Benchmark - Self-Assessment and Reflection

Self-Assessment and reflection

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SELF-ASSESSMENT AND REFLECTION

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Self-Assessment and Reflection

This topic is such a blessing to the life of those who enjoy learning about themselves and find areas where one can improve. Finding blind spots and addressing change for the better.

Understanding the importance of being in touch with oneself is a huge part of leading. Especially when one wants to have a conscious leadership style. The goal of this paper is to establish an importance of self-awareness, self-concept, and emotional intelligence and the role they play in enabling effective leadership. Specifically, a conscious leadership approach.

Before we go any further, lets define some terminology. Let’s understand the definition of these terms and we can further understand what they mean to us as we take a closer look and how this affects leadership styles and leadership approaches alike. Now, According to Kreitner & Kinicki (2013), self-awareness can exist of these three forms: emotional self-awareness, accurate self-assessment, and self-confidence. Whereas emotional self-awareness is reading one’s own emotions and recognizing their impact; using “gut sense” to guide decisions. Accurate self- assessment is knowing one’s strengths and limits and being realistic, not just optimistic, or wishful. And Self-confidence being a sound sense of one’s self-worth, capabilities including talents, skills, and natural abilities. Now let’s look at conscious leadership the big picture and benefits.

Characteristics of Conscious Leadership

Conscious leadership can be synonymous with servant leadership according to John Mackey, Cofounder and Co-CEO of Whole foods Market. Leaders identify their own flourishing with the flourishing of the organization. Serving those of the organization first and then serving the purpose of the company and/or organization (Kreitner & Kinicki, 2013). Servant Leadership is an unintuitive style of leadership because for the longest time corporate leadership has always

been about the organization and the goals and mission of the corporation/organization. But servant leadership comes to offer a different approach. Servant Leadership offers prioritizing the follower and their needs first then the leader and the organizational needs second. It's a paradigm shift for sure. Stone, Russell, & Patterson (2004) best said it this way, "most styles of leadership direct their focus first on a mission and second on empowering followers to achieve that mission, servant leadership directs its focus first on the ability of the individuals to succeed and then subsequently on the success of the mission."

This approach, when "applied correctly with the proper intentions, an authentic and natural form of reciprocity takes place between the leader and the follower, thus increasing workforce engagement and improving organizational performance" (Gandolfi & Stone, 2017). Servant leadership is falsely accused of being a Christian paradigm, but it has influenced, and been influence by many cultures and religions around the world (Gandolfi and Stone, 2018) However, It makes me smile to know that Jesus Christ was the first to introduce this concept of servant leadership over 2000 years ago (Gandolfi and Stone, 2018).

Self-Assessment

Taking these self-assessments was a confirmation and a learning experience.

Confirmation because I knew certain things about myself already, but I was able to learn some new things about myself. This was eye opening and led to some inner evaluation for the better.

Taking the VARK Questionnaire Assessment I was able to confirm that I am a very much visual learner. Visual being my top with 16 points leading Aural and Kinesthetic with a tie with 14 point. Leaving Reading and Writing in last place with only 7 points. I discovered how much I learn by hearing and discussing an idea and or a new topic. This was very insightful and beneficial.

I saw in myself that I tend to have many strong values. Trying to be well rounded in most good values. This values assessment was tough, trying to express that some values were more important than others. I felt that there are some values just as important than others and they just cannot be more important but rather co-important. Here are my results from the Values assessment. My top 5 Terminal Values are; Salvation (Eternal Life), Mature Love, A sense of Accomplishment, Self-Respect, and Health. And my top 5 Instrumental Values are; Self-Control, Responsibility, Independent, Honesty, and Cleanliness.

When taking the Diversity Assessment, I was made aware of the importance of being empathetic with those I am leading or any people I am trying to influence. My results showed that I was well aware of my surroundings. For the most part, with exception of a few things here and there, I am aware of the culture I target to influence.

Insights Gained Through Self-Assessments

Most helpful insight that I was able to gather from these assessments is the important to constantly evaluate yourself and make it a habit to take time to assess your leadership style and encourage those around you to do the same. It is so important that those you work closest to also speak the same language as you. By ‘same language’ I mean, they speak in terms of knowing themselves and being empathetic towards those around them. Trying to understand how those around them act, think, react, learn, and what their values may be.

My values have been heighted and have become refreshed. My value system has been strengthened by these assessments, both in confirmation of what I knew about myself and brand- new information about myself. This has helped shape such a better attitude towards others both in my professional workplace and in all my personal endeavors in general. Now I have more empathy towards those around me.

I have learned to have a multimodal approach towards any new tasks or challenges in my workplace or leadership efforts. Having different angles of attack when learning new material such as visual, aural, and kinesthetic. Lord help me keep evaluating myself for the better and that I may continue making significant adjustments to the perfection of my leadership.

Significance of Self-Assessments Results

As a leader having influence is the main ingredient one must have in order to be called a leader at all. John C. Maxwell, one of today’s top leadership thinkers and influencer, says “If you can’t influence people, then they will not follow you. And if people won’t follow, you are not a leader. That’s the law of influence.” I have learned to gain influence of those I target to lead, and in order to do that, you must understand your following and your target audience. Understanding your target audience must be priority, and adjusting your physical environment, atmosphere, Communication Style, Values, and attitudes towards your target audience is crucial in gaining influence. When you know yourself, you bring forth such a confidence. And this confidence attracts others to what you are working towards. When you know yourself and lead yourself with confidence you naturally gain influence over those surrounding you. That is why these self- assessments are so valuable.

People can’t follow you if you don’t have influence. And you won’t have influence if they cannot relate to you, feel safe around you i.e. trust, or feel they have a connection with you in one way or another. By being culturally aware and knowing the personalities of your target audience you can gain influence. These concepts are essential no matter where you lead. Whether leading yourself, small groups, or within organizations. Without influence there is no leadership and with out leadership there is no driving force for any company or organization.

References

Kreitner, R., & Kinicki, A. (2013). Organizational Behavior. Retrieved

from https:// www.gcumedia.com/digital-resources/mcgraw-hill/2013/organizational-

behavior_ebook_10e.php

Gandolfi, F., & Stone, S. (2017) “The emergence of leadership styles: A clarified categorization,” Review of International Comparative

Management, 18 (1), pp. 18–30.

Gandolfi, F., & Stone, S. (2018). Leadership, Leadership Styles, and Servant

Leadership. Journal of Management Research (09725814), 18(4), 261–269. Retrieved from https://search-ebscohost-com.lopes.idm.oclc.org/login.aspx?

direct=true&db=bth&AN=132968632&site=ehost-live&scope=site

Stone, G. A., Russell, R. F., & Patterson, K. (2004). “Transformational versus servant leadership: A difference in leader focus,” Leadership & Organization Development Journal, 25 (4), pp. 349–361.