The Importance of Self-Awareness in Collaborative Leadership
The part two of the book evaluates the significant of self-awareness in understanding and learning to be successive in the collaborative leadership. The practice entails understating of our personal styles, skills and various aspects of identity as well as ways of human being. According to the author, the practices that promote self-awareness entail intentional exposure to new reflection, experiences, utilizing evaluation instruments and seeking feedback. Furthermore, the chapter focuses on the mindfulness of the type of consciousness that take place in the current moment. Based on the writer explanations, consciousness of a person entails awareness of individuality values, strengths, behaviours and capabilities to be a person who can recognize personal beliefs, feelings and actions. However, self-awareness is a continuous endeavour since the majority of persons do not attain the state of self-awareness by achieves the way living informs how they observe themselves.
The Difference between Self-Consciousness and Consciousness
To elaborate the more of self-awareness, the author differentiates between being self-conscious and consciousness. Individuals who are self-conscious do not act naturally since they are afraid about what others would think about them. On the other hand, consciousness means being able to identify your values, areas of improvement and personal strengths which leads to amplified innate confidence and self-efficacy to act authentically. Additionally, persons who know their weakness are ready to challenge themselves to improve and apply new skills via practice. Scholars who recognize that they cannot listen carefully start to find the opportunity of developing the skill and applying it in distinct settings. Also, students who identify their strengths can consider new means to enhance their talent so that to benefit their organizations and groups. Furthermore, learners who become aware of their values have the expanding motivation to address issues that are important to their lives.
Factors Contributing to Personal Uniqueness and Approaches to Leadership
Additionally, the chapters clarify on the factors that contribute to the uniqueness of a person and the way each person approaches leadership. These factors include dreams and aspirations, identity, principles and values, skills, specialized know-how and talents as well as personal style. To start with principles and values are priorities that dictate how people live, select what is important, who they are, what to take and what to consider so that to attain their goals. Culture is a significant aspect of leadership since it affects self-awareness and understanding others. Individuals who come from a similar culture share few values in common. Moreover, faith influence consciousness since persons from a specific spiritual tradition impact how an individual treats or lives with others.
The Significance of Personal Style
According to the author, personal style is a distinct component of personality which comprises of several descriptors such as aggressive, competitive, optimistic, organize, patient, goofy, adaptable and reserved. The understanding of personal styles is crucial in being aware on how to interact with others especially persons with a varying style. Leadership is significantly affected by personal style since different people have distinct approaches. The capability to plan big projects, persuade others, keep track of budget, delegate tasks and being a good listener are essential skills that a leader needs to cultivate. The dreams and aspirations takes one's strengths into consideration and entails career-related and personal goals which affect how individuals select to invest their time. Self-awareness decreases the figure of unware and unknown items while bringing thoughtful items that can be hidden or revealed to others.
The Lifelong Journey of Self-Awareness
However, consciousness of self is the lifelong journey that need intention actions such as learning through assessment, openness to feedback, accepting experiences and challenging roles and habitual reflection. Taking new experiences or role is a powerful way of developing self-awareness. Therefore, a leader must be intentional regarding what to learn and select work in new setting so that to develop skills. Staying in the comfort zone leads to fewer chances for learning experiences. Leadership self-efficacy is crucial for development and growth since it affects willingness to take challenging or new experiences. Furthermore, habitual reflection entails thinking back on various experiences intentionally so that to facilitate learning an awareness. The process leads consciousness of self in many ways that include creating awareness of cultural worldview, amplifying understanding of personal behaviour, fostering exploration regarding beliefs and values as well as challenging leaders to identify new skills and preconceived assumptions and notions.
The Role of Feedback and Mindfulness
In addition, receiving ongoing and direct feedback leads to consciousness of self since it invites external perspectives for internal learning. Being sincere and open about receiving feedback help in developing ideas and making informed decisions (Komives and Wagner 58). The assessment instruments assist an individual to expand his or her self-awareness especially on the personal style. Nevertheless, it is important to have a professional review of the evaluation results so that to understand the meaning. The writer elaborates on mindfulness which is a state where persons actively recognize their surrounding and themselves. Mindfulness entails waking up from the life and starting to consider what is happening around us. Several students run from various tasks to others without aware of how they feel. Therefore, it is crucial to understand when a person is having unacknowledged stress and feeling goo so that to provide personal fulfilment. Being mindful in leadership makes it easier to work with others effectively. Furthermore, it enables people to recognize when they are emotionally reactive rather than function from their values and principles.
Congruence: Aligning Values and Actions
Besides, the chapter focuses on congruence which linked with consciousness of self by taking self understanding to a further step. Congruence entails alignment of interior values and beliefs with external behaviours and action meaning what we do must match what we feel or think. Congruent individuals have actions that are consistent with the convictions and beliefs. Also, the author describes the challenges associated with congruence which includes ambiguity and suggestions on how to start promoting the sense of congruence. Acting congruently can be evaluated when relating with other especially by learning to navigate ambiguity of how values interact with those of others. Authenticity is a concept that is associated with congruence since it entails having understanding of whom we are and willingness to acknowledge the undesirable an desirable aspects. Authentic leaders identify their personalities and strengths, understand how they think, are comfortable being challenged and have the sense of self (Komives and Wagner 79).
Conclusion
Conclusively, the section focuses on how personal understanding is essential in leadership. The author combines the concept of self-awareness, mindfulness, authenticity and congruence. Authentic leaders act in manners that they believe others will appreciate. Moreover, courage and dedication is required for a person to be congruence. By reading the chapter, a person is able to starting a new life and develops leadership skills that are essential in the contemporary society. Additionally, the section contains information that is critical in promoting good governance.
Work Cited
Komives, Susan R., and Wendy Wagner. Leadership for a Better World: Understanding the Social Change Model of Leadership Development. John Wiley & Sons, 2012.
