Reference no: EM132395201

Complete this leadership self-assessment. It is based on George's work and asks you to introspect and then offer a plan for yourself. This is a guide. Some points require a partner to help you evaluate. Some point just require a short answer. Please be honest in your reflection.

1. What leaders, past or present, do you admire most?
What is it about them that you admire?
What can you learn from their leadership?

2. Thinking back over all your leadership experiences in your lifetime, whichones are you proudest of?

3. Think about the basis for your leadership and the kind of leader you would like to be as you answer these questions:
What qualities do you bring to leadership?
What leadership qualities would you like to develop further?

4. Assess yourself against the five dimensions of an authentic leader (George):
Do you understand your purpose?
Do you practice your values?
Do you lead with your heart?
Do you establish connected relationships?
Do you demonstrate self-discipline?

6. Are you consciously developing your leadership abilities at this time?

Discover Your Leadership in Your Life Story

1. During your early years, which people had the greatest impact on you?
2. In which experiences did you find the greatest inspiration and passion for your leadership?
3. Looking at patterns from your early life story, what people, events, and experiences have had the greatest impact on you and your life?
4. Can you identify instances where you were dissatisfied with your leadership, or received constructive feedback from others about it?
5. Do the failures or disappointments you experienced earlier in your life constrain you, even today, or have you been able to reframe them as learning experiences?

The Journey to Authentic Leadership

1. Do you currently view your life and leadership as a destination to a certain point or as a journey in which you seek to maximize your learning and experiences?
2. What are the most significant leadership experiences you have had to date and what did you learn from them?
3. What experiences do you need to develop your leadership to take it to the next level? (links to SMART goals at end)
4. If you are just entering a new phase, have you assessed the goals and experiences you would like to have during the phase?
5. Do you think you need to make any adjustments to your personal and leadership development as a result? If so, what are they?
6. How can you take your previous experiences and apply them more optimally to your
leadership now?

Why Leaders Lose Their Way

Think through the underlying reasons why so many leaders in the recent past have lost
their way and wound up failing as leaders.

1. Have you seen leaders lose their way?
2. What are the behaviors and warning signals you have seen in others at risk oflosing their way?

Losing Your Way
1. Can you envision a situation in which you could lose your way in the future?
2. To what extent are you prepared to go your own way and be your own person, despite
external pressure?
3. Do you have a fear of failing? In what ways? Is it because you are afraid ofwhat other people would think about you? Is it personal pride?
4. How is your fear of failing impacting your decisions about leadership and yourcareer? Are
you consciously or unconsciously avoiding situations in whichthere is a risk of failing?
5. How could the experience of failing help you achieve your ultimate goals?
6. Are you consciously or unconsciously choosing situationsthat give you a high probability of
success?

Prevention

What steps can you take to prevent being derailed during your career?

Write freely about your greatest crucible (struggle) and describe it in the following ways:
1. How did you feel at the time?
2. What resources did you call upon?
3. How did you resolve the issues, if you have?
4. How did it shape you and your views about the world?

5. Describe any relationships, such as those with mentors, that had atransformative effect on you and your leadership. What did you learn from thatrelationship and how did it shape who you are?

6. Describe any other experiences that triggered significant leadershipdevelopment.
In looking back on these experiences, what did you learn from them?
In what ways have they helped you to grow?

7. How can you use these experiences to reframe your life story and tounderstand yourself
and your life more fully? Are there ways in which theseexperiences are holding you back today?

Basic Self-Awareness Assessment:
The following questions will allow you to compare your evaluation of yourself with howothers view you. Rate yourself from 1 to 10 (with 10 being "Very," 5 being "Moderately,"and 1 being "Barely") then support your assessment by answering each question. Thenchoose 1 person who knows you well to rate you using the same scale and providetheir assessments.

