One of the advantages of using self-assessments is that it can promote individuals to develop their skills on their own without any formal training. Informal learning has been argued to represent one of the most prevalent forms of learning in the workplace and has been described as an iceberg in which most of its mass is hidden beneath the surface (Halliday & Beddie, 2009). Although researchers have just begun to study the processes involved in informal learning, it appears that the field has significant potential. Leaders who are actively trying to further their careers would be interested in how they could use their self-assessment of their skills as a basis in which they can further develop their skill sets in the future without any formal training.
Leader self-development enables leaders to adapt to the continually changing environment both within and outside of the organization and there are many theories to describe the construct of leader self-development and the processes by which it can serve as an organizational leadership development strategy (Reichard & Johnson, 2011). One such theory was developed into a multi-level model of leader self-development linking organizational level constructs such as human resources practices and resources with group level phenomena of norms, supervisor style, and social networks with the individual leader self-development process (Reichard & Johnson, 2011). This approach has merit and could be valuable for many organizations because leader self-development is a cost-effective way for organizations to develop leaders resulting in competitive edge.
Informal learning is often a result of self-assessment and is also associated with organizational culture. Many of the top organizations are a...
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... competitive advantage. This environment is dynamic in nature so embedding a culture of learning represents the ideal position for achieving competitiveness (Alipour, et al., 2011). Such an organization can provide the tools necessary for leaders to use self-assessments to develop their own careers without the need to rely on formal training programs.
Works Cited
Alipour, F., K., I. & Karimi, R., 2011. Knowledge Creation and Transfer: Role of Learning Organization. International Journal of Business Administration, 2(3), pp. 61-67.
Halliday, S. & Beddie, F., 2009. Informal Learning. At a Glance. National Centre for Vocational Education Research, 12(1), pp. 1-12.
Reichard, R. & Johnson, S., 2011. Leader self-development as organizational strategy. The Leadership Quarterly, 22(1), pp. 33-42.
Senge, P., 2006. The Fifth Discipline. Revised Edition ed. s.l.:Doubleday.
Pierce, Jon L. and John W. Newstrom (2011) 6th edition. Leaders and the Leadership Process.
In order to become better leaders, individuals need to identify their strengths and weaknesses. Though individuals can identify strengths and weaknesses through formal processes, they can also use informal means such as self-reflection. The fact that individuals have a tendency to gravitate toward the things they do well, things such as ease of learning, tendency to participate in certain activities, and satisfaction gained from performing specific tasks can provide clear pointers to underlying talents (Key-Roberts, 2014).
Avolio, B. J. (2007, Jan 1). Promoting more Integrative Strategies for Leadership Theory Building. American Psychologist, pp. 25-33.
Senge, P. M. (1990). The leader's new work: Building learning organizations. Sloan Management Review, 32(1), 7-22. doi: 812347
Northouse, Peter G. Leaderhip Theory and Practice. Ed. Fifth Edition. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications Inc, 2010.
Manz, C.C. and Sims, H.P. (1980) "Self-management as a substitute for leadership: A social learning theory perspective", Academy of Management Review, vol. 5, no. 3, pp. 361-367.
Leadership self-assessment provides an avenue for a personal check of self-efficacy and abilities to complete position required tasks. Grasse, Heidbreder, and Ihrke (2014) purports that “a leader’s self-awareness has implications for a wide array of individual and organizational outcomes including employee self-esteem, satisfaction with supervision and leadership effectiveness” (p. 549). Taking a realistic inspection of leadership skills and interpersonal abilities would provide leaders with tools to make themselves better to serve their organizations and team
Leaders: Strategies for Taking Charge is an organizational management book written by Warren Bennis and Burt Nanus for those who aim to become better leaders. The authors emphasize that having executive positions or being a manager does not automatically make one a leader. A leader is one who inspires his staff, help them find purpose in their work, and effectively implement their plans. They separate the book not quite into chapters on different topics, but rather by four strategies that they have determined are vital for any leader to take on. The strategies are effectively concluded as attention through vision, meaning through communication, trust through positioning, and the deployment of self. A prominent feature of Leaders is the various
Reading L112RC: Self-Awareness and Leadership Philosophy: Why Leaders Need One and Why they Need to Write It Down; CGSC Blackboard.
Northouse, Peter Guy. Leadership: Theory and Practice. 6th ed. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage, 2004. Print.
As an officer in the United States Army, it has been imperative for me to understand every facet of leadership and why it remains important to be an effective leader. During this course, I have learned some valuable lessons about myself as a leader and how I can improve on my leadership ability in the future. The journal entries along with the understanding of available leadership theories have been an integral part of my learning during this course. For all of the journals and assessments that I completed, I feel it has given me a good understanding of my current leadership status and my future potential as a leader. All of the specific assessments looked at several areas in regards to leadership; these assessments covered several separate focus areas and identified my overall strengths and weaknesses as a leader. Over the course of this paper I will briefly discuss each one of these assessments and journal entries as they pertained to me and my leadership.
.... “The set of deep beliefs and assumptions-the story-that develops over time in a learning organization is so different from the traditional hierarchical, authoritarian organization worldview that it seems to describe a completely different world” (Senge, 1994, p. 21).
The Self Leadership and The One Minute Manager is an excellent book. I felt that the other does an excellent job of sharing a story that connects the reader with three rules of self-leadership, development continuum and the leadership style that support the development continuum. The thesis of this journal is to share the lessons learned form the book, concepts of self-leadership that can be applied, goal setting, and the connection between Kotters eight-stage process of creating change connects with self-leadership.
In his book The Fifth Discipline, Peter Senge emphasizes his model of a "learning organization," which he defines as "an organization that is continually expanding its capacity to create its future." A learning organization excels at both adaptive learning and generative learning.
Northouse, P. (2010). Leadership: Theory and practice (5th ed.). Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications, Inc.