Developing Skills for Business Leadership
HRMG5052
Concepts of Self, Self-Management Skills and
Professional identity
Dr Henry Mumbi
Learning Objectives
By the end of this session you will be able to:
 Measure and audit your time
 Identify any time-wasting activities
 Recognise instances when you tend to
procrastinate
 Apply strategies to improve your personal time
management
 Appraise the importance of stress management
 