Self-Leadership

Personal Profile

(Portfolio)

Name: AL. SIYABI, Ibtisam

Student Number: n9274162

Tutor’s Name: A/Prof Amanda Gudmundsson 

Unit Code: MGN442 | Self Leadership

Due Date: 12th February 2017

Word count: 3291

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Table of Contents

1.0 Introduction_____________________________________________________________1

2.0 Self-leadership skills literature summary______________________________________2

3.0 My current skill level incorporating 360⁰ feedback______________________________3

4.0 Reflecting on strength and improvement areas_________________________________5

4.1 An area of strength____________________________________________________________5

4.2 An area for improvement_______________________________________________________7

5.0 Achieving personal and professional change___________________________________8

6.0 Conclusion_____________________________________________________________13

7.0 Reference list___________________________________________________________14

List of Tables

Table 1: Actions recommended before recommencing previous job..................................10

Table 2: Actions recommended after recommencing previous job....................................12

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1.0 Introduction

Self-leadership is one of the critical concepts of management field that has been

examined over the last 30 years. In order to lead others, there is an essential need to first

lead own self. Therefore, leaders need to monitor their own skills throughout creating

personal profiles of their self-leadership skills which are required to be regularly developed.

These profiles require a completion of self-reflection questionnaires and exercises in order

to build self-awareness of personal thoughts, feelings and reactions. This is for the purpose

of influencing own self and improving these reactions for the future. Mastering self-

leadership skills, which used to control own life, can promote current and future

performances throughout purposeful thoughts and behaviours (Neck & Manz, 2013). As a

potential leader, this paper will discuss my own self-leadership personal profile which I used

to explore the need of any necessary change related to my personal and professional life,

use my strengths to change my behaviour and actions, and develop better potential

outcomes for the areas that need to be improved. It will first present a summary of self-

leadership literature, particularly related to Emotional Intelligence (EI), followed by critical

evaluation of my current skill level incorporating 360⁰ feedback. Then, a reflection on my

self-efficacy level as an area of strength and my emotional intelligence level as an area for

improvement will be discussed. It will finally suggest a meaningful goal action plan for self-

leadership development throughout using cognitive, behavioural and emotional change

techniques.

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2.0 Self-leadership skills literature summary

Researchers have long argued that the development of self-leadership skills is an

integral part of leadership journey as these skills are beneficial when it comes to make

decisions or influence followers in the workplace. Carmeli, Meitar and Weisberg (2006)

emphasis that self-leadership skills are extremely significant for possessing innovative

behaviour which can be promoted throughout behaviour-focus, natural reward and

constructive thought strategies. One of these very powerful skills is emotional intelligence.

Goleman (2003) defined an emotional competence as “a learned capability based on

emotional intelligence that results in outstanding performance at work”. Goleman’s most

popular EI model, which consists of four main domains; self-awareness, self-management,

social awareness and relationship management, was introduced in 1995 (Goleman, 2003).

Schutte and Loi (2014) found that higher EI in the workplace was considerably

associated with more apparent power, more satisfaction with social support, better mental

health and work engagement, which can be considered as a foundation for workplace

flourishing. It also helps students to more effectively control their current stressors and to

improve coping skills for stresses in their potential jobs (Houghton, Wu, Godwin, Neck &

Manz, 2012). Mindfulness is another great skill related indirectly to EI throughout its ability

to mitigate emotional exhaustion and enhance physical and mental health which can be

achieved through the emotion regulation strategy (Hülsheger, Alberts, Feinholdt & Lang,

2013). Encouraging others to keep on a vision; creating harmony; fostering commitment

through participation; accomplishing tasks to a high standard are also leaders’ capabilities

when having high level of EI (Goleman, 2003).