QUESTION
How self-confident are you?
How aware are you of your moods and emotions?
How effective are you in regulating your moods to minimize their impact on other people?
When confronted with situations that are displeasing to you, how well do you take the time to think clearly about them before responding or reacting?
When you receive critical feedback from others, how well are you able to take in the feedback and respond in a constructive manner without acting defensively?
How well do you understand the emotional makeup of others and their needs?
How sensitive are you in relating to others' needs and helping them?
How skillful are you in building lasting relationships?
How well do you network with others and create networks of people with common interests?
How effective are you in leading teams?
Do others follow your lead voluntarily?
How persuasive are you in convincing others of your mutual interests?

After reviewing the feedback, to what extent do you see yourself as others see you?
How strong is your basic self-awareness right now?

Strengths and Development Areas;
1. What are your strongest capabilities or talents?
2. What are your strongest attributes as a leader?
3. What are your greatest needs for development as a leader?

Needs:
1. Do you need structure in your job? To what extent are your comfortable with
ambiguity and change?
2. What level of financial security will allow you to feel comfortable?
3. To what extent do you need to be leading a team?
4. How much time do you need with your family or loved ones each week?
5. How much personal time do you need each week to recharge?

Your Authentic Self
1. What are your vulnerabilities and blind spots?
2. To what extent do you use defensive armor as a shield to protect yourself from
exposing your vulnerabilities with others?
3. How can you become more comfortable in sharing your vulnerabilities with
others?

1. How comfortable are you with who you are right now?

Practicing Your Values and Principles

In this exercise, you have the opportunity to set forth the values, leadership principles,
and ethical boundaries that will guide your leadership as an authentic leader. The intent
of this exercise is to be explicit about the values that are important to you, the principles
you will use in leading, and the ethical boundaries that you will adhere to, even under
great pressure.

1. List the values that are important to your life and your leadership. After youhave done so, go back and rank them in order of their importance to you.
1. Which of your values are inviolate?
2. Which ones are desirable but not mandatory?
3. Do some of your values depend upon the situation that you are facing?

2. Recall a personal situation in which your values conflicted with each other.
1. How did you resolve this conflict?
2. How pleased were you with the outcome?

3. Recall a situation in which your values were tested under pressure.
1. To what extent did you deviate from your values under that pressure?
2. What resources did you call upon under this pressure?
3. What would you do differently if you had it do all over again?

Principles and Boundaries

1. List the leadership principles you use (or want to use) in leading others. Then go back and rank-order them depending on which are most important to you.

2. List the ethical boundaries that you will not cross. Then rank-order them interms of their importance to you.

3. Recall a situation in which you deviated from your True Self and your valuesin order to achieve your goals.
1. How will you handle this situation if you face it in the future?
2. How can you sense "the slippery slope" of minor deviations leading to major oneslater on?
3. When you find yourself being pulled away from your True Self, how do you getback on track?

Your Motivations and Motivated Capabilities

The following exercise provides you with the opportunity to understand your motivations.
After completing the sections on your motivations, you can explore ways in which you can mesh your motivations with your capabilities to find your sweet spot-that zone where you are able to use your abilities to the fullest and where you are highly motivated. This sweet spot may reveal valuable insights about your career and lifechoices.

After you have completed the list, rank-order your greatest extrinsic motivations (from 1 to 5, with 1 being the greatest).

Extrinsic motivation
1. Monetary compensation
2. Having power
3. Having a title
4. Public recognition
5. Social status
6. Winning over others
7. Being associated with prestigious institutions
8. Other:

1. What is motivating you to be a leader?
2. What are your sources of motivation?
3. What are your extrinsic motivations? Note them on the following chart with acheck mark.
4. What are the traps set by your extrinsic motivations that you could foreseeyourself falling
into? What are you doing to avoid these traps?
5. What are your intrinsic motivations? Please note them below with a checkmark. After you have completed the list, rank-order your greatest intrinsicmotivations.

