Description
A thorough investigation of my management style through the Belbin assessment served as an invaluable tool, revealing my favoured roles in a group setting. The careful exam revealed a natural fit for the coordinator position, confirming my choice for leading and assisting organisation tasks. This realisation highlighted some capabilities, such as delegating tasks effectively. However, it also revealed a large blind spot: my tendency to allocate myself too much responsibility when I could be sharing roles with other team members. Acknowledging these findings was critical to my self-development journey as it highlighted possible areas of improvement.
Moving from persona analysis to the study of character, the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator furnished deeper insight by classifying my inclinations as INTJ (Introverted, Intuitive, Thinking, Judging). This categorisation indicated a likely requirement for balance among internal reflection similar to validating some innate characteristics (Suvanto, 2020).
Using the Dominance, Inspiring, Supportive, and Cautions (DISC) evaluation after that gave me crucial insights into my behavioural traits. My sturdy personality was illuminated by the conclusion that I am dominant and conscientious (Beedu, 2021). This meant that I aimed to achieve accurate and quality results competently. In hindsight, these are positive traits, but they also show that my blunt communication can be viewed as problematic by my team members.
Feelings
Using a variety of opinions to explore my leadership profile has become an emotional experience. Initially, self-belief became ignited by connecting my behavioural traits and personality type. Meanwhile, disclosing possible blind spots and opportunities for development made me feel upset and shocked because I never thought other people, like my team members, would have a negative view of certain personal characteristics. However, this relieved me because it established the areas I should focus my self-development on to become a better team player and leader. Accepting these complicated feelings is a critical first step towards developing a growth-oriented mentality (Grass, Bachmann, J. and Hoegl, 2020, pp.324-351).
Evaluation:
I took part in a couple of projects intending to improve my self-development. Firstly, I worked as a beauty influencer for a beauty company, Farmasi. In the first cohort of the campaign, I served as a team leader of a group of six. I was tasked with ensuring briefings were relayed on time, company products were evenly distributed, and each influencer was paid at the end of the campaign. This tested my patience in dealing with late deliverables and my communication skills when briefing the team. Although it was an excellent opportunity for growth, I struggled to speak in a circuitous manner that accommodated different personalities. However, I took it as a challenge for my following projects.
My second project included serving as a student advisor on the school board. This position provided an invaluable opportunity for me to grow as an individual and a professional. I got to work with hundreds of students throughout the year, informing and explaining academic policies to students and offering advice on career choices. This experience taught me the value of calm and subtle communication. I was able to tone down my bluntness, which was highly appreciated and complemented by students and my peers. This helped in the growth of my leadership and interpersonal skills.
Finally, I was able to open up a shop where I sold vintage vinyl records and books to students who were interested in history and music. Additionally, I hired a team of three people who helped me run and manage the store. This personal project tested my ability to share roles and responsibilities, a negative trait I discovered after taking the Belbin assessment test. It forced me to develop and polish my leadership and communication skills, which ultimately made me a better individual and professional.
Analysis
Undertaking tests through various self-assessment tools such as the Myers-Briggs, Belbin, and DISC was an eye-opening experience for me. Had I not done this, I would have never known which leadership and management areas of my developmental journey needed improvement. Professionals and people in influential positions must take it upon themselves to conduct self-analyses from time to time to establish areas of improvement, such as building communication skills, improving relations with employees, and delegating tasks more efficiently. This will, in turn, boost organisational performance (Mullen and Klimaitis, 2021, pp.19-35).
I was lucky to have participated in various projects that helped me resolve some of the issues highlighted by the self-assessment tests. Working as a beauty influencer taught me the power of communication and effectively leading a team, which proved invaluable to my self-developmental journey. When a leader can effectively organise a team, it reflects in the overall performance of other team members and the organisation as a whole (Cimatti, 2016, p.97). Additionally, my role as a student advisor enabled me to exercise more patience when dealing with people. It made me aware of different characters and personalities and showed me how a neutral and subtle way of communicating made me a better and respected leader. Finally, I learned how to share my responsibilities and roles with others and avoid overburdening myself with tasks. Even though my improvement journey is far from over, I feel like the projects I undertook and the self-analysis I did went a long way in helping me grow as a leader and an individual.
Conclusion
This experience taught me important aspects of being a leaver, such as having excellent communication skills, offering effective leadership to employees, and prioritising working as a team. This journey could have been a more positive experience if I had gone into it with less anger and frustration that stemmed from learning about my negative traits. To handle my emotions better, I discovered that I need to improve my interpersonal skills and emotional regulation. However, this was an invaluable experience that made me a better person.
Action Plan
My action plan centres on developing my emotional intelligence, adaptability, and collaboration abilities to pursue continual progress. I will consciously collaborate with others on initiatives that will improve teamwork, develop emotional intelligence by increasing interpersonal awareness, and embrace adaptability by taking lessons from various circumstances.
References:
BEEDU, G.K., 2021. A Study on the effectiveness of DISC personality test. Selinus University of Sciences and Literature. https://www.uniselinus.education/sites/default/files/2021-07/Tesi%20Beedu.pdf
Cimatti, B., 2016. Definition, development, assessment of soft skills and their role for the quality of organisations and enterprises. International Journal for Quality Research, 10(1), p.97. http://ijqr.net/journal/v10-n1/5.pdf
Grass, A., Backmann, J. and Hoegl, M., 2020. From empowerment dynamics to team adaptability: Exploring and conceptualising the continuous agile team innovation process. Journal of Product Innovation Management, 37(4), pp.324-351. https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1111/jpim.12525
Mullen, C.A. and Klimaitis, C.C., 2021. Defining mentoring: a literature review of issues, types, and applications. Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences, 1483(1), pp.19-35. https://nyaspubs.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1111/nyas.14176
Suvanto, M., 2020. Applying MBTI to analysing shōnen manga characters: A case study of My Hero Academia. https://www.diva-portal.org/smash/record.jsf?pid=diva2%3A1524440&dswid=739
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