Impaired Self-Awareness in Addiction: A Cognitive Science Approach

This assignment, based on 'Impaired self-awareness in human addiction: deficient attribution of personal relevance' published in Trends in Cognitive Sciences (2014), delves into the cognitive processes underlying impaired self-awareness in individuals struggling with substance abuse. It focuses on the concept that individuals with addiction issues may have difficulty attributing personal relevance to their actions and experiences, leading to a lack of awareness about their problems. The assignment aims to provide insights into this issue by examining the relevant literature, theories, and research findings.

Self-Development

TABLE OF CONTENTS
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................1
1. Role of self-awareness and development in becoming successful leader..........................1
2. Two different critical incidents to reflect upon the findings and implications from two self-
analysis modules.....................................................................................................................4
3 Strengths and weaknesses....................................................................................................7
REFERENCES..............................................................................................................................10

INTRODUCTION
Self-development is a method through which every individual can improve its awareness
and develop talents which helps them in facilitating new jobs and opportunities. Self-awareness
is ability of an individual to recognize itself from the environment. It is very important quality of
every person which helps them to create awareness in themselves (Pedler, Burgoyne & Boydell,
2013). Present report is based on self-awareness and self-development. The main tasks in this
report are as follows:
 Role of self-awareness and development in becoming successful leader.
 Two critical incidents are defined which are highlighting findings from two self-analysis
toolkits.
 Strengths and weaknesses of an individual are defined.
1. Role of self-awareness and development in becoming successful leader
Self-development skills plays an important role in achieving the desired goal. Self-
awareness helps the person to determine their abilities and tells them the area in which they have
to work more. It assists the individual to gain trust of others by recognising their strengths. Self-
awareness include attitude towards others, emotional intelligence, personal values etc. Therefore,
successful leader has to understand their own skills, behaviour, emotions, strengths and
weaknesses.
Managers plays an important role in every organisation. In order to become effective
leader, it is very necessary for the individual to increase their self-awareness and development
qualities (Nahavandi, 2016). Effective leadership characteristics helps the person to achieve
desired results. It also helps in gaining the trust and confidence of the subordinated of the
organisation. The leader will successful only when it was aware of its strengths and weaknesses.
Personal development is the key to success. It helps the individual to develop different
traits and characteristics to increase their leadership effectiveness. Personal development can be
improved by taking classroom trainings, and personal reading which will help the person to
enhance its performance. Further, motivation, openness, high achievement drive, self-monitoring
are some important techniques through which the one can improve its personality (Ryan, Deci &
Vansteenkiste, 2016). Personal development helps the leader to set their goals and targets by
assessing their development needs. It also assists them to improve their performance by
evaluating the achievement of their targets and aims.
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Self-development increases self-confidence and raise interpersonal efficiency. It boosts
up the leader's confidence and encourages them to learn more and complete their project more
efficiently. It also assists the individual to increase their willing power and motivate them to
achieve the difficult task by moving out from comfort zone.
Self-awareness helps the leader to understand their capabilities, traits, values and attitude.
With the help of these qualities the manager can determine their weak areas and able to
concentrate on these fields. The individual can be able to remove their fear of performing
between top authorities and crowd of people (Schore, 2015). They fill with confidence as they
are well known with their weaknesses and try to overcome them with the help of their strengths.
Different steps which helps the individual to become a successful leader are defined as
follows:
Developing self-mission statements:
In order to become successful leader, it has to plan goals, set different strategies and give
proper time and efforts to achieve them. It is quite challenging for the person to achieve their
goals on time with 100% accuracy. When emotions are included, it is very tempting to continue
with the flow. It can be achieved only if self-growth plan is effective.
Creating personal strategic plan:
Strategic plans are very essential in personal development of the leader. The leader has to
identify different obstacles and barriers and different solutions to overcome them. This plan will
help the person by providing clear path for accomplishing its targets. It provides different
chances to capitalize on, relations to leverage and important resources which are essential in
becoming successful (Reichard & et.al., (2017)).
Taking guidance from mentors:
Mentors and advisors listens different ideas, views and feedbacks of the person and helps
them by providing proper advice and solution to their problems. They also provide various ways
and solutions which help them to increase their performance.
Managers and leaders have to work hard to influence the people and help them to
increase their productivity. The main thing which managers have to keep in mind is that their
pressure stress and problems cannot affect their behaviour. They have to develop their talent in
such a way that they can behave normally in the case of heavy workload and stress. Further,
erosion of traditional values creates confusions about personal beliefs and values (Mirzagitova &
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Akhmetov, 2015). So, the leader has to be consistent for their own benefits and clarify their
personal values.
Another problem which the managers faces in their organisational life is that they have to
maintain their hierarchical relationships demand skill in order to create effective impression on
others. They have to develop more managerial and behaviour styles about their subordinates.
Self-development and personal awareness qualities help them to achieve all these qualities.
Increased costs and problems related to the employing people requires that leader must be more
capable of utilising human resources at their disposals (Zeigler-Hill, 2013). The leader has
effective training skills so that it can guide its subordinates. With the help of self-confidence and
awareness will assist them to make effective impression on their subordinates.
