This assignment discusses and explains how self-awareness and self-development are important and how they will help me to fulfil my role as a successful manager in the future. It also explains the qualities of a good manager that u want to build in yourself by way of continuous self-development and two critical incidents one from residential week and other from my work and also discusses my major strengths and weaknesses and also discloses areas of personal development as a (future) manager.
SELF-AWARENESS
Self-awareness is knowing and being aware of our self and our identity, including our strengths, weaknesses, our views & thoughts, feeling, likings & disliking, emotions. Self-awareness is nothing but mindfulness of all our traits.
According to Daniel Goleman, 1946 it is highly significant to understand that self-awareness isn't just concerning of what we perceive or see about ourselves further more how we watch and screen our own inner self or our identity. (Goleman, Daneil Goleman, 2012)
Psychologist Daniel Goleman, 1995 has proposed an increasingly well-known meaning of self-awareness in his popular book 'Emotional Intelligence', as 'knowing one's inward states, inclination, resources and instincts”. His statement puts further accentuation to watch our inner self, own thoughts and feelings as they occur. (Goleman, 1995)
Moreover, self-awareness in other words is mindfulness, of knowing and learning regarding our own selves. It mainly characterised into two types, the first one is internal self-awareness which is our own values, passion, aspirations, strengths and weaknesses and its impact on others. And the second category is external self-awareness, means understanding how other people view us.
According to Baron and Byrne (1991) self-awareness is special type of mental presentation that consists of all knowledge we possess about ourselves. Thus information is organised and processed in depth. Thus its final outcome is readily available to remember. Self-awareness enhances lives in few different and helpful ways.
Self-Awareness is having a clear perception of our own personality which includes thoughts, convictions, motivation, feelings, strengths, and weaknesses. Self-Awareness enables us to converse and comprehend other individuals, how they see and judge us, our attitude and our reactions to them at the time. Self-awareness is a leading factor in making progress in life and is one of the key components of Emotional Intelligence.
Envisioning how others see you, assessing yourself and your activities as indicated by aggregate convictions and qualities and thinking about how others assess you. (Baumeister (2005)).
CONTINUOUS SELF-DEVELOPMENT
According to Ostun A, Self-development is nothing but self-advancement.it can be characterised as picking up data required in an individual’s working life, gaining new data and abilities open to new change, learning for learning and keeping this information for future purpose.
it is the enhancement of one's learning, status, or character by one's very own endeavours. It's simply the journey or cycle to improve in any and each aspect of life (Clear, 2018).it is a continuous process, an upward winding. By assuming responsibility of our advancement, we can achieve our maximum capacity and push ahead to accomplish what we need. Self- development implies numerous things in various settings of our life, our objectives and our desire. It’s about creating explicit characteristics and skills, enhancing performance in career, propelling profession, accomplishing maximum capacity as an individual.
The process of self-development is a lifelong acquiring knowledge and learning process, it is deeply rooted process. Whenever we find it is necessary to adapt and improve new skills. Until we develop those skills self-development process runs again and again until the set of objectives are reached. (Armstrong, M., 2011, p. 126)
Self-development is the better version of us.it is the process to strive to better ourselves to grow our self-confident and finally to develop ourself.it is an extremely important process since it offers people, a chance to gain some viewpoint and feedback about our lives. All the time, when we settle on a choice, we keep on living the results of that choice, giving careful consideration to whether we might be cheerful or not. Self-improvement is a procedure whereby people assess their own lives, watch the self-improvement they have encountered, and choose whether they are fulfilled or not. (Stine, 2018)
HOW SELF-AWARENESS AND CONTINUOUS SELF-DEVELOPMENT WILL HELP YOU TO FULFIL YOUR ROLE AS A SUCCESSFUL LEADER OR MANAGER IN THE FUTURE
To be a successful manager must have all qualities listed:
a) Honesty, loyalty and commitment are important qualities that must be present in all managers.
b) He/she must have ability to direct and guide his subordinates.
c) He/she must good command over language means strong communication skills.
d) Manager should be goal and results oriented.
e) Delegation of authority and responsibility when needed
f) Motivating employees, decision making
g) Empathy towards his fellow beings
h) Taking up innovation and creativity
i) Optimistic and positive attitude
j) Good listener and best influencer
k) Work for “we” not” I” and manage by trust ,not by fear.
To be a successful manager, self-awareness and continuous development is very important. So as to lead in life or in company, a manager needs to know their strengths and weaknesses. This will enable them to act decisively, promptly and with confidence, it helps manager to how to take decision, when to take and what will be the upcoming results and act accordingly to that. Good management practice requires the manager to use all resources and skills in proper allocated manner to get the best advantage of the organisation when everyone is acknowledged in by way of giving and taking feedback, the organisation can be harmonious and run in most efficient manner.
I participated for a residential weekend as a part of my masters’ programme and during this weekend I engaged for a team activity named PYRAMID task. It was divided into two groups. The objective of this task was to build the pyramid from only bottom to top with the help of blocks. I was a little anxious of this task because I wasn’t able to understand exactly what to do, as in group there was no proper planning of actions and sequential order to follow by group members. We could only attempt the task but could not do it successfully. And as a team we were so poor we did not have proper communication or conversation to do task. The only instructor was allowed to speak giving only one instruction. as there was no efficient planning we do not have appropriate roles to play according to the task
According to The Belbin toolkit to be successful in team performance the role played by each member is important. The results showed that my best preferred role is that team worker, implementer and coordinator. Even though I’m little bit dependable person but when working in team helps me to gain cultural awareness and feedback received from the group members helped me to get knowledge of area I’m lagging, during the task I was little bit in hurry to finish the task that let confused us. I’m happy we could attempt the task because of team, i coordinated with the team members but if proper planning was done before the task we could have been successful in completion of task. But if working in future as a manager I’ll remember to first make blue print of action and then implementation because whole process comes to standstill if there is no proper planning . and I also consider that to be successful as a manager we should be composed cool and calm during task also.