Intrinsic motivation
1. Personal growth and development
2. Satisfaction of doing a good job
3. Helping others
4. Leading and organizing others
5. Being associated with people you care about
6. Finding meaning from your efforts
7. Being true to your beliefs
8. Making a difference in the world
9. Having influence on others
10. Other:

6. Conflicts between extrinsic and intrinsic motivations:
1. Recall and then list one or more instances in which your extrinsic motivationsconflicted with your intrinsic motivations. What did you do?
2. How did you go about resolving these conflicts?
3. What steps can you take to balance your extrinsic and intrinsic motivations?

7. Your motivations (in rank order):
Combine your lists of extrinsic and intrinsic motivations, and rank-order those thatmost highly motivate you today from 1 to 5, with 1 being the greatest motivation. Putan asterisk next to those that are intrinsic motivations.

8. Your capabilities:
List your capabilities or your strengths. Then rank-order your five strongestcapabilities today from 1 to 5, with 1 being your greatest capability.

9. Your developmental areas:
Compile a list of your developmental needs, as you see them today. Then rank-orderthem from 1 to 5, with 1 being your greatest developmental need.

10. Your motivated capabilities: Make a list of your motivated capabilities - the
areas where you are both highly motivated and very capable.

11. Using your motivated capabilities
Make a list of future situations that you can envision that would enable you to apply your motivated capabilities, and then rank-order them from 1 to 5, with 1 being thebest use of your motivated capabilities.

Building Your Support Team

This exercise will allow you to prioritize the importantrelationships in your life today and the kind of support team you would like to build.

1. Current and Past Relationships: Make a list of the most important relationships
in your life, right now and in the past.
1. What is your most important relationship?
2. Why is this person important to you? In what ways do you look to this person forsupport?

2. Your family of origin:
What role has your family of origin played in your life, and specifically in yourdevelopment as a leader?

3. Relationships with teachers, coaches, or advisers:
Have you had a particular teacher, coach, or adviser who has been influential in your
interest in leadership and your development as a leader?

4. Mentors:
1. Who are the people who have mentored you in your leadership development?
2. Which mentors have been most important in your development as a leader?
3. In what ways have they helped you develop?
4. How have you helped your mentor and built a two-way relationship?
5. What more can you bring to your mentoring relationships?

5. Friends:
1. In what ways have your friends helped you become a better leader?
2. Which of your friends could you count on if things did not go well for you?
3. Do you have friends with whom you can share the challenges you face openly? Canyou give each other honest feedback?
4. Describe a relationship that has been mutually beneficial to you over an extendedperiod of time. What qualities did you bring to the relationship that made itmeaningful and enduring?
5. Describe a relationship that did not work out for you, for which you feel some degreeof responsibility. What would you do differently if you had the opportunity to do it overagain?

6. Personal support group:
1. Do you have a personal support group? If so, what is its value and meaning to youand your leadership?

7. Professional support network:
1. Do you have a professional support network or would you like to build one?
2. What would such a network look like for you?
3. Who are some of the people you would like to have in your network?

The Integrated Leader
In this exercise you will examine how you can bring together all aspects of your life intoan integrated whole so that you can live your life with integrity. The underlying beliefhere is by bringing together all aspects of your life into an integrated whole, you will be amore effective leader and have a more satisfying and fulfilling life.

Personal Life
1. What is most important to you in your personal life?
2. In what ways do you set time aside for yourself and your personaldevelopment?
3. In what ways do you nurture your inner life?
4. Optional: Do you have a regular religious or spiritual practice? In what waysdoes it contribute to your having an integrated life?

Family Life
1. What are the most important aspects of your family life?
2. In what ways will your life and time commitments change as you take onadditional
family commitments?
3. How do you manage the time requirements and conflicts?

Friendships and Community
1. In what ways do friendships enable you to lead a more integrated life? How
much time do you devote to developing and nurturing your friendships?
2. Is your community an integral part of your life?
3. In what ways do you serve your community?
4. How can community service help you become a better leader?

Professional Life
1. What do you do to ensure that you stayed grounded professionally?
2. In what ways do your family life, personal life, friendships, and community life
add to or detract from your professional life?
3. How do you cope with the seductions and pressures of professional life and
still stay focused on your core self?

