Self Leadership Knowledge and Skills

Question: Discuss about theSelf Leadershipfor Knowledge and Skills. Answer: Introduction Self-leadership is the method of controlling ones own behavior, driving and motivating oneself by multiple behavioral and cognitive skills to reach the heights that have never been reached before. The self-leadership skill is fundamentally grounded on the self-management and self-control theory. In the self-leadership strategy, people examine their capabilities, knowledge and skills and enhance them to achieve their professional as well as personal goals (Neck, Manz and Houghton, 2016). The self-leaders have intrinsic drive and motivation, have decision-making ability and possess the qualities of being persistent and creative even in adverse situations. The primary characteristics of self-leaders are self-awareness, intrinsic motivation and positivity. They also possess the quality of assertive communication and the ability to work on feedback. Moreover, self-leadership also supports development of leadership skills (Bryant and Kazan, 2012). Leadership is an acquired skill which is honed over the years. The biggest challenge in leadership is leading oneself. It is always difficult to motivate and lead oneself. The self-leadership encompasses self-awareness and self-management. The self-awareness is the ability to acknowledge and understand the value, skills, strengths and the weaknesses and the areas of improvement. In contrast to it, self-management is the ability of developing ones own ability, leadership skills according to the personal or professional goals (Bryant and Kazan, 2012). In this regard, in the following section, the views of the eminent authors and literature regarding self-leadership are critically examined. The literature review will discuss the subject of the self-leadership and its major features and differentiates them with related motivational constructs such as motivation and self-influence constructs which includes self-regulation, and emotional intelligence. In the views of Neck and Houghton (2006), the notion of self-leadership became prominent in the beginning of1980 decade and is based on self-management and self-control theory. Therefore, self-leadership can be referred as a concept wherein the self-influence is conducted through which the self-direction and self-motivation is achieved which is beneficial in obtaining the desired goals. It is based on several similar theories related to self-influence and self-regulation and self-control. Self-leadership is very close to the concept of self-influence, behavior focused strategies or cognitive oriented strategies are used to drive and control self-behavior. In this kind of leadership style, several behavioral and cognitive strategies are used to increase individual effectiveness. The self-leadership strategies can be differentiated in three primary categories, namely, behavior-focused strategies, constructive-thought pattern strategies and natural reward strategies (Ross, 2015). Carmeli, Meiter and Weisberg (2006) have discussed that self-leadership skills are essential to enhance innovative behavior in an organization. According to the literature, there is a an existent relation between the innovative behavior of the employees and the self-leadership. The authors have conducted a survey wherein the questionnaire method has been applied to examine the relation in six business organizations in Israel. The findings state that there is a strong and positive correlation of innovative behavior with self-leadership skills. Along with it, the innovative behavior of an employee is also associated with his job tenure and his income. Therefore, self-leadership is essential for the business organizations that seeks to develop innovation in their organization. Dolbier, Soderstrom and Steinhardt (2001) have discussed that the concept of self-leadership can be explored by Internal Family System (IFS) model in which an individual is considered as a system. The internal family systems model is based on the intra-psychic process in which mind is considered to have some degree of multiplicity. This model focuses on the importance of considering the personality of an individual of various sub personalities. These sub personalities correlate with each other and the core self in leading. The IFS model of self-leadership states that there is positive relationship between the self-leadership style, psychology, health and work. The individual who perform self-leadership minimize or control the source of the stress; therefore, they are positively associated with the coping style. It is also positively related to the resilience personality. It is the ability of a person to recover from challenging situations which requires some adaptation on the part of an individual. These people remain fit stressful as they notice modification in the environment as a challenge and try to establish positive control at times of need. Norris (2008) has stated that social cognitive theory and social learning theory is fundamental to self-leadership. Social learning theory posits that the cognition, motivation and the behavior of the people can be influenced by their environment. It stares that the personality of an