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3.0 My current skill level incorporating 360⁰ feedback

Completing a wide range of self-leadership tools and questionnaires and also

having colleagues to complete a strengths profile on own’s leadership skills are crucial

steps in self-leadership skills development. As the aim of positive psychology is to use our

strengths with the purpose of developing the other skills, this analysis will mainly focus

on my strengths. In Self-Leadership Questionnaire 1, which was designed by Neck, Manz

and Houghton (2016), when dealing with unattractive but necessary tasks, I tend to use

several strategies, such as cueing and self-reward strategies. These results highly

enhance my performance in these tasks. Moreover, in Positivity Self-Test (Fredrickson,

2011), I found that the results were accurate because I did the test twice in two different

days when I have different set of emotions. Thus, when I had difficult and disappointing

day, my positivity ratio was 0.55 which was too low from the average (3-to-1), whereas in

the other day, I felt more comfortable and positive and the ratio was 2.8 which was a

great level. Therefore, being positive or negative leaders depends heavily on the

emotions that we feel during our day; however, avoiding negative emotions are required

as these will lead me to waste my day, lose my relationships or fail in my potential

leadership.

In regards to the Short-Form PERMA Questionnaire (Seligman, 2011), I found that

I am emotionally positive person who often feels joyful and contented. Additionally, I do

care about my meaning as I always tend to lead my purposeful life and sense the value of

my life. Accomplishment is another area that I really put an effort on and one of my

previous supervisors mentioned that ‘As a leader, when I am at my best, I see myself as a

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punctual person who does not accept any late accomplishment which always makes me

do my job strictly on time’. Although I am not a person who always uses self-goal

strategies, I usually keep an eye on my progress towards accomplishing my goals and try

to carefully handle my responsibilities. One of my colleagues says ‘As a leader, when I am

at my best, I tend to be very responsible leader who takes care of the details of any given

task’. Furthermore, I did the Psychological Capital Questionnaire (Luthans, Youssef &

Avolio, 2007) and the results indicated that I have high levels of hope and optimism

because I believe that any problem has several ways by which it could be solved. I also

expect the best even when there is uncertainty and focus on the bright side regardless of

obstacles. Additionally, in self-efficacy and resiliency I got a very high rate. In regards to

being resilient, I regularly manage obstacles one way or another and it is not too difficult

for me to recover from setbacks happen at work. Beside this, having very high levels of

self-efficacy reflects the fact that I am confident when examining problems to find

solutions and sharing information with my work group. More specifically, the results

obtained from Self-efficacy scale (Carlopio & Andrewartha, 2008) reflect my strong

beliefs in my capability and confidence of achieving desired outcomes by using own skills

which positively affect my performance on tasks at work.

According to Locus of Control Scale (Carlopio & Andrewartha, 2008) , the results

indicated that I am extremely internal locus of control person because I believe that I can

control my life and base my success or failure on my own work not on others or luck.

Mindfulness Awareness Attention Scale (Brown & Ryan, 2003) was another scale which

indicated an important fact about myself. Despite finding that I have high mindfulness

score, I believe that I need to improve my skill in being a focused person, thus change

and self-influence strategies to overcome this problem are needed to have perfect

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mindfulness. Conducting the Trait Emotional Intelligence Questionnaire-Short Form

(Cooper & Petrides, 2010) was another great chance to explore my ability to understand

not only my emotions but also others’ emotions at work. I got a moderate score of

emotional intelligence, so I often express my feeling, face a difficulty to have an influence

on people’s emotions and adjust my life according to the circumstances. One of my

friends judged me by saying ‘As a leader, when I am at my best, I am motivated and

flexible in most things in my life as I tend to adjust my emotions for the surrounding

social circumstances in order to make my day go smoothly and easily’. However, even

though I always tend to be motivated, relaxed and optimistic, EL is the area that disturbs

my motivation and optimism and needs to be improved.

4.0 Reflecting on strength and improvement areas

4.1 An area of strength

Having a high level of self-efficacy is one of the most positive trait I have because this

strength has an effective impact on my performance. There are many situations where I

have experienced this strength through. The most important and current one is my

pregnancy during my last semester. When I decided to get pregnant during studying, I was

almost certain that I will be able to make it successfully work. However, facing a difficult

time and stress were the point in which my self-efficacy level was obvious. I was asked to

complete heavy tasks and assignments every week for four units and with my pregnancy

difficulties, I felt that I had no ability to control my study which might lead me to fail.