Making Choices and Trade-Offs
1. What is the most difficult choice or trade-off between various aspects of your
life that you have made in the past? What would you do differently in thefuture?
2. What is the most difficult trade-off or choice that you are facing right now?
3. How will you balance the time requirements of each part of your life?

Measuring Your Success
1. How do you measure success in your life right now? What is your personal scorecard?
2. What are the long-term achievements you would like to realize in your life?
3. What will bring you the greatest amount of happiness in your life?
4. What is the positive impact on others that you would like to have?

Integrating Your Life
Think of your life as a house with a bedroom for your personal life, a study for your professional life, a family room for your family, and a living room to share with yourfriends.

1. Can you knock down the walls between these rooms and be the same person
in each of them?
2. Are you able to be the same authentic person in each environment, or do you
behave differently at work than you do at home, with your friends, or in the
community?

The Purpose of My Leadership
In this exercise, you will focus on the purpose of your leadership, and how your purposeis derived from your life story, your passions, and your motivated capabilities.

Discerning Your Passions Through Your Life Story
Recall your early life story (addressed in the exercises earlier) and use it to identify sources of your passions that are close to your heart.

1. By reframing your life story, can you discern your passions more clearly?
2. In what ways do your passions lead you to the purpose of your leadership?

The Purpose of Your Leadership
Write ashort essay to yourself describing the long-term purpose of your leadership.
1. For the near term, what is your purpose in leading?
2. In what ways does the purpose of your leadership relate to the rest of yourlife? Is it
integral to it or separate from it?

Empowering Other Leaders

Leadership Relationships
Leadership relationships can take many forms. The following is a list of the roles leaders
play in developing relationships with others in their organization. Please assess youreffectiveness in each type of leadership relationship (from 1-10, with 10 being "VeryWell," 5 being "Satisfactory," and 1 being "Poorly"). Put a check next to those items youwould like to focus on for improvement and an asterisk next to those items which areyour strengths.

1. What are your greatest strengths in establishing relationships?

2. What areas do you intend to improve upon?

Leadership Relationships in the Workplace
Describe the kinds of leadership relationships you have in the workplace with yoursuperiors, peers, subordinates, and external constituencies.

1. Bosses: What kind of relationship do you have with your boss? How could youmake it better?
2. Peers: What kind of relationship do you have with your peers at work?
3. Subordinates: What kind of relationships would you like to have with yoursubordinates? How could they be improved?
4. Organizational Networking: How effective are you in building a network ofrelationships in your organization? What can you do to improve yournetworking?

Empowering Other Leaders

1. Describe an example from your past where you have been effective in inspiringother leaders around a common purpose and shared values.
2. How effective are you today at empowering other people to step up and lead?
How do you go about doing this? What are you doing to improve youreffectiveness?
3. Recall a situation in which you faced a conflict between empowering otherpeople and
reaching your performance goals.

How did you resolve the conflict?
Did you give preference to reaching your goals or to your relationships?
Would you act differently in the future when facing a conflict between relationships
and performance?

Honing Your Leadership Effectiveness
The following exercise will allow you to examine ways to improve your effectiveness as a
leader, including your use of flexible leadership styles and power in your relationships.

1. Preferred leadership style (Goleman is a good reference. HBR.org. He has videos on HBR and YouTube):
1. What is your preferred leadership style?
2. Why is it your preferred style?
3. Which of your skills does it use?
4. In what situations do you use your preferred style?
5. Is your style consistent with your leadership principles and values? Is it everinconsistent?
6. What are you doing to improve your preferred style?

2. Backup style:
1. Your backup style is one you often revert to when you are under pressure, or whenyou find your preferred style is not working.
2. What is your backup leadership style?
3. In what situations do you revert to your backup style?
4. Which of your leadership skills does your backup style use?
5. As compared to your primary style, what are the negative consequences of yourbackup style? What are the positives?

