ATANLUSI KEHINDE EMMANUEL

STUDENT NUMBER:21032382

MSC MARKETING

HR9737-LEADERSHIP AND MANAGEMENT DEVELOPMENT

Contents
Part A – Academic essay..............................................................................................................................2
Introduction.............................................................................................................................................2
Definition.................................................................................................................................................2
Importance of leadership and management to the development of self-awareness..............................3
Overview of my target job/profession.....................................................................................................5
Conclusion...............................................................................................................................................6
Part B – Establishing the Possessional and the Positional: A self-analysis...................................................7
Part C – What Next: Establishing Areas for Development.........................................................................12
References.................................................................................................................................................14

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Part A – Academic essay

Introduction

Self-awareness is the key to career success; it enables a leader to fully understand the
personal feelings and the feelings of others in several working environment. The writing
explores on how self-awareness relates to the context of leadership, specifically leader
development while focusing on one’s target profession. It has been asserted that self-
awareness assists leaders in making better decision, enables leaders to set realistic
goals for themselves, aids leaders in recognizing the value they contribute to their
position and also that a company's profitability might be affected by self-awareness
(Esentas, Özbey & Güzel, 2017). In this report, the role of self-awareness in
management and leadership positions are evaluated in the first section. In the second
section of the report (part B), the author tries to identify his strengths and weaknesses
having undergone the employability and psychometric tests and lastly, in the last
section (part C), the areas of developments were highlighted and the action plans to be
followed in achieving the development.

Definition

The term self-awareness has been given different definitions to distinguish it from
similar concepts such as ‘consciousness’. Self-awareness refers to the ability of a
person to become the object of one’s own attention; a state in which one actively
recognizes, processes, and archives information about the self (Esentas et al., 2017).
Self-awareness is having a comprehensive understanding of oneself as a person and
the factors in life which influence us in diverse ways (Rasheed 2015). According to
Gallo (2019), self-awareness combines self-knowledge and the capacity to use the
knowledge to track one’s own thoughts, emotions, and impact on the decision-making
process. It also entails a sense of continuity as a person across time and includes a
feeling of self as being distinct from the rest of the environment (Reilly, Dominick &
Gabriel, 2014); the effect of our attitudes and belief-system on other people (Rasheed
2015).

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The ability to influence others with our beliefs and attitudes links self-awareness to
leadership. Self-aware leaders are more efficient in handling unprecedented situations
that is unique on a daily basis (Reillyet al., 2014). Furthermore, self-awareness enables
leaders to set realistic goals for themselves and also aids leaders in recognizing the
value they contribute to their position. Team motivation and growth as well as achieving
set objectives is an important aspect of leadership; consequently, self-aware leaders
need to maintain a balance between their imaginative vision and the goals they want the
team to achieve. From the perspective of Gallo(2009), the understanding and
acceptance of one’s capabilities in terms of industry knowledge, expertise, and
personality helps a leader to achieve specific obligations within the organization.

Importance of leadership and management to the development of self-awareness

As managers and leaders, developing self-awareness helps to recognize their own

emotional responses to others and that their lack of self-awareness has an effect not
only on themselves but also in the way that they perceive and process the information in
their surroundings (Showry & Manasa 2014). One way to develop self-awareness as a
leader is personality profiling (Marsh, 2018). Personality profiling is a method of
determining a person's personality type, inherent leadership style, interests, strengths,
and shortcomings. Using this method, both leaders and employees are given an
assessment form where personal information are provided and the goal of obtaining
responses is for the individual employee and even the managers to realize what they
are naturally strong at and therefore should capitalize on, as well as what behaviors
they should avoid or probably manage (Marsh, 2018). To be a successful leader,
according to Esentas, Ozbey, and Güzel (2017), one must be curious about new
individuals and what they have to contribute. All the employees might not have access
to the responses of other save the manager, hence the manager can utilize the
information to assign roles and responsibilities for the employees, knowing their
strengths and weaknesses.

