Arslan Ahmed

REFLECTIVE JOURNAL Contents Introduction ............................................. Error! Bookmark not defined. Leadership .............................................................................................. 2 Self-awareness ....................................................................................... 4 Time Management .................................................................................. 6 Team work .............................................................................................. 8 Summary ................................................ Error! Bookmark not defined. References ............................................. Error! Bookmark not defined. Appendix............................................................................................... 13 pg. 1 Leadership What is the core skill? “Leadership is the process of influencing the activities of an organized group toward goal achievement.” (UNIVERSITY OF WARWICK) Leadership is the art of guiding the actions of others so that a common goal can be achieved as it is also explained as the skill of organizing others in order to make them achieve that which is good for the whole. (UNIVERSITY OF WARWICK) Why is this core skill important? Leaders have been instrumental in shaping history since the advent of time. The earlier theories such as the Great Man theory emphasized the inborn nature of leadership; later with the behavioural leadership theory we found that leadership was a skill that can be acquired. (CHERRY, Kendra, 2016) Sanibel feels that in turbulent economic times it is leaders who can inspire the others to achieve under duress. (SANIBEL, Michael, 2009) Leadership is considered an important skill in today‟s time in the world of business and it moves beyond the notion of management. Raducan also feels the same when he argues that managers are merely performing certain actions like managing, controlling and correcting but leaders go beyond and are initiating necessary change in the organization. (RADUCAN, R, 2015) How competent are you currently? An important tool that exists to measure the leadership style is known as Multifactor Leadership Questionnaire. Judge & Piccolo say about the multifactor leadership questionnaire (refer to Figure 1 in Appendix): “It is now the standard instrument for assessing a range of transformational, transactional (managerial) and nonleadership scales.” (PICCOLO, T.A. Judge and R.F.) According to the test I scored ten points in Idealized influence, Laissez faire leadership, individualized consideration and inspirational motivation while I earned nine to eight points in the other factors. Based on the results, I would classify myself as learning to be a transformational leader. I have been identified by my peers as listening to them, paying attention to what they suggest and considering their concerns and propositions as important in reaching the final decision. My tutor also feels that I am learning to lead by cooperation and involvement. pg. 2 Can you identify any contradictions or allowable weaknesses from your analysis? I believe that transformational leadership requires the leader to have an amicable personality so that he/she should not inspire fear but instead instil trust to encourage friendly dialogue and exchange. In the pursuit of a friendly personality I often tend to forget that I am still a leader. Often, I feel that my colleagues also tend to forget that I am their leader as I try to blend in with them and keep my personality subdued in my dealings. However, I feel that in order to counter the image of extreme friendliness appearing to be dominating or trying to control people can backfire, hence for now I should let myself be the same. How will this skill help me in the future? Spahr explains that transformational leadership can really help an organization that is grounded in the past and needs to transform itself. Such a leader can serve as inspiration for the employees to change in the new directions. (SPAHR, Pamela, 2014) I believe once I enter professional life I can bring in my transformational leadership style in the kind of organizations that need transformation from their older ways of doing things. Also, since in today‟s world technology is bringing about dynamism and constant change, it is imperative for organizations to adapt continuously. Only transformational leadership has the answer. pg. 3 Self-awareness What is the core skill? “Self-awareness represents the capacity of becoming the object of one‟s own attention. In this state one actively identifies, processes, and stores information about the self.” (Self Awareness Part 1: Definition, Measures, Effects, Functions and Antecedents, 2011) This explanation of the concept highlights the human ability to look into oneself to better oneself. Another author while talking about self awareness says that it allows one to understand him/herself so that one can apply the bigger and more important qualities like ability to speak to a large audience and ability to be charismatic to one‟s advantage-so it is a supporting ability that improves other abilities. (LIPMAN, Victor, 2013) While self-awareness is most often thought of as an awareness of one‟s own strengths and weaknesses, it also involves the ability to accurately understand how one is perceived by others. Why is this core skill important? Williams tells us that self awareness is crucial for perfecting management skills. It allows a person to know who they are; know about their strengths and their weaknesses as well as allow them to find a way for the future. Self awareness can also help in managing stress better and reaching the right