The Leadership Development and Self-Efficacy Plan - Essay Example

ASSIGNMENT THE LEADERSHIP DEVELOPMENT AND SELF-EFFICACY PLAN Assignment The Leadership Development and Self-Efficacy Plan Leadership competencies are often attributed to qualities such as in-depth talent and skills assessment, balanced assertiveness and authoritativeness, ability to monitor progress, identifying limitations or strengths and developing these,and combining all of these traits with high emotional intelligence (Ames & Flynn, 2007; Conger & Fulmer, 2003; Koman& Wolff, 2008). Successful leaders are often able to cultivate others’ strengths in the process of working on their own through identifying and honing weak points or attributes, using the same qualities that they were able to use on themselves. In recent years however, instead of identifying weaknesses, there has been an increased focus on identifying and improving strengths, which seems to defy the previous grain of thought on reducing weak points. This idea came about as the result of researches suggesting that improving one’s strength allows a person to work efficiently, become better engaged with work goals and ideals, develop creativity and have greater achievements, to have better connections with people, as well as having a purposeful and better quality of life (Rath, 2007).In a sense, by putting a greater focus on strengths, it is possible for a person to receive and achieve the highest potential in their lifetime. This makes it important to identify a person’s personal strengths, in order to gain a better insight on how one not only becomes a better leader and motivator of others but to become a better person to the self and others in general. There are many ways of identifying one’s personal strengths and weaknesses. One is by taking tests with specificities on the results, such as those administered or designed by professionals. These can either be done online or using the traditional paper-and-pen method, and may include assessments for one’s emotional intelligence and social competencies (Kobe, Reiter-Palmon, &Rickers, 2001). Another way of identifying strengths is by getting feedback surveys from people that were able to work with a person under various circumstances, such as supervisors, colleagues, or subordinates (Avolio, Gardner, Walumbwa, Luthans, & May, 2004).For this strength assessment plan, personal strengths were identified using professionally-administered strengths identification test through the Gallup Inc. Strengths-Based Leadership Report, as well as through an emotional intelligence feedback form based on Daniel Goldman’s work (1998), with feedback from a supervisor and a colleague, along with my personal assessment. Strengths Identified by the Strength-Based Leadership (SBL) Assessment Based on the results of the Gallup Inc. Strengths-Based Leadership Assessment taken online, my top five personalized strengths themes were the following based on four leadership domains: Arranger (under the Executing leadership domain); Maximizer (under the Influencing leadership domain); Relator and Individualization (both under the Relationship-Building leadership domain); and Context (under the strategic Thinking Leadership domain) (Gallup Inc., 2014). The Arranger is described to be a trait characterizing a strong intent on winning and being at one’s very best, has strong ties with the past, appreciates constant mental stimulation, and turn to authority figures for support (Gallup Inc., 2014). However, there were also negative drawbacks such as getting bored easily, has tendencies to work alone, avoiding dishonest people, and may have issues with creativity. The Maximizer trait on the other hand is defined by traits such as concentrating on skills at which one excels at or is familiar with, working multiple tasks at the same time, and asking as many questions as possible for the benefit doing a task well (Gallup Inc., 2014). Some traits that need improvement under this trait are: avoidance of anything unfamiliar; high selectivity of projects or work; and averting the improvement of one’s weaknesses.But these traits are not all degenerating, as another trait thrives from having a strong grip on past events and understanding how these things happened and what steps can be taken to avoid these from happening again, which is the Context trait. This trait is characterized by a strong drive to find present solutions from the past, reflecting on previous events, and having strong interests in getting to know people and connecting with them based on their pasts. This allows one to gain better insight through detachment from the present and analyzing everything in both past and present perspectives. Meanwhile, aside from previously-mentioned characteristics such as working independently, multitasking and concentrating on strong skill sets, the Relator trait is also defined by having an overall understanding of various things and making sure that everything makes sense (Gallup Inc., 2014). This can involve anything from outlining methods to be used, to