Application of Management Skills
The purpose of this exercise is to build a comprehensive plan for the development of the leadership capability in myself. Based on the understanding of the underlining principles of management, it is evident that leadership is the key skill, which I would like to develop and further work on to be able to complement and complete my profile as a current leader of self and a future leader of others. With that in mind, the following aspects of the leadership competence are central to my development model:
Personal and unique life story
Diversity awareness and management skills
Continuous learning.
First of all, personal and unique life story is the aspect, which I find extremely important for great leaders. Many academic and business works are dedicated to the outline and construction of the universal models and definition of leadership. The more I explore this area, the more I understand that the argument, suggested by Goleman (1998) in his article What Makes a Leader? Is central to my vision of leadership. Indeed, while self-awareness, humbleness, long-term orientation, and dependability are considered common for all the good leaders and managers, these qualities cannot identify and explain the profiles of the great and unique leaders, which existed in in our history.What makes great leaders unique is their experience and personal life story, which can never repeat itself.
Diversity in the contemporary business setting is essential for the companies, as with globalization of operations and individual mobility, the organizations become more dependent on their ability to manage the diversity internally as well as externally. With that in mind, leaders should be able to bring this knowledge and skill to the organizations. Moreover, it is the role of a leader to not only be aware but also to manage the different levels of diversity and pass this awareness to others.
Finally, leadership, likewise management, which can be taught, is something dynamic and constantly evolving. That said, leaders should be prepared to learn throughout their lives and careers. This learning should come from work, social environment, subordinates, and superiors.
Context of the Skill Application
Leadership is the skills which can be utilized in many situations and should be seen as a complex model. At the same time, the application of this skill can be much more short-term than one can think. That said, "leading self” is one of the most important skills, which one can develop. Given that, one of the situations, in which I aim to apply the skills is dealing with the group assignments in the academic context. The situation is based upon the interaction of a group of individuals, class colleagues, given a collective task to complete one or another assignment. The challenge for the application of the skill is to be able to lead with diversity in the group and ensure that I can deal with the situation by leading self, in spite of potential differences in learning styles, cultures, time management and other elements. This will be done on a regular basis throughout the course and the individuals involved will be the colleagues from the course and professors, facilitating and guiding the completion of group tasks.
Specific Behaviors
Some of the specific behaviors, which will demand me applying the skills include the brainstorming sessions, working on the delegation of responsibilities in the group, time management, and decision-making. As there is generally no formally defined leader, dealing with these aspects of the group work can be complex, without developing the skill of leading self.
Success Measure
The success of the application of the skills is grounded on three core criteria: personal satisfaction with the performance in the group; collective outcome and the quality of the work delivered as a result of the group work; and, finally, the ability to create stressless and effective communication with all the group members, respecting their individuality. In the situation, when all the three criteria are met, the application of the skill can be seen as successful. On the contrast, failure to reach one or more goals will outline the gaps and future needs improvement.
Reflection
Based on reflection of the latest group assignment completed within the past months, I can make several observations. First of all, I managed to build a reasonable communication channel to be able to avoid conflicts in the group. The collective outcome was above average. One of the areas, where I failed to reach my objective was the effectiveness of communication in terms of diversity, where differences in opinions and approaches built some barriers to faster solutions and more effective division of work. As a result, we were satisfied with the final outcome, but all of the members felt like we wasted a lot of time in progress and brainstorming stage, rather than on completion of the task.
Improvement Strategy
Based on this experience, there is clearly significant room for improvement, especially n diversity management. The goal of this analysis and reflection is to understand how to transform the diversity in the group into an effective tool of collective work through leading self. I found it extremely useful to learn about the differences in cultural backgrounds, based on Hofstede's (2001) framework as well as gaining better insight into the learning styles and cognitive behavioral models. By learning about these models, I will be able to better relate myself in a group and become an informal leader, driving effectiveness through diversity.
Key Learnings
The exercise allowed me to take along several major learnings. First of all, some skills, such as leadership, are very dynamic and often it is important to learn to interpret them and understand how they can be applied in the situation. I saw leadership as it relates to others and until this moment did not realize the role of leading self in building on successful leadership model. Secondly, I learned that diversity can be extremely beneficial for the group once it is properly managed. This effectiveness comes through emotional intelligence, diversity awareness and continuous learning, which each of the individuals in the group should demonstrate. Finally, I realized that structural approach and focus on one specific skill in a situation can bring more benefits, rather than an attempt to embrace all the skills and try to reach excellence in all of them.
References
Goleman D. (1998). What Makes a Leader? Harvard Business Review [Online]. Retrieved 28 June 2016, http://stattrak.amstat.org/files/2015/11/Whatmakesaleader.pdf
Hofstede G. 2001. Culture Consequences. Comparing Values, Behaviors, Institutions and Organizations Across Nations. London: Sage Publications. Print
