A511.7.3.RB - Self-Awareness

Understanding oneself is a core competency of good leaders. After all, self-knowledge allows us to be able to understand others as well. For most individuals who train to become coaches, the value of the training is as much about their increased self-awareness as it is about their ability to work with others and help them achieve their potential.

Goffee and Jones’ article “Getting personal on the topic of leadership” emphasizes the art of self-awareness, as does your textbook’s discussion.

Now, think about yourself, and reflect on what differences distinguish you and would help you in living and acting on the basis of your core values.

Goffee and Jones (2006) discuss several leaders who utilize their unique attributes to lead and build success for their organizations:

• Bill Gates - co-founder of Microsoft
• John Harvey-Jones - former head of the UK’s largest manufacturing company, ICI
• Akio Morita - founder of Sony
• Darwin E. Smith - chief executive of the paper company Kimberly-Clark
• Ken Livingstone - mayor of London

One of the most notable is Bill Gates. Regarded as a computer expert by the age of 19, Gates fell in love with the teletype machine - a system that sends computer code down a phone line - at 17. His former teacher, Bill Dugal, says that this machine started Microsoft. Gates made programs on punch cards. He was determined to learn everything bout this machine and what it could do, and joined Paul Allen (the other half to Microsoft) in doing so. When the first computer hit the scene - the Altair 8800 - Gates and Allen wrote the software for it sight unseen. When it worked, Microsoft set sail to become on of the only companies developing software. Goffee and Jones note that Gates has honed the negativity of the word geek, and because of his passion, has become "the ultimate computer geek." Gates is noted as saying, "if your culture doesn't like geeks, you are in real trouble." 

My personal tagline should be, "Think Big." I am usually underestimated initially for how much I will bring to the table, but I am a big planner, a big executor, and I can either work everyone or work myself. I think my quote describing my personality would be the same tagline for an ENTP, "one exciting challenge after another." My heart is always racing. There's always another deadline to make, something I can get done early, or a new idea to research. I'm proud to have been recognized several times during my time at ERAU; but because of this continuous burning of the midnight oil, I tend to burn out easily. Sometimes I do not feel appreciated, and it causes me to move on to the next opportunity where I can make an impact.

Some of my core values and how I utilize them at work:

• Open-minded: Unlike a lot of bosses, I prefer share my ideas last. I enjoy hearing others ideas and enjoy enabling my supervisees to make their own decisions. I suppose someone could read this to believe I am an introvert and resilient to leading, but I want to build strong leaders, and I cannot do that if I am always talking. It builds their confidence and gives me the opportunity to see how they think.
• Efficient: I like to get tasks completed as quickly and thoroughly as possible. I always give tons of information and detail. I love to write, so my reports are usually very long. I have been criticized for being too wordy. I am learning to scale back (but only enough so that I do not lose this skill when it is time to write my dissertation).
• Innovative/Creative: When there are a dearth of ideas, I will always come up with two or three new ideas. They may sound crazy, but they might just work. I am known for "wanting too much to happen too quickly," so some of my ideas are good, but need to be scaled down.
• Humorous: Even in times of stress, I try to infuse a slight bit of humor into situations. I want people to know that I am serious, but I still care about them and their issues. I do not know many people who have a generally humorous and social personality that plays into their work.
• Passionate: I love what I do and I am dedicated to seeing it done exceptionally. I take my mistakes personally at times, and I often look over things twice or three times (and ask others to) in order to assure that every detail is right. If I lose my passion for a job, I will move on. I do not want to waste my time (or anyone else's) being unhappy and under-performing.

References

Bill Gates: How A Geek Changed The World. Accessed at http://documentaryheaven.com/bill-gates-how-a-geek-changed-the-world/

Goffee, R., & Jones, G. (2006). Getting personal on the topic of leadership. Human Resource Management International Digest , 14 (4), 32-34.

Yukl, G. (2010). Leadership in Organizations, 8th edition. Prentice Hall.