Torrens University: MGT601 Dynamic Leadership Self-Development Report

This report delves into the realm of dynamic leadership, focusing on self-development as a cornerstone for building self-awareness. It explores key leadership theories such as the Great Man theory, trait theory, contingency theory, situational theory, and behavioral theory, examining their applicability to the author's personal leadership style. The report also identifies character traits, personality flaws, and the use of the Johari window to understand behavior and self-perception. Furthermore, it outlines future goals as a leader, emphasizing core communication skills for emotional intelligence and the implementation of reflexive and reflective practices for continuous learning. The assignment aims to develop a leadership plan, analyze the capacity to influence, motivate, and inspire others, and practice coaching to enhance self-awareness and communication skills. The report concludes with a reflection on the development process and its implications for future leadership endeavors.

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Dynamic leadership
System04116
5/9/2019

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Contents
Introduction.................................................................................................................................................2
Self-development plan as a leader for 5 years to build self awarenss..........................................................2
Key leadership theories...............................................................................................................................3
Character traits and personality flaws..........................................................................................................4
My behavior................................................................................................................................................6
Future Goals as a leader...............................................................................................................................7
Where I will be in next 5 years?..................................................................................................................8
Technique of reflexive and reflective practice as means of constant learning and self-development..........9
Conclusion.................................................................................................................................................10
References.................................................................................................................................................11

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Introduction
This report discusses about the dynamic leadership in the management. Dynamic
leadership yearns for experience, for knowledge, and to improve our skills of leadership set.
Leadership is not defined by the title on the door but by the daily actions. The study main
focuses on the self-development as a leader to create self-awareness. Self –development is taking
a step to improve ourselves by learning different skills or overcoming ruthless habits and this
helps in creating the self-awareness among us. Through the main leadership theories, an
individual leadership development strategy will be developed. The ability to influence, inspire
and motivate others in the workplace will be developed and analyzed. To enhance the self-
awareness and core communication skills for emotional intelligence will be implement and
practice coaching for others. Furthermore the techniques of reflexive and reflective practice will
be demonstrated in this report as a means of continuous learning and self-development.
Self-development plan as a leader for 5 years to build self awarenss
Self-development is captivating steps to improved myself such as learning different skills
or overcoming bad behaviors and self-awareness is the awareness of the myself with self-being
whatever makes my identity unique. These unique workings include opinions, knowledges and
skills.
I analyzed that our self-development assists us to acclimate to the constant varying
environment both internal and external of the organization. The organization requires me as I am
updated with the leading control thinking and growths. The self-development is significant as a
leader when I have good understanding of myself and are capable to involve myself as single and
separate leader who are authorized to make variations and to form on my parts of strength as
well recognize areas where I will like to make improvement to develop the self-awareness
among the people as a leader (Northouse, 2017).
Currently as a leader I am being aware of my strength, style, weaknesses, preferences,
personality etc. have a positive impact on how I behave, react or interact with others. By

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knowing the strength and weaknesses in advance, I require to develop physical, mental, social,
emotional, and spiritual and resource aspects of self-development. These aspects help in
developing or building my awareness towards the organization and leadership programmes
(Grint, 2016).
According to the Boyatzis intentional change model, there are various steps which I followed
to develop my self-awareness by self-development:
1. Emerging a self-vision: self-development is clearly for my self-awareness. Many of us
find it at ease to encourage ourselves to improve and learn if I have an aim of doing so.
Developing my self-vision aware me where I want to be in future and why it is important
to develop this aim.
2. Planning for my self-development: the planning also helps in developing awareness and
clear about where I want myself to be and how to get there. By identifying the areas
where improvement is required helps in building the self-awareness.
3. Starting the process of improvement: once I identified the areas where improvement is
required then I can start the process of improvement within an organization as a leader
and meet new goals or objectives (Western, 2019).
4. Recording my self-development: it is the best idea to have records of my self-
development. Through noting down main developments in my development and learning
as and at what time it happen, I will be capable to reflect on my achievements in future.
This reflection might better help to encourage me to learn further skills in the later dates.
5. Review and repeating plans of self-development: for the effective leadership, it is
essential to replicate on my experience and reflect what I have learnt as of that. The daily
assessment of my self-development strategies and my development activities will confirm
that I learn from whatever I have done (Reichard, Et al, 2017).
All these activities of self-development as a leader build the self-awareness within myself
and others and helps in achievement or success of the organization.
Key leadership theories
There are key leadership theories which are partially applicable on me such as:

