Leadership Self-Insight And Personal Development Plan

Leadership Self-insight

Implications for leaders in today’s complex and turbulent environments are different then what it used to be a decade ago. There are is a need for adaptation that is of top priority. Effective leadership is an absolute necessary in a turbulent organization (Tschannen-Moran, 2014). Leaders need to be prepared for every circumstance as they are seen with hope and expectations. Today, with vast globalization and advance economy the job of a leader has increased (Amanchukwu, Stanley & Ololube, 2015). An individual’s personality develops from the way they perceive the world around them. Through such perceptions, they built the necessary values, beliefs and ideals which forms the core aspect of their personality. Likewise, in the present article, the said individual who is moderately introvert wishes to overcome his or her short-comings in interaction and communication so that he can set a reasonable path for himself to achieve his long tern goal as a, manager in a corporate business firm.

Leadership is all about transformation and in every kind of aspect (Yukl, 2013). There is a need for leadership qualities in this contemporary era. With the competitive market and busy schedule everyone is determining to target the best position. To achieve the best position, it is not possible without the leadership qualities. Every person can be a leader and every person can develop these qualities. It requires self-refection and self-assessment. In this report I bring together the outcomes of the leadership self-insight quizzes.

The self-insight quizzes are question that helps identifying the qualities one possesses. Each of the questions are designed in a way that would make help in discovering own qualities. The quiz has covered various aspects. Beginning from learning style, the quiz helped in finding the pattern one finds easy to learn. It has helped finding leadership potential and whether one is on fast track or nowhere. The quiz has helped finding out the rate of optimism also, why is it an important leadership quality. The design of the quiz was such that it helped in finding the rate at which one is attracted to task and performance. The qualities helped in comparing self with the requirement and the way to judge a person who would be capable of having leadership quality. Involving the five big personality dimension helps in providing justification for the personality traits. Qualities such as mindfulness and spiritually are important aspects of leadership. Considering the ethical maturity and leadership orientation the quiz was able to give comprehensive understanding. A leader possess relationship building qualities as well as the capability of motivating other persons. The quiz had plenty of scope that made possible understanding personality traits.  

Identifying Key Strengths and Weaknesses

According to the questions I have identified various facts about myself. I am a creative person. I understand that I possess the qualities of leadership that are required. I am performance-oriented person as well. All these behaviours are the characteristics of a good leader. I tend to become critical of myself however, I use it to make myself better. My people skills are very good which makes me a likable person. I have moderate emotional stability. According to Jungian Types, the result shows that I am a person who comes under the pair of sensing versus and intuition. I also have the potential of becoming a courageous leader. Since it varies according to situation I moderately control or take charge of my life. Although I have known myself as an introvert who do not tend to feel comfortable being the centre of attraction, it is not a negative aspect of my personality trait. The quiz helped me understand my decision-making skills as well. I see myself as potentially good leader although there are need for improvement.

Implications for leaders in today’s complex and turbulent environments are different then what it used to be a decade ago. There are is a need for adaptation that is of top priority. Effective leadership is an absolute necessary in a turbulent organization. Leaders need to be prepared for every circumstance as they are seen with hope and expectations. Today, with vast globalization and advance economy the job of a leader has increased. Therefore, with all the necessary leadership traits the leaders need to be prepared. Leaders who are not able to manage the crisis are not taken as efficient and there is need for the leaders to be able to make sure they are able to handle the situations (Roberts, 2013). It is the leaders’ personal vision that is seen the solution of organization’s growth.

It is important to understand own strengths and weakness which would help in making decisions and maintaining wellbeing (Osland, 2013). The quizzes of the text book helped me identify my strengths and weakness. It has helped in shaping my own perspective with the questions I have answered. The strengths and weakness that I have identified will be discussed in the next paragraph.

