Individual Analysis: Assessing and Developing Yourself as a Manager

Organisational Behaviour 550

Assessment 2: Individual Analysis:

Assessing and developing yourself as a manager

1.0 Introduction

Self-assessment can be described as the means of examining oneself, the team or organisation that they working in, against certain aspects that are significant to one's personality, team or work structure. Self-Assessment tools can be a very useful way to test personal, management and organisational abilities, performance and goals. They can be used as guidance to assist in implementing change or in the development of a team or an organisation, or even to help a manager grow and improve as a leader. However, there are several disadvantages which together with the advantages will be examined. Furthermore, in this assignment the areas of individual behaviour and processes, team processes and organizational processes self-assessments will be discussed and reviewed. An overview of motivational leadership is assessed using relevant academic literature. An assessment of the applications, advantages, limitations and disadvantages of self-assessment tools resulting in a conclusion with emphasis on motivational leadership and self-assessment tools is also included.

2.0 Self-Assessments

These are the six online self-assessment tests that have been undertaken for this assignment:

Emotional Intelligence Test (Queendom.com 2012) - Emotional intelligence is the ability to identify, evaluate and control emotions and is an important part of self-assessment. This test was taken to assess and manage personal and other people's emotions and feelings and how best to motivate oneself. This test indicated that I am fairly good at identifying emotions in myself and others, and that I can recognise and express my own emotions. It also showed me that there is room for personal growth in this area. I did not find these conclusions surprising, as I generally do see myself as being in touch with my emotions, and feel that I am good at perceiving other people's emotions and feeling.

Personality Test (Personalitytest.org.uk 2012) - A personality test is a tool used to examine individuality and character. This particular test is used to assess an individual's personality against five major traits identified by experts in the field as being of key importance and significance - the Five Factor Model (these being extraversion, friendliness, conscientiousness, neuroticism and intellect). It needs to be seen as an overall picture and not looked at for any particular scores in individual fields. This assessment revealed that I am an extravert to a degree and that I am fairly friendly and outgoing. This did not surprise me at all because this how I generally see myself. The test also revealed that I am not very well organised or persistent, have negative thoughts and am not very creative or imaginative. However, this result did surprise me. I do see myself as well organised, persistent and positive, and strongly disagree that I am, at times, insecure. Although I am somewhat interested in certain aspects of culture, I do accept that I am not very creative or imaginative.

Leadership Motivation Assessment (MindTools 2012) - This test assesses how much a person wants to be a manager, or if they are in this position how to develop their leadership and management skills, and how hard they are prepared to work to achieve these goals. The ability to motivate others is an integral part of being a good leader and manager, so this test is very important in this regard. I found from the results of this test that I have a strong motivation and desire to lead, and this backs up how I feel about myself. I am already a leader and enjoy being one, although I do feel that I still have much to learn and need to keep developing my skills as a manager.

Leadership Style Assessment (Legacy 2012) - This evaluation allows the person taking the test to see the type of manager that they are (or want to be), and to assess and evaluate their managerial and leadership ability against six key points. I do see myself as being able to diffuse difficult situations, and I am always respectful towards the feelings and emotions of others. Indeed, I see this as one of my strong points. In addition, I agree with the result that I am good at listening to others and am able to see their viewpoints. I think that I am very good at spotting talent, nurturing and motivating, so I am somewhat surprised that I didn't score higher in this aspect of the test. I have always seen myself as being fair, neutral, level-headed and very competent at what I do, so my very average score on this question was somewhat disappointing. I acknowledge that creativity and vision are not my strongest points and that I lack some entrepreneurial tendencies so a low score as a 'creative builder' was not surprising.

Preferred Organisational Structure Assessment (Essentials 2012) - This test measures and evaluates three types of management structure, tall hierarchy, formalisation and centralisation, that a manager would prefer to work in. My ideal work structure would have only few layers in the chain of command and a small team structure, so I am not surprised that I scored very high in the 'Tall hierarchy' category. I am amazed though that my score for a 'Mechanistic structure' was fairly high. I thought the result would have identified a preference for an 'Organic structure', as I rather work in an organisation with little formality and centralisation. My score in 'Formalization' shows this, but my average score in 'Centralization' is a contradiction

Change Readiness Assessment (Library 2012) - A manager would use this test to assess and measure the readiness of the company or organisation that they work for, or are evaluating, to be able and ready to change. My score in this assessment shows that the organisation that I work in is moderately ready to change. I am somewhat surprised at this as I feel that they actually have a low readiness for change due to the fact that they are very successful, and profitable, at what they do, and probably feel that they do not need to change their organisational structure.

3.0 Overview of Literature

Motivational leadership can be defined as the skill to inspire and is one of the most important areas of being a successful leader (Bass 1998, quoted in Vidic and Burton 2011, 281). The conventional style of leadership has a single leader as the pivotal role making

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