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1. Great man theory: according to this theory, I am born with just with the suitable traits and
capabilities for leading. This includes traits of charisma, confidence, intellect, social
skills and communication skills. This theory propose my capability to lead is essential as
it describes myself as mythological, brave and intended to rise to leadership when the
circumstances arises (Spector, 2016).
2. Trait theory: the trait theory is same as the great man theory of leadership. This theory
found the traits of both effective and ineffective leaders in me. It is used to predict the
effective leadership, this theory focus on my attributes such as height, weight,
appearance, education, age, intelligence, background of the family that includes my
decisiveness, knowledge and judgement.
3. Contingency theory: this theory focus on other variables in a specific setting which
identify my style of leadership that suits the condition. It is created on the principles that
no style of leadership is suitable to all circumstances (Fiedler, 2015).
4. Situational theory: this theory is same as the situational theory as it is propose that no
style of leadership supersedes me. In this theory, I assess the variables like nature of
followers, kind of task and more. The situational analysis blends two main elements:
style of leadership and the maturity level of my followers (Thompson, 2015).
5. Behavioral theory: in this theory, main focus is on the particular behaviors and my action
instead of my characteristics or traits. The theory states that an effective leadership is the
outcome of various learned abilities. I require major three skills such as human, technical
and conceptual skills (Lord, Et al, 2017).
Character traits and personality flaws
By applying above leadership theories, the following character traits in me are found:
1. Maximizing or increasing my strength: as it is proposed by the leadership theory that is
“trait theory”, that effective leadership relies on the characteristics or traits which I
possess. I must strive to emphasis on my strength instead of focusing on my weaknesses.
The strength changes me from one leader to other leader and it may comprise:

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 A strong will is essential to staying strong and seeing myself over hard times. No
matter how the situation is challenging, I am with strong willed is able to find
internal strength and continue till I overcomes every challenges.
 The other strength is crucial nature which I possess. Determination refers to the
situation when others may be mystified, I can peacefully evaluate the situation
and select one action to unite everybody by. However since I may not always
make the correct decisions I should also be eager to learn from my faults
(Antonakis, Et al, 2017).
2. Be inclusive leader: few of the more difficult situational theories focus on me. This
means that I acknowledge person to be my biggest assets and not just few numbers in my
peoples. Being a leader who is inclusive needs that I continuously involves another in my
leadership, whether it is by always receiving the feedbacks of people or delegating more
duties or responsibilities to others than another kinds of leadership.
3. Take a self-assessment: leadership must identify my core traits or characteristics. These
are the traits of personality such as observant, adventurous and impulsive. By breaking
down my traits of personality and strengths, I would have one more view into my
personal style and be capable to better who I am.
4. Identify their core values: principal values are the standards which I practice to make
decisions and define the ethics and reliability. These are the things which helps me weigh
selections in life and are normally resolute. Analyze and develop the capability to
encourage, motivate and stimulate others in workplace (Jerpi, 2019).
There are various ways of defining the leadership. Few theories of leadership attempt to
describe that what distinguish me and some defines how best I come to be. The theory of
great man believes that the essential traits which I am born with contribute to best leadership.
Situational leadership suggests I should adopt a leadership style which relies on the condition
at that point while the behavioral theory defines about the learning skills which is necessary
to become a best leader (Northouse, 2018).