Alternatively, I reconvinced myself that no one has the power over this situation except me,

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so I challenged myself to pass the semester with a high grade and this happened because I

followed several responsible actions. In the first place, relating my patience and current

behaviour with the goal which I would like to get, so I put a set of rewards to keep me

motivated and punishments to keep me aware of the negative emotions that I would feel if I

fail. Secondly, despite some people’s offers to help accomplishing my tasks, I refused these

offers because I believed that I had the responsibility to manage and do my tasks, thus I kept

asking my lecturers to help and extend my assignments to have enough time. This is

because I believe that I have enough skills and abilities to overcome this obstacle, such as

time management, independence, responsibility and self-control.

In regards to the outcomes that I got because of what I have done, I was satisfied

with the results obtained. Most importantly was that I got high grades in all four units. I was

capable to achieve this result because I tried to control the situation with simple behaviours

and take the responsibility. It was obvious that I did not accept the idea of having an

influence from any external factors, for example, luck or help from others. Not only my

actions affected the final outcomes of this difficult situation, but I have also learned several

lessons from this experience. This experience led me to have deeper understanding of how

to avoid using external control orientation in my personal situations. This includes not to

rely on others’ assistance or believing in luck power which may cause failure at the end and

this also reflects that I am extremely internal locus of control person. In addition, I realised

that using realistic optimism strategies is very vital. For instance, I used leniency of the past

to positively benefit from the negative experiences happened for me which was accepting a

friend’s offer to help in assignment 8 years ago, because I was not confident and the result

was getting low grade. I also used appreciation of the present as this strategy is very crucial

to effectively appreciate and experience the opportunities around me and then positively

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challenge study difficulties and successfully do my tasks. Therefore, leading myself began

when I felt that I had much influence over the events that happened to me, and self-efficacy

influences the negative thought that I had because this situation affects my performance on

the tasks.

4.2 An area for improvement

One of my self-leadership traits which needs to be improved is emotional

intelligence. It is clearly seen for me that there is no direct negative effect on my study or

work performance; however, this causes me a lot of pressure, negativity and loses me daily

motivation and relaxation. There are many situations where I experienced this, most

impotently, I was not capable to recognise my and others’ emotions where I worked. I was

working as a school librarian for 8 years and I had received several complaints from my work

colleagues about this point. I did not have emotional self-awareness skill, so I was not able

to differentiate between feelings, label them and use them to guide my behaviour at work.

Although my tasks did not only require me to collaborate with my work fellows, but I was

also responsible to effectively deal with the library patrons in order to satisfy them in finding

their desired information sources. As an employee who was not really emotionally

intelligent, I think that I took some irresponsible actions in response to my work tasks. When

my fellows discussed any plan related to my library, I regularly find it unaccepted to see

things from their viewpoint as I believed only in my qualities and decisions. After receiving

their complaints, I could not stand up for my rights and my reaction was resisting to change

myself rather than influencing their thoughts and feelings about me. Additionally, students

who visited the library told their teachers that I am tough and did not treat them right. This

is because I did not know how to express my emotions which in fact I did not understand

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them. Furthermore, one of my work tasks is to move from school library to another each

year, I was upset because I was not able to control my emotions and I could not adjust

myself with these different environments.

Obviously, there were several negative results associated with this experience. To

begin with, not being emotionally intelligent caused me poor behavior and health and I lost

my life satisfaction and well-being because of depression. Another negative outcome was

losing my positive outlook because of having poor social relationships during work

performance. This led me to even have poor social relationships with people outside work

environment, such as family and friends. Moreover, experiencing poor social interactions

and relationships with the students and work fellows led me to feel like I lost my self-

perception of social ability and self-emotion control. Consequently, I gained many lessons

from this negative experience. Firstly, to keep myself motivated and relaxed in the future, I

need adaptability skill to adapt myself to any new environment and be more positive and

optimistic when circumstances change. This can be done by creating self-motivating

situation, so I may seek out any activity that I really enjoy doing in my work. I can also focus

my thinking on the positive rather than the negative emotions to lead me to have better

emotion regulation. Secondly, I learned how to be resilient to easily recover from any

setback at work either if it is related to the social relations with my fellows and patrons or

my performance. As a librarian, attracting patrons to visit the library requires me to be

emotionally empathic, avoid being emotionally restricted and accept others’ viewpoints.

