Importance of Self Awareness and Continuous Self Development in Global Management

This report discusses the importance and role of self awareness and continuous development in fulfilling the role of a successful leader in global management. It explores how self awareness helps in improving decision making and developing leadership skills. The report also includes a critical incident analysis and identifies strengths and weaknesses for self improvement.

LD 0473 Global Development
Management Competence
(Soft skill)

Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................3
MAIN BODY..................................................................................................................................3
Self awareness and continuous self development........................................................................3
Critical Incidence to reflect on Findings.....................................................................................6
Strength and Weaknesses............................................................................................................9
CONCLUSION..............................................................................................................................10
REFERENCES..............................................................................................................................12

INTRODUCTION
Competencies of management are elements which contribute to success of the individual
and requirements for management of organisation. This is very important to be possessed for a
successful manager to manage organisation and ensuring its goals achievement. Such
competencies are required to be stronger and effective when individual is involved in global
level management. This is because complexities are higher in global management. This report
will discuss about importance and role of self awareness and continuous development in
fulfilling the role of a successful leader. This report will also include incidences and what
learning those incidences has provided for analysing Emotional Intelligence and Belbin theory.
Later this report will include what are the strength and weaknesses and pattern of behaviour
which has been emerged from the self analysis. This will also include competencies which can
be improved in coming years so that leadership and managerial skills can be improved.
MAIN BODY
Self awareness and continuous self development
As stated by Lou, Changeux & Rosenstand, (2017)self awareness is ability through which
individuals can see themselves clearly and objectively and this requires reflection and
introspection. Self awareness id complex and critical and also this may not be understood by
everyone as everyone has their own idea about themselves. In such case theory of self awareness
plays significant role. self awareness theory is based on the consideration that thoughts of
individuals are not their own thoughts and they are the entities who are observing thoughts.
Individuals are thinkers who are separate and apart from their thoughts. Individual can identify
about whether they are acting and feeling as they should or are they should or they are just
following their values and standards. This is the self awareness and this plays major role in
helping individual to develop themselves as successful leaders and allow individuals to fulfil the
role of leaders. Self awareness will inform individual about how they are behaving and acting in
a certain manner and for being a leader how they should be acting and behaving. To start
learning and development it is very important that individual is aware of what they are required
to learn and how they can do so.

Self awareness is also important as this can make individual pro active, boost acceptance
of individuals and encourage positive self development. This is perfectly related to the role of
self awareness in helping individual to fulfil role of leader. Leaders are required to possess skills
and attributes like proactive, improved and easy acceptance Scaffidi Abbate, Boca & Gendolla,
(2016). Self awareness also allows individual to see themselves from the perspective of others.
This means that self awareness can help individual to identify and understand what other think
they are. This might be different from what individuals see themselves and how others see
themselves. This will allow and contribute in developing leadership and managerial skills and
fulfilling the role of manager and leader. This is because self-awareness of individual will help
them to understand what the employees and followers think of them and how they are being
perceived by other. This will help them to identify the difference in what they want to be known
and perceived as and how they are being considered and perceived as. This difference will allow
individual to develop them in the direction of what and how they wanted to be perceived as. This
is why self awareness plays important role in helping individual to fulfil their role as successful
leaders and managers. Self awareness of individual also lead to improved decision making and
decision making is one of the key functions executed by leaders and managers and this is also
basis of most of the managerial activities Sullivan, (2017). Self awareness improves decision
making of individual because self awareness helps individual to think from perspective of others
and this is why individual can think in broad aspect of the situation. Self awareness will help in
understanding what impact the decision will make on individual and also what impact the
decision will make on others.
Self awareness will help individual to understand what they are and how they are
different from what they should be. After analysing the difference between these two individual
who aspires to become manager and leader can reduce the gap with help of continuous self
development. According to Knights, (2018) continuous self development for individual is very
important as this allows individual to remain relevant and also to keep up with the current
prevailing practices in the environment. Continuous self development involves that leader and
manager keep their learning going on and do not stop after acquiring degree and specific
training. Continuous self development is also a commitment of leader and manager to improving
and enhancing their knowledge and understanding. This is really important for a leader that they
are aware of various practices which are carried out in an organisation. This requires that through