breaking down completely all components needed to accomplish certain tasks or goals. Such traits may sound positive, butthese prevent creative thinking since there is a strong persistence of following order and avoiding spontaneity. However, despite such strong grounds on one’s self, due to having an understanding of circumstances and other people, it also allows another trait to shine through, which is Individualization. This trait is characterized by understanding the qualities of other people, identifying their strengths and weaknesses, and becoming more open-minded with something unexplainable on one’s own viewpoint. Having these traits causes one to be comfortable working with other people from different backgrounds, finding out who they are, talking to other about things unknown, and in the process gaining respect and appreciation for diversity (Gallup Inc., 2014). Strengths from other Information Sources Aside from the previously-mentioned strengths identified through the Gallup Inc. Strength Finder online program, I identified my other strengths by doing a personal assessment of the 360 Feedback. Among the other strengths I found to have were: conscientiousness; empathy; accurate self-assessment; change initiative and management; and perseverance. I believe that my persistence in finishing my work or duty, as well as knowing my limitations allow me to handle work and meet deadlines as deemed necessary. This also helps me decide in choosing how I want my work to be done and to do it to the best of my abilities. Also, because I can empathize with others, it helps me to get motivated in finishing my work on time or earlier as possible so that I can provide others my insights or assistance. Strengths Identified by others through via 360 Feedback Some of the strengths I listed according to my self-assessment also coincide with my strengths that my supervisor and colleague identified. They were also able to identify my other strengths such as flexibility and adaptability, trustworthiness, self-confidence, self-control, initiative, optimism, good political and emotional awareness, and integrity. I feel that the strengths pointed out by my supervisor and colleague was fairly accurate as I have sufficient flexibility and adaptability especially to certain changes.While trustworthiness and optimism may be things that I cannot validate myself since these can only be appreciated from another person’s viewpoint, I can attest to my self-confidence and control, as well as to my emotional and political awareness and integrity. This is because I believe that in order to accomplish things based on one’s own ability and persistence, one must also be able to understand one’s own limits and have personal control to prevent mishaps. Such steps also allow greater control over the emotions, which can impair decision-making skills and work quality as well as straining work relations with others (Koman& Wolff, 2008). Unrevealed Strengths I felt that despite the relative accuracy of some of the results of the online strengths finder and 360 feedbacks, these were not sensitive enough to detect strengths that I believe to possess such as my ability to cooperate with others, my commitment to achieve high-performance results, cultivating opportunities with others, resolving conflicts, and developing others’ strengths. However, it is also likely that I had lower scores in these aspects because these are skills tied with strong tendencies to work with others and enjoy teamwork, and my strengths mostly rely on a work attitude that thrives on independence and self-sufficiency. If these tests were remade to become more sensitive to perceived strengths such as increasing the scale from five to eight or 10, I think it can better show some of my undetected strengths. Unknown Strengths I do not question most of the strengths that I was able to identify using both the Gallup Strength Finder and the 360 Feedback, except for a few that seem to be my strong points but I acknowledge otherwise. The strengths that I feel are inaccurate include the maximizer trait, the connectedness trait, the competition trait, showing initiative and emotional awareness. It is because I feel that these are traits which I believe that only came about due to my ability to assess my skills and to recognize what I know and do not know. On the other hand, I find having the strengths relator and change initiator to be questionable, simply due to the fact that these two contradict my other strengths which I actually acknowledge. For one thing, the relator strength can take into account the need to know and understand other topics and to multitask, however this also negates the maximizer trait because it focuses on being grounded and comfortable in familiar territory, whereas the relator trait puts greater emphasis on innovation and creativity, which I feel the need to improve on. This also puts change initiator against the maximizer and context traits, since these two traits’ strengths are based on retrospection and reflection, which have greater focus