Self-awareness and continuous self-development

Self-awareness and continuous self-development

Self-awareness has been a topic, which has acquired a wide discussion, in psychological perspectives, as well as managerial and business aspects. Wicklund (1975) developed a theory, which purposed to define self-awareness majorly as an individual’s ability to have self-observation. When an individual’s self-awareness is on a high level, it is evident that such an individual’s work performance is much effective. According to Church (1997), there is a positive relation between high level- managerial self-awareness and great levels of a person’s effectiveness, as supervisors often rate them. Moreover, as the research of Goleman (1995) provides, the inadequacy of self-awareness often may lead to a damage of an individual’s relationsip, as well as career (Whetten & Cameron, 2011). On the other hand, as per Maslow (1962), people avoid acquiring new knowledge about themselves because of the uncertain and uncomfortable feelings they can receive (as cited in Whetten & Cameron, 2011). Whetten and Cameron (2011) in their writings, note that disclosure poses as a key that enables people to overcome the panic easily.

Self development refers to an act of making an individual self, better as it already is. In accordance with the writings in John Wiley & Sons (1999), they note that self-development, in better terms, refers to seeking and also making significant use of feedback, setting valuable developmental goals, participating in development activities, and also purposing to track an individual’s own progress. As such, it can be assumed that people have the capability of monitoring their personal behaviors, and also purposing to recognise specific behaviors, as well as outcomes, which are best suitable, and desirable. Based on the self-determination theory, it is evident that organizations can opt to encourage self-development of their employees through providing performance feedback, which are non-threatening, and also ensuring that the employees’ learning choices encourage feedback seeking. Moreover, organizations can reward learning participation, in various learning activities, as well as other self-determined behaviors.

Self-awareness is vital, as it assists manager in identifying gaps that may exist in the skills of management, thus promoting skill development. However, self-awareness as well aids them in finding solutions that can be considered as most effective, thus assisting in enforcing intuitive decision-making, and also aids them in managing stress and motivating themselves and others. For me being a successful manager, self awareness is very important because, the first necessity for being a successful manager is understanding oneself. Self awareness will help me to understand and interact effectively with the employees. Self awareness will give me the power to adapt, communicate, build and maintain a good team. It will give me an ability to communicate effectively with others.

In order to become an effective manager, it is required that you look deep into your self-reflection, observation, as well as growth. It is an ongoing process for most of us. In every managerial role, it will be required of you to rely on inter-personal skills of communication. Our ability to bring forth change is solely dependent on our networks, as well as relationships. As a manager, I may not know everything. However, I am able to learn lots of things from my followers, whom I work with, as well as my colleagues. Every interaction then becomes my learning moment. Confidence and dedication to building our skills is required for effective management. Self awareness will allow me to understand the direction in which my emotions and thoughts are taking me to. It will help me to control my emotions, thoughts, behavior, and attitude in changing environment. Self awareness will help me in facilitating better relationship with the employees.

Q2. Template 1: A Residential weekend incident

Belbin is my chosen toolkit

The toolkit results are complete finisher, Monitor Evaluator and Team worker

Q2. Template Two

I chose the toolkit of Cultural Intelligence Self-Assessment and Emotional Intelligence, as provide by Goleman (1998)