They must be capable of forming new teams and groups according to their projects so
that they can increase the performance of their subordinates and achieve their tasks. This can be
possible if the leaders have self-development skills. They have to increase their self-confidence
and other qualities so that they can effectively manage their tasks and achieve their targets.
Leaders are focusing more on developing their own standards in order to meet the targets
and aims of the firm (Joy, 2015). They are using their qualities and principles to fulfil the
demands of the company. The managers are more concentrated towards their personal
development skills which helps them to perform better. These qualities also assist them to make
effective decisions in the company. Self-development has helped the leaders to develop their
weak areas and improve their qualities so that they can lead others in effective way.
Rapid changes in the multinational and other companies have increased the value of
personal development. Leaders have to increase their awareness and self-development qualities
to work effectively in the workplace. They can do it by taking feedbacks from their mates,
colleagues and other employees of the company (Voss & et.al.,2014). Feedbacks will help them
to analyse their own performance and their weak areas which will in turn assist them to improve
these areas.
Self-development helps the individual to increase their self-knowledge, enhance their
talents and capabilities. This has assists the leaders to actively participate in other activities. Self-
awareness has also helped in improving and raising personal development qualities and traits.
These abilities have assisted in controlling the emotions so that they can behave normally in
different conditions like depression, workloads etc.
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2. Two different critical incidents to reflect upon the findings and implications from two self-
analysis modules
My chosen toolkit is defined as follows:
I have chosen Belbin model as a toolkit which has helped me to make plans and put ideas
into simple way so that the major tasks can be achieved. This model helps me to understand the
ideas which are not clear and I have tried my best to understand these ideas as soon as possible.
My results for this toolkit are as follows:
I came to know about my strengths and weaknesses. Further, Belbin model helps me to
guide my employees in better ways. This theory has also helped me to recognize my strong areas
through which I can achieve my goals and objectives.
Summary of critical incident
We have residential weekend and we have played some games there. The first game was interesting
in which we have to pass the ball pipes in the basket. Further, we have to organise ourself in such a
manner that all the balls must be passed to basket through the pipe. This has helped me to organise
all the task properly. Some group members have observed that I was confident and effectively
distributed the task in the group members. One of the employee said that I coordinate the activities of
the players and helped them to understand the rules of the game. During this task, I never felt that I
am leader and observing the whole situation. I have learned about my strengths and weaknesses from
the feedback of different team members.
How does your thinking and behaviour in this critical incident reflect the findings of your
chosen self-analysis toolkit?
Belbin theory has helped me in performing the team role of coordinator, implementer and team-
worker. Team-worker skill has helped me to solve the conflict in the group and convince all the
members to work in group. The toolkit said that I am practical, efficient and reliable implementer as I
had tried my best to convert my ideas into actions. I have managed the activity perfectly without
reading the rules and regulations of Archway. I am practical and conservative in nature and this
helped me in residential weekend trip. Toolkit has also identified that my positive emotions are
heavier on negative attitude and emotions. Further I am good resource investigator whose main role
is to make contact with outside team members. I am always cheerful, enthusiastic and open minded
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and looks for new ideas. I helped the team to achieve their objectives (Serrat, 2017). I helped the
subordinates to accomplish their targets easily by helping them to interact with external customers
and stakeholders. Further, preservative nature has helped me to become practical and flexible. This
behaviour has helped me to make balance between low and high conscientiousness which is not well
during some typical condition. Further, this reflects my behaviour during the activity as I have not
read the rules and regulations in detail. This has made good impression as I have solved the problems
and recognise my own ideas.
Identify how you will use this learning in the future.
Critical incident has helped me to identify my weak areas and my potential. I have not planned the
things before the trip. But now I have identified the importance of pre-planning and analysis of the
things. Further, before this trip I do not consider myself as a leader but after the positive feedback of
all the members I have felt that I am good coordinator and leader. I have recognised my leadership
skills before the residential weekend. After belbin test and positive feedback from my colleagues I
have found that I am good coordinator and resource locator. This is my one of strength which will
help me to acquire higher knowledge. Further, I am planning to complete my master degree ans
become a good leader in the future. This will help me to become a good manager in the company.
This theory of team role has helped me to achieve the targets and be come successful manager in the
coming future life.
My chosen toolkit is:
My chosen toolkit is Goleman model to increase the self awareness, self regulation,
social skills and internal motivation so that I can easily understand the feelings of the employees
and help them to control their emotions.
My results for this toolkit are:
The result of following this toolkit is positive. It has helped me to understand different
emotions and feelings of the employees. This has increased my understandability level and I
helped the employees to overcome from their worst situations.
Summary of critical incident
Another critical incident is from organisation whose employees are emotionally challenged.
The employees have lost their hope and they are depressed as they have to manage all the
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activities of their personal as well as professional life. In order to motivate and fill the
employees with new energy, the organisation has used Goleman model. This model is based
on emotional intelligence (Dugan, Bohle, Woelker & Cooney, 2014). In this model, it has
described five domains and twenty-five competencies. The five domains are self-awareness,
self-regulation, motivation, empathy and social skill.
