Conscious Leadership
Characteristics of conscious leadership
According to Mackey and Sisodia, conscious leadership focuses on running an organization for a higher purpose than profits. The higher purpose of a business is to create tangible and intangible values for employees, customers, suppliers, communities, and the environment (Schawbel, 2013). A company that is run by conscious leadership will achieve prosperity in the long term while being trusted by all stakeholders. Aware leaders possess strength, enthusiasm, love and care, flexibility, long-term orientation, emotional intelligence, systems intelligence, and spiritual intelligence (Sisodia, 2019). This means true leaders must be mentally strong, enthusiastic about their work, and caring for their employees’ needs to inspire and support them when necessary. True leaders can be flexible to adapt to changing situations and have a long-term vision in every decision. High emotional intelligence, system intelligence, and spiritual intelligence are essential to communicating effectively, making accurate decisions, and operating the business efficiently.
Two historical management theories and Their influence on the organizational behavior
Two historical management theories will be discussed: Henry Fayol’s management theory and Douglas McGregor’s Theory X and Theory Y. According to Fayol, management functions include planning, organizing, command, coordination, and control (Rahman, 2012). Fayol claimed that the purpose of the power is to “get optimum return from all employees.” To command effectively, the manager must know the employees and the employer-employee agreements thoroughly, and they can eliminate the incompetent ones (Rahman, 2012). Unlike Mackey and Sisodia’s conscious leadership, Fayol’s management theory focuses more on business goals and performance achievement. Fayol believed managers should be able to plan and carry out strategies to achieve objectives by using their authority to lead and manage people. Theory X and Theory Y by McGregor are also used in business management and organizational behavior. Theory X and Theory Y are two contrasting perceptions that state that Theory X management assumes employees are lazy and tend to avoid and dislike work,
In contrast, Theo Y management thinks employees are self-directed and will commit to the organization’s achievement (Hattangadi, 2015). Managers who believe in Theory X will try to supervise and control their employees closely to get them to fulfill the managers’ expectations. Those who believe in Theory Y will motivate and influence their employees to participate in the organization’s goals. Theory X and Floy’s management theory can be effective in a small business environment where the owners make decisions and take all the responsibility or when the findings must be made quickly during an emergency to save the business from falling behind the competition (Hattangadi 2015). At the same time, Theory Y should be applied in today’s business world as conscious leadership, which focuses on long-term achievement and the satisfaction of all stakeholders.
The importance of self-awareness, self-concept, and emotional intelligence and their role in enabling conscious leadership and effective self-leadership.
Self-awareness, self-concept, and emotional intelligence play an important role in how a person thinks, thinks, communicates, and behavesrtain way, especially in a business environment when that person must interact with other specific goals. Self-awareness enables people to focus on how they think, feel, and behave to understand their personality traits. Self-concept will help people define themselves in a community or around other people. Self-concept will answer questions about one’s identity, background, hobbies, strengths, and weaknesses. Everybody is different from each other due to self-concept. Emotional intelligence is essential to control one’s own emotions, understand other people’s feelings and empathize with other people’s situations. The role of self-awareness, self-concept, and emotional intelligence in enabling effective conscious leadership is that aware leaders will try to understand what their followers need and struggle for so that leaders will support and adjust certain things. That will make the followers feel motivated to work to achieve specific goals. They are also crucial in self-leadership to help oneself control inner child behaviors such as getting angry or yelling, which can hurt other people’s feelings. Servant leaders need to acknowledge these factors to influence their followers and to develop a better version of themselves.
The results of each assessment and explanation.
According to the VARK questionnaire assessment, my learning preference is multimodal, with scores of visual = 15, aural = 5, read/write = 7, and kinesthetic = 13. This result is accurate if I learn English, my second language. The scores would be higher even if I learned something in my primary language, Vietnamese. On the Cultural Competency Self-Assessment, I have the highest Fairly Often in Awareness, Knowledge, and Values and Attitudes sections and Sometimes in Skills and Physical Environment, Materials and Resources sections. Based on the Rokeach Values Survey developed by Milton Rokeach in 1973, my top three terminal values are A Comfortable Life, Family Security, and A World at Peace; and my bottom three terminal values are True Friendship, An Exciting Life, and Salvation. My top three instrumental values are Intellectual, Logical, and Ambitious, and my bottom three are Cheerful, Clean, and Courageous. In general, the results may represent who I am as a leader. I am not close to being a conscious leader due to my lack of skills and influence capability. However, the results inspire me to improve continuously to become a better version of myself first, then a conscious leader later.
Insights I have gained about myself after taking the assessments.