continuous self development leader and manager keep learning. Continuous development will
increase aspects and allow leaders and managers to think from different perspectives of a
situation this will help them in carrying out their work more efficiently. Continuous self
development also helps individual in realizing their full competence and this will improve their
performance at their organisation. One of the models of continuous personal development
developed by W.S. Howell is as follows-
This model includes four stages of continuous self development. These are;
Unconscious Incompetence- This is stage from where self development starts at this stage of the
model and self development individual is unaware of the incompetence which are possessed by
them. Such incompetence affects their performance but individuals are unaware.
Conscious Incompetence- This is stage where individual learns of the incompetence which are
possessed by them are affecting their performance. This can be considered that through self
awareness individual can identify incompetence in them.
Conscious Competence- This is stage where through self development individual develop
competencies in themselves and they are aware that they possess particular competencies.
Unconscious Competence- This is the last stage of self development. This stage can also be
considered as goal and objective of the continuous self development. This means that
competencies which are possessed by individual and those competencies which has been
developed and acquired by individual has now become a part of their personality. This stage
leads leader to the level where leader and manager become unaware of the competencies which
are being possessed by them yet they are applying these in their practices.
The above model defined what should be and can be the aim for continuous self
development Boles, (2016). The last stage is the aim and this also success of possessing and
developing competencies. This can help leader to make competencies a part of their personality
so that they are using their competencies but they are unaware. This will help leader to become a
successful leaders. They will be able to mould the competencies which should be there in the
leader.

Critical Incidence to reflect on Findings
Q2. Template One: Incident from Residential weekend
My chosen toolkit is: Personality test
My results for this toolkit are:
Summary of critical incident: explain how the critical incident arose and why it is significant
to your learning and development
One of the incidences which I can relate here is related to my residential weekend. During a
residential weekend I attended a seminar which was related to Leadership. The purpose of seminar
and my purpose behind attending the seminar were to get insights about leadership practices and
leadership skills. During this seminar some activities were organised and one of the activity there
was requiring the participants that they select one options out of the two and this was related to a
situation which might be faced by leader in their leadership career. The participants were required to
select and also were required to give justification for their selected option. Being a participant of the
activity I was also required to select one of option from the available two. I selected one option and
gave justification according to my perception of the situation. Once every participant finished this
part of the activity a group discussion was followed after the activity and all the participants were
putting their point and justifying why is their selection from the two is right. I was also a part of the
group discussion and listening to others point of view of right and wrong I felt under stress. This
situation made me realise that even when I was sure that I am right and my justification is also valid
I found me in dilemma because of stress created by the environment. This made me realise that I can
be in turbulence about my capabilities and decisions taken me if they are required to put in stressful
situation this was one of the part of personality which I understood at the residential weekend. This
incidence is very important for my learning as this helped me in identifying the gap in my learning
which is first stage for effective learning. This was also important as this was based on personality
aspect of my learning which is inherent to every successful leader and manager.

How does your behaviour (thinking, feelings and actions) in this critical incident reflect the
findings of your chosen self-analysis toolkit? How has the toolkit enabled you to understand
why you think, feel and behave in the way that you do? What have you learned about yourself
that you didn’t know before?
Earlier in the template two self analysis toolkits were applied by me. One of the self analysis toolkits
were Personality Test. The personality test which was conducted was based on five factors which
are, Mind, Energy, Nature, Tactics and Identity. This situation leads me to realise that I found me in
a confusion and dilemma about whether I am right or not. In this residential weekend I also got to
identify and understand one another aspect and part of my personality which is known as Mind in
personality test. During residential weekend I met many people for the first time and though I was
not very friendly with them yet I was able to go and interact with them and also became part of
informal group discussion during residential weekend. This made me realise that though I am not
able to present my thoughts very effectively while interacting in group and with new people yet I
can effectively participate in groups. This made me realise that I am not very extrovert but at the
same time I am also not very introvert.
Identify how you will use this learning in the future to become an effective leader, manager or
team-worker
On the basis of this toolkit and incidence I can improve my confidence is not as good and strong as
should be and this can affect quality of my leadership and performance at my work and this is why I
will improve my confidence. This is a practice that I can do and this will require time but this will
help me in becoming effective leader, manager and team worker.
Q2. Template Two: Incident from Residential weekend