Keeping an open mind as a leader in a management role is also one of the methods to
developing self-awareness (Peek, 2021). It may be easier for a leader to be more
responsive to the emotions of others if he or she can control self-emotions. In this case,

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the leader might ask the followers and the employees to provide anonymously, their
perception about the manager’s attitudes and behaviors. This will enable the leader to
develop self-awareness by regularly thinking mostly on how other people view their
thoughts, decisions and actions and seek to improve so that they may be a better
person and leader (Esentas et al., 2017).

One of the roles of a manager is to be able to effect change in an organization

effectively. The knowledge of this will enable the manager to maintain concentration
while also considering the impact of his/her actions on others. A leader is taught to keep
focus on the organization's objectives and to assist in accomplishing them. This is
because, in order to establish connections and effect real change, managers and
leaders of organizations around the world must spend time pondering on and
developing from their experience, skills, beliefs, and feedback to and from their
followers (Steiner, 2014). When there is a need for change, most managers act without
thinking first, while focusing solely on the organization's demands. However, developing
self-awareness in leadership and management necessitates acknowledging one's own
emotions as well as those of others; in this situation, the manager is expected to
consider the feelings of its employees, customers, and even other stakeholders while
making any changes. The role of a manager in identifying how to deal with such feelings
and the influence of any following changes on those around them is aided by the
position of a leader in management. Being more attentive of others can undoubtedly
assist a leader and manager in navigating challenging situations (Peek, 2021).
Developing self-awareness in leadership thus helps to understand how your personality
traits, habits, and abilities influence your relationship with the people around you,
especially people you work together(Showry & Manasa 2014). Considering the theory of
self-awareness, Caldwell (2010) cited in Faltas (2016) posits that leaders who are
aware of how they are perceived are more effective at assessing themselves and their
behavior.

Importance of emotional intelligence towards the development of self-awareness

Emotional intelligence is described as an individual's capacity to perceive and affect the
emotions of others around them, as well as to comprehend and control one's own

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emotions (Landry, 2019). In a nutshell, emotional intelligence refers to the ability to
understand, apply, and manage emotions in a way that allows you to cope with stress,
communicate effectively, empathize with those around you, overcome challenges, and
resolve conflicts (Caldwell & Anderson 2021).

Developing emotional intelligence or emotional quotient (EQ) is the first step in

developing self-awareness, which has proved to be very useful in leadership roles
(Gallo 2019). This is because emotions include information that allows one to better
assess self-emotions and that of others and this can impact how we effectively
communicate and form trusting relationships with others (Grewal & Salovey, 2016),
moreover, self-awareness is one of the four key elements of emotional intelligence,
according to Landry (2019). The other elements are self-management, social
awareness and relationship management (Kenely, 2019). The process of developing
self-awareness starts with the skill to identify one’s own fortes, attributes, views,
interests, and assumptions which actually is emotional intelligence (Caldwell &
Anderson, 2021)

In any organization, an advanced level of emotional intelligence creates an atmosphere

of trust, learning, openness, and healthy risk-taking flourish (Caldwell & Anderson,
2021). The knowledge of emotional intelligence a leader has will enable him/her to know
how to resolve conflicts and establish good and working relationships between workers
(Garavan et al., 2016), communicate effectively with the followers and then get things
done in a better way; in essence, on can say that the person's mood and accompanying
behaviours are indeed potent drivers of its self-awareness. Emotional intelligence aid in
the development of self-awareness since one will have a better understanding of how
self-emotions influence actual actions and how those actions affect others (Martinez,
2020).

Overview of my target job/profession

Different interests and objectives in one' career exist in life, based on individual
peculiarities. My dream job would be to work as a marketing manager for a fast-moving

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consumer goods company (FMCG). It is critical that I improve myself in the areas of
management and leadership, as well as having strong emotional intelligence abilities,
as I prepare for this position. This is because, as a marketing manager, I am
responsible for accomplishing production targets in a safe manner at the projected
expenditure; leading the creation, execution, and monitoring of the company's marketing
plans for boosting business growth and market penetration strategies. A sufficient
understanding of my emotions, as well as those of other marketing department
employees and customers, is necessary to be able to efficiently design and articulate a
competitive strategy. This is achieved by liaison with both the sales, manufacturing and
other plant managers. The marketing manager is expected to have mentoring and
people management skills, as well as a personal contribution, obligation, and keenness
to the business area in support of the organization's value; relationship management
skills in order to co-design a compliant, effective, and efficient business operating
model; and identify, prioritize, develop business cases for present and future as well as
execute best operating practices.

