From Individual Self-Awareness to Leading a Nutritional Campaign - Essay Example

?Setting and Role: I am a Lady Nutritionist in a Hospital located in the Middle East Topic Progression: From Individual Self-Awareness to Leading a Nutritional Campaign I. Individual Level: Personality and Intelligence “It is necessary for a “leader, who possesses a clear self-concept through private self-consciousness, to be more likely to possess a strong purpose-in-life. Having a strong purpose involves consistency in self-identity (i.e., self-concept clarity) (Campbell, 1990:59; Frankl, 1992). This clear awareness of the “self” translates to a clearer sense of goal and purpose which will evolve as a Self-Belief. Self-belief which will improve inner confidence and therefore will enable an individual to succeed and overcome any obstacle to achieve the best outcome. “Self” and environment is a necessary aptitude for leadership in addition to technical competencies. As Gardner (1983) expounds “expanding on the concepts presented in early intelligence work as well as social intelligence theory, developed a theory of multiple intelligences. ...one of the seven areas of intelligence discussed in multiple intelligence theory, personal intelligence, corresponds to earlier theories such as social intelligence”. II. Group Level: Leadership leadership begins with learning the “self”; to have certainty about himself/herself to as a foundation of confidence to lead and get things done “It is necessary for a “leader, who possesses a clear self-concept through private self-consciousness, to be more likely to possess a strong purpose-in-life. Having a strong purpose involves consistency in self-identity (i.e., self-concept clarity) (Campbell, 1990; Frankl, 1992). This clear awareness of the self translates to a clearer sense of goal and purpose which will evolve to Self-Belief. Self-belief, which is the inner confidence that will make an individual succeed and overcome any obstacle to achieve the best outcomes for service improvement. Eventually, this Self-Belief or confidence will eventually rub on to others that it will be easier to inspire and direct others towards a committed goal. This self-awareness, self-regulation, personal motivation, empathy and strong social skills will enable an individual to become a democratic leader; a leader that involves and commits others not only in achieving a desired result but also the process of achieving it. And as others are involved in the process of decision making, democratic leadership is practiced as the best form of arriving towards a common goal and consensus. Lawler (2001: 16-17) argued that democracy is inevitable, even in the workplace . . . Hierarchial organizations are simple too inflexible and rigid to compete effectively in today's business environment. They fail to attract the right human capital and to produce the right core competencies and organizational capabilities. As a result, they need to be replaced by lateral forms of organization that rely heavily on teams, information technology, networks, shared leadership, and involved employees . . . [These new organizational forms] will have flat, agile structures, open information, power that moves to expertise, and system that create knowledge and employees throughout the organization. Democratic leadership is not only useful for resolving issues but also in soliciting good ideas on how to better the organization. Democratic process is also important to forge teamwork in any organization. In leading and managing people, free flow of ideas among my peers and subordinates should be encouraged and unhampered with fear and repression so that they can contribute the best of themselves. This democratic process will make differences see perspectives that may be unknown to before. And as such, better approach and solution to certain issues may crystallize after the exchange and free flow of ideas. Ultimately, this democratic process will not only encourage the production of better ideas but will also make a team cohesive. Where communication process is open, with peers and subordinates are confident to share their ideas without the fear of retaliation and repression. For when organization members commit themselves as a team and organization to a common goal, such goal will easily be achieved and surpassed. Leadership in workplace today does not only demand being an alpha worker but also an amalgam of particular personality traits, understanding and sensitivity. Such, it needs to be studied and reflected for one to become an effective leader and manager in an organization. Classic example is interpersonal skills, the ability to work with different type of people. Just when this trait was thought as trivial and unimportant, this was after all, a necessary leadership and managerial trait. Bass (1990) explained, leaders high on consideration show concern and respect for individual group members, are friendly and approachable, are open to input from other, and treat all group members as equals. Similar relational-oriented behaviors are described in research on empowering (Kahai, Sosik, & Avolio, 1977), and democratic (Gastil, 1994) leadership. A common theme among these relational-oriented behaviors is that the leader acts in ways that build follower respect and encourage followers to focus on the welfare of the group. It should be noted that certain aspects of transformational leader behaviors (e.g., individualized consideration) also consist of a relational orientation (Derue, et. al, 2011). This social trait is a necessary prerequisite of transformational