individual and his environment interact continuously and it impacts the behavior of the person. In the self-leadership method different cognition and behavioral strategies are used to motivate self. Similar to the literature of Dolbier, Soderstrom and Steinhardt (2001), the literature also posits that there are three main strategies of self-leadership, behavior-focused, natural reward and constructive though strategy. The behavior-focused strategy includes enhancing self-awareness and behavior-control using methods such as goal setting and punishment. Natural reward strategies include finding pleasant and engaging features in the activity, so that the process itself becomes awarding. This strategy enhanc es motivation, competence and self-perseverance. The constructive thought strategy includes developing positive thinking style that enhances the motivation level and avoiding negative self-talk. The literature has presented a model wherein the relationship between need for autonomy, self-efficacy and the self-leadership has been explored. The need for autonomy is the need to freely choose actions upon which the individual desired to work. The autonomously-oriented individuals make choices using their knowledge and motivation. The need for autonomy denotes the desire of a person to engage in independent activities, make decisions and take responsibilities. These people have higher degree of self-leadership. The literature has defined self-efficacy theory as the belief regarding their personal capability to produce desired effect on the environment. The self-efficacy is grown overtime and through individual experiences. It influences the efforts of an individual and the time period in which the efforts will be made (Norris, 2008). Chaijukul (2010) have proposed the self-leadership performance mechanism model that explains the association of self-leadership practice and the behavioral outcomes. In this model, various variables which affect the performance at individual, team and organization level have been taken into account. The self-leadership strategy is the cause of various outcomes such as organization commitment, creativity, job satisfaction, commitment and self-efficacy. The literature has presented this model so that an individual can improve his performance in professional upfront. In the literature, it is discussed that self-leadership results in psychological empowerment, self-efficacy and improvement in job satisfaction which positively impacts job performance. The self-leadership has direct impact on these variables whereas indirectly impact on the job performance. The job performance of the employees improves by the mediators of psychological empowerment, self-efficacy and job satisfaction. The self-leadership assists an individual in psychological empowering. A person with self-leadership strategies is capable of making his own decisions, forming goals and successfully completing work. Therefore, it has a positive impact on the self-empowerment of an individual. Self-leadership also has direct relationship with self-efficacy which influences the individual job performance of an individual. Self-efficacy is a continuous process and positively correlated to the self-leadership. The research also provides evidence that the self-leadership training enhances t he job performance of an individual (Chaijukul, 2010). In the view of Houghton and Neck (2002), despite the consensus that self-leadership strategies are effective in the professional development of the individuals and enhancing the performance of a business organization, the researchers have not focused on developing an assessment criterion. Due to this, there are also a limited number of studies on the impact of self-leadership on organization performance. The self-leadership measurement requires development of a scale that embraces all the essential factors that self-leadership influences. In this regard, an eight factor scale can be developed, the primary components of which are self-problem solving initiative, efficacy, natural rewards, opportunity thought, self-goal setting, giving rewards to oneself, teamwork, opportunity thoughts and self-observation. Another scale for self-leadership measurement is also discussed in the literature. In this measurement scale, six factors, self-punishment, self-goal, self-reward, self-withholding, self-observation and self-cueing are used for examining the behavior-focused strategies, focusing feelings on complementary rewards signifies self-leaderships natural reward strategy and positive performance, positive talk with self and examination of beliefs as the constructive though pattern strategies. Diliello and Houghton (2006) opined that self-leadership can enhance the creativity and innovation in an organization. Therefore, this model should be adopted to maximize the performance of a business organization. The authors have discussed that in the present business scenario innovation and creativity are essential competencies to get succeeded in the marketplace. In a business organization, the idea generation, knowledge sharing and problem solving should be promoted as its work culture to enhance creative idea generation, implement development and upgrading the work process and