Self-knowledge is one of the most significant aspects of leadership. The awareness of personal priorities and values is an essential leadership attribute. Leaders must improve their leadership ability daily and continuously. Great leaders possess strategic dreams and visions of what should be done in their organizations. There are several reasons why leadership development is essential to me. I believe a leader is responsible for guiding a group of individuals to become more successful and productive in executing their duties. The entire organization can become successful or fail, depending on the attributes of its leader. I intend to develop my leadership skills to become more efficient and effective in motivating everyone in my future organization. My objective is to encourage my followers to feel more welcome and appreciated by creating a safe and productive workplace environment. Thus, I believe the only way to understand others, learn how to become empathic towards them, and help them to fulfill their potential is by developing essential skills, including cultural intelligence, diversity management, and negotiation skills.
Negotiating Skills: Self-assessment
Negotiation skills are an essential leadership attribute that every leader must possess. Leaders constantly engage in different forms of negotiations. For example, organizational leaders often negotiate with business partners when striking new deals. The objective of business negotiation is to ensure that organizations get eh best possible deal in any partnership (Barry, 2020; Maxhuni, 2021). Furthermore, leaders engage in some negotiations with their employees, such as when deciding employee benefits and salaries. Thus, doing a self-assessment of my negotiation skills was critical in understanding my capability as a future organizational leader. I discovered various weaknesses and strengths associated with my negotiation skills as discussed below.
My greatest weakness was separating people from the problem during a negotiation process. I learned that separating individuals from the issue at hand was the first negotiation technique that I need to master. I usually develop a personal attachment to the issue in negotiation and view solutions as personal attacks as a result. By separating my negotiating partners from the issue, I believe that I will see the issue more objectively and avoid using emotional reasoning. In this regard, I identified three categories of issues that might arise during discussions. First of all, I realized that the parties concerned have various perspectives on the issue. Therefore, it is crucial that all parties make an effort to comprehend one another’s perspectives. To arrive to a mutually beneficial agreement, proposals from both parties are required.
The second weakness that I noted with my negotiation skills is the failure to understand other people’s emotions. When individuals believe their interests are in jeopardy, many people respond with rage or terror. Interested persons have the capacity to recognize emotions even when they are not spoken. Neglecting others’ sentiments simply makes the situation tenser. Ramirez Marin et al. (2019) argued that the solution to this problem is to apologize and make additional gestures. Thus, I learned to observe other people’s emotions to know when they are hurt to apologize in time to stabilize the negotiation process. My third weakness is a lack of communication. Even when the parties are not actively communicating to one another, misunderstandings can still happen. Active listening is used to remedy the issue. The speech should be addressed to the parties by the process’s controller, the speaker. In addition, I learned to avoid criticizing other parties in a negotiation and instead start a conversation about the issue.
One notable strength that I learned from the self-assessment is my focus on interests. Parties may reach safe and effective agreements when they concentrate on their interests rather than their positions (Fells & Heer, 2019; Ramirez Marin et al., 2019). However, actions based on viewpoints only serve to exacerbate the problem while resolving conflicts. Nonetheless, a better solution is attained when the issue is characterized in terms of interests. It is crucial to ascertain the reasons for holding the positions to concentrate on interests. The self-assessment taught me that it is crucial for the negotiator to highlight the shared interests when the negotiating parties have diverse interests.
Cultural Intelligence: Self-assessment
The capacity to interact and perform successfully in culturally varied settings is known as cultural intelligence. A leader is more equipped to lead and collaborate with people from different cultural backgrounds if they possess cultural intelligence. Similarly, cultural intelligence gauges an outsider’s capacity to smoothly integrate into and contribute to a team’s culture. Thus, cultural intelligence is essential for new leaders to develop the respect and likeability of their team and coworkers (Azevedo & Shane, 2019; Yari et al., 2020). Therefore, cultural intelligence is an essential attribute of organizational leaders in contemporary times since the workplace is increasingly becoming multicultural. My self-assessment of cultural intelligence revealed some strengths and weaknesses essential to my future success as a business leader. Several parameters indicated that I am a culturally intelligent individual capable of leading cross-cultural teams in any organization.