How does your thinking and behaviour in this critical incident reflect the findings of your
chosen self-analysis toolkit?
Goleman model helps me to manage effective relationships with others so that there is no
chance of conflicts and disputes. Toolkit has identified that my self-awareness has helped to
motivate the employees to control their emotions.
Self-awareness:
It involves self-assessment, confidence and depreciating sense of humour. It plays an
important role in monitoring individuals to control its own emotions and feelings of the
employees. It helps me to motivate myself and understand the feelings of others.
Self-regulation:
It focuses on controlling and regulating the emotions of the individual. It helps me to
remain calm and cool and remain focused when something unexpected happens (Lawton &
Páez, 2015). It also assisted me to control my emotions specially in the case when the team
members have to face some emotional and unexpected situation. I have helped other
employees to become calm and cool in adverse conditions before reacting to the situation.
Internal motivation:
This factor plays an important role in handling the people when they are demotivated
or tensed with some particular issue. It helps me to motivate myself and achieve long term
goals and objectives. Self-motivation helps me to increase my capability so that I can improve
my performance and also fill others with new energy to gain success in the life.
Empathy:
It is the ability to understand emotions of different persons. I well understood the
emotional reactions of subordinates which helps me to motivate them and help them to cope
up with their opposite situations. Further, I have shown empathy with them specially in the
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case when they face the cruel behaviour of their boss, customer or any other person. This will
help them to recover from their tough condition and control their emotions.
Social skills:
The leader must be efficient in managing the effective relationships with their
subordinates and build good network with them. It must have social skills which help them to
increase their effectiveness in leading teams. Due to these skills, I am able to give sympathy to
the employees in their worst situations.
As a leader, I am self-aware and demonstrated determination, far-sightedness, and
strong convictions in my beliefs. I have considered the needs of other people over my own
needs and wishes. Further, I have use emotionally expressive language and nonverbal signals
which helped me to raise the confidence of the subordinates.
Identify how you will use this learning in the future.
With the help of self-awareness and internal motivation I have controlled and lead the
subordinates properly. I was unaware my capability of good leader and motivator but after
managing and convincing the people I have realised that I am good leader as well as motivator
and I can help employees to control their emotions and attitude. Further, I have planned to
become effective manager in reputed company and using these strengths I will effectively
manage the emotions of the people and guide them to take appropriate actions at that time.
3 Strengths and weaknesses
Strengths and weaknesses of an individual plays an important role in achieving the
objectives. In order to become successful leader, it is very essential to recognise the strengths
and weak points. I have effective communication skills which helped to strengthen the
relationships with employees. These skills are very important as they help in influencing the
customers and staff members. Effective communication skills have helped me to handle
challenging tasks and subordinates. Team work quality has assisted me to achieve more difficult
tasks. It has assisted to increase my knowledge and given responsibility to work with more
devotion. Hard work and sincerity has assisted me to raise my performance and gain the trust of
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others. It has also helped me to understand difficult tasks and make effective image on top
management as well as on staff members.
I am flexible and adaptable. Adaptability has increased my confidence and given
opportunity to face the challenging situations. I am easily adjustable in every environment. This
has helped to cope up with difficulties. Self-awareness has helped to identify my strong and
weak points. It has also assisted me to improve my weaknesses.
The main thing which I lac is decision-making skills. I cannot take decisions according to
the situations. Additionally, problem solving skill are also poor which creates great problems. I
have analysed that I cannot realise the situations effectively. This in turn create problems when I
have to take decisions in challenging situations. Furthermore, self-development and awareness
are very important areas in which I have to work more to increase my performance.
I have many strengths like I am cooperative and good problem solver. Belbin
theory highlighted that I have problems with being manipulative, avoid confrontations. It has
also found that I am not flexible with the complex situations. I am not effective in managing and
analysing the targets before analysing them and not at all good in structuring and organising the
tasks. This is the main weakness which can be seen with the context of implementer which is
always looks for completing the goal without thinking on it. Further, the most important
advantage of myself is that I have power in delegating and empowering the employees. This can
be seen with respect to perfect coordinator in the Belbin theory.
Talking about emotional intelligence I am able to create positive environment among the
staff members. These things reflect that I am effective team-worker and self-motivator which
highlights from Golben model. Another thing which I have found from emotional intelligence is
that I have to increase my level of self-regulations so that I can effectively maintain the
employee’s emotions and help them to get calm in adverse situations. Additionally, I have to
work more on making balance between delegation and doing work by myself. In order to
understand my work, I have to make difference between the role of manager and group member.
To become effective manager, it is necessary to assign correct tasks to right person. So, I have to
analyse the capability of the employees before assigning them the tasks.
Further, I have to focus more on my weak areas in planning and analysing the situations
so that I can be helped in the future. I have to take my weaknesses seriously and spent more time
in analysing and planning the things before implementing them. All the strengths helped me at
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greater extent. They helped me to overcome weak areas and develop talents and potential to
enhance my performance.
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