3. Flexible leadership styles:
1. What are your flexible leadership styles?
2. In what situations do you use each of them?
3. What leadership skills does each of your flexible styles require?
4. How do you adapt your leadership style to the circumstances facing you?
5. How do you adapt your leadership style to the readiness of your team to take ongreater leadership?
6. How can you use flexible styles and still be authentic?

4. Using power:
1. What is the role of power in your leadership?
2. How do you gain power or influence within your group?
3. How do you use power effectively in leading others?
4. Think of an example in which you used your power over others with negativeconsequences. How did people respond?
5. What went wrong? What would you do differently if you had it to do over again?
6. How do you respond to powerful people that use their power over you? What is themost appropriate way to deal with very powerful people?
7. What can you do to avoid being overpowered?
8. How can you avoid giving away your personal power to powerful people?

5. Leadership effectiveness:
Describe the ways in which you plan to change your leadership in order to improveyour effectiveness as a leader.

Your Personal Leadership Development Plan
The Personal Leadership Development Plan is the culmination of the exercises. It is your
plan that you can use to guide your development. Used optimally, it can be a dynamic
plan that you update on a regular basis to reflect your leadership experiences and
changes in your thinking about your development.

Take several hours to complete the plan, integrating the exercises you have done with
appropriate revisions in your thinking.

1. Personal discipline and stress management: How do you manage stress?
a. Describe your plan for healthy eating.
b. Describe your personal exercise plan.
c. What are your sleep requirements? To what extent do you deviate from them?
d. Describe the practices you use to manage your stress, referring to the followingareas:
e. Meditating or sitting quietly
f. Running or walking
g. Exercising, working out, or competitive games
h. Yoga or similar practice
i. Prayer or reflection
j. Talking to spouse, friend or mentor
k. Listening to music
l. Watching TV or going to movies
m. Other

2. Values, leadership principles, and ethical boundaries:
a. In order of importance, what are the values that are most important to you? (Markthose values that you consider inviolate with an asterisk.)
b. What are the principles on which you base your leadership?
c. What are the ethical boundaries that will guide your professional life?

3. Your motivations and motivated capabilities:
a. What are your extrinsic motivations?
b. What are your intrinsic motivations?
c. Make a list in rank order of your overall motivations.
d. What are your greatest capabilities?
e. What are your developmental needs?
f. What are your motivated capabilities?
g. What leadership situations optimize the use of your motivated capabilities?

4. Personal reflections:
a. What do you do to be reflective or introspective?
b. What are your spiritual or religious practices?
c. If you don't believe in such practices, how do you address life's existentialquestions?
d. What do you intend to do to strengthen your practices?

5. Building relationships:
a. Who are the most important people in your life?
b. Who do you feel you can be completely open with?
c. When you are distressed, who do you turn to?
d. Who are your mentors?
e. Which of your personal friends do you look to for counsel and advice?
f. Who do you look to for professional advice and counsel?
g. In what ways do you network with professional colleagues?
h. Would you like to form a support group? How will you go about it?

6. Leadership style:
a. What is your preferred leadership style?
b. What leadership style do you revert to under pressure? What are you doing to avoidreverting to this style?
c. In what ways are you developing your ability to use flexible styles?
d. How are you developing your ability to adapt your style to the situation you are facingand the capabilities of your teammates?
e. In what ways are you developing your ability to use your power more effectively?

7. Leadership development:
a. What are the experiences you need to develop your leadership?

8. Integration:
a. How are you going to integrate your personal life, family life, friendships, andcommunity life with your professional life to become a better leader?
b. What sacrifices and trade-offs are you prepared to make to achieve yourprofessional and personal goals?

9. Leadership purpose and legacy:
a. What is the purpose of your leadership?

Briefly reflect on:
- How has this reflective exercise helped you to better align your personal development goals with your organization's strategy

- Consider the value and applicability of this exercise through your Emirati/Arabic lens.

Article 1 - Discovering Your Authentic Leadership by Bill George, Peter Sims, Andrew N. McLean, and Diana Mayer

Article 2 - Crucibles of Leadership by Warren Bennis and Robert J. Thomas

Attachment:- Individual assignment.rar