5.0 Achieving personal and professional change

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Setting change goals is very crucial to effectively manage my emotional intelligence

for the potential workplace. The four major emotional intelligence domains of Goleman’s

model, which was developed in 1995, are considered to set my goals. These domains are :

self-awareness, which is the ability to identify own emotions and tendencies; self-

management which is related to managing own feeling and behaviour; social awareness

which is associated with the capability of identifying others emotions and tendencies; and

relationship management is about how to manage interactions with others (Goleman,

2003). The following goals have been identified and recommended for enhancing four main

facets of my emotional intelligence:

1. To improve social awareness in order to use trait empathy which leads me to be

able to take someone else’s perspective.

2. To be more emotionally self-aware in order to identify my emotions and can use

them to guide my behaviour.

3. To enhance my relationship management, particularly emotion expression, to be

capable of communicating my emotions to others.

4. To promote my self-management, particularly adaptability, to successfully be more

willing to adapt to new environments.

An integral part of reaching these goals is to provide two comprehensive action plans

for all goals in order to ensure successful and effective implementation. The first action plan

is designed to be implemented within one year, from February 2017 to February 2018. The

reason beyond this is because I will finish my master’s degree in December 2018 and I will

return to my previous job. Thus, I would like to adapt myself to the desired emotional skills

before recommencing my job. I have decided to achieve each goal within a period of three

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months so that I can focus all my attention and effort on one goal solely. The following

actions in both plans are sourced from two real world courses to improve EI, which are

Upadhyay (2015) and Grace (2014).

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Table 1: Actions recommended before recommencing previous job

Goal Actions Action timeframe

To improve social awareness - Improve empathic learning skills

- Keep a journal to track situations

- Learn and discover more about people

- Track own emotions

- Practice social awareness strategies

when watching movies

- Join communication programmes

- Three months: 10/02/2017 –

09/05/2017

- To be completed by: 09/05/2017

To be more emotionally self-aware - Take personality questionnaires

- Use a journal to track feelings, or

emotional tally sheet

- Organise a physical inventory

- Backtrack exercises

- Use quite time

- Use new experiences sampling methods

- Three months: 10/05/2017 –

09/08/2017

- To be completed by: 09/08/2017

To enhance my relationship management - Take assessment instruments (conflict

instrument) - Three months: 10/08/2017 –

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- Do truth-telling practices

- Join online seminars on the importance

of workplace relationships

- Rehearse on interpersonal skills

09/11/2017

- To be completed by: 9/11/2017

To promote my self-management - Assess own physical environment

- Use self-renewal strategies

- Stay healthy

- Write a letter for own self as a reward

- Three months: 10/11/2017 –

09/02/2018

- To be completed by: 09/02/2018

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The second action plan below is suggested to be taken into consideration when

recommencing my previous job.

Table 2: Actions recommended after recommencing previous job

Goal Actions Action timeframe

To improve social awareness - Track others’ feelings during meetings

- Rehearse on empathising with work

fellows - Two months: 12/02/2018 –

08/04/2018

- To be completed by:

08/04/2018

To be more emotionally self-

aware

- Use paired sharing exercise

- Track reactivity

To enhance my relationship

management

- Improve others by becoming a mentor

or coach

- Conduct team exercises to build strong

relationships

- Use teambuilding and icebreakers

exercises

To promote my self-

management

- Avoid overload week work

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6.0 Conclusion

In brief, this personal profile has presented to what extent the development of self-

leadership skills is critical. It has first reviewed the literature related to emotional

intelligence as it is my area that needs to be improved. Researchers have shown the value of