Conclusion

The importance of developing leadership and management abilities in boosting firm

productivity and overall economic competitiveness cannot be overstated. Failure to
ensure that firms can effectively utilize their workforce's skills and find areas for
innovation and company growth jeopardizes the country's goal of being a global leader
in employment and skills. As an individual, who wants to achieve success as I lead a
group of marketers of a fast-moving consumer goods company (FMCG), my personal
perspective is to consider and understand customer’s behavior towards the product I’m
offering, and their feedback on the product is considered and forwarded to the top
management for better decision making. The failure to do this might hinder career
development and success. In addition, as a team leader of the marketing department, to
be effective in performing my roles, there is a need to have a full understanding of the
feelings of my team, their motivations, and drive, in order to lead them to achieve
specific goals and visions for the company.

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Part B – Establishing the Possessional and the Positional: A self-analysis
Toolkit/Psychometric Test
Logical Reasoning
Numerical Reasoning
Belbin Coordinator
MCI Personal Competency
Model
Emotional Intelligence
Strengths Weaknesses
 perfectionism  Spend time on even less
 Take note of every tiny important task
detail
 Understand concept
through visual
 Excellent in interpreting  Difficulty in interpreting
tables and graphs mathematical
 Ability to interpret information
figures and draw
conclusion
 Identify the strength  No clear-cut task
and weakness of each  Scrutinize others
team member
 Focus on the general
output and not the
individual detail
 Strategic and forward-  Overly ambitious and
thinking lifestyle goal-driven and
 Maximize opportunities overwhelms team
 Considers the opinion members
of all team members  High expectations and
neglects the
underperformers

 I consider the emotions  Over empathic which
of my teammate and easily leads to being
how it impacts biased in decision
performance making
 Communicate and work  Not being able to keep
effectively with people disruptive emotions in
of different cultural check
backgrounds
 I control my emotions
and put it in to check
when giving and receive
g feedbacks
 Ability to stay focused
despite any distraction
 Good speaking skills  Tendency to speak when
 Good use and command I ought to be quiet and
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Verbal Reason
Rokeach Value Survey
Work Personality
of the English language
 Have a sense of
communalism and
wants to carry everyone
along
 Being open and
accommodate everyone
to make them
comfortable
 Good interpersonal
relationship and
communication
 Excellent planning and
organization of work
observe
 Fond of diverting the
conversation from its
initial purpose
 Delay in execution of
task due to involvement
of a large number of
people
 Abuse of the openness
by some people tend to
abuse the openness
 Tend to be too creative
and imaginative
 little consideration for
the conventional ways of
doing things

Individuals, whether a leader or a follower, are not alike. This is because each individual
has diverse personalities, strengths, likes, motivations, and limitations. However, in
order for a marketing team to be efficient and for everyone to be able to work together
smoothly in a firm that sells fast-moving consumer items, a self-analysis is needed to be
conducted (Abrea, 2019).

As I anticipate to becoming a leader taking the role of a marketing manager for a fast-
moving consumer goods (FMCG) company, I can describe myself as being reflective,
attentive, compassionate, sensitive, proactive, approachable, self-controlled,
conscientious, and adaptive. My ability to innovate, involve other people, understand
what others are feeling, organize others without coercing them, and at the same time
generate ideas of my own is top-notch. I have identified coordination, planning and
organization skills as part of my strength. This can make for a strong leadership role
especially as a marketing manager who needs to promote team effectiveness, active
involvement, teamwork discipline and communicate information that can facilitate
coordination which is in line with the assertion by Bolton, Brunnermeier and Veldkamp,
(2013). As a leader that knows and is very good at identifying talent and leveraging on
individual strength to achieve group objectives; I am the kind of person that needs to

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alternate between assigning and managing responsibilities in a way that allows
inclusiveness, and infuse new ideas into the group when needed.