According to result I have verbal linguistic intelligence, interpersonal intelligence, intrapersonal intelligence and musical intelligence. With management skills and I am a person who focus on organization’s growth. However, people’s needs are important as well. I tend to focus more on people’s need. I possess the moderate potential as a task-oriented leader and also a people-oriented leadership. The two values are end values and instrumental values. The important end values are, a comfortable life, an exciting life, inner harmony, self-respect and a sense of accomplishment. The five important end values are self-control, honesty, helpfulness, capability and cleanliness. With a score of 14 as the result I identify myself as an emotionally intelligent person. My thinking style is associated with interpersonal relationships and sensitive to others. With a score of 3, open mind with independent thinking and intellectual stimulation is my nature. A score of 5 makes me a moderate performer in the fellowship. I fully engaged in the task as there is high internal standards and a person who is motivated by internal standards. With a score of 7, I am a person who has moderate ethical maturity and it has tendency to increase.

Assessing the Need for More Information on Behaviors

There are also some negative points which I identified within me. According to my scores I am a pessimistic person. I tend to think in a negative pattern. I believe that negative things are the mostly occurring incidents. There is need to develop optimism my thinking as it can affect indirectly on my performance. As a leader I can make changes in situation. However, I am moderate to change resistance which can be improved. The quiz helps me identify my building and managing positive relationships. I have an average score of which makes me average in networking and my listening habits and asking question habit are moderate. I tend to ask question only sometimes and therefore need to work on it. The level of candour in my communication is low and the scores reflects that I am a person who likes to work as an individual. Although I like working as an individual, I am a contributing team member. According to the scores, I have the potential of managing team conflict. Personal initiative and capacity for collaboration are represents values balancing in the task and I can successfully balance values. The quiz helps in understanding my unconscious bias and as per the results I am moderate in making unconscious bias decision.

At some point in one’s career, an individual will be encountered with questions regarding his or her strengths and weaknesses (O’Connell, 2014). In the same way, I have also encountered certain questions in areas where I lack or have the competence to excel. Though considering the results of the self-assessment, I possess a considerable amount of verbal intelligence along with interpersonal as well as intrapersonal intelligence. However, at specific professional scenarios, my colleagues have observed certain areas where I need refurbishment to enhance my leadership abilities. Though these are not hard skills and are challenging to quantify, my workplace peers observed a lack of spontaneity in my approach while developing strategies for any projects. Such an attribute in my perspective has emerged due to my lack of receptiveness and directness.

    Meanwhile, on the other hand, the results of self-assessment have revealed my leadership abilities and management potentials; the previous performance evaluations indicate contradictory statements about my conduct at the workplace.  The confrontation with my team associates typically lacks essential understanding thus leading in developing more expectations from my colleagues.  During an informal conversation with one of my supervisors, I tentatively demonstrate my ideas in a way which causes listeners to assume that they are uninformed or greatly lack in that specific subject area. Though I have creative ideas with essential perspectives to share, however when it comes in delivering my ideas and innovative strategies to my supervisors I exhibit a critical lack of self-assurance. Attaining such insight, however, have facilitated me in considering the issues I earlier encountered while delivering plans and strategies for one of the assignments I was involved.  At this juncture, I could correspond to one of the results I have received from self-assessment test with one of my teammates regarding holding less ability in service leadership skills. We both, however, are of the perception that such form of leadership is a false premise and there is a significant gap in authoritarian roles. However, in exhibiting sincere forms of leadership competence, I often show lack of skill in assessing current challenges and promote a vision of future within the team.

Specifying Actions to Achieve Developmental Objectives

My desire to develop myself as a collaborative leader primarily lies on the way leaders obtain the aptitude to regulate efficiently and sincerely interpret the emotions and motivations of my team associates.

Team working is identified as important ways of developing any projects which deserve a specific form of development and refurbishes skills which will help in delivering useful results in increasing organizational growth (Williamson, Lounsbury & Han, 2013). According to the Belbin model, individuals tend to assume team roles which encourage the success of teams. These roles namely Shapers, Coordinators, Completer, Implementers, Team Workers, Resource Investigators, Plants, Mentors and Specialists ensure an accurate balance of strengths and weaknesses with a team.

Accountability- Considering own liability is regarded as fundamental for any team collaboration. Thus, I must take my proper responsibility for the tasks and deliver useful results on time.

Encouraging Team’s Potential- While working in a team, I have observed that ‘we’ mind-set or approach improves the team’s purpose and goals with distinctly defined and cooperatively shared information.

Improve my Responsiveness- As every individual possess exceptional contribution and perceptions, I must develop my level of responsive. Such a skill, however, will help to comprehend the ideas and demands of my team members and successfully advance towards the team’s objective.