I have gained that in terms of learning English, I know faster and more efficiently by looking at visual images or videos and getting engaged by practicing or using trials. I feel more discouraged when I need to read many words and do not remember much by just listening. I usually take notes when I want to learn and remember something new. I respect cultural differences and understand the influence of cultures. However, I need to actively broaden cross-cultural skills, especially with English speakers, to build relationships and connections and keep filling the gaps in my knowledge to improve my self-leadership skills. I also acknowledge that I still focus on my prosperity and my family’s security more than my friends or community. Similarly, I value ambition and intelligence more than affection or creativity.
How this knowledge could influence my values, attitude toward others, and how I approach new tasks in the workplace.
The assessments help me identify my strengths and weaknesses and what I value the most and the least. This knowledge affects my behavior and attitude toward others by not imposing my values on people from identical or different cultures and treating everybody with an open-minded attitude. I approach new tasks in the workplace by starting the trial, practicing, and learning from mistakes. That is the most effective way to absorb and remember new knowledge. However, I need to improve my listening skills to approach new tasks by listening to someone else’s presentation in case they are the only resource I can get to complete the tasks efficiently.
What it takes to lead others, and how I respond to the management tactics of others within the workplace.
I have learned that leading others takes many factors, such as enthusiasm, intelligence, strength, influence, caring, and sympathy; others choose to follow a leader voluntarily because they admire the leader and see the values the leader brings to them and the community. I will follow the management tactics of others within the workplace if I think it is rational and equal for everybody to achieve the company’s purposes.
What I have learned about my ability to lead others within the workplace.
I have learned that I can lead others by showing my insight into what I am doing and my willingness to learn, adapt and support others. I also exhibit an excellent work ethic and respect for individuals’ cultures and perspectives.
Analyzing organizational behavior from individual, group, and organizational perspectives is valuable. How do your self-assessment results contribute to this?
Analyzing organizational behavior from the individual, group, and organizational perspective is essential because “the organization influences and is influenced by the individual” (Griffin et al., 2020). Everyone brings their characteristics, opinions, skills, and experiences to the organization. In return, individual behaviors can be affected by the organization. When these individuals come to work in groups, there could be conflicts or new ideas. Therefore, analysis is necessary for the organization to know its employees’ needs, strengths, and weaknesses and how to motivate them to achieve specific goals. Analyzing organizational behavior from a corporate perspective is essential to evaluate the organization’s performance, structure, and employee turnover.
References
Cultural Competency Self-Assessment, n.d. Retrieved from https://halo.gcu.edu/resource/c79354d2-cc21-44eb-b8dc-d5c9373fb112?nestedResourceId=0ac70d4f-302c-45e4-9bdd-63c8c8f47f19
Griffin, R. W., Phillips, J. M., & Gully, S. M. (2020). Organizational behavior: Managing people and organizations (13th ed.). Cengage.
Hattangadi, V. (2015). Theory X & Theory Y. International Journal of Recent Research Aspects, 2(4), 20–21.
Rahman, H. (2012). Henry Fayol and Frederick Winslow Taylor’s contribution to management thought: An overview. ABC Journal of Advanced Research, 1(2), 94–103. https://doi.org/10.18034/abcjar.v1i2.10
Rokeach Values Survey, 1973. Retrieved from https://halo.gcu.edu/resource/0d608210-1e3d-449f-8a53-ca6522c758bf?nestedResourceId=2bf1f559-2b8e-4691-8fd8-80682752433f
Schawbel, D. (2013, January 15). John Mackey: Why companies should embrace conscious capitalism. Forbes. Retrieved November 4, 2021, from https://www.forbes.com/sites/danschawbel/2013/01/15/john-mackey-why-companies-should-embrace-conscious-capitalism/?sh=ae768195dd30.
The VARK Questionnaire, 2021. Retrieved from https://vark-learn.com/the-vark-questionnaire/?p=results
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Question
Write a reflection of 1,000-1,250 words in which you discuss the following:
- Explain the characteristics of conscious leadership as defined by Mackey and Sisodia. Provide citations to strengthen your claims.
- Choose two historical management theories and explain their influence on organizational behavior. Provide citations to strengthen your claims.
- Describe the importance of self-awareness, self-concept, and emotional intelligence in enabling conscious leadership and self-leadership. Provide citations to strengthen your claims.
- Briefly summarize the results of each assessment you completed: “The VARK Questionnaire,” “Cultural Competency Self-Assessment,” and “Rokeach Values Survey,” provided in the topic Resources. Do you believe the results generally represent who you are as a leader? How will the results inspire you to be a conscious leader? Explain.
- Briefly, conduct a self-reflection in which you answer the following questions: (a) What insights have you gained about yourself after taking the assessments? (b) How could this knowledge influence your values, attitude toward others, and how you approach new tasks in the workplace? (c) What have you learned about what it takes to lead others or how you respond to the management tactics of others within the workplace? (d) What have you learned about your ability to lead others within the workplace?
- Explain the value of analyzing organizational behavior from individual, group, and organizational perspectives. How do your self-assessment results contribute to this? Provide citations to strengthen your claims.