Self_Development_as_a_Leader

Self-Development involves taking personal responsibility for one's own learning and development through a process of assessment, reflection, and taking action. People define success differently. For some, success means having achieved financial security. Some people judge their success by the positive impact they have made on others whether these are clients, students, associates, or family. Other people define their success by achieving a level of expertise that is recognized and respected by peers. For me, success is a combination of the above-mentioned ingredients. You cannot define success as black and white because inevitably, some of the black leaks into the white leaving a gray area that requires consideration beyond black and white. For instance, perceptual acuity, being aware of your strengths, and emotional intelligence plays a significant role in achieving success. “We react to a specific object based on what we see rather than on what it really is. Often we see only what we want to in a given situation. Similarly, how we react depends on what we hear, not necessarily on what was really said.” (Whiseenand) Perception is reality. Seek to understand how people perceive you. You may not be achieving the impact you expected in leading or working with others. You cannot adjust your approach without the benefit of feedback that can inform you in terms of how your actions were received by others. I recognize that I need to work on relaying my intentions more accurately based on the feedback I have received. I need to be more open to, and appreciative of the feedback I receive, as opposed to be defensive. I need to seek to understand rather than to be understood. We are all leaders to one degree or another. What sets great leaders apart is their ability to manage perceptions. What people observe or assess as your ability to be a leader and your effectiveness becomes their perception, which in turn becomes reality. Perceptions that are not managed become rumors, then gossip, then backbiting, which leads to destruction. Unmanaged perceptions become an unintended reality. Perception management requires asking questions and getting feedback from others. Most leaders typically do not receive feedback very often and, in many cases, when given it is usually not in the most constructive manner. However, effective feedback provides information that lets you know how you are doing. It involves giving and receiving, reinforces the changes you are making, and encourages you to continue. It is balanced and positive as well as constructive and corrective. It assumes that everyone is not out to get you. It recognizes that each person is doing his or her best and that although each of us is unique, we all have a great deal in common. Some successful people are expressive and extroverted while others are reserved and introverted. However, all successful people know how to spend time alone being reflective and thoughtful about recent performance and behavior. I usually take time every day to reflect on the day’s work and interactions. I will take ample time at the conclusion of major elements of work to reflect on the quality of what I produced and the effectiveness of my work with others. The key to reflecting on performance is remaining balanced in your self-assessment. I remind myself, “Be self-critical: understand what I could have done better and learn from these mistakes. But also acknowledge success whenever warranted: celebrate and take pride in what I have done well.” Mr. Howard Berman’s Bag of tricks for leaders suggests that people need to know that you are with them, not of them, and I have tried this trick with my team at work. Amazingly enough, it works. You need to set yourself a part from your team, yet distinguish your team as a whole. For instance, there has been an issue of excruciating heat at the mezzanine during summer and my team had voiced that with the management team last year. It did not work; however, I convinced the management team by providing data to approve for the exhaust fans in our building. These fans are going to be installed by the end of June. So, by identifying the problem and using resources one can accomplish the task at hand. A defining moment for me was to learn that as you collect feedback and reflections, you come to understand your personal strengths and weaknesses. You need to know that everyone has both. Successful people build success from their strengths while they limit the negative impact of their weaknesses. The reason to identify your key strengths and weaknesses is not so that you can improve your weaknesses. As Nancy Rees mentioned “It is much more important to identify your key strengths and leverage these.” I need to work on this a bit. Although I know my strengths, I have not thought seriously about using them to my benefit. The management guru, Peter Drucker, in his classic article, “Managing Oneself”, states: “One should waste as little effort as possible on improving areas of low competence. It takes far more energy and work to improve from in-competence to mediocrity than it takes to improve from first-rate performance to excellence. Yet most people . . . concentrate on making incompetent performers into mediocre ones. Energy, resources, and time should go instead to making a competent person into a star performer.” I have learned from this leadership experience course so far that learning about yourself is far more difficult than learning about others. It is truly adventurous and risky to understand who you really are, but once you know who you are it is far easier to lead others. The Chinese philosopher Lao-tzu said, "Knowing others is wisdom, knowing yourself is enlightenment." As leaders, we need to go beyond knowing others, we need to understand our own strengths and weaknesses. This enlightenment will expand self-knowledge and enhance our self-confidence, which will enable us to work more effectively as leaders.