Developing Strategic Management and Leadership Skills Report

This report examines the critical importance of self-awareness and its role in developing effective leadership skills within the context of a postgraduate business and management program. The report begins with a literature review that establishes the significance of self-development and self-awareness for managers, drawing on various research studies. Two critical incidents are then analyzed using the frameworks of emotional intelligence, cultural intelligence questionnaires, and Belbin team roles. The first incident focuses on challenges encountered during a group activity and highlights the impact of low cultural intelligence and communication styles on team dynamics. The second incident explores difficulties in sharing viewpoints within a diverse group, revealing the author's introverted tendencies. Through the analysis, the report identifies strengths and weaknesses, and it concludes with reflections on implications for personal and career development, emphasizing the need for improved cultural intelligence, communication skills, and self-awareness to enhance future leadership effectiveness.

Developing strategic management and leadership skills

Contents
Contents.......................................................................................................................................................1
Introduction.................................................................................................................................................2
Relevant literature.......................................................................................................................................2
Critical incidents..........................................................................................................................................6
First Critical incident...............................................................................................................................6
Second critical incident...........................................................................................................................8
Summary of key strengths and weaknesses...............................................................................................11
Conclusion.................................................................................................................................................13
References.................................................................................................................................................14

Introduction
This reflection outlines the two critical incidents which are based on my coursework group
discussions and residential weekend projects. The review of literature is conducted to understand
the significance of self-development and self-awareness aspects in becoming successful
managers. The purpose of writing this reflection is to recognize own positive and negative points
and analyzing the relevant information by using the toolkits such as cultural intelligence
questionnaire and Belbin reports.
Relevant literature
Self-development and self-awareness are the most two important concepts. These are the most
important activities that help managers to become successful and perform effectively in the
organizations. The success of managers and leader is based on their performance, skills and
abilities to raise the profit of the organization. Every manager has different qualities according to
circumstances. Many studies have been performed the analysis of the importance of self
awareness and development in fulfilling and achieving the managerial role in the future.
According to various researchers, it is found that managers fail to become successful because
they did not overlook the significance of self-awareness and self-development aspects(Hanssen,
2009).

Self-awareness
It is a continuous process of looking at own internal capabilities and self reflection, which allows
the mind of an individual to analyze and investigate their emotions and experience. Self-
awareness means the understanding of own emotions, abilities and skills. According to the
definition of Coleman, an individual who understand own emotional capabilities and strong
points and weak points are said to be a self-aware person. Some of the other authors have given
the definition of self-awareness as the ability of individuals with the help of which they can
assess their skills and behavior at the workplace. Self-awareness is essential because it helps the
individuals to look at themselves without making any judgement and showing other people about
who you really are. The best part of self-awareness is that it allows individuals to adapt to the
circumstances and control their emotions (Cherniss & Goleman, 2017). For example, if an
individual met with an accident and Lose a leg, they have the opportunity the robotic Technology
with the help of which they can start working in new ways. This all depends upon the ability to
be aware of the new technologies and your own personality. Some of the authors define self-
awareness as the cognitive process which involved in the integration of personal experiences and
the knowledge gained from the external reality or work experiences. Therefore, it is clear that
self-awareness is the best approach interaction between the emotions and thoughts. To Add
more, self-awareness also helps the individuals to set the realistic goals future by assessing the
current state of skills and abilities.
Continuous self-development
The term Self-development states the commitment of a person to think critically and make better
decisions for the features and develop their own skills and abilities. The managers should focus

on the area of continuous self-development because it will help the managers to effectively in the
organizations. It Is also essential for the managers to be aware of the opportunities and set a clear
vision of the goal. Management is an art and science that allows individuals getting the work
done through the help of the other individuals. Some individuals failed to manage India
organization because they are very poor in self-awareness. The lack of understanding of abilities
to motivate and encourage the other peoples in the organization has a great influence onthe
overall productivity of the organization. There are many times when managers feel exhausted
and frustrated because of the higher workload and multitasking nature of work. This behavior of
the manager affects the performance as well as teamwork. With the help of Self-awareness
programs, the managers have the opportunity to improve their emotional intelligence. By
Improving the emotional intelligence, manager and leader will be able to control their emotions
and feeling. The strong emotional intelligence is useful for individuals to manage their
relationships with the other people in the organization and leads to become a successful Manager
or a leader(Miller, Mandryk, Birk, Depping, & Patel, 2017).
From the previous Studies and Research, it is found that manager and leaders who used their
own personal values and abilities and set standards on the basis of their experiences will always
help them to perform efficiently and become successful in their career life. The decision making
of the managers can also be improved through continuous self-development and self-awareness
programs. The significant knowledge about themselves and personal values will help the
managers to take better ethical decisions and avoid performing unlawful activities (Stark &
Baumgartner, 2016).