I thought the results of the cultural competency self-assessment checklist were outstanding. I became aware of my high level of cultural competency and my capacity to comprehend various cultural contexts. In this examination, I believe attentiveness and knowledge are my greatest cultural intelligence attributes. I can share my cultural history and embrace different cultures. I am constantly learning new things and I am willing to understand and appreciate important elements of other people’s cultures.
However, I realized that there were some cultural aspects that I needed to improve. Thus, my self-assessment revealed that I need to have a better grasp of people’s cultures as well as the cultures within organizations. My most significant problem is thinking that my culture is exceptional as it treats others well. Brand et al. (2022) explained that cultural intelligence can be beneficial, but it is also associated with adverse consequences since individuals might become overconfident in their ability to interact effectively with members of other cultures, fostering poor decision-making and reduced learning. I usually believe that my culture is exceptional since we treat people with respect and make them feel valued. In addition, I believe that my culture has distinctive characteristics that make it more relevant. Nonetheless, there is greater knowledge and training in understanding various cultures to treat individuals fairly. I frequently err and disagree with others because I do not completely get their cultures. Understanding other cultures will improve decision-making and help people stay relevant in society.
However, it may be easy for leaders to forget that the individuals they are interacting with have perceptions and viewpoints that are different from their perspectives while working in a multicultural setting. The self-assessment taught me that it is crucial to develop a feeling of cultural intelligence to learn how to interact constructively with individuals from various cultures. Raising cultural intelligence helps a leader to develop greater empathy and sensitivity for other people (Livermore et al., 2022). Nonetheless, cultural intelligence development and improvement may not be simple tasks. I will gradually develop new perspectives and an understanding of new professional techniques and language to enable me to come up with better solutions for cross-cultural issues.
Diversity Management Capability: Self-assessment
The advantages of diversity in the workplace are numerous. Diverse viewpoints, beliefs, and opinions can spur more creativity and improved problem solving capabilities with an organization. Thus, businesses can provide better customer service, expanding into new areas, and gaining a competitive edge. An inclusive workplace may also help members of historically underrepresented groups feel more a part of the community (Goswami & Kishor, 2018; Luu et al., 2019). An employee may feel more at home on the team after they are no longer the lone person of color, woman, or a lone individual with a disability. Diverse workplaces are associated with higher employee engagement, reduced turnover, and improved productivity (Luu et al., 2019). I did this self-evaluation on diversity management capability to learn more about my personal feelings on diversity. Gaining awareness of my own opinions will ideally enable me to recognize my shortcomings, make the necessary corrections, and improve my cultural competency.
One significant weakness I identified from self-assessment related to my diversity management capability is age-related biasness. I tend to believe that the older generation might not fit into the current workplace organization since they tend to be less tech-savvy and rigid in adopting changes. I believe the younger generation is more flexible and can easily adopt a new technology, hence, my preference to working with younger teams. However, I have realized that my perception is misguided since it hinders diversity. While the older generation might have difficulties adjusting to new technologies and adopting new ways of doing things, they possess valuable practical experience that can help the younger employees to learn and improve. Communication issues were also highlighted from my self-assessment on diversity management capability. My major weakness is the tendency to assume that all the diverse people in a group can comfortably communicate using the same channels of communications. However, I realized that the younger generation might be comfortable communicating using slack while the older generation might prefer using the phone only.
Key Points of the Plan
Effective leadership can make a huge impact in the workplace. However, employee satisfaction and productivity suffers a lot without good leadership. Thus, everyone should improve their leadership skills even though failures in leadership are normal. There is always space for improvement, regardless of whether an individual is a natural-born leader or they have acquired their leadership abilities over time. I believe the first step in developing my leadership skills is increasing my self-awareness, which I did in my self-assessment. The next step to improving as a leader will be to identify and set goals for my leadership development as outlined in my personal leadership plan. These goals are directed at strengthening my areas of weakness and developing my leadership style.
The objective of the leadership plan is to provide guidelines on how to improve the leadership weaknesses identified in my self-assessment activities above. In addition, the plan illustrates how various leadership development goals will be attained and the timelines in which the goals should be attained. The plan provides tools for measuring the attainment of different leadership development goals identified. Activities to help develop the weaknesses associated with different goals are provided in the leadership development plan.