STEP	MNEMONIC	DESCRIPTION	SMART GOAL	CRITERIA MET
1	S-pecific	Moderately Introvert- The student likes to focus more on his or her internal thoughts rather than seeking opinion from an external locus. The Personality is made up of stable traits of preferences and tendencies. However, there are a few issues when it comes to discharging leadership roles. Therefore, within a period of two months, the student would be undergoing a thorough personality development plan, which would be occurring within the premises of his or her institute. The main objective behind implementation of this personality developmental training is to refurbishes skills which will help in delivering useful results and increasing organizational growth in his or her future career-oriented endeavours.	The long-term goal of the student is to build a career in the corporate domain in a supervisory or managerial position. He or she has planned to achieve this goal by mean of certain aspects. Active listening and positive thinking. Ambiverts are They are aware of the shortcomings they possess in both their extroversion and introversion tendencies and strive to consider all such means in order to overcome those.  By being able to push oneself towards participating in social debates, individuals belonging to this personality criteria are able to grow both personally and professionally.
2	M-easurable	The individual can neither be categorized under introverts nor extroverts. They are more on the middle area of the continuum. Therefore, in order to overcome the shortcomings associated with each of the continuum a time period of around 2 months is necessary.	Having a long-term career goal such as manager or supervisor required considerable competency in team leading. Involving oneself in communication skill training and participating in debates and discussions. Such an approach would help him or her in improving the team’s purpose and goals with distinctly defined and cooperatively shared information.
3	A-ction Oriented	In order to avoid being labelled as either introvert or extrovert, the student needs to develop a firm resolve for achieving such personality traits through which others would be able to recognise him or her for their exemplary contribution and amicable attitude. Hence, in the personality development programme, the very first requirement consists of unlearning all such traits that contribute in deterioration of outcomes and focussing on those areas which can take the individual to the heights of success.	Steps to achieve the long-term goal need to begin quite earlier. The student can avail aid from his or her professors as well as peers. They have to ignore the negative aspects of their deterring personality traits which they can achieve through productive interaction and knowledge transfer from relevant sources.
4	R-ealistic and Relevant	The goal set by the student has to be a realistic one that he or she could achieve through strategic planning and implementation of those plans under the guidance of a relevant source.	The student wants to see himself coordinating g and supervising teams in a corporate. This is a realistic goal which he or she can achieve by means of communication and personality skill training. It is mandatory that such training occur under the guidance of an expert who can advise him or her on the ways in which the goal can be achieved through smart planning as well as hard work.
5	T-ime Based	The student wishes to complete his training with a period of 2 months.	Within a period of these two months, the student would be undergoing a thorough personality development plan.  Thus, individuals belonging to this personality criteria are able to grow both personally and professionally.

  An individual’s personality develops from the way they perceive the world around them. Through such perceptions, they built the necessary values, beliefs and ideals which forms the core aspect of their personality (DuBrin, 2015). Likewise, in the present article, the said individual who is moderately introvert wishes to overcome his or her short-comings in interaction and communication so that he can set a reasonable path for himself to achieve his long tern goal as a, manager in a corporate business firm (Noe et al., 2014).

The first step towards improvement is to revise one’s temperamental values and conscious decisions. If the guide is being critical of one’s behaviour, it is essential to take note of the issues and assess those (Meslec & Cur?eu, 2015). Through such evaluation, the individual would be able to develop a stronger understanding of the shifts from the expected behavioural outcomes and thus chalk out the necessary plan to achieve those outcomes. Acknowledging one’s deficiency is always a step towards better (Chuang, 2013).

The next step after acknowledgement consists of the action plan utilising all the available relevant resources. Being patient and active listening helps in developing superior communicative skills (Kruchten, 2015). Being able to summarise one’s thoughts in relation to the present context and being able to disagree to other’s opinion with valid justifications are the consecutive steps by which the individual can refine his or her communicative skills. Self-confidence and logical thought process help in delivering one’s opinion before others. These aspects must be kept in mind while participating in any communication skill training for developing leadership skills.

Identifying and Describing Necessary Resources

Last but not the least, an individual should have a positive intention to learn from his or her experience and not have any kind of biases jeopardising his or her long-term goals (Lussier & Achua, 2015).