decisions while also increasing the motivation levels. (WILLIAMS, Dr.Scott) I feel the same that In order to perform as a manager a person needs to know how it is that he/she appears to others and how he/she can better that image while performing other skills. For example, if you are told by others that you are a good speaker but realised that you have a tendency to stray at moments off topic which could potentially bore others then you can use this awareness of the self to improve your oratory skills. How competent are you currently? An important tool for measuring self-awareness is the Johari Window (Refer to Figure 2 in Appendix). Another one is the self-awareness inventory. My group mates and I decided to analyze each other using the Johari Window framework. I got to know that my blind spots were lack of assertiveness and the lack of ability to say No when needed, while the open area were my abilities to stay calm under pressure and stay positive while receiving criticism. While discussing the pg. 4 hidden area I decided to let my group members know my real feelings about their actions in a certain project we did together. While the unknown area was the smallest region in the grid, the open area showed itself the largest which was positive. I also took a test for self-analysis known as self-awareness inventory and got scores near the middle of the scale and toward the higher side for all three measures, introspection, public self-consciousness and anxiety in social situations. This meant I needed to lower the measure of social anxiety slightly while the other two were OK. My tutor felt that I showed myself to be suitably self-aware in my interactions and class presentations. Can you identify any contradictions or allowable weaknesses from your analysis? Self-awareness is a bit difficult to practice while you are leading that can explain that my public self-awareness score was just slightly above the middle value. I intend to increase this score in future by asking a friend of mine to make a note of my actions and its effects on others present while I am leading a discussion in a society meeting. Based on the reviews of my friend, I will see how my self- analysis of my actions matches with my friend‟s. This will help me to pin point and improve on those areas which I tend to ignore while evaluating myself in a public interaction setting. How will this skill help me in the future? This skill can be very helpful as when I join my organization or start off my own venture after studies I will need to act and think like a leader. Taylor explains that successful leadership behaviour is correlated with self awareness. Hence, as a supporting ability with a high role to play self awareness can help me be a transformational leader in the organizations I choose to join in the future. Since I intend to choose those organizations that have older ways of doing business and need inspiration to change, in such a scenario self awareness can play an integral part in making me be successfully transformational. (TAYLOR, Scott N. et al.) pg. 5 Time Management What is the core skill? Dalli explains while referring to multiple authors‟ work that time management is the process of applying the managerial functions of planning, organizing and controlling in one‟s life in order to achieve work life balance, and efficiency and productivity in the professional life. (DALLI, Mehmet, 2014) Why is this core skill important? Saunders explains the importance of time management and the act of planning for successful time management by showing that as you graduate and move into professional life and find your time divided into managing a lot of things at once and trying to find the right balance between work and personal life, you realize that how important sticking to plans and routines becomes. (SAUNDERS, Elizabeth Grace, 2016) Before this in our college life you may have skipped making plans and routines to solve the problems of juggling assignments and extracurricular and fun time but in professional life there is no getting away. How competent are you currently? Useful tools that can measure time management are TMBS (Time Management Behaviour Scale) and TSQ (Time Structure Questionnaire). My TSQ score is 128 from the possible range of 26 to 182 which is above the mean score of 105. My score being on higher side shows I have sufficient time structure in my life. I have been explained by my group members as organized, punctual and mostly delivering my part of the work on time. I try to organize and plan and develop a schedule for my weekly activities in advance. My tutor has also given me the review that I am on the right track as far as time management goes. Can you identify any contradictions or allowable weaknesses from your analysis? Although, I can safely say that I have good time management skills I have yet to develop routines that can incorporate more extracurricular activities or a sport or a fitness regime. I may have a hard time initially once I do try and bring in more things to do as part of my week. But slowly, I will learn to stick to routines efficiently by being persistent and consistent. Also, since earlier years in college tend to be more difficult as students become exposed to newer expectations and routines and learn over a year or two to adjust fully, it is allowable to be imperfect at time management pg. 6 right now. How will this skill help me in the future? “Time management makes success by reducing stress, maintaining balance, increasing productivity and also setting and trying to reach goals.” (AHMAD M. MAHASNEH, Zohair H. Al-Zoubi, Omar T. Batayeneh and Aeshah A. Al-Sawalmeh, 2013) I believe the above quote