EI for employees’ performance, power, satisfaction and work engagement. Then, a critical

evaluation of my current skill level, by using self-leadership tools, has shown my strengths

areas. For instance, when dealing with unattractive, I tend to highly use several strategies,

such as cueing and self-reward strategies. Another tool like positivity test has proven that

being positive or negative depends heavily on own daily motions that need to be effectively

regulated. It also seems that I often lead my purposeful life, do really care about my

accomplishments and handle my responsibilities. Moreover, I have high levels of hope,

resiliency, mindfulness, optimism and an internal locus of control orientation. Then, a

reflection in my self-efficacy level as an area of strength and my emotional intelligence level

as an area for improvement has shown the situations that I have experienced and learned

from them several lessons which are beneficial to guide my behaviour, emotions and

thoughts in the future. Finally, two crucial action plans have been suggested for self-

leadership development throughout using cognitive, behavioural and emotional change

strategies and actions. One of them will be during this year and the other will be after

recommencing my previous job. It is clear that building a personal profile is an essential step

to effectively evaluate our self-leadership skills in order to influence ourselves and lead

others.

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7.0 Reference list

Brown, K. W., & Ryan, R. M. (2003). The benefits of being present: Mindfulness and its role in psychological well-being. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 84(4), 822-848. doi:10.1037/0022-3514.84.4.822

Carlopio, J., & Andrewartha. (2008). Developing Management Skills: A Comprehensive Guide

for Leaders (4th ed.). Frenchs Forest, NSW: Pearson Education Australia.

Carmeli, A., Meitar, R., & Weisberg, J. (2006). Self-leadership skills and innovative behavior at work. International Journal of Manpower, 27(1), 75-90. doi:10.1108/01437720610652853

Cooper, A., & Petrides, K. V. (2010). A psychometric analysis of the trait emotional intelligence questionnaire-short form (TEIQue-SF) using item response theory. Journal of Personality Assessment, 92(5), 449-457. doi:10.1080/00223891.2010.497426

Fredrickson, B. (2011). Positivity: Ground-breaking research to release your inner optimist and thrive. Oxford, UK: Oneworld Publications.

Goleman, D. (2003). An EI-Based Theory of Performance. In: Goleman D & Cherniss C (eds) The emotionally intelligent workplace. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass, pp. 27–44. Retrieved from http://ebookcentral.proquest.com.ezp01.library.qut.edu.au/lib/qut/reader.action?docID=121701&ppg=40

Grace, H. (2014, October 3). Emotional Intelligence [Web log post]. Retrieved from https://haydenpiersol.wordpress.com/2014/10/03/emotional-intelligence-team/

Houghton, J. D., Wu, J., Godwin, J. L., Neck, C. P., & Manz, C. C. (2012). Effective stress management: A model of emotional intelligence, self-leadership, and student stress coping. Journal of Management Education, 36(2), 220-238. doi:10.1177/1052562911430205

Hülsheger, U. R., Alberts, H. J. E. M., Feinholdt, A., & Lang, J. W. B. (2013). Benefits of mindfulness at work : The role of mindfulness in emotion regulation, emotional exhaustion, and job satisfaction. Journal of Applied Psychology, 98(2), 310-325. doi:10.1037/a0031313

Luthans, F., Youssef, C.M., Avolio, B.J. (2007). Psychological Capital: Developing the human competitive edge. New York, NY: Oxford University Press:

Neck, C. P., & Manz, C. C. (2013). Mastering self-leadership: Empowering yourself for personal excellence (6th ed.). Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson.

Neck, C. P., Manz, C. C., & Houghton, J. D. (2016). Self-Leadership: The Definitive Guide to Personal Excellence. SAGE Publications.

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Schutte, N., & Loi, N. (2014). Connections between emotional intelligence and workplace flourishing. Personality and Individual Differences, 66, 134-139. doi:10.1016/j.paid.2014.03.031

Seligman, M.E.P. (2011). Flourish: A visionary new understanding of happiness and well-being. New York, NY: Simon & Schuster.

Upadhyay, R. (2015). Emotional intelligence in project management. Retrieved from http://www.slideshare.net/necrest/emotional-intelligence-in-project-management

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