Leaders who are respected by their subordinates for their authenticity and integrity have nurtured values, morals, beliefs and principles from a long time ago and thus acquired competency in that attribute. In doing so they have also been able to maintain transparency in interacting with their followers and guide them in their problems (Western, 2013). This aspect which convey the importance of openness, fairness and trust help in building effective feedback channels which guide their followers for betterment. Feedback mechanism refers to the proactive seeking of other opinions on one’s attributes or performance in a certain situation or with respect to a particular task (Gurdjian, Halbeisen & Lane, 2014).

Feedback can be positive, negative as well as neutral which is sought through various channels such as from superiors, subordinates, peers as well as from self. The most productive feedback consists of that which is a balanced opinion from all these channels (DeRue & Myers, 2014).

Feedback is a very helpful method which aids an individual to perform better in future with stronger conviction and confidence (Day et al., 2014). With effective feedback he or she is able to gather all such knowledge that would leverage his intentions of exceling in future opportunities.

Cultural values play a vital role in shaping up one’s personality. Any action plan to improve one’s traits should delve deeper into the cultural roots of the individual (Bos et al., 2017). Accordingly, the information retrieved from such sources need to evaluate with respect to the present context. Depending on the outcome of those assessments, prediction is to be made for personality development (Chuang, 2013).

A well-balanced feedback from various channels help the individual to assess their strengths and weaknesses relevant to the context and with his or her guide’s recommendations to improve those weaknesses, the individual can proceed towards progress. Self-confidence and logical thought process help in delivering one’s opinion before others (Berkovich, 2014). These aspects must be kept in mind while participating in any communication skill training for developing leadership skills (Ameen, 2017). His or her core traits would be substantially influencing the perceptions and motivations. However, with effective guidance on modifying one’s perception to see the same thing with a different thought or beliefs can affect his future discretions.

Tracking Progress and Revisions to the Plan

Working within a workplace that has the propensity to engage in interpersonal dynamics, in certain situations I have experienced misinterpretations of my ideas and failed to contribute productivity to my team. However, after a prolonged conversation with my mentor I have identified some approaches which will help me in attaining enhanced leadership skills.

Position my ideas and thoughts- I have always preferred to maintain a personal diary which reflects my views and perspectives regarding various aspects. However, I must utilize this ability of mine in order to encourage a level of my enthusiasm and proficiency. In such a case, social media platform can offer influential ways to build my network from my arena of ease and comfort to the workplace environment (O’Connor & Spark, 2017).

Enhance my leadership ability- As observed by Van Wart (2014), it is highly essential to increase facade of the leadership techniques which I am currently implementing. Taking critical challenges and tasks would aid me in establishing my influence without applying the usual methods. By virtue of this position, I believe others will naturally defer and be responsive to my leadership techniques to make my interests known.

Generate Ideas and Distribute in an Effective Manner- Nanjundeswaraswamy and Swamy, (2014) claim that Introverts though exhibit innovativeness but fail to deliver those successfully. In such situations, I should make proper strategies in reducing my level of hesitance in proactively perceive issues and challenges which have been creating hindrances in the growth of the organization.

Conclusion

To conclude the above discussion, it can be said that, working within a workplace that has the propensity to engage in interpersonal dynamics, in certain situations I have experienced misinterpretations of my ideas and failed to contribute productivity to my team. However, after a prolonged conversation with my mentor I have identified some approaches which will help me in attaining enhanced leadership skills. A well-balanced feedback from various channels help the individual to assess their strengths and weaknesses relevant to the context and with his or her guide’s recommendations to improve those weaknesses, the individual can proceed towards progress. Self-confidence and logical thought process help in delivering one’s opinion before others. Last but not the least, an individual should have a positive intention to learn from his or her experience and not have any kind of biases jeopardising his or her long-term goals.

References

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Discussing the Plan with a Supervisor/Mentor

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Berkovich, I. (2014). Between person and person: Dialogical pedagogy in authentic leadership development. Academy of Management Learning & Education, 13(2), 245-264.

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O’Connor, P., & Spark, A. (2017). Introverts think they won’t like being leaders but they are capable. The Conversation, (25).

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