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My behavior
I cannot discuss about the self-awareness without touching the Johari window as it is a
tool that is famous for use in knowing relationship with myself and others persons. It is consider
to be essential tool for implement and practice of self-awareness to improve on this.
The Johari window has four areas which represents the self that is:
1. Open area: whatever I recognizes about myself which is also recognized by other
individual. This is considered an open area or book. Everybody knows about it especially
me. Possibly, there might be differences in what way I see myself and how other people
see me. But the thing is that I am aware of it and so are the peoples.
2. Blind area: whatever I do not understand about myself, however it is understand by other
individuals. There are points that other people see in me but I am completely unaware of
it.
3. Hidden area: whatever I understand about myself however is not understand by other
peoples. These are the things that I keep private, refuse to show for a reason which may
be understood only by me. There are individuals who claim to lead double lives where
those show one part to other people’s however I am keeping an aspect of myself hidden
from the view.
4. Unknown area: whatever I do not understand about myself, which is also not known by
other peoples. This is the side of myself which no one understands about it when I am
appointed into or unchecked, I will be surprising myself and the individuals around me
(Caldwell, 2016).
Here are the areas which discuss about the personality flaws:
1. Identify a behavior to improve: this begins with a behavior of mine that tends to
micromanage. This might have worked for me as a manager and supervisor but it might
be getting in that way of mine success in a new position. This needs to pinpoint for
sustained improvement process.
2. Learn its impacts on other person: noticing the effect that behavior I have on other person
and oneself and collect those information. For me let it is said that my micromanagement
is bad when working on the projects my senior cares about because I wants to ensure that

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I have every answer to my questions. However for other projects, I am involved less
which leaves me looking not predictable to my people who don’t know how to anticipate
my behavior (Raelin, 2016).
3. Identify the methods to manage the triggers: I become aware of my reaction to my senior
leader and my senior is one of the tactics I would suggest is for leader to be clear or
transparent on the agreements I have with my senior (Wyatt, Et al, 2018).
4. Analyze the alternative methods when leaders are triggers: when I delegate projects to
my people and ask for the achievement reports aligned with what I am reporting to my
senior leader. I require develop trust in my team and permitting them to do my tasks. In
return, I also require to know my varied expectations and behaviors (Martin, 2016).
Future Goals as a leader
There are various communication skills for emotional intelligence but core communication skills
are:
1. Use an assertive communicating style: the use of assertive style of communication goes a
long way towards the earning of respect without coming through as too passive or
aggressive. Emotionally intelligence people understands how to communicate ideas or
opinions and requirements in a straight way while still respecting people.
2. Respond instead of reacting to conflicts: I react to the events with passive or aggression
are being shortsighted or impulsive and generally I do not give thoughts to what I am
acting on. It is happened because I do not get what I want or react on such issues. But by
responding instead of reacting, I utilize the virtue of leadership of patience to my benefit
to assess the situation and decide the methods to handle things (Shamir, Et al, 2018).
3. Use active skills of listening: I can improve my emotional intelligence by performing the
active listening, understanding and responding instead of reacting and listening to my
body. However it is important to remember that evolving emotional intelligence is a long
term practice and there is always a room for the improvement.
4. Reduce interpersonal stress and tensions: interpersonal stress is the association among
me. It may be phase to cut off the harshly limit the amount of time used up with me. The

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continuous stress of conflict or anger can have palpable healthiness effects in the
emotional intelligence of me.
5. Develop confidence that I can communicate effectively in any situation: I require to
develop confidence among the teams so that these helps to develop the confidence in me
and able to communicate effectively when the situation is harsh or favorable by clear in
my views, prepared in advance, stick to my guns, provoke questions or show some
respect (Storey, 2016).
6. Create successful approaches for handling difficult conversations: the successful
approaches are need to be created for the handling of difficult conversations by clear
about the issues happened, understanding or know my goals or objective, adopt a mindset
of the enquiry, manage the emotions, comfortable with the silence, be consistent and
preserve relation and develop skills for my conflict resolution (Komives, 2016).
7. Manage interaction with people: the interaction leads to resolution of various kinds of
conflicts. I am in the organization or in the business needs to manage the interaction
between the teams and the leaders on every aspects so that the chances of conflicts
between us are less and communication will be improved by these skills.
8. Complain effectively: the effective complaints are the one which is heard by me at whom
it is aimed and I receive a result that pleases the complainants. The complaints are
effective which have a clear idea of what I wish to achieve from those complaints and
who set it clearly to me to whom I am complaining.
9. Handling criticism: positively dealing with the criticism is a main life skill. At some
phase, I will be criticized in a professional manner. I will use criticism in a optimistic
way to improve myself or in a negative way which will lower the self-confidence and
results in stress, tensions and even anger. The best way to handle the criticism will be to
listen up, do not take it personally, manage stress level and keep on keeping on (Martin,
2019).
Where I will be in next 5 years?
In the next 5 years, I will be at that position as a leader where:
1. I can handle manage the conflicts without any disruption and can motivate those people
who require some courage towards the work goals.

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2. I can manage myself and my team members effectively and efficiently so that these
could not be able to exploit the organization and the work environment.
3. I can create the successful approaches or theories for the self-development of the team
members and welfare of the organization.
4. I can start responding to the conflict situations instead of reacting on those situations like
I currently do in this position.
5. I can use my emotional intelligence for the development or growth process within the
organization.
I will do all these by adopting or following the personality development model that is Boyatzis
intentional change model which is already discussed above for the development of personality as
a leader for next years.
Technique of reflexive and reflective practice as means of constant learning and self-
development
Reflexive practice:
1. Interview with the participants who are interested in the same fields which will helps in
constant learning and in self-development (Pässilä, Et al, 2015).
2. Acknowledge my baggage, assumptions value, political leaning and culture are the
technique for reflexive practice as means of constant learning and personal development.
3. During the write up of the findings report which reflect on how I am interpreted what I
heard during the interview or any situation for learning more and development.
4. Re-evaluate my findings is also a technique which leads to continuous learning of the
situation or interview process and helps to develop myself (Callagher, 2015).
5. Feed reflexive insight back into next interviews
Reflective practice:
1. Description: this requires a factual description of the situation. At this phase, the
conclusion is not drawn, the main focus is on the information which is relevant. Few
questions are: what happened? Where, when and how did it happened? Who else was
there? Did someone react?
2. Feelings: any emotions which is felt during the situation is discussed. Questions are: what
do I think other people felt? What do I feel about the situation now? Etc.

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3. Evaluation: situations are evaluated objectively. Questions like, what went well and what
did not went well? What are the negative and positive of the situations? Etc.
4. Analysis: think about what may have helped or hindered the situation. This stage can be
improved by referencing to an article or a previous experience if required to.
5. Conclusion: these includes what I have learn from the situation. It helps to learning and
self-development within myself.
6. Action plan: this deals with the plan of how to effectively handle the situation and
improve it (Johnston, 2017).
Conclusion
From this study I concluded that great leadership leads maximize the efficiency and
achieve the goals of the organization and also results in self-development by creating self-
awareness. Self-development is essential for improving the work life of the individual as well as
it helps in developing the personal life in a variety of several ways such as improving the
relationship, achieving the balance in work life, controlling of our actions and emotions. In the
above report self-development build the self-awareness within the organization and myself. Self-
awareness is essential as when I have a good understanding of myself I am capable to experience
myself. The concept is discussed with the help of key leadership theories such as trait and great
man theory and with the help of these leadership theories the personal development strategies are
made. Various core communications skills are identified for the knowing emotional intelligence.
The techniques are used for reflective and reflexive practices which helps directly in the self-
development and constant learning. Thus it is clear that leadership is dynamic and essential for
the self-development.

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