quite nicely sums up the benefits of time management which I can avail in the future in my professional life. If I stick to plans and strict routines which help me shuffle through work time and leisure in future, I will feel happy, less stressed and will be able to excel in my profession too. pg. 7 Team work What is the core skill? Leadership in today‟s world is incomplete without having the necessary complementary skills of team work. Sohmen explains that a team is a group of individuals who overlook personal interests and perform together in order to serve the interests of the group as a whole. Teams also share certain features: diversity of participants, coordinated efforts as well as free exchange of important information in order to achieve the goals set out at the time of formation of a team. (SOHMEN, Victor.S, 2013) Why is this core skill important? Team work is needed in accomplishing work in today‟s workplaces. In today‟s time a lot of cooperation and coordination is required to achieve a whole greater than the sum of the individuals‟ efforts. Workplaces have individuals specialising in hard to replicate skills and hence teamwork becomes a necessity to share the specialised skills and diversified knowledge. One author also builds a case for the need for teamwork while explaining that effective team work is a correlated skill with strong leadership as it is strong leaders who can motivate the team members without coercion to gel with each other and achieve greater results. How competent are you currently? The five stages of group development is a model developed in 1965 by Bruce Tuckman that can be used to understand the steps in team formation, storming, norming, performing and team closure. I thought of a few cases of my team work experience and realized that all these stages are important but most importantly storming stage should be right for the future of the group. My tutor has given me feedback that I am currently good in my teamwork. My team members too have been happy with me in the past. I have been described by them as amicable, cooperative, understanding and encouraging. I have often times been made a team leader and I have tried to use transformational leadership to successfully run the team to achieve its goals. Can you identify any contradictions or allowable weaknesses from your analysis? Teamwork has been my strength and I am good at working in teams however it often affects my ability to work on my own, in isolation. I may be getting too dependent on the company of others to work successfully and I need to make a conscious effort to work independently and alone on the tasks that come under my part in the teamwork. I believe that in professional life the dependency one develops on the presence of group members in college is hard to find and hence in order to work pg. 8 alone effectively I will have to start working in isolation. How will this skill help me in the future? I felt that Jones‟ quote here is very important: “Recent study shows that employees working within the team can produce more output as compared to individuals.” (IFEYINWA, Stella, 2014) This shows that if I were to achieve proficiency in teamwork I will have a successful career in the future as companies today have realized the worth of teamwork in boosting productivity and profitability and wish to enlist individuals with good teamwork skills. pg. 9 Summary I explained that my major strengths are transformational leadership coupled with effective teamwork and time management, underscored by the supportive skill of self-awareness. Transformational leadership allows team members to voice their opinions and take initiative. It also makes the team members aware of the goals that need to be achieved and motivates them to achieve them through the leader‟s example. I have been successful insofar as I have been the sort of leader who has not thrust his orders and personality on the team members. I have been supported in that by my good time management skills which have given others the impression of a good personality. Also, I have made sure I remain self-aware both publicly and privately in order to know my understanding of self as well as the others‟ understanding of myself. Self-awareness has not only made me realize my shortcomings in my public dealings but also made me consciously try to improve on them. Teamwork has been essential all along as it has made all three, leadership, time management and self-awareness, flourish. Without teamwork, there would be no occasion to exercise my leadership style. Without it, it would also be impossible to find a work life balance. Without it, there would also be no opportunity to practice public self-awareness; the opportunity to know how others in the group perceive you as a leader as well as how they perceive your contributions as a member. Unfortunately, there are certain weaknesses that I intend to work on and those are my inability to work successfully alone, to have more public self-awareness, to have more time devoted to extracurricular activities and the tendency to forget while leading a team that I am still a leader. There are three areas of personal development I intend to work on: improving public self-awareness, improving my time management skills further to make time for extracurricular activities and improving on my communication skills so that I can also include that in my skill set. I intend to increase public self-awareness by becoming more aware of the peoples‟ reactions whenever I suggest some mode of action or some idea. I should learn to observe peoples‟ body language and their facial expressions when they are not happy or seem disappointed. I could also enlist my