have faith in the leadership of the organization. In addition to the above, effective leadership in any organization is geared towards creating a linked and motivated workforce. This means that there is the presence of effective employee interaction that enables all employees within the organization to work together as a team. This also means that all employees are able to carry out their duties and responsibilities effectively without threats or coercion as they are adequately motivated. An effective leader is one who encourages communication among employees, the build up of trust among employees and the boosting of employee self esteem. With the help of the Johari window, the leadership in an organization is able to build such a workforce. This is done effectively through such things as:- Training workshops Interactive sessions between management and employees In all the above, leadership encourages feedback and change - two very important aspects of the Johari window. For any organizations to move forward and achieve its organizational goals, proper leadership is mandatory. This is because leaders determine the direction the organization will eventually take and ultimately its subsequent success or failure. The principles of effective leadership, therefore, are:- Knowing yourself and self improvement Knowing oneself as a leader is very vital to the success of an organization. It's important that a leader is well aware of his or her strengths and weaknesses. This is clear in the first quadrant in the Johari window. By being aware of self, a leader is able to maximize on his strengths to the general benefit of the organization and minimize on his or her weaknesses. Employees within an organization are also more able to better understand a manager who is self aware than one who is not. However, over and above self awareness is self-improvement. Self improvement is the continuous strengthening of one's attributes. This can be accomplished through self-study, formal classes, reflection and interacting with others. An effective leader does not stop at awareness, but instead takes the next step to improve the things of which he or she is aware. Technical Proficiency A leader must know his or her job and have a mastery of it. This involves being aware of his own duties, responsibilities and role within the organization. This applies to other employees as well. An effective leader should also be aware of his or her employee's duties and responsibilities. This knowledge is vital as it ensures that the employees within the organization are performing as they should be. Example setting An effective leader is one who leads by example. He or she expects from all employees only that which he/she can deliver. This means that if, for instance, the management wants to change reporting time from 8.30 am to 7.00 am, the management must be able to report to work at that time. "We must become the change we want to see" [Mahatma Gandhi] Seek responsibility and take responsibility for one's actions A leader must at all times take responsibility and rise to the occasion. A leader should search for ways to guide the organization to new heights hence seeking responsibility and taking the blame when things go wrong. Training as a Team Teamwork is one of the pillars of a successful organization. Working as a team requires proper communication, co-ordination and complete involvement. Effective leadership must ensure that all the departments within the organization understand their own roles and responsibilities as well as that of the other departments. This is vital to enable the organization to move in the same direction. An organization must be fully coordinated and all individuals must understand their importance as well as the importance of others for team work to be achieved. The Johari window facilitates teamwork effectively [Loft and Ingham 1955] Authenticity This is the quality of being genuine. A leader must be genuine in his dealings. Authenticity greatly encourages trust and confidence of the employees in the leader. A genuine leader is one who is upfront and honest with his employees regarding the affairs of the organization. At any one time, employees want management that is direct and truthful. Empowering People To empower is to equip with authority. Effective leaders equip their employees with the authority they deem necessary in order for the employees to achieve their duties and responsibilities. Empowered employees are motivated and motivated employees are more productive. High productivity is an organization's ultimate goal. Service An effective leader is one who genuinely seeks to serve others as service is a vital concept of leadership. A leader must be able to put the general welfare of the organization before his/her own needs and interests and hence demonstrate service. Setting attainable goals By using the Johari window to understand employees better, a leader is able to set attainable employee goals. This is done by maximizing on employee strengths and curbing employee weakness. Goals are targets the organization seeks to achieve and can only be met by those who work for or within the organization. Management must therefore ensure that all the employees have the capability of meeting the goals of the organization. An effective leader, upon realizing that some of the organization's set goals cannot be achieved, undertakes to empower the employees through training to enable them to perform and achieve these goals. Communication An effective leader is the one who has learnt through the application of the Johari window the art of communication. Communication is the ability to relay a message in a timely and accurate manner so as to achieve a particular purpose. Communication is only effective when done in the right time frame, with the right intentions and to the appropriate or respective individuals. A leader must effectively communicate to all organizational employees so that they are constantly in the "know how". By understanding the different individuals within an organization, a leader is able to work with them so as to achieve efficient and effective communication .This consequently improves departmental coordination and highlights the different roles and responsibilities taken up by the different departments. Decision making that is sound and timely The process of decision making though tedious, is very important and unavoidable in any organization. When the leadership within an organization learns how its employees are fashioned through the Johari window [Hase 1999] decision making becomes more efficient. Leaders must make decisions in regards to processes such as training, recruiting, selecting and placement of employees, rewarding systems and organizational policies at large. All these decisions must be made in the right context, time frame, manner and above all accurately [Bolman and Deal 1991] Delegation This is the process of assigning tasks or