on tried-and-tested formulas rather than searching for something new and creative. Regardless, knowing these results allow me to reflect and identify which of my strengths needed to be improved and built. Strengths Needing Augmentation and Development Having read and reread my own 360 feedback and those by my supervisor and colleague, I was able to identify what my weaknesses were at present. However, because it is also possible to improve weaknesses in one way or another, it is of consideration to label these weaknesses as “strengths needing to be augmented or developed”, since it is possible that I have not unlocked my potential in these aspects yet. My strengths that needed to be augmented are: my skills in innovation (because I have tendencies to resist change and therefore have less creativity); my ability to commit and align with group goals (because I tend to work alone and therefore not care about how the group must work together); to be more cooperative (since I have strong tendencies to work alone because of faster output); and my conflict resolution skills (this is because I tend to become passive and prioritize the results more than the process itself). The reasons for augmenting these skills are because I have basic ideas on how to handle these but need additional information to make things work as the situation requires. On the other hand, my skills that need to be developed are: my collaborative skills (because I would rather work alone that work with others); inspiring others (because I do not know how to do it); working with others through a collective goal pursuit (not knowing group goals fully blocks my ability to connect and work together with others); and most importantly, my communication skills (I feel that developing this skill can improve my abilities to work with others better). This is because one of the most important aspects of authentic leadership is having the ability to connect with the diverse kinds of people, which can be accomplished properly through a communication style that invokes trust, hope, and optimism (Avolio, et al., 2004). Thus by developing my communication skills, I can also develop and even augment my other strengths, which are skills that I can benefit from in the long run. References Ames, D. R., & Flynn, F. J. (2007). What breaks a leader: the curvilinear relation between assertiveness and leadership.Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 92(2), 307-324. Avolio, B. J., Gardner, W. L., Walumbwa, F. O., Luthans, F., & May, D. R. (2004). The Leadership Quarterly.Unlocking the mask: A look at the process by which authentic leaders impact follower attitudes and behaviors, 15(6), 801-823. Conger, J. A., & Fulmer, R. M. (2003).Developing your leadership pipeline.Harvard Business Review, 81(12), 76-85. Gallup Inc. (2014, February 5). Gallup StrengthsFinder. Retrieved from Strengths Homepage: http://strengths.gallup.com/default.aspx Kobe, L. M., Reiter-Palmon, R., &Rickers, J. D. (2001).Current Psychology.Self-reported leadership experiences in relation to inventoried social and emotional intelligence, 20(2), 154-163. Koman, E. S., & Wolff, S. B. (2008). Emotional intelligence competencies in the team and team leader: A multi-level examination of the impact of emotional intelligence on team performance. Journal of Management Development, 27(1), 55-75. Rath, T. (2007).Strengths Finder 2.0. New York, NY: Gallup Press Appendix Table 1. Identification of Strengths Strength Based Leadership (a) Strengths identified in other assessment Activities (b) 360 Evaluation Strengths(c) Unidentified Strengths (d) Strengths You question or believe are not accurate (e) Strengths You WouldLike to have (f) Arranger Connectedness Flexibility Cooperative Relator Collaborative Maximizer Competition Adaptability Achiever Maximizer Innovative Relator Conscientious Trustworthy Cultivates opportunities Connectedness Inspiring Individualization Empathy Self-confident Conflict resolution skills Competition Communicator Context Accurate self-assessment Maintains Self-control Develops others’ strengths Shows initiative Commit and align with group goals Initiates change Shows initiative Emotional awareness Collective goal pursuit Manages change Optimistic Initiates change Emotional awareness Perseverance Good political awareness Cooperative Integrity Conflict resolution skills Emotional awareness Table 2. Summary of Net Core Strengths Net (core) Strengths Identify strength, then check one box on the right ExtremelyStrong Strong Flexibility/Adaptability √ Optimistic √ Self-confidence √ Maintains Self-control √ Trustworthiness √ Integrity √ Perseverance √ Conscientious √ Empathy √ Achiever √ Accurate self-assessment √ Table 3. Developing and Augmenting Strengths Strengths to develop and augment Identify strength, then check one box on the right Strengths to be augmented Strengths to be developed Collaborative √ Innovative √ Inspiring √ Communicator √ Commit and align with group goals √ Collective goal pursuit √ Cooperative √ Conflict resolution skills √ Read More