LEADERSHIP

Chapter 3

Self-Awareness &
Skill Development
 Self-Awareness
 Self-Awareness is an understanding of our
strengths, weaknesses, and limitations and how
we gather and process information

 Serves as a foundation for behaviors and skills

◦ goal setting, effective communication, listening, stress
and time management

 Enables diagnosis of conflict sources, selection of

appropriate strategies, management of
interpersonal relations and conflicts
 Three Ways to Increase Self-Awareness

 Through Physical and Social Environment

◦ “Look in the mirror” – height and color of hair

 Take assessment tests and compare to others who

have taken the same tests

 Obtain feedback from other people through our

social interactions in every day life
 Elements of Self-Awareness
 Social awareness relates to the ability to
understand others

 Developing your empathy skills. Empathy is the

ability to put yourself in other people’s
situations, sense their emotions, and understand
things from their perspective

 Social awareness also includes the ability to

develop networks and play organizational politics
 Elements of Self-Awareness
 Our personality has outcomes or implications in
three broad categories
◦ Individual or personal impacts: such as self concept and
identity, world view, happiness, spirituality and values

◦ Interpersonal relations: such as peer and family

relationships and work collaboration

◦ Organizational and societal outcomes: such as

occupational choice, job performance, community
involvement.
 Personality
 The entire ensemble of physical, mental, emotional, and
social characteristics giving form to our behavior and lives

 Self Awareness involves understanding our personality, a

greater understanding of our personality leads to greater
self-awareness about out motivations and preferences

 Personality is defined by both genetic and environmental

factors (e.g., culture) same for behaviors are also
determined by both personality and environments

 Personality is difficult to understand from one perspective

 Consequently, numerous techniques and instruments are
used to understand personality
 The Big Five Inventory
 Openness to experience
 Conscientiousness
 Extraversion
 Agreeableness
 Emotional stability

https://openpsychometrics.org/tests/IPIP-
BFFM/
 Openness to Experience
 The degree to which we are open to new experiences and
ways of doing things

 High - individuals tend to prefer a variety of interests, be

more creative and imaginative, and dislike dealing with
details, interested in innovation, more comfortable with
change, risk takers

 Low Originality individuals tend to have more narrow

interests and deeper knowledge on subjects, they like to
implement plans rather than create new plans, less prone
to take risks
 Conscientiousness
 The degree to which we move toward goals

 Highly Conscientious individuals tend to work toward

goals in a disciplined and focused fashion, high self-
control and consistent focus on on personal goals

 Low Conscientiousness individuals are more relaxed,

spontaneous, and open-ended, usually multi-tasking and
being involved in many projects and goals at the same
time

 Low scorers do not necessarily wok less than focused

people but their work might be more scattered and less
goal oriented
 Extraversion
 Extraverts prefer to be around other people and
involved in many activities, tend to exert more
leadership and to be chosen quickly leaders by
peers, more expressive.

 Introverts prefer to work alone, and are described

as serious, skeptical, quiet, and private

 “Ambiverts” have characteristics of both,

sometimes depending on the situation
 Agreeableness
 The degree to which we defer to others, with our
need to control the situation and others

 High Accommodation individuals tend to relate to

others by being tolerant, agreeable, and accepting
of others, move toward people.

 Low Accommodation individuals tend to be tough,

guarded, persistent, competitive, or aggressive,
might not be team player
 Emotional Stability
 Individuals tend to interpret events in an optimistic
manner and to read other people’s emotions are
useful skills for leaders

 High – resilient individuals who are more rational

at work and appear impervious of what’s going on
around them

 Low- worry a lot, quick to feel anger and to lose

control, offer more pessimistic explanations for
events and situations
 Core Self-Evaluations
 Composed of:
◦ Self-Esteem, Locus of Control

 Self-Esteem: the extent to which individuals

consider themselves worthy and valuable

 Locus of Control: Generalized Self-Efficacy:

confidence in our ability to succeed in
specific situations
 Core Self-Evaluation Scale
The mean
score is
around 3.8
to 3.9.
Higher
scores are
associated
with more
effective
performance
, lower level
of stress
and greater
satisfaction
at work
 Values
 Values are the Philosophies and beliefs people
consider important in their lives and careers, the
standards and rules at the core of behavior

 Reflect a person’s sense of right/wrong, drive life

decisions, personal tastes, and preferences

 Personality defines actions and behaviors while

Values are belief systems that drive personality
 Organizational Values
 Individuals with congruent values (with the
organization) tend to be more productive and
satisfied at work

 Lack of congruence yields frustration, non-

productivity, and absenteeism
 Communication:
Useful Skill for Leadership
 Communication is the heart of management
and leading
 There are two relevant components:

◦ Public Speaking - Abraham Lincoln, Winston

Churchill, Martin Luther King Jr.
 Talent and skill
 Three elements – Speaker, audience, and medium
◦ Listening
 Tips for Good Public Speaking
 Avoid excessive arm or body movement
 Planting feet in one place and not moving
 Not making eye contact with the audience
 Hands in the pocket jingling keys or coins
 Avoid non-words such as uhm, ahh, you know, so,

and like
 Speak about something you know
 Know your audience
 Prepare, Practice & Rehearse
 Open strong & end strong
 Humor
 Tips for Good Listening
 Pay Attention
 “Listen” to nonverbal cues and body language
 Don’t interrupt, listen for the entire message
 Practice hearing before evaluating
 Don’t get defensive and assume you know

the speaker’s intentions

 Be sure to paraphrase to avoid

misunderstandings and help in remembering

 Listen to the human being behind the words
 Listening
 If a person speaks and no one listens is that really
a communication?

WHY IS IT SO HARD TO LISTEN?

There is major noise in our mind that inhibit us from listening

We have to turn this age of communication into an age of listening

or age of true communication
 Listening
 Listening is the golden key that open the door to
human relationship

 Always Remember we have two ears and one

mouth for a reason 

 Training your self to listen, you have to listen to

yourself, quite your mind, to tune in, listen to
where we are
 Listening
 Listening helps us understand the other side, as a
key to the lock, how you shall change someone
else mind if you don't know where there mind is

 Helps us connect with the other party, helps us

build rapport and trust

 Helps us get to yes, helps us making the other

party to listen too
 Rules of Listening
 Mistakenly while we are Listening we focus on us
◦ while in genuine listening the focus should be on the
other person, in order to put ourselves in their shoes

 Example: We think of negotiation is all about

talking but in reality it is about listening too

 If a tree falls in the forest and no one around to

hear it, does it still make a sound.
The Myers-Briggs Type Indicator personality framework & its strengths and
weaknesses
 One of the most widely used personality assessment instruments in the world is
the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI).
http://www.humanmetrics.com/cgi-win/jtypes2.asp

Individuals are classified as:

Extraverted or introverted (E or I).
 Extraverted are outgoing and sociable Vs. introverts are quiet and shy
Sensing or intuitive (S or N).
 Sensing are practical & prefer routine, order Vs. rely on unconscious
process and look at the big picture
Thinking or feeling (T or F).
 Thinking use reason & Logic to handle problems Vs. Feeling rely on their
personal values & emotions
Judging or Perceiving (J or P).
 Judging want control and want their world to be structured Vs. Perceiving are
flexible and spontaneous
5-26