Reflective statement
From the emotional intelligence report, I can relate with everyone despite the difference
in culture, background, lifestyle and emotions. I prioritize the emotions and individual
differences of my team members and leverage them to motivate the team towards
achieving our objective. However, there is a need to exhibit balance judgment in the
face of varying emotions so I won’t be perceived and being partial or showing favoritism.

The MCI test revealed that as a manager, I preferred developing a plan or strategy
before commencing any task. I’m continuously seeking opportunities to improve and
maximize the performance of the team. To this continuous improvement, I need to find a
balance between creative/imaginative thinking (continuous improvement) and
conventional ways of doing things (the pragmatic approach). Frequent change in tactics
and strategy could be overwhelming for team members and demotivating

From the Toolkit/Psychometric Test carried out, my strengths identified are as follows:
In the area of verbal reasoning, I possess the ability to comprehend and reason with
concepts communicated through language and also have the ability to grasp the
meanings of words. In the areas of numerical reasoning, I have the ability to think
critically and also to carry out arithmetic operations, either basic or general. In the areas
of logical reasoning, I possess decision-making abilities, and lastly in the Workplace
Personality and in terms of working with others, I am a high-profile, dominant person
who can make my voice heard and my response is more likely to be positive if my
manager is outward-looking and has a wide array of contacts. In my work with
colleagues or those I manage, I am able to inspire others with confidence and direction,
bring people together to achieve common goals. For this to happen, I will need people
around me who can scrutinize and implement my ideas effectively.

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One major skill as the marketing manager is to possess communication and analytical
skills. Communication skills is essential because the role involves listening to
consumers, and other sales employees. It is thus vital and important to pay attention to
both what customers say about the products being marketed as well as what they don't
say (which might be difficult to recognize at times). The feedback from customers are
needed to know how the products are doing in the market and to improve on the
products, if need be. To do this, there are times when the marketing manager will have
both quantitative and qualitative data may necessitate analytical skills (that is,
Numerical information, as well as text or image-based information). These abilities will
allow you to probe deeper into the existing data and derive insights that will help you
sell more effectively.

Other interpersonal skills and strength that I have identified doing self-reflection which
are related to being a marketing manager are: coordination, planning and organization
skills, multicultural communication skills, knowing the international language used in the
project management, possess strategic thinking skills, creative, imaginative, delegation
skills free-thinking skills, the ability to generate ideas and solves difficult problems and
results-focused attitudes, positive attitude and support, promoting active involvement,
teamwork and discipline, promote team effectiveness and interpersonal and
communication skills, team spirit and attention to detail and promote a positive attitude
(Moorman & Day, 2016).

In the area of numerical reasoning, I need to work on the ability to make estimations
and also on mental computations and sensible conclusions. In the areas of logical
reasoning, I need to work on problem-solving and analytical thinking skills. Others
weaknesses are that as a shaper, who has the motivation and courage to bypass
challenges, I may be disposed to provocation and at the same time offends other
employees’ feelings at times.

On the other hand, as a team coordinator, however, due to my weaknesses, I may feel
tempted to dominate the agenda and direction of the team with my own ideas. At times,

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I may be seen as manipulative or even offload my share of work to other team members
in the marketing team. In situations like this, emotional intelligence is needed as a
marketing manager to effectively distribute roles and have my own share of duties.
In other cases, it might be a good idea to limit my own contributions and ideas until I
have sought out other people's opinions or until the group gets into difficulties that
cannot easily be resolved. In such situations, my best option will be to promote
constructive and positive group discussion and to use my own sense of individual
maturity, as a leader, to know when it is the right moment to intervene and seek the
opinions of others. Upon exhaustion of the discussion, this may be the appropriate time
to suggest a potential solution.

I need to put my emotions to check and not be swayed by the emotions of others which
may impact negatively or hinder the achievement of the group objective. It is imperative
I establish clear mutual respect for others even when not in agreement with their opinion
and perspective

As a general principle, I should navigate a way forward, either by making the best use of
others or by creating my own path. In any case, it is imperative that these two separate
approaches never come into conflict.