leadership; a leadership that inspires and develop other leaders. Scholars often vary in their definition of leadership effectiveness (Avolio et al., 2003; Yukl, 2006), but any differences that might exist are due to confounding relationships with other leader traits such as intelligence and personality (Feingold, 1994; Halpern, 1997). Traits manifest into the expected set of behaviors only when the situation makes the need for that trait behavior salient. When situations makes the need for a particular trait, the trait does not manifest and its impact on outcome is marginalized (Pfeffer, 1977). Task competence is a general category of leader trait that relate to how individuals approach the execution and performance of tasks (Bass & Bass, 2008). And for a leader and a manager to effectively lead and manage, has to possess a greater degree of task competence. Although a variety of task-related personality traits have been studied, leadership scholars most often describe task competence in terms of four traits: intelligence, Conscientiousness, Openness to Experience, and Emotional Stability. Intelligence reflects a general factor of cognitive abilities and has been established as a consistent predictor of task performance (Hunter & Hunter, 1984). But “beyond intelligence, Conscientiousness, Openness to Experience, and Emotional Stability are often used to describe how one approaches and reacts to task work (Barrik & Mount, 1991). Conscientiousness reflects the extent to which a person is dependable, dutiful, and achievement oriented and is often associated with deliberate planning and structure. Openness to Experience is commonly associated with being imaginative, curious, and open minded to new and different ways of working. Emotional Stability refers to a person's ability to remain calm and not be easily upset when faced with challenging tasks (Derue, et. al, 2011). III. Organizational Level: Culture and Climate I work as a nutritionist in a hospital for two years and basing with what I have learned in this course, I believe I have been doing well. But before I proceed further, I have to mention that I came from a different culture where women are not expected to be assertive. The learning was manifested in an instance where the Manager of my Department asked if we have any idea to improve the operation of the hospital. I took the initiative to make an appointment with the Department Manager to present my idea and told that I could get it done. During the appointment, the Manager was amazed and surprised as I tried to build rapport with him. I intended to make him understand that we have to be at ease with each other because when my proposal will be implemented, we will be coordinating with each other. Perhaps this may sound as a natural thing to do in starting a team; but to fully appreciate the circumstance, the reader has to understand that in the culture where I come from, women are not expected to be assertive and to strike conversation with men let alone talk something about themselves. But I find this necessary for the implementation of my proposal as it will require rapport and coordination with several departments. I learned to be more assertive due to what I learned in this course about Self-belief (Campbell, 1990; Frankl, 1992) in order to get things done. My proposal was in line with my expertise which is nutrition (I am a Professional Nutritionist). I proposed that proper nutrition is not only a concern of the patients who are sick but is also everybody’s concern. For us to be healthy, we have to nourish ourselves properly and will not have to wait to get sick. Such, proper nutrition should be implemented in all departments where our meals will be regulated according to proper nutrition. This may sound a good idea but given the number of departments and people involve, this is not an easy task. This requires coordination with a lot of departments and tremendous amount of Public Relations work for the idea to be accepted. But I was ready as I already realized in this subject with Goleman’s Emotional Intelligence (1998) that interpersonal skill is also a necessary skill set especially when I have to coordinate with people As a usual case of any new idea, there were people who opposed my idea. But I was ready with what I learned in this course and was not daunted with it. Instead of reacting with a sub-personality resistance, I looked at it as an opportunity to improve my proposal as I hear what the oppositionist has to say. Such that, when I involved them, I won them over that they even became a part of the implementation of the project. I was not threatened by the resistance for I was made aware about sub-personality In Roberto Assagioli's (1975) book Psychosynthesis that "the organization of sub-personalities is very revealing and sometimes surprising, baffling or even frightening. One discovers how very different and often quite antagonistic traits are displayed in the different roles. These differences of traits which are organized around a role justify, in our opinion, the use of the word "sub-personality." Ordinary people shift from one to the other without clear awareness, and only a thin thread of memory connects them; but for all practical purposes they are different beings – they act differently, they show very different traits." Such that when properly understood, they are not that threatening after all. REFERENCES: Avolio BJ, Sosik JJ, Jung DI, Berson Y. (2003). Leadership models, methods, and applications: Small steps adn giant leaps. 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