friend‟s aid in reading the peoples‟ reactions in a public setting. This will in turn also strengthen my non verbal communication skills; by learning how people successfully communicate or conceal themselves through their body language or facial expressions in public settings. Also, I will improve on my verbal communication skills by joining the debating society. I will even try to join the student council as that provides better opportunities for interaction and leadership. As for improving time management, I have decided to make a daily plan in addition to a weekly plan. This daily plan will record all those instances when I procrastinated, spent too much time on social networking or too pg. 10 much time in sleeping, eating, bathing, etc. and I will make the effort to reduce the wasted time the following day so that I will find time for extracurricular activities. pg. 11 Works Cited AHMAD M. MAHASNEH, Zohair H. Al-Zoubi, Omar T. Batayeneh and Aeshah A. Al-Sawalmeh. 2013. Attitudes University Students towards Time Management. European Journal of Social Sciences. 38, pp.392-399. CHERRY, Kendra. 2016. The Major Leadership theories: The Eight Major Theories of Leadership. [online]. Available from World Wide Web: DALLI, Mehmet. 2014. The university students' time management skills in terms of academic life satisfaction and academic achievement levels. Educational Research and Reviews., pp-. IFEYINWA, Stella. 2014. THE EFFECTS OF TEAMWORK ON EMPLOYEES’ PERFORMANCE: A STUDY OF SELECTED FIRMS IN ANAMBRA STATE NIGERIA. British Journal of Advance Academic Research. 3, p.105. LIPMAN, Victor. 2013. Succesful leaders need this Quality: self Awareness. [online]. [Accessed 01 Apr 2017]. Available from World Wide Web: PICCOLO, T.A. Judge and R.F. Transformational and transcational leadsersip: a meta-analytic test of their relative validity. Journal of Applied Psychology. 89, pp.755-768. RADUCAN, R. 2015. Leaders and Managers. [online]. SANIBEL, Michael. 2009. It takes Leadership. Entrepreneur, 30 Sep. SAUNDERS, Elizabeth Grace. 2016. You may hate planning, but you should do it Anyway. Harvard Business Review, 16 Sep. SCOTT N. TAYLOR, Leanne E. Atwater, Sturm Rachel E. and Braddy, Phillip W. Underestimating one's leadership impact: Are women leaders more susceptible? [online]. Available from World Wide Web: Self Awareness Part 1: Definition, Measures, Effects, Functions and Antecedents. 2011. [online]. [Accessed 01 Apr 2017]. Available from World Wide Web: SOHMEN, Victor.S. 2013. Leadership and Teamwork: Two sides of the same coin. Journal of IT and Economic Development., p.4. SPAHR, Pamela. 2014. What is transformational leadership? How new Ideas Produe impressive results. [online]. [Accessed 01 Apr 2017]. Available from World Wide Web: UNIVERSITY OF WARWICK. Leadership Definitions. [online]. Available from World Wide Web: WILLIAMS, Dr.Scott. Self Awareness and Personal development. [online]. [Accessed 01 Apr 2017]. Available from World Wide Web: pg. 12 Appendix Figure 1. Multifactor Leadership Questionnaire Instructions: This questionnaire provides a description of your leadership style. Twenty-one descriptive statements are listed below. Judge how frequently each statement fits you. The word “others” may mean your followers, clients, or group members. KEY: 0 = Not at all 1 = Once in a while 2 = Sometimes 3 = Fairly often 4 = Frequently, if not always 1. I make others feel good to be around me. 1 2 3 4 2. I express with a few simple words what we could and should do. 1 2 3 4 3. I enable others to think about old problems in new ways. 1 2 3 4 4. I help others develop themselves. 1 2 3 4 5. I tell others what to do if they want to be rewarded for their work. 1 2 3 4 6. I am satisfied when others meet agreed-upon standards. 1 2 3 4 7. I am content to let others continue working in the same way as always. 1 2 3 4 8. Others have complete faith in me. 1 2 3 4 9. I provide appealing images about what we can do. 1 2 3 4 10. I provide others with new ways of looking at puzzling things. 1 2 3 4 11. I let others know how I think they are doing. 1 2 3 4 12. I provide recognition/rewards when others reach their goals. 1 2 3 4 13. As long as things are working, I do not try to change anything. 1 2 3 4 14. Whatever others want to do is O.K. with me. 1 2 3 4 15. Others are proud to be associated with me. 1 2 3 4 pg. 13 16. I help others find meaning in their work. 1 2 3 4 17. I get others to rethink ideas that they had never questioned before. 1 2 3 4 18. I give personal attention to others who seem rejected. 1 2 3 4 19. I call attention to what others can get for what they accomplish. 1 2 3 4 20. I tell others the standards they have to know to carry out their work. 1 2 3 4 21. I ask no more of others than what is absolutely essential. 1 2 3 4 Source: Copyright © 1992 B. M. Bass and B. J. Avolio SCORING: The Multifactor Leadership Questionnaire measures your leadership on seven factors related to transformational leadership. Your score for each factor is determined by summing three specified items on the questionnaire. For example, to determine your score for Factor 1, Idealized Influence, sum you responses for items #1, #8, and #15. Complete this procedure for all seven factors. Total Idealized Influence (items 1, 8, & 15) _____ Factor 1 Inspirational Motivation (items 2, 9, & 16) _____ Factor 2 Intellectual Stimulation (items 3, 10, & 17) _____ Factor 3 Individualized Consideration (items 4, 11, & 18) Contingent Reward (items 5, 12, & 19) _____ Factor 4 _____ Factor 5 Management-by-exception (items 6, 13, & 20) _____ Factor 6 Laissez-faire Leadership (items 7, 14, & 21) _____ Factor 7 Score Range: High = 9-12 Moderate = 5-8 Low = 0-4 