In preparation to kickstart the career of my choice, I must demonstrate the ability to

ignite the drive and dynamism that will motivate others in my team. I do make efforts to
be truthful and straightforward without offending anyone and to take the lead in bringing
people to a consensus on crucial choices and aim for a good mix of welcoming multiple
points of view and coming to a decision. Furthermore, by establishing my reputation as
a person who is capable of starting from scratch where others might be terrified of it, I
will advocate for the importance of taking the time and allowing myself the space to
create something truly original. By getting my energy levels up without lowering the
morale of others, I will gain the respect of those who value my ability to reach goals and
meet deadlines.

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If I can boost my energy levels without decreasing the morale of others, they will come
to value my abilities to realize goals and meet deadlines. With these behaviors of mine,
I feel I am ready for the position of a marketing manager. However, I need to take
cognizance of roles that are least suitable for me. In this case, it seems I don’t appear to
have the attributes of a person who explores and analyses a subject in depth. Working
in harmony with a self-starter and someone who is able to offer or gain in-depth
knowledge in a particular subject will definitely improve my performance in this area

Part C – What Next: Establishing Areas for Development

Going through this course, I have learnt that in leadership, self-awareness (which refers
to an understanding of how your personality traits, habits, and talents effect your
relationships with others), especially at work is critical to one’s performance. Every
leader, occupying or anticipating leader, needs to be self-aware in order to understand
how other people receive their words, actions and improve on their weaknesses for
them to become a better leader (Garavan, Watson, Carbery & O’Brien, 2016). I have
learnt that self-awareness, as a personal feature, enhances the chances of control and
progress, which permits leaders to use their skills to lead their teams to success

A company's profitability might be affected by self-awareness. This is because when

leaders in high-performing firms are more self-aware, they tend to make better
decisions and are more aware of how their actions affect the company's future
outcomes. Also, from the study of Gallo, (2019), self-awareness helps leaders to make
informed decisions. Self-awareness is used by effective leaders to establish a balance
between their own actions and relationships with other employees. In line with Bremner
(2020), I as a leader must hence must increase self-awareness so that when making
workplace decisions, I can successfully compensate for my natural tendencies and
abilities.

Having gone through the Employability and psychometric tests i.e., the Verbal Reasoning test,
the Numerical Reasoning test, the Logical Reasoning test and filling the Workplace
Personality Questionnaire, I have come to realize my strengths and weaknesses as a further

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my career to becoming a marketing manager of a company selling fast-moving consumer
goods.

Having identified my strengths as a coordinator and team leader and to be more

effective in my marketing position, I will need to develop myself more in these three
areas of my weaknesses viz a viz emotional intelligence; problem-solving and analytical
thinking skills; and self-belief and confidence.

The action plan to be able to develop me in these highlighted areas is:

i. To engage in activities and practices involving other managers in other fields

who have worked with different people and monitor my progress in those
areas and possibly learn from them for the next three month
ii. To attend seminars and mentorship programs by Hexavia Consulting for 3
months.
iii. To read books on building self-belief and confidence such as 10 Simple
Solutions for Building Self-Esteem: How to End Self-Doubt, Gain Confidence,
& Create a Positive Self-Image by Glenn R. Schiraldi and the Self Confidence
Workbook: A Guide to Overcoming Self-Doubt and Improving Self-Esteem by
Barbara G. Markway and Celia Ampel.

This will be done within the next six months.

After all these, evaluation tests in these areas are taken to ascertain an improvement.

Areas to be developed Action Plan

Problem-solving and To attend seminars and mentorship programs by

analytical thinking skills
Self-belief and confidence
Hexavia Consulting for 3 months. After this, an
evaluation test is taken after the third month to
ascertain an improvement in this area.
To read books on building self-belief and confidence
such as 10 Simple Solutions for Building Self-Esteem:
How to End Self-Doubt, Gain Confidence, & Create a
Positive Self-Image by Glenn R. Schiraldi and the Self

13

Emotional Intelligence
Confidence Workbook: A Guide to Overcoming Self-
Doubt and Improving Self-Esteem by Barbara G.
Markway and Celia Ampel. This will be done within the
next six months and the evaluation tests taken after
the sixth month to ascertain an improvement.
Attend workshops and training on emotional
intelligence at the workplace.
Practice active listening and communicate effectively
Attend training by Genos Europe on Emotional
Intelligence

References

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