It is suggested by many authors that learning is a continuous process and managers need to focus
on their own learning styles with intent to achieve the managerial goal. The previous literature
reviews also emphasized that self-awareness and self-development among managers will assist
them to become more successful. The self-awareness motivates the individuals to develop and
Manage things whereas self-development helps in developing many skills to manage things
effectively. Therefore, this review of the study shows that there is direct association between the
self-development and self-awareness and it helps managers to perform their role in an efficient
way(Ugur, Constantinescu, & Stevens, 2015).
It is also found that self-awareness and continuous development enables the managers to
continuously analyzing their situations and emotions and expected results after applying their
abilities and improves the abilities to adjust the behavior accordingly. Therefore, it is very
essential for the managers to manage and build a strong balance between the activities performed
by them to achieve the expected results and common time and energy which is necessary for the
individuals to achieve their professional and personal goals(Constantinescu & Stevens, 2015).
The importance of self-development and self-awareness programs has been increased to gain
professionalism as well as to meet the Rapid changes in the organization. The most effective way
to achieve self-development is the feedback from the team members and implement that
feedback for the better achievement of set goals. Some of the other ways to develop the skills
and abilities are to attend the valuable seminars and building some strong relationship with the
experts(Mills-Koonce, 2017).
Therefore, I have noticed that I need to work upon my self-awareness and self-development
aspects to lead the people by controlling own emotions and by enhancing the knowledge and

capabilities. The ethical decision making, strategic implementation and teamwork are possible in
the future by having appropriate awareness and development of personal values.
Critical incidents
First Critical incident
1. My chosen toolkit is: Emotional Intelligence and Cultural Intelligence
My results for this toolkit are: Research investigator and Completer, Finisher
Summary of critical incident
During my course, I have participated in the residential weekend and during this, I was
involved in the group activity which is named as “Pipeline”. In the starting of this task, I was
feeling very hesitate and uncomfortable to communicate with members of my team as they
were unknown to me and from different countries. I observed the tasks very carefully and
logically by communicating less. I have gathered the relevant information with regard to the
task assigned to our group members and ordered every individual in the team to complete the
task perfectly. Finally, one of my team members Mr. X told me that he observed everything
and analyze each and every activity involved to finish the activity. He also pointed out that I
was lacking in communication with other team members because of which reasons some of
the team members get frustrated. Whenever I communicate with team members, my
communication was point to point and only about the quality of work. I have never asked
them about their personal experiences, values and never make them feel special (Office,

2016).
How does this reflect the findings of your chosen self analysis toolkit?
First of all, communication with my team members is very less as they are new to me and
from the different countries having different cultural backgrounds. From the findings of the
cultural intelligence questionnaire, I realized that I have low cultural intelligence. I really
need to improve my communication skills. I have also found that individual with low culture
intelligence is not competent enough handle the difficult situations and make the decisions
according to the different cultures. Because of low in cultural intelligence, I was not aware of
the fact that some people in my group did not like when someone ordered them. These people
get frustrated because of lack of communication and my dominating behavior. According to
the Belbin profile, the characteristics of guiding other people to complete the task in a perfect
way is reflected as a completed or finisher. Being a resource investigator and finisher, the
team members get frustrated because of the affection is nature as I found minor mistakes very
easily. However,I also guided my team members to observe the situations logically and
collect the relevant data as a resource investigator(Jung, 2017).
Furthermore, the results of toolkits were verified by the feedback given by the team member
Mr X and it shows that different mental state of the individual because of their different
cultural background which the reason behind creating such problems for me during the task.
What are the implications for future career or personal development?

I have observed that my understanding of myself was very poor. My team members shared very
valuable feedback with me regarding myself. This feedback is very useful for me as it gives me
an opportunity to improve my communication skills. After receiving the feedback from my team
member and using the results of questionnaires of cultural intelligence and Belbin, I had gained
a proper awareness about my own strengths and limitations. Therefore, I have learnt that I need
to improve my cultural intelligence skills and need to carefully identify the diverse cultural
background before meeting the individuals from different cultures. This new learning will help
me in the future to work in a culturally diverse workplace(Faltas, 2016).
Therefore, I also need to have a higher cultural intelligence with intent to perform the task
effectively and perfectly. In the future, I would take into consideration that my group members
get irritated and frustrated because of my personal characteristics.
Second critical incident
My chosen toolkit is: Belbin
Summary of critical incident
This critical incident is about the sharing of relevant information with a group of people from
different countries. During my coursework, we all were divided into different groups. My
group,I have realized that the first activity that was involved in the teamwork was only
British students will speak and give their views all the group also consists of members from
China and Thailand. I have observed that there was a gap in viewpoint which stopped me