From this critical incident I came to know my strength and weakness with the help of feedback given by friends and team members. Feedback provided helped me to improve my weakness areas. To be successful as a manager i should overcome with those weaknesses . firstly involving into group helped me to know the unknown persons, how to behave in groups ,how planning is necessary before doing any task , how team work leads to success, communication and conversation are so important and leading ladder towards mission completion, how proper planning leads to take correct decisions at correct time. I really learned the importance of planning and importance of effective implementation of plans.
It was the time when my teaching career began and it was the last moment that I got the seat to pursue my career in teaching in bachelors. It was actually a professional as well as learnings and teaching platform. It started with great difficulty as I got seat very late I missed so many sessions of important introductory classes and there started with presentation of model projects and completion of tasks and assignments. I could do assignments with the help of guide given to us but that it was an surprising day as a group we have to present dramas with all real characters on dais. Initially I could not understand the topic and its concept.
This was highly critical situation where I’m not able to understand what, how to do.as I was so tensed that my palm was sweating and hands were shivering when I think about task. That time I felt stressed and panicked and was struggling to get self-confidence. But we were in group the time was allotted and when we sat in group discussed the task I felt little bit relaxed and could really think on topic. Then I convinced myself and motivated myself that I have to it by any cause and convinced group that we will not only attempt the task but we will do the best out of us. Thus my self-esteem and self-motivation arouse which improved my focus.
However we finished the task later we as a group collected judgement and feedback from peers as well as from mentors. My work and efforts have been approved. The mentors really liked the concept of drama and I couldn’t believe that I could do that so good in group as we have collected feedback and my feedback on that role was so surprising everyone has appreciated the kind of role I played during task and could convey the message with motto. It was the day when I inculcated motivation within myself that “I can do it”. It is because of self-learning and continuous development that enhanced confidence which was hiding inside me. Thus this helped me in I confrontation of situation with the the help of proper planning and implementation of ideas and it has happened because of feedback collected it has in return gave courage to cope with the situations.
This self-analysis toolkit helped me analyses my personal development and made me aware about the knowledge, I found a huge improvement in my core abilities understanding and expressing the views properly , confrontation without fear, realised the feeling of self-confidence , facing the uncertain situation or copying with the situation with smile and courage. Moreover, my confidence geared up I learned that I can sufficiently manage the workplace and stop things from getting worsen. I became the greatest version of myself by focusing and bringing out my strength, efforts to make things done at correct time. Overcoming the weakness having of stage fear and phobia of facing people, copying with the stress. Furthermore, I felt accomplishing more than I used to and learned that I can now perform or do things that previously were difficult for me. Therefore, I will assess this critical incident has acknowledged me to know significantly further things about me which I wasn’t acquainted with. I will do my best now and become better than the previous version of me – and then apply this goal every single day. The initial experience indicate that proper planning , goal setting communicating with new people, self-motivation and feedback would be important design components in effort to develop responsible behaviour with work team (Koch,1979)
Self-confidence is the fundamental basis for anything you do or to become better. A manager is the one who makes decisions appropriately, accurately .Confidence is driving force which builds our character also leads to prosperity in life. Be positive, supportive and encouraging thoughts and actions into the workplace. Focus much on feedback properly. Pay attention to everything you take as a weakness, a fear and work on it and setback. Then, challenge them.to work with determination, hard work, and commitment. Handle situation with positive way or optimistic manner and will be ready to face all kind of situations may be certain or not and will be Confident in communicating. I must have a trust on ourselves and confident in my abilities. Furthermore, I will use my learning to motivate, encourage, and appreciate the task done and as a manager rewards them. Always routinely collect feedback because feedback again will be the source to get area of lacking and improvement needed.
Strengths that emerged from my self-analysis
A pattern I have noticed throughout my career of study and work is that I am sincere ,honest and also dedicated towards work .the result which I received from feedback toolkit is that my co-workers and colleagues also appreciated my work and appreciated the contribution I made towards activity by expressing liking and giving positive feedback.
Weaknesses that emerged from my self-analysis
As I don’t get easily understand the circumstances or situations, I always require the assistance and guidance from my friends and superiors at work or study. I did the task properly when one of my friend’s explained the task twice. It means that I lack in promptness in understanding the question.
Personal development as a (future) manager:
Three areas of personal development that I would like to work in future as a manager is
a) Self-regulation i.e. flexibility and adaptability in managing change,
b) Communication skills.
I as a manger should have self-regulations which understand the importance of change and how to fit according to change. I must try to become more flexible according to situations arrived. I should be adapt to be both introvert and extrovert kind nature. (Personal Development Skills for Leaders & Professionals, 2017).
Communication skills are so important to lead a conversation; manger should be clear with speech, voice, clear description of idea and should be specific of whatever he is delivering at his workplace (Sergeev, 2017). I had a huge improvement in my communication skills while working with teams now able to converse manage, explaining things right, being available or face storms coming across. Thus breaking down communication barriers which ultimately improve self-confidence.
CONCLUSION
This assignment concludes that self-awareness and continuous self-development are vital for a person to become a successful manager in future. Also states that self-awareness and continuous self-development is fundamental tool for managers and leaders as well. Moreover, I will in future overcome my weakness by developing the self-confidence which will be very useful in every aspect of life and I will use my learnings by motivating and, makes others around feel significant and encouraging them by giving good feedbacks. Overall, I will strive to be better person in every aspect by learning from my “weakness and mistakes”.
REFERENCES
Goleman, D. (1995). emotional intelligence. New York: Bantam Books Inc.
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