SCORE INTERPRETATION pg. 14 Factor 1. Idealized Influence indicates whether you hold subordinates‟ trust, maintain their faith and respect, show dedication to them, appeal to their hopes and dreams, and act as their role model. Factor 2. Inspirational motivation measures the degree to which you provide a vision, use appropriate symbols and images to help others focus on their work, and try to make others feel their work is significant. Factor 3. Intellectual stimulation shows the degree to which you encourage others to be creative in looking at old problems in new ways, create an environment that is tolerant of seemingly extreme positions, and nurture people to question their own values and beliefs and those of the organization. Factor 4. Individualized consideration indicates the degree to which you show interest in others‟ well-being, assign projects individually, and pay attention to those who seem less involved in the group. Factor 5. Contingent reward shows the degree to which you tell others what to do in order to be rewarded, emphasize what you expect from them, and recognize their accomplishments. Factor 6. Management-by-exception assesses whether you tell others the job requirements, are content with standard performance, and are a believer in “if it ain‟t broke, don‟t fix it.” Factor 7. Laissez-faire measures whether you require little of others, are content to let things ride, and let others do their own thing. pg. 15 Figure 2. The Johari Window The way we imagine ourselves to be is seldom how others see us and our actions and words are not always taken as they are intended. A Framework of Perceptions A useful framework for understanding the differences between people‟s own images of themselves and how others see them is the „Johari Window‟. This model, named after its originators Joe Luft and Harry Ingham, illustrates graphically how one‟s own perceptions and those of other people overlap in some areas while in others they fail to coincide. Known to Others Unknown to Others Known to Self Unknown to Self Open Area Blind Area Hidden Area Unknown Area To develop your understanding of the Johari Window, look at the table below and identify which aspects of your behaviour and personality (listed 1 – 4) fit into which area of the previous diagram. pg. 16 Open Area Blind Area Hidde n Area Unknow n Area 1. Aspects which are apparent to you and other people 2. Aspects of which both you and others are unaware 3. Your most private feelings and attitudes 4. Aspects seen by others but of which you are unaware Building the relationship in which each person helps the other to grow involves working to enlarge the open area and to decrease the blind, hidden and unknown areas. One of the most important ways in which this canhappen is by giving and receiving feedback. This reveals new aspects of ourselves and enables us to operate in a more straightforward manner. pg. 17 Figure 3. The Tuckman Model of Group Development Time management questionnaire name Time management is a wide and diverse area, with different issues and challenges for each of us. While general principles can be covered in group training, each person's situation and priorities are best addressed through one-to-one coaching. This questionnaire helps the preparation of group training and personal coaching. 1. What aspect(s) of your time management do you most want to improve? 2. What do you think causes the above? (think about your personal reasons - why you are the way that you are - as well as the external pressures that have an affect). contd... 3. Which of these would you like to improve? (indicateA for Very Significant, and B for Significant. Mark X for any factor that is not significant or relevant to you): day-to-day planning (action lists, prioritising, getting things done). planning projects or complex tasks (and executing them). pg. 18 medium/long-term planning (establishing goals and aims, steps to achieving). managing the balance between work and private/personal/home time. being firm (saying no politely, resisting interruptions, managing workload). delegating (letting go, handing over, allocating tasks and following-up). efficiency of certain processes (finding more efficient ways to do things). decision-making and finishing tasks. prioritising tasks and actions (timings, urgent versus important). communicating (especially dealing with written received communications). working to a deadline (without finishing in a panic). personal time-keeping (keeping an eye on the time and what needs doing). others? ... 4. Keep a time-log to the nearest minute of everything you do over a typical working period of at least one day. Include dealing with interruptions, travel and breaks. Highlight everything that was not planned, and make a note alongside anything that was of special note, good or bad. 5. Any other comments of thoughts? Eg, how important do you consider time management to be alongside other skills/abilities that you might want to develop? Do time management pressures vary a lot according to your situation, job, time of year, etc? What time management improvements have you implemented in the past and with what result? Continue on a separate sheet if necessary. © alan chapman 2001-4. More free online learning materials are at www.businessballs.com. Not to be sold or published. Sole risk with user. Author accepts no liability. More time management learning material. pg. 19 To take the self awareness inventory test visit the URL below: https://www.wisc-online.com/learn/social-science/psychology/phr1200/selfawareness-inventory To find the template for Time structure questionnaire visit: http://www.brandeis.edu/roybal/docs/TSQ_website_PDF.pdf pg. 20