Leadership Essay Example: Knowing Your Authentic Self

After reading Chapter Four, this exercise will help develop your self-awareness including by assessing your leadership strengths, your shortcomings, and your development needs.

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Basic Self-Awareness Assessment:

The following questions will allow you to compare your evaluation of yourself with how others view you. Rate yourself from 1 to 10 (with 10 being Very, 5 being Moderately, and 1 being Barely) then support your assessment by answering each question. Then choose two people who know you well to rate you using the same scale and provide their assessments.

QUESTION SELF

RATING

(110) FEEDBACK

RATING

(110) FEEDBACK

RATING

(110)

How self-confident are you? 8 7 7

How aware are you of your moods and emotions? 7 8 8

How effective are you in regulating your moods to minimize their impact on other people? 8 8 8

When confronted with situations that are displeasing to you, how well do you take the time to think clearly about them before responding or reacting? 8 6 6

When you receive critical feedback from others, how well are you able to take in the feedback and respond in a constructive manner without acting defensively? 5 4 4

How well do you understand the emotional makeup of others and their needs? 8 9 9

How sensitive are you in relating to others needs and helping them? 9 9 9

How skillful are you in building lasting relationships? 8 9 9

How well do you network with others and create networks of people with common interests? 10 10 10

How effective are you in leading teams? 8 9 9

Do others follow your lead voluntarily? 8 9 9

How persuasive are you in convincing others of your mutual interests? 10 10 10

After reviewing the feedback, to what extent do you see yourself as others see you?

I have realized that in many cases I see myself from a lower perspective as others see me. The feedback above was an eye opener for me as I realized that I have always been underestimating my effect on people. Fact is that people see a lot in me than I see about myself.

How strong is your basic self-awareness right now?

At this time and point in my life, I am in the self-awareness stage. For me as I know I am still discovering myself and affirming to my abilities on a daily basis. I am not very strong on the self-awareness rating as I am yet to fully know and realize my potential self.

Strengths and Development Areas

What are your strongest capabilities or talents?

My strongest talent is the ability to mediate over matters. I am more of a diplomat in the sense that I am able to see both sides of an argument and empathize with each warring party. I am able to be impartial with the decisions I make. This makes me a great peoples person, and this has made me stand out in many ugly situations as the mediator.

What are your strongest attributes as a leader?

As a leader, I am able to organize individual into taking up roles in a given activity. I am a great planner as I am able to come up with mechanism that suits everyone on the team without making anyone feel that they have not been assigned an important role. My ability to handle groups of individual and motivating them towards the achievement of the set objectives is my strongest attribute as a leader.

What are your greatest needs for development as a leader?

I would like to develop my ability to believe in my team. In many cases I tend to micromanage individuals, making short term and almost immediate checks on how they are progressing. I have been seen as a micromanager, but fact is that I want to see everything going smoothly. I need to be able to believe that the people I have put in place will work to the best of their abilities to produce the best results

Needs

Do you need structure in your job? To what extent are your comfortable with ambiguity and change?

Structured working paradigms are easy to manage due to the systematic flow of events and activities. It works best for every manager, as a leader I believe in being able to tweak activities to suit a situation best. I believe in changing working paradigms as a structured working system can be very boring for me. A few changes will not hurt anyone.

What level of financial security will allow you to feel comfortable?

I believe if I am able to make $10,000 per month would be much more secure for me. I believe is eking out for myself and my family, a poorly paid job would definitely depress me considering all the responsibilities at work and at home all merged together.

To what extent do you need to be leading a team?

My greatest pleasure is being the overall leader, this gives me the power to execute any working framework that suits me and the team best. I would lead a team all the way to the achievement of the set objectives. Success and a feeling of achievement is my greatest motivator in my job.

How much time do you need with your family or loved ones each week?

I would like to be able to spend approximately 98 Hours per week with my family. I believe that family is all I have, spending much more time with my folks helps me to relax and forget about the responsibilities at work.

How much personal time do you need each week to recharge?

I need approximately 98 hours to recharge. This time can be spent with my family as that is what keeps me going. I am not a loner so gathering up my family for a weekend treat or a movie suits me best.

Your Authentic Self

What are your vulnerabilities, blind spots, and shadow sides?

I can be very objective with the achievements of the set objectives due to my goal oriented attitude. In the process of executing my plans I may be ruthless and less empathetic which sometimes makes the people working under me feel harassed. I dont like this side of me, but I am always keen on reducing my impatience with people and putting high expectations on peoples abilities.

In some other cases to avoid conflict I would prefer to say yes to a situation instead of quarreling up with the employee. I would always seek to make them happy at all times.

To what extent do you use defensive armor as a shield to protect yourself from exposing your vulnerabilities with others?

When it comes to the yes-syndrome that I occasionally have, I usually delegate the responsibilities to a tougher member of the team. This individual would say all the No that I mostly avoid to say. For me this works best, as my tasks remain on the formation of the team, the execution and the making hard demeaning choices I leave it to the tough guys.

How can you become more comfortable in sharing your vulnerabilities with others?

I am not comfortable with sharing my vulnerabilities with others as I believe that if one knows of my vulnerabilities they would have leverage against me. I dont like to be manipulated by my employees. I never share my vulnerabilities with anyone at work except to my family.

How comfortable are you with who you are right now?

I am very much comfortable with myself at this point in my life. I have come to know my strengths, my weakness, how to tackle my weaknesses and the best ways I can improve on my strengths to work best for me. I am still trying to know myself better but that usually takes time.