Description of what and how the leader’s feedback has been incorporated into the plan
The leader provided valuable feedbacks that were incorporated into my leadership plan. However, the leader approved most of the things I did in my plan. Hence, there were no significant changes to my original plan. One important feedback relates to my choice of measurement parameters in the plan. The selected leader believed that my measurement parameters were not measurable. Thus, I revised the measurement parameters to make them measurable. For instance, the changed the measurement parameter for my second goal from “successfully to execute a negotiation process” to “Complete at least 3 out of 5 negotiation agreements in my favour.” In addition, the leader suggested that I might require substantial professional experience to realize the goals I had set. Thus, he felt that it might not be feasible to attain those goals without practical work experience. Thus, I revised my timelines from one year to three years. The rest of the plan remained unchanged.
Description of how the plan makes an impact on my future life and careers
The current plan will have a significant impact on my future life and career since it acts as a leadership blueprint that guides me on the activities to engage within specified timelines to improve my leadership capability. Making a personal leadership development plan is a key technique that an individual can employ to progress as they work to improve their leadership abilities. A personal leadership development plan is a road map that will lead an individual through continual improvement in various leadership abilities and qualities. The plan should list the measures that a young leader wants to take to become a better leader. I have listed three important goals that I intend to attain by the next three years. I will go back to the plan to determine the extent to which each milestone is achieved yearly to ensure the attainment of the three goals by the end of the three years.
A personal leadership plan should include the activities a leader wants to accomplish, the abilities they need to develop, and the responsibilities they wish to accept. The development of the plan is the cornerstone for a successful beginning or continuation of the development of a person’s leadership skills and talents. I developed my goals based on a self-assessment that revealed my weaknesses and strengths on three important leadership areas, namely diversity management, negotiation skills, and cultural intelligence. This kind of strategy may both help any leader to advance in their present position and get them ready for future leadership responsibilities. Thus, I made sure that my personal leadership plan is dynamic. I will frequently go back to the plan to ensure that they are addressing the areas of growth that I have highlighted for my leadership growth and that they are reaching the deadlines I have established for assuming new tasks and developing new abilities.
Most leadership development plans often serve as an agreement between employees and their employers. The leadership plan offers advantages that go beyond those of the individual in most cases. Organizations are able to connect their investments in assisting future leaders, including tuition reimbursement and internal training programs, to more general objectives and strategic plans when leadership development is in line with business strategy. I believe that such congruence will raise the probability that my future employer and other organizational stakeholders will approve of my personal leadership plan. People can obviously construct their unique leadership growth plans. The personal leadership plan might be useful if I will want to explore educational possibilities, such as completing an advanced degree program, applying my existing talents to a new field, or seeking a new job at a different organization in the future.
Conclusion
A leader should strive to understand others by learning how to become empathic towards them and helping them to fulfill their potential by developing important skills, including cultural intelligence, diversity management, and negotiation skills. The self-assessment results indicate that I am a confident leader but still inexperienced. I still have a lot to learn to become a competent leader in the future. My aspiration is to become a leader that always strives for excellence while remaining open to the possibilities of change and novel leadership approaches. I have learned that there are still many things that I need to learn despite my current knowledge on effective leadership. The traditional command and control style of leadership does not meet the quick cultural, social, and organizational changes that are taking place on a global scale. Thus, I am determined to always be on guard and receptive to the new ideas that are constantly being introduced in the global society. The feedback from the selected leader highlighted practical issues that shaped my view of leadership. Thus, I will continue interacting with experienced leaders to learn from them on the areas that I should improve.
References
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Ramirez Marin, J., Olekalns, M., & Adair, W. (2019). Normatively speaking: do cultural norms influence negotiation, conflict management, and communication? Negotiation and Conflict Management Research, 12(2), 146-160. https://doi.org/10.1111/ncmr.12155
Yari, N., Lankut, E., Alon, I., & Richter, N. F. (2020). Cultural intelligence, global mindset, and cross-cultural competencies: a systematic review using bibliometric methods. European Journal of International Management, 14(2), 210-250.
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