The results of my toolkit are preferred role- research Specialist

Strengths, weakness, and areas of future development as a future manager

According to Fonagy (2018), he points out that purposing to know the areas where an individual is strong and where he or she needs assistance aids in stabilising their personal life, and also nurturing their professional interactions. In other words, self-knowledge provides a powerful tool, which many people might disregard, owing to the fact it becomes difficult or rather, inconvenient, as it makes them have an uncomfortable feeling (Zocchi et al., 2018). From the incident, I have come to a realization that I have certain strengths, as well as weaknesses. Significantly, I will need to continue developing my strengths and also work on my weaknesses, in order to improve and have a better personality for my future managerial skills. My strengths, based on the incidence are as follows. First, I am a good observer, as I monitor all concerns, before coming up with proper suggestions, which can be of benefit. My team leader observed this, and he provided a feedback that I was a good observer, as I was able to monitor all the suggestions provided by each member and gave further suggestions, which aided in improving the task. My second strength is that I work best towards the end of a project than at the beginning. This is owing to the fact that I purpose to assess and evaluate the setbacks that I notice in other team members’ work, learn from them, and build on my working capability. Notably, with this strength, all our tasks went well, apart from one “Archway” as it had improper planning. My third strength is that I am a prudent, a serious-minded individual, who can analyse various problems and evaluate the existing ideas, in order to determine their viability. I received this compliment feedback at the residential week and realized my potential. I regretted that I ought to have given my suggestions at the beginning of our project, in order to assist my team with proper planning. Finally, my fourth strength is that I am able to take appropriate action, where it is overlooked. I was able to stand for a member of my team, who was not able to speak proper English, yet had good ideas. When the meeting leader in my previous workplace refused to give her a chance to give her contribution, I took a bold stand and requested the manager to allow her explain her ideas, and it was noted that her ideas were well appreciated and great. In return, the manager praised me for taking this step.

On the other hand, my weaknesses were as follows. First, I was not able to provide appropriate suggestion at the right time. This made our initial planning to be wrong, owing to the fact that the decisions provided by our team were not correct. Notably, had I given my suggestions at the beginning of the task, we could have had a proper management of our tasks, and they could have been completed in the right way. My second weakness is that I am a slow person, and this is noted in the fact that I observe issues slowly and evaluate them slowly before coming up with proper suggestions. Had I been a quick person, my suggestions could have worked better for our work.

Sutton et al. (2018) makes it clear that if an individual wants to succeed, in the future, fixing their weaknesses is not enough, owing to the fact that the individual needs to leverage his or her strengths. Based on personal reflection, an individual needs to question the outcomes, thus purposing to come up with something better for the future in the process of development. I will need to focus on my weaknesses, in order to make a better future leader. Firstly, I will need to work on my speed whilst working with a team, where I will adjust on my evaluation skills, in order to identify various wrongs at the beginning of a project, thus aiding in coming up with better planning, and better outcome for the team. Moreover, I will need an adjustment, for me to be able to provide my suggestions at the beginning of the tasks, thus, enabling my team to have better planning, and at the right time. Moreover, I will leverage my strengths, to ensure that in the future, I become an effective manager.

References

• Boyatzis, R. E., Goleman, D., & Rhee, K. (2000). Clustering competence in emotional intelligence: Insights from the Emotional Competence Inventory (ECI). Handbook of emotional intelligence, 99(6), 343-362.
• Earley, P. C., & Mosakowski, E. (2004). Cultural intelligence. Harvard business review, 82(10), 139-146. Ekman, P. (1999). Basic emotions. Handbook of cognition and emotion, 45-60.
• Fetterman, D. M., Kaftarian, S. J., & Wandersman, A. (1996). Empowerment evaluation: Knowledge and tools for self-assessment and accountability. Sage.
• Fonagy, P. (2018). Affect regulation, mentalization and the development of the self. Routledge.
• Moon, T. (2010). Emotional intelligence correlates of the four-factor model of cultural intelligence. Journal of Managerial Psychology, 25(8), 876-898.
• Sutton, A., Williams, H. M., & Allinson, C. W. (2015). A longitudinal, mixed method evaluation of self-awareness training in the workplace. European Journal of Training and Development, 39(7), 610-627.
• Williams, C. (2013). Principles of management. South-Western Cengage Learning.
• Zocchi, S., Borasio, F., Rivolta, D., Rositano, L., Scotti, I., & Liccione, D. (2018). Temporally extended self-awareness and affective engagement in three-year-olds. Consciousness and cognition, 57, 147-153.