from sharing my views with other members. Although I had the unique ideas that were
relevant I have an issue of opening up and mixing up well with the other members because I
was not sure about how the people will accept me. This was a big issue with me that I am an
introvert personality. I am very good at meeting one or two people or a small number of
group of people feel comfortable with a larger number of groups. According to the feedback
of my other members, people said that once I felt comfortable within the group and open up
with everyone, the gap between the team members was bridged. When the people showed
confidence in me then I started putting my own viewpoints and I have gained a lot of
acceptance from them. This was a very big learning for me as I always try to run away from
such situations(Condon, 2011).
How does this reflect the findings of your chosen self analysis toolkit?
The toolkit that I have chosen for self-analysis is Belbin roles which helps me to identify my
own strengths and weakness while working in teamwork. From the findings of the Belbin
toolkit, I have observed that I really need to build strong working relationships and an
environment of mutual trust and understand. The results of this toolkit also help me to
develop my skills and high-performance teams which leads to improve and increase myself.
What are the implications for future career or personal development?
There are many implications been identified from the Belbin report with regard to personal
development. According to the concept of Belbin, the member has different abilities, skills
knowledge and experience. The distribution of the roles is very effective to enrich teams and

make it more competitive (Sullivan, 2017). A good distribution of roles in the team will help
to:
 Create awareness among the team members
 Overcome the rivalry among the team members
 Promote more participation of team members
 Development of the skills of team members
 Motivate and encourage team members
Therefore, from this incident, I have found the importance of the preferred business roles in
achieving better results on task. I was aware of my preferred role and I will carry this with
me in future as I find that I will be more committed to taking part in things that I preferred. I
also identified and learned through this critical incident that how the decisions and actions of
the team leaders have a great impact on the results of the task. It is clear from the incident
that I need to develop some areas such as I need to share my own opinions and communicate
in a more effective way with the leaders so that they consider my viewpoints as a key part of
their decisions. I will definitely choose my future career on the basis of my preferred areas of
knowledge and interest and will acquire enough knowledge(BBPSD, 2012).

Summary of key strengths and weaknesses
I it is found by me that I need to work upon my self-awareness and self-development aspects to
lead the people by controlling own emotions and by enhancing the knowledge and capabilities.
The ethical decision making, strategic implementation and teamwork are possible in the future
by having appropriate awareness and development of personal values. First of all,
communication with my team members is very less as they are unknown to me and belong to
different countries because of which reason I felt uncomfortable and unconfident. From the
findings of the results of cultural intelligence questionnaire, I realized that I have low cultural
intelligence. I really need to improve my communication skills. I have also found that individual
with low culture intelligence I am not capable enough to handle the difficult circumstances and
make the decisions as per the different cultures(Radu, 2018).
From the above critical incidents, I have observed that my understanding of myself was very
poor. My team members shared very valuable feedback with me regarding myself. This feedback
is very useful for me as it gives me an opportunity to improve my communication skills. After
receiving the feedback from my team member and using the results of questionnaires of cultural
intelligence and Belbin, I had gained a proper awareness about my own strengths and limitations.
Therefore, I have learnt that I need to improve my cultural intelligence skills and need to
carefully identify the diverse cultural background before meeting the individuals from different
cultures. This new learning will help me in the future to work in a culturally diverse workplace

Therefore, I also need to have a higher cultural intelligence with intent to perform the task
effectively and perfectly. In the future, I would take into consideration that my group members
get irritated and frustrated because of my personal characteristics (University, 2018).
From the critical incident two and from the findings of the Belbin toolkit, I have observed that I
really need to build strong working relationships and an environment of mutual trust and
understand. The results of this toolkit also help me to develop my skills and high-performance
teams which leads to improve and increase myself. This was a big issue with me that I am an
introvert personality. I am very good at meeting one or two people or a small number of group
of people feel comfortable with a larger number of groups(Sutton, 2008). According to the
feedback of my other members, people said that once I felt comfortable within the group and
open up with everyone, the gap between the team members was bridged. When the people
showed confidence in me then I started putting my own viewpoints and I have gained a lot of
acceptance from them. This was a very big learning for me as I always try to run away from such
situations.

Conclusion
Therefore, it is found by me that I need to work upon my self-awareness and self-development
aspects to lead the people by controlling own emotions and by enhancing the knowledge and
capabilities. The ethical decision making, strategic implementation and teamwork are possible in
the future by having appropriate awareness and development of personal values.

References
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