Self Confidence and Leadership

Running head- LEADERSHIP AND INTEGRITY
Professional written report on Self-confidence
Name of the Student
Name of the University
Author Note

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Executive summary
Self-confidence acts as the cornerstone of leadership. A leader is usually expected to play the
role of a good communicator, an effective problem solver, who is able to coach the other team
members. However, lack of believe in oneself will lead to failure of the leader. A self-confident
leader is capable of boosting and encouraging the morale of the team, foster a good working
relationship, accept feedback, recognize the strengths and weaknesses and have the courage to
propose new ideas and innovations. This report will focus on my self-confident capabilities by
analysing the results of five diagnostic tests that I have undertaken to recognize the areas where I
lack. It will further illustrate the importance of self-confidence through an extensive literature
search and will also contain an action plan for improving my weaknesses.

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Table of Contents
Self-reflection on self-confidence....................................................................................................3
Big five personality test...............................................................................................................3
Authentic leadership test..............................................................................................................4
Leadership toolkit........................................................................................................................5
Self-reflection test........................................................................................................................5
DISC assessment.........................................................................................................................6
Literature review..............................................................................................................................6
Action Plan....................................................................................................................................10
References......................................................................................................................................14
Appendix........................................................................................................................................17

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Self-reflection on self-confidence
The primary objective of this business report is to help me recognize my capabilities of
efficient leadership. I have selected self-confidence as the topic for this report as it is the
fundamental step that helps in growth of leaders. I believe that self-confidence is imperative for
taking risks and accomplishing intended goals by a leader. I have chosen five diagnostic tools
related to development of self-confidence and will compare the results of the tools with my real-
time experiences. Furthermore, I will also try to recognize the specific areas of leadership where
I lack and will develop an action plan to improve those aspects. The report will also contain
exhaustive information on the major theories and evidences related to development of leadership
capabilities and skills.
Self-confidence refers to the ability that makes a person certain and aware of the skills
and competencies that he is capable of displaying while adorning the role of a leader (Filippin &
Paccagnella, 2012).
Big five personality test
The Big five personality test will be used to help me identify the fundamental dimensions
of my personality. The test includes 50 questions that need to be attempted for a personality and
behaviour analysis (Cobb-Clark & Schurer, 2012). I attempted all the questions given in the
checklist. The answers for each corresponding questions had to given a score ranging from 1-5,
based on extent of disagreement and agreement, respectively. On adding up the results for each
parameter, I scored maximum in ‘Agreeableness’ (score=27), followed by ‘Openness to
Experience’ (score=25). However, I obtained lowest score in Neuroticism (score=13), followed
by Extroversion (score=14). My scores suggest that I am always eager to adjust my behaviour

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and perceptions according to the people surrounding me. A high score in agreeableness indicates
that personality trait is characterized by a cooperative, warm, sympathetic, kind and considerate
attitude (Credé et al., 2012). It demonstrates my empathetic and altruistic nature. Furthermore, a
higher score in openness to experience suggests that I have an active imagination and aesthetic
sense, and also display attentiveness to my inner feelings. Lowest score in neuroticism indicates
lack of anxiousness, guilt, depression and envy. Therefore, I do not interpret situations as
threatening and do not get frustrated easily.
This can be explained by a recent experience that I had encountered at my workplace.
Although, I had been working in the company for more than 3 years, the administration had
decided upon promoting another employee to a senior post, a year after his hiring. This did not
make me feel jealous or envious of the employee owing to the fact that although the person was a
new joiner, he was academically more qualified and had a vast experience in the field due to his
previous working experience of more than 7 years. On being asked to cast our votes for or
against the decision, I voted for his appointment. Furthermore, I also tried to help him learn the
cultural aspects of our background, to assist his effective interaction with all clients, due to the
fact that he belonged to diverse ethnic background.
Authentic leadership test
The second diagnostic tool is authentic leadership assessment that is based on a
questionnaire containing 16 questions (Peus et al., 2012). These questions were also scored from
1-5 based on disagreement, neutral or agreement. On adding them, a low score of 15 was
observed for self-awareness, which can hinder my leadership qualities and create problem in
development of a high-performing team. Lack of this competency is a major disadvantage and
can create barriers in interpersonal skill development. Scores of 16 and above in balanced

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processing, relational transparency and internalized moral perspective suggests that I have the
qualities of a good leader.
Leadership toolkit
The leadership toolkit was the third diagnostic tool that I had used to assess my skills and
behaviour. Scoring 46 questions honestly based on whether they get applied in my context
helped in assessing my level of commitment and competence towards specific tasks or goals and
also facilitated recognition of my leadership style. Lowest score in self-awareness (17) showed
consistency with the previous diagnostic tool and indicates the need to develop awareness skills
for having a sharp realization of my personality and effectively carrying out the role of a leader.
Self-reflection test
The fourth diagnostic tool was based on self-reflection that helped in determining the
skills and personal strengths that enhance professional development (Nesbit, 2012). Scoring the
questions from 0-4 based (never to always) added up to a total score of 48, which indicated that
there was a need for improvement and I was not ready to be mentored as a leader. This can be
attributed to the fact that most of the scores were in the range of 2 and 3. This was also
demonstrated by an incident that took place a year ago where I had to explain the slow progress
of my department to the higher authorities. Due to the fact that I was unable to influence my
team mates to work in collaboration, could not handle the enormous stress at workplace, and
failed to demonstrate an adequate understanding of all the team members, I could not provide a
valid justification of the poor performance. This indicated that there was a scope of growth to
become a good leader.