Self-Leadership Skills - Coursework Example

Sеlf-lеаdеrshiр skills роrtfоliо Name: Institution: Instructor: Date: Table of self-assessment Instrument Findings Identified strengths Identified weaknesses Limitations of instrument or findings Learning's Kolb LSI Converging I have strong problem solving capability. I do well in the technical fields. I lack sociol bonds with people. I have poor interpersonal skills. Need to examine academic articles to locate. Ensure I balance this style in my teaching to enable creativity. Watch my self- talk in new unstructured situations. Personal style inventory; Realistic optimism instruments Optimistic I always have hope in the future and do things with hope and determination. I can be blinded by optimism to work on ideas that do not have any success at the end. Does not have other combinations of globality, internality and stability. I need to be keen so as only to identify and work on ideas that have a hope for success. Self leadership questionnaire High self efficacy I am able to set goals and work smartly towards them. I have a tendency to set goals too high. This causes some goals not to be achieved. Does not measure a large spectrum of all activities a person is engaged in. I need to set achievable goals. I need to make use of the SMART principle. Values, locus of control scale Internal locus of control I believe in myself and work hard to achieve set goals. Sometimes I find myself working hard for ideas that do not have success. There is need to research in books so as to get a good picture of the scale I need to moderate the haste of working on ideas. I need to ascertain that they are viable before engaging myself into them. Self leadership is the act of leading yourself such that all things in life are done perfectly according to your set plans and goals (Fritz, 2005). It is mostly concerned with discovering the things that help you to cheer up in life and be lively. After this discovery, what follows is the realignment of thought and actions such that the liveliness continues to shine up your life. It encompasses mastering the important skills in your life and nurturing them so that they can grow to give you a brighter life. Self leadership also requires identification of the areas of life that one is weak at and setting plans of reducing the weakness so that life balances(Fritz, 2005). It mostly depends on self-esteem, self-drive, self-control, responsibility, focus, emotional flexibility, empathy and personal presence. This essay tries to analyze the self-leadership skills I have identified from the self-leadership exercise and then sets out ways of strengthening the weaknesses and improving on the weaknesses. In this essay, I will be focusing on the skills I am strong at and those that I am weak at. I will then analyze the means with which I can improve on the skills I am weak at and set out the plan I will follow in achieving a stronger personal leadership from the weak skills I have identified(Fritz, 2005). Table of level of skills Instrument Level of skills Kolb LSI I have a converging way of doing things. From the analysis, I prefer doing and thinking tasks. Personal style inventory; Realistic optimism instruments I have an optimistic nature. I tend to believe in the positive even if there was a previous event that discouraged me. I have low scores for globality, internality and stability. Self leadership questionnaire I have a high self efficacy and tend to work according to the set rules and instructions. Values, locus of control scale The internal locus of scale is high. I believe that I have a great influence in how my life will look like tomorrow. From the analysis above, it is evident that I have an optimistic nature having low scores for globality, internality and stability(Sommers, 2008). This is actually good in a work environment as it will help me to work hard despite of any inconveniences or difficulties. It makes one to always look up even when situations are not good. This trait however, can make you suffer in one way or the other without your knowledge. This can be proven in cases where one workstirelessly on something that has no sign of success. This can be time consuming and tiring. It thus needs careful analysis of the tasks that one needs to be serious on. From the personal style inventory, I have an introversion character. Although this character is sometimes helpful, it has some disadvantages. Lack of the enthusiasm to work with a group can be a challenge in a work environment and can lead to poor relations between me the management team.I also tend to be very secretive. This can keep off most of the colleagues at a place of work and also friends during social functions and events. This can lead to loneliness and low isolation. I also have high self efficacy. I have a strong self-belief in whatever I do and always look forward for positive outcomes no matter what. This is also a good trait in a work environment as it inspires one to do his work right with a view of having a better tomorrow at the work. I have a high internal locus of control and believe that I have a strong influence on how my life will be tomorrow. I therefore work hard so as to achieve a better future. This is a trait that encourages me to work enthusiastically and without giving up. It is a good trait if well used(Fritz, 2005). From this analysis, it is clear that some of the areas that I need to improve are the introversion nature and the optimistic nature. Being over optimistic can lead one into a task that is doomed to fail(Sommers, 2008). This can be very challenging in a work environment. On the other hand, being an introvert can make you be lonely and lack close coordination from colleagues in a work environment. The strengths I have include high self efficacy and high internal locus of control. These are skills if well used in a work environment will lead to high yields and better productivity. This is mainly because they are skills that inspire a person to work efficiently for a better tomorrow. From this, I will start to work on developing introversion so that I am at peace when working with others. Improving on this skill will help me to have a good coordination with my colleagues at the work environment and will boost my interpersonal relations. Introversion is a skill I need to improve since it has affected me since I was in high school. I remember one time when we were having our end year exams; I nearly missed a paper due to the tendency to study in isolated areas. An announcement was passed that the paper would start thirty minutes earlier but I did not get the message. I had to go into the exam room late. On realizing that I was late, barely some meters from the exam room, I started running to save the remaining little precious time. Although I ran over a very short distance, sweat was all over my body. My heart pounded heavily.The haste made my thinking not to be correct. Though I had prepared well for the exam, I could hardly get to understand most of the questions. This was mainly due to panic and fear. I hated being away from the rest of my classmates. Being together and working together as a group could have saved me that day.I find myself sitting away from friends sometimes mostly because I love reflecting on my own life and do not want interruptions, especially in situations where the people I am to interact with are not that common to me. I find it easy to interact and talk freely to those friends I am used to on a regular basis. I reacted in this manner simply because I wanted to concentrate on my studies without interferences. I also enjoy sitting in quiet and cool environments. Although I like to act freely and mingle with new friends freely, I mostly find a lot of challenges in doing this. In this situation, it could be better to have stuck close to my friends and class mates as I would have got the information in time(Cournoyer, 2011). From the experiences of that day, I found out that although I like quiet environments, I should try as much as possible to be closer to my friends and if possible look for a friend who can assist me to cope with the idea of socializing with others. I also learned that distraction affect me a lot as I did not understand most of the questions in the exam due to the distraction effect of getting to the exam room late. This shows I need a good space of time so as to act rationally and in a good way. Congested, noisy and disorganized places are actually not good for me. I find it difficult to concentrate and work well to give good results in such environments. I have also found out that it is introversion that caused me to lack knowledge that the extermination had been moved to thirty minutes earlier. This was due to lack of knowledge of the external surrounding and information around the school. I also realized that I get disoriented by a small scare. This is evident from the fact that I could not concentrate in the exam room just from the fact that I entered the exam room late. This led to confusion and lack of concentration during the exam. I thus discovered that I need good time to prepare for a task and engage in the task without distractions for the task to be completed accurately(Cournoyer, 2011). Introversion is a character that can be very beneficial to an individual if well understood and used. In a case where one has more of the disadvantages of introversion, he can have many challenges in controlling his life(Fritz, 2005). For an individual to have an easy time in dealing with others, he needs to gather most of the positive skills associated with introversion and minimize on the negative skills. In this case such things as being careful before acting, to always reflect on what you are doing or about to do, working well with ideas, being diligent in your work and interpersonal relations, being careful at generalizations and finally managing yourself well. After an extensive analysis that you are having these skills, you will then need to analyze the extent to which you have the disadvantages of introversion and put ways in place of reducing on the negative influences of introversion. Introverts mostly have problems with being so secretive even on petty things that deserve no secrecy(Sommers, 2008). In other cases, they can remain secretive on a problem that maybe needs serious attention to handle. In such a case, one can easily get a much bigger problem due to his own negligence in handling the problem in time. To improve on this skill, one needs close guidance from a psychiatrist who can easily convince the person to speak up. Another thing is the act of avoiding others. Introverts find themselves unable to sit together with big groups and chat away uncontrollably. They thus tend to go into isolated places where there is little or no interception and disturbances(Sommers, 2008). This is something that needs to be moderated if a person needs to have good progress in life. In this case one needs to have a close friend with whom he can be sharing the life secrets he has and also for company. Having company will help him not to be in isolated places and will start cheering up his life. Having a friend upon which you rely also helps to build your circles of relationships. From one friend one can easily find themselves having multiple friends thus developing good skills in handling the different types of people that exist. This will improve most of the perspectives one has been having about life. One can also boost his skills in this case by having a mentor who can be addressing your problems or having a psychiatrist. The mentor can be your big brother, an older cousin, a psychiatrist or a friend. These can form good advisors and make you develop steadily in your quest for a good character. It is therefore the effort of the introvert to try and be as frank as possible so that the mentor can know exactly what problem you are having(Cournoyer, 2011). Change of skills is an important aspect of a person’s life when geared towards better skills for development. One needs thus to have goals in order to have an effective change of skills. The long term goal for the skills improvement is to have good relations with colleagues at the work place. In this case, I will be able to work smoothly and without problems with my supervisors and senior management staff. The medium term goal for the skills change is to be able to build relations with people I meet in seminars, meetings and social functions(Cournoyer, 2011). This will help me to build relations with experts in my field which can help me better my working skills. It will also help me to understand my surrounding and those that I am close with. I will thus have good relationships with my extended friends and will create a nice profile for good public relations. In my case the short term goal for the change of skills is to enable me to socialize well with my friends and avoid isolated places. This will help me to better my understanding of how people behave and react to different situations. In the short term, it will help me to know how to handle visitors and new people I have never been close to. I will thus advance in the skill of quickly adapting to new situations and environments. This will help me to know the responses that I will need to give in different situations. When all these goals are completed as per the required time, I will be an all-round person having beneficial skills at my disposal to better my career. In order to change the skills as required, there is need to follow required theories so as to reach the target skills. The first theory to follow is the trait theory. This one requires that one tracks his traits and changes them so as to be in line with the required skills. In this case, I will try to improve on the issue of avoiding people so that I am free with people. To add to the trait theory, I will also need to look at the behavioral theory. This theory deals with the correction of behavior that is not appealing in a work environment. It uses the Blake-Mouton Managerial grid to classify good and bad behavior. This theory will help me to change the character of working alone so that I can start working with colleagues and friends. To add to this, I will also need to follow contingency theories and strategize new ways of tackling different situations which I am not familiar with. An example of this kind of theory is the Hersey-Blanchard situational leadership theory(Cournoyer, 2011). Improving on this skill and then coupling it up with my skills of critical analysis and thinking I can thus make a good employee to work with my colleagues. Another theory is the use of power and influence theory to strengthen my relations with others as a leader. In this case I will use the French and raven’s five forms of power theory(Cournoyer, 2011). In order to measure the level of improvement in this exercise, I will need to contact another survey that will entail giving questionnaires to my friends, colleagues and family members. The questionnaire will be surveying on my behavioral and trait changes.The questionnaire will need to be given regularly every after a certain period of time. This will help to ascertain if there are any changes in the way I behave and act. Action plan Critical activities (including behaviours/emotion/self talk) Overcoming potential threats Rewards(how, when, what) Measuring success Avoiding others I will look for a friend who will help me in associating with other friends This will help me boost my friends’ circles thus a better life. It will be measured by how much I am able to interact with new friends. Working alone I will look for friends with whom we will make a discussion group so as to start working as a group This will help me to understand people better. It will also help in exchange of skills. It will be measured by how much I am seen working in a group. Being secretive I will look for a friend with whom I will be able to share most of my critical life experiences and secrets. This will help to open up thus relieving myself of some of the pressing secrets I have been having. It will be measure by how much I feel relieved of the pressing secrets I will be having. Dislike for interruptions I will train myself in that I am able to work in all environments; noisy and cool environments This will help me to adapt working in different environments. This will be measure by how much I will be comfortable working in noisy environments. Misunderstanding the external environment I will try as much as possible to be closer to people so that I can know what is going on around me. This will help me to be updated on the current issues in life and my surrounding. This will be measure by how much I know of the upcoming news and what is going on in my environment. In conclusion, good self-leadership is important for any individual and especially for those that are leaders. This is because leaders needto be good role models for others. Good self-leadership involves having a good balance of optimism, self-efficacy, central locus of control and general self-esteem (Sommers, 2008). A person having all these skills in good proportions will definitely have leadership skills and can be a good role model to others. The skills also help one in the day to day activities at the work environment. One will find it smooth to work and socialize at the work place if he has good proportions of the skills mentioned above. The exercise of personal leadership skill identification and correction thus needs to be practiced in all working places so as to boost employer skills (Cournoyer, 2011). References Bach, S., & Grant, A. ( 2011). Communication & interpersonal skills in nursing. England, Exeter: Learning Matters. Caroselli, M. (2003). Interpersonal skills. 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