My chosen toolkit is: Emotional Intelligence
My results for this toolkit are:
Summary of critical incident: explain how the critical incident arose and why it is significant
to your learning and development
One of the incidences related to this is that once I got chance to work in a team of people from
different culture and regions. While working in that team once during a meeting I was not convinced
with the way one of my teammate was presenting himself and his idea. That seemed like he was
being dominating and not considering anyone’s point of view and idea and because of this I could
not manage my anger and reflected my temper. Later I was helped by another teammate of me. This
situation made me realise that I am not good at managing my emotions and also that I did not tried to
understand the point of view of that person and on the basis of my personal judgement reacted in the
wrong manner. This later made me realise that I need to improve my, self management and social
awareness ability. Leader cannot be effective if they are not emotionally intelligent and this is
important as any other requirement for effective leadership and this is why this incidence filed the
gap for to accept and realise that my emotional intelligence is weak and now I will be able to work
on it.
How does your behaviour (thinking, feelings and actions) in this critical incident reflect the
findings of your chosen self-analysis toolkit? How has the toolkit enabled you to understand
why you think, feel and behave in the way that you do? What have you learned about yourself
that you didn’t know before?
Emotional Intelligence was another toolkit for self analysis. Emotional intelligent is one of the
important aspects and capability required for the leader. This is very important for a overall effective
personality and this is why this Test was conducted. Emotional Intelligence test included self
awareness, self management, social awareness and relationship management. This self analysis

toolkit made me realise that my, self management and social awareness ability is not good.
Identify how you will use this learning in the future to become an effective leader, manager or
team-worker
Whether it is a leader, manager or employee working in a team emotional intelligence is very
important and this is why I need to improve and work on my emotional intelligence so that I can
become an effective leader, manager and team worker. There are several ways to improve my
emotional intelligence and organised ways in this are workshops which provide training and help to
improve emotional intelligence. Other than this continuous practice at personal level can also help in
improving emotional intelligence. Social awareness can be improved by collecting information and
knowledge about my surroundings and self management requires personal practice.
These tests and their result both are important for self analysis. Personality is one of the
important aspects of individual and most significant factor to contribute in one’s success.
Personality analysis can lead to the further process in which I will be able to work on improving
my personality and improve it in the form of how it should be Carson, Carson & Birkenmeier,
(2016). Emotions are integrated to every action of the individual and also affect leadership and
managerial competency and leaders are required to manage their anger it is important that
emotional intelligent of a leader is effective so that they can give right message to their
followers. Personality and emotional intelligent will really help and contribute in my future
success as a leader and manager.
Strength and Weaknesses
Personality Test which was carried out during this module proved to be very effective
and contributed in my efforts to find out what are my strength and weakness.
Strengths
Self Awareness- This is my capability through which I can identify and understand my ideas and
point of view from according to perception of other people. These people are those against whom

I will be presenting my thoughts and ideas Fernández-Berrocal & Extremera, (2016). This is my
one of the strength and this enable me to think from different angle of a situation. During the test
and after knowing the results this has also affected my behaviour as I have started to think about
what I believe and why I believe and this has also helped me in critically analyse situation and
thoughts.
Decision making- This is also one of my strength and according to this I can make decision on
the basis of rationale and logics. This makes decision taken more assertive and decision is also
quantified and result of the decision has higher possibilities of being as expected.
Weakness
Emotional Intelligence- On the basis of collective result of all aspect of emotional intelligence
test I realised that my emotional intelligence is not as good as it should be Wiernik, Dilchert &
Ones, (2016). This is one of the biggest weakness I have found and which can affect my
effectiveness as a leader in future.
Areas of Personal Development
Personal development refers to improvement and enhancement in existing skills and
acquiring new skills which are required for the career and professional aspiration of individual.
For a leader and manager there are several skills required and some of the areas which I think I
can work on in next year are;
Communication Skills- From self analysis I found that my communication skills are not as good
as communication skills of a leader should be and this is why I consider that I can work on my
communication skills in coming year. This is important for me to present my ideas in such form
that they are convincing to others. Communication skill play a major role in leader’s career and
this is why it is also important that this area of personality is paid due attention in terms of
improvement.
Confidence- This is an important element in every other skill and this is why this area should
also require due consideration so that other skills and competencies can also be effective Harun,
and et.al., (2018). For example my decision making skills are good but I cannot be confident
about my decision when I am put into dilemmatic situation. Confidence is important so that other

competencies of individual can be enhanced like communicating with confidence make
communication more powerful.
Social Awareness- This is another area of improvement I can work on in next year. This is also
important because awareness about relative social environment. Awareness about people
individual is interacting with help in increasing effectiveness of the interaction by interacting
according to their emotional state Watson, (2019). This plays an important role when individual
is dealing with people from different culture and also when individual is required to present their
ideas which are able to convince others.
CONCLUSION
On the basis of above discussion it can be concluded that management competencies are
very important for managers and leaders to play their role effectively. There are various tools and
techniques which individual can use to analyse their requirement in terms of their competencies
and their self analysis. Self analysis of individuals allows them to identify their strength and
weakness. This is important so that individual can apply their strength properly which can add
value in their practices and can also reduce their weaknesses so that they can save their work
from being affected because of their weaknesses.

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