duties to employees alongside equipping them to be able to carry these tasks out. Delegation is an important leadership principle as it enables employees within an organization to feel a part of the organization. More often than not, leaders are faced with the challenge of feeling threatened when they delegate duties. Delegation to some leaders, comes off as a way of loosing authority to subordinate employees .An effective leader, however, understands that for the flow of work to be efficient and effective, there must be present the process of delegation . An effective leader uses the tool of the Johari window to establish his/her employees' strengths and weaknesses so as to be able to delegate duties appropriately. This is important as an un-empowered delegation could result in work not being done properly or not done altogether. Charismatic A charismatic leader is a transformational leader. He or she is an individual who is able to influence his employees, subordinates or followers through his words, actions, responses and attitudes. Charisma is vital in a leader as it motivates employees. As leadership is the art of influence charisma is the engine of influence. It's a charismatic leader that enables an organization to move forward. He/she is able to effectively communicate organizational goals and objectives ,break down and assign tasks to the different employees and motivate these employees to carry out these tasks in the most efficient and effective way , thereby leading to the organization's overalls success through goal achievement. Feedback This is not only a vital principle of effective leadership but also one of the core pillars of the Johari window. Feedback is the process of reporting i.e. giving a report with regard to a certain action, idea, process or activity. A leader who puts the Johari window into good use, realizes that for any process to be effective, there must be a system of feedback. This feedback concerns employee behavior and performance, leadership systems and processes. An effective feedback system empowers a leader as he/she is able to use the feedback information to correct, change and ultimately grow. This has a definite positive influence on himself or herself and the employees and ultimately the organization at large. The concepts of feedback and change depicted in the Johari window are very beneficial to a leader. The benefits of viewing leadership through this window are as follows: i) Enables leaders to deepen and understand their relationships with their followers. ii) Increases the level of self awareness of the leader. iii) Expresses the views, values and attitudes on a wide range of issues of both the leader and the employee iv) Develops the ability of the leader and followers to communicate more openly and effectively with others whose views and opinions may be different. v) Enables the leaders and followers to explore issues of diversity together. vi) The Johari window benefits an organization as it is used as an organizational tool to visualize the political and cultural issues affecting leadership within the organization, employee performance and the business environment as a whole. vii) It enables the management to clearly demonstrate team dynamics. This enhances team spirit which leads to better coordination and the organization's overall success. viii) It enables coaching to facilitate conversations around "actions versus perceived motivations". This is vital as the leaders within the organization are able to monitor their own behavior as well as that of their employees or followers. In light of the above however, there are also limitations of viewing concepts and characteristics of leadership through the Johari window. These are:- Some things, perhaps, are better not communicated at all. For example, an employee's sexual behaviour, mental health problems or large failures or a leader's in competencies and fears .Such information when communicated more often than not is negatively received and affects the image and confidence of those involved. Another limitation is the passing of information received further than the source desired. In the first quadrant, when the area widens as self-disclosure continues to occur, a lot of information about self is revealed. This information could be passed on to other parties unnecessarily posing as a limitation. The presence of negative responses by individuals is very high. This is because; by nature individuals like to be self-reliant and independent. Revealing information about self to others often robs one of their sense of power. This automatically results to negative behaviour or response towards the processes of the Johari window as regards to leadership concepts and characteristics. The use of this tool to view the concepts and characteristics of leadership is utterly meaningless if it is not linked to activities that reinforce positive behaviour or that correct negative behavior. Leadership being key in any organization must be on a constant scrutiny. Leaders in any organization, are at all times encouraged to embrace positive leadership traits and styles and reject negative leadership traits .If the Johari window is not linked to processes that enable this embracing and rejecting then it does not serve its purpose in creating effective leadership within an organization . This is a great limitation as leadership means change and ultimately growth. In conclusion, the Johari window is a social tool that is not only valid to the characteristics and concepts of leadership but to the principles of life as a whole. Any individual in leadership or otherwise who applies this tool in leading stands to benefit from it and consequently becomes an effective leader. The Johari window seeks not only to highlight the different quadrants but also to shed some light on feedback systems that if combined with corrective measures can ultimately bring about change. A transformational leader who applies this principle is bound to be effective, to improve an effective workforce and better the organization as a whole. As a leader seeks to embrace all the leadership concepts and characteristics viewed through the Johari window, only the sky is the limit. REFERENCES 1) Blake Robert R.and Monton Janse S. (1995). The Managerial Grid III: The key to leadership Excellence. Houston: Gulf Publishing Co. 2) Luft, J. and Ingham, H.(1995). The Johari window, a graphic model of interpersonal awareness. Los Angels; ULCA. 3) Kooouzes, James N. and Posh B. (1987).The leadership challenge. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass 4) Dick B., Davies A. and Hase S (1999).The Johari window and the dark sides of Organizations. Southern Cross University. 5) Bolman L. and Deal T. (1991) Reframing Organizations. San Francisco ; Jossey-Bass. 6) Bass B. (1990). From transactional to transformational leadership: Learning to share the vision .Organizational Dynamics, Vol 18, Issue 3, Winter. Read More