developing new processes and services. The research also cites that there are several challenges in implementing such organization culture is difficult. Self-leadership is capable of addressing several of these challenges in the organization development. The leaders can develop the capability of the employees to lead themselves so that they can manage themselves in the management. This leadership style is called Super Leadership. In the professional environment, the managers have limited amount of control to lead or motivate the employees, rest of the motivation in intrinsic and comes from within. Self-leadership can enhance the organization performance as when the employees are trained to perform without supervisor intervention, the managers can focus on long-term goals. Houghton and Yoho (2005) have explored when self-leadership in an organization should be encouraged. It focuses on the situation and circumstances when self-leadership should be encouraged in the organization. There are several factors such as follower involvement, task urgency and task complexity that determines which leadership should be followed in an organization. Each leadership style has its own specific outcomes. The self-leadership style has a great appeal to and appears to have high potential in increasing organizations productivity in the present challenging business environment. It is also crucial for employee empowerment and decentralized structure. Self-leadership is the skill to drive oneself to achieve its goals. Despite the popularity of self-leadership, few literatures have focused on when this leadership style should be followed. In this essence, most crucial question is whether self-leadership is a contingency theory which is applicable only under specific conditio ns or universally acceptable theory which can be applied at all the circumstances. It is also essential to note that self-leadership is appropriate every single time; the leaders cannot always rely on self-leadership for enhancing the productivity of an organization. The literature emphasize that self-leadership practice can be implemented when there is high requirement of follower development or prolonged long-term development of followers is essential. Other criterion for the implementation of self-leadership is less earnestness of task and no immediate crisis. Self-leadership can prove beneficial when the task is complex and requires innovative approaches. It can prove beneficial when the leaders want followers who are creative, innovative, seld-dependent and mentally strong (Houghton and Yoho, 2005). Conclusion It can be established that self-leadership is a crucial for enhancing the productivity of an organization or an individual. Self-leadership can be defined as a skill to drive oneself to achieve goals and targets. An individual can use self-leadership skills to enhance his performance and productivity. It has been discussed in the literature that self-leadership is the most difficult skill among all the leadership skills as controlling the behavior of self is difficult. There are three main strategies that are used in the self-leadership skills, namely, natural reward strategy, cognitive strategy and behavioral strategy. The self-leaders use these strategies to achieve their goals. The business organizations also emphasize to develop the self-leadership skills of their employees to promote productivity and innovative behavior in the organization. It has been concluded in the paper that self-leadership boosts innovative behavior. There are several models that emphasize the importance o f self-leadership in an organization and how it can be implemented. These models are IFS model, contingency model and performance mechanism model. However, despite the consensus that self-leadership is positively related with the productivity and innovative behavior, there is no scale to measure the impact of self-leadership on an organization. The paper has discussed regarding a measurement scale that can be used to measure the output of self-leadership. Self-leadership is important for an organization; however, it is beneficial only under certain circumstances. References Bryant, A. and Kazan, A.L. (2012). Self-Leadership: How to Become a More Successful, Efficient, and Effective Leader from the Inside Out. New York: McGraw Hill Professional. Chaijukul, Y. (2010). An Examination of Self-Leadership Performance Mechanism Model in Thai Private Organization. The Journal of Behavioral Science, 5(1), 15-32. DiLiello, T.C. and Houghton, J.D. (2006). Maximizing organizational leadership capacity for the future. Journal of Managerial Psychology, 21(4), 319-337. Dolbier, C.L., Sodestrom, M. and Steihardt, M.A. (2001). The Relationships Between self-leadership and enhanced Psychological, Health, and Work Outcomes. The Journal of Psychology, 135(5), 469-485. Houghton, J.D. and Neck, C.P. (2002). The revised self-leadership questionnaire Testing a hierarchical factor structure for self-leadership. Journal of Managerial Psychology, 17(8), 672-682. Houghton, J.D. and Yoho, S.K. (2005). Toward a Contingency Model of Leadership and Psychological Empowerment: When Should Self-Leadership Be Encouraged? 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