Developing Self-Confidence: A Business Report On Leadership Skills

Diagnostic Tools and Results

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).

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 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.

Personality 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 processing, relational transparency and internalized moral perspective suggests that I have the qualities of a good leader.

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.

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.

The final tool was the DISC behavioural style report that helped in gaining a better understanding of predictable behaviour (Sintim, 2016). It identified my dominance, influence, steadiness, and conscientiousness accordingly. On completing the report, I found my results to correspond with the ‘I style’ for both internal and external features. The results suggested that I possessed strong inspiring traits that can be attributed to my outgoing, friendly, and optimistic nature. Thus, the report helped me identify that my interaction with co-workers and the urge to experience fun and excitement at the workplace will help me in influencing the behaviour of colleagues. Therefore, after using the five diagnostic tools and correlating them to my work experience, I found the aspects that require further development. I selected self-confidence as my principle leadership capabilities and will focus on the key competencies of self-awareness, neuroticism, and extroversion, with the aim of strengthening my leadership capabilities.

Authentic Leadership Assessment

Self-confidence commonly refers to the use of self-assurance in judging personal ability, judgment and power. Thus, self-confidence reinforces the positive belief that the intended goals can be accomplished. Evidences suggest that there are stark differences between the concepts of self-confidence and self-esteem (Mittal & Dhar, 2015). While the former refers to trust in self ability to achieve specific objectives, the latter encompasses evaluation of worth of an individual. A leader who is academically and technically qualified for a particular position, however demonstrating a lack of confidence will face difficulty in influencing others to work towards the directed goals of the team. While the foundation of leadership relies on effective communication, passion and empowerment, self-confidence acts as the basic element without which a leader will fail to perform the duties efficiently (Malkinson et al., 2013). Thus, it can be stated that the role of a leader expects presence of confidence to take risky and innovative decisions for the ultimate benefit of the organization. Lack of courage to take such decisions will result in loss of productivity. Thus, self-confidence acts as the driving force that helps a leader to make accurate decisions.

Evidences suggest that self-confidence allows one to conduct meetings with sufficient influence and power, to accept bluntness and commence communication, and the greater employees identify the force of will, the more faith they will have in the company and its mission (Rego et al., 2012). Self confidence therefore helps in building a positive self-image. Self-image helps in creating a mental picture about oneself. Research evidences considered competency as the primary criteria for an efficient leadership. Trustworthiness and presence of excellent interpersonal communication skills are other important attributes that must be demonstrated by a good leader. Self-confidence helps a leader to embody all the aforementioned attributes.

Lacking self-confidence makes the leaders mask their weakness with an expression of bravado, thereby resulting in manifestation of certain characteristics that others perceive as arrogance. This makes the leader micromanage the people and results in their failure to listen to the needs and suggestions of co-workers. Absence of adequate self-confidence usually makes the leaders unpopular with the staff and management team. According to several research studies, dictatorial leaders lacking self-confidence create poor working environment and do not value the co-workers. This results in lack of innovation and stifles creativity and productivity of the organization.

Two different methods that are used to measure the amount of self-confidence, based on meta-cognition are the Metacognitive Awareness Inventory (MAI) and the Memory and Reasoning Competency Inventory (MARCI). Metacognition is considered imperative to development of a successful and self-confident person owing to the fact that it enables and empowers individuals to manage their cognitive skills in a better manner. It also facilitates identification of strengths and weaknesses through construction of cognitive capabilities (Teo & Lee, 2012). Recent researchers provide evidences that illustrate the role of metacognition in creating more aware and strategic learners who are able to monitor and sequence self-behaviour (Young & Fry, 2012). The MAI encompasses 52 questions that need to be given an appropriate ‘true’ or ‘false’ score, based on the thoughts of the learner. The questions are principally based on self-awareness of metacognition (Tosun & Senocak, 2013). Thus, the questions help in measuring individual perceptions on thinking, planning, understanding, and execution.

Leadership Toolkit

On the other hand, the MARCI instrument helps in capturing the declarative aspects related to metacognition. It recognizes self-awareness as a learner and a cognizer. It focuses on self-concept that refers to the subjective perceptions of the relative strength and weakness of an individual, based on specific circumstances and activities. It encompasses a questionnaire that collects information related to self-concept and memory (Jiang & Kleitman, 2015). Thus, MARCI helps in predicting self-confidence traits.

Additionally, there are some popular theories that explain different aspects of self-confidence. According to Maslow’s hierarchy of needs there are multiple needs that need to be fulfilled by humans, after meeting the most basic and complex needs. The theory regards self-esteem as the second most essential need, preceded by self-actualisation. Individuals are expected to fulfil needs of love, safety, belonging and physiological stability, before developing self-esteem and confidence (Anderson, 2014). On the other hand, the terror management theory delved deeper into individual experiences to illustrate self-confidence. This theory focuses on the idea that all individuals hold potential for responding with fear to awareness of self-mortality. Self-esteem is thought to buffer and provide protection against anxiety, thereby assisting people to strive for their self-confidence (Du et al., 2013). In addition, the sociometer theory, proposed by Mark Leary, emphasizes on the role of self-esteem as an internal gauge of the extent of inclusion or exclusion of others (Reitz et al., 2016).

Furthermore, the Wheel of Wellness represents several components of wellness over the lifespan of an individual and focuses on several components that get multiplied over time. It was introduced with the aim of understanding psychology and quality of life of wealthy people. The model focused on 12 subdivisions of self-direction that included sense of control, worth, self-care, realistic beliefs, gender identity, stress management, problem solving and creativity, nutrition, emotional awareness and coping, exercise and culture identity (Reese & Myers, 2012). Thus, it considered self-direction as the spokes of a wheel that was related to self-management.

Spirituality forms the centre of the wheel and acts as the most crucial factor that determines wellbeing. The wheel of wellness is considered ecological in the sense that is facilitates dynamic interaction between the life tasks with several kinds of life forces. These interactions are in turn affected by a plethora of natural (famine and flood) and man-made (wars) global events (Cuddihy & Tomson, 2013). Thus, change in a single area of wellness will directly affect others in positive as well as negative directions.

The tasks expressed in the wheel are connected to the way of life and assists people to know their self-worth and wellness (Binkley, 2013). Thus, it helps to establish a good relationship based on friendship and love, while working with other people. Thus, this aspect of self-direction facilitates forming a connection with self-confidence of the concerned individuals. Becoming more self-confident directly increases the capabilities of a leader (Rehman et al., 2013). Thus, self-confidence is an essential trait for demonstration of successful and undisputed leadership.

Self-Reflection

Upon use of the five diagnostic tools and correlating them to my personal experience, followed by an exhaustive literature search, I am able to conclude that in order to improve my leadership skills, there is a need to develop three key competencies of self-awareness, extroversion and neuroticism. The action plan for 6 months that will help in enhancing these competencies is given below:

First 2 months- I intend to focus on developing my self-confidence by reading relevant books, journal articles, magazines, that will enhance my personal development and self-awareness. These books will also facilitate elimination of social anxiety and will change my thinking and perceptions. Furthermore, engaging in active discussions and participating in group sessions will help me interact in a better way, thereby assisting me to identify the aspects that need further improvement. Thus, it will work towards eliminating unnecessary competition with the team members. My self-confident abilities will also help in improving employee morale.

Second 2 months- Attending short-term workshops and training sessions will help me to gain a deeper understanding of the behaviour and skills I need to display when crucial circumstances arise. The workshops and courses will help me become self-aware and on applying the knowledge gained during these trainings while working in a team, will help in directing the team members to achieve the vision of the department or organization. It will help me to manage my stress in a better way and will help me during intuitive decision making. Furthermore, it will work towards avoiding conflicts at the workplace and will reduce frustration.

Last 2 months- Writing down my feedbacks and priorities in a personal journal will benefit me to enhance self-reflection, express feelings and opinions, and will also facilitate critical thoughts. Furthermore, it will also help in developing a good relationship with the co-workers and will make them realize that their wants and demands are being understood. Moreover, it will also help me to correct my mistakes, thereby preventing misunderstandings. Engaging in effective conversation will help me in understanding the ideas and perspectives of the team members, thereby facilitating proposal of innovations. It will also reduce linguistic and cultural barriers and form highly efficient teams.

To conclude, it can be stated that self-confidence is an essential skills that needs to be demonstrated in all kinds of leadership. An individual can master the skill of self-confidence by learning from experiences related to particular circumstances. It creates the positive belief that the intended goal can be easily accomplished. Upon undertaking the self-reflection activity, I identified that I need to focus more on developing my capabilities related to neuroticism, extroversion and self-awareness. Thus, I intend to manifest my best capabilities at my workplace with the aim of becoming a successful leader.

DISC Behavioral Style Report

References

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