Leadership reflection essay Management Essay Paper

Leadership Reflection
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Leadership Reflection
The demand for effectiveness and efficiency in leaders continues to grow unabated in a business world that struggles to cope with changing business environments, markets and competition amid technological advancements and globalization. The subject of self-awareness and leadership is critical in achieving effective management and mitigating various challenges that are linked to ineffective leadership. In a fast paced world where information sharing has become far too common, effectiveness of various leaders in big corporations can be scrutinized and commended openly and with equal measure. Therefore, a large collection of written literature as well as popular leaders can in illuminating and strengthening focus on this critical subject. By exploring various works relating to self-awareness and leadership skills, this reflective essay examines challenges faced while taking leadership roles as a young leader and an aspiring future effective leader.
Advances in leadership and leadership development are critical components in the process of becoming an effective leader. Day, Fleenor, Atwater, Sturm & McKee (2014) note that one critical component in the leadership development process is self-other agreement (SOA). Self-other agreement relates to how leaders rate their leadership effectiveness and performance and how their rating compares with the ratings of others. Accordingly, leaders who rate themselves similarly to how other people rate them are likely to become effective leaders. Ineffective leadership is associated with overestimating one’s strengths while underestimating his/her weaknesses (Day, Fleenor, Atwater, Sturm & McKee, 2014). As a young leader, I often find myself praising my strengths without peer comparison or taking into consideration opinion of others. The challenge may affect my ability to improve on my strengths and avert my weaknesses translating to ineffective leadership in the future. Self-other agreement is an important aspect of increasing self-awareness and self-perception accuracy which is critical in developing effective leadership skills.
A 360-degree feedback strategy has been adopted nearly ubiquitous with organization using the strategy as an aspect of promoting leadership and self-awareness development. In operation, 360-degree feedback strategy collects and reports on the behavior and effectiveness of leaders gathering unbiased feedback from multiple sources such as peers, bosses, subordinates, clients and other external partners. The feedback is collected with guarantee of anonymity and compared to self ratings. This evidence-based process has become crucial in establishing leadership skills and competencies that aid in identifying effectiveness of a leader (Day, Fleenor, Atwater, Sturm & McKee, 2014: Rothstein & Burke, 2010). Adopting this strategy as a young leader is faced with such challenges as getting biased feedback, for instance, friends are likely to lie while giving feedback which reduces the success of leadership development and self-awareness. While learning various determinants of effective leadership is my ultimate goal, listening and adapting to the feedback of other people is a process I have to patiently learn and accommodate in my leadership development process. As I learn to accommodate constructive criticism that emanates from the 360-degree feedback strategy, fostering a trusting and participative culture is important in getting valid feedback that will ultimately promote my prowess and effectiveness in leadership, at present and in the future.
In addition to self-other agreement and the 360-degree feedback strategy, self-narrative is an essential tool in the leadership development process. According to Day, Fleenor, Atwater, Sturm & McKee (2014), leaders are given an opportunity to narrate or write their personal stories “to help provide insight into the self-relevant meanings they attach to their life experiences” (p. 73). Leaders focus on originality and authenticity while writing stories that depict their lives in leadership. Day, Fleenor, Atwater, Sturm & McKee (2014) note that focusing on authentic leadership improves self-awareness, knowledge of oneself, self-concept clarity and the role of these elements in the development process. Rothstein & Burke (2010) contend with this suggestion adding that focusing on authenticity in leadership narrative fosters “the roles of values and integrity, and the use of assimilation strategies such as adapting goals and adopting attitudes of optimism and appreciation” (p. 382). The very fact that integrity is critical in self-narrative is a challenge where stories told about leadership success may be inspired by sheer exaggeration. I may find myself at crossroads in writing my self-narrative without compromising on integrity which implies possibility of ineffective leadership. Further, fail to acknowledge the truth in past leadership skills reduces the effort for self-awareness.
Development of leadership and self-awareness is significantly influenced by the idea of self-efficacy and the self-concept. Self-efficacy is associated with one’s belief that they have the ability to perform extraordinarily within the specified deliverables. Self-efficacy determines the competence and confidence in delivering the set parameters and has direct positive impact on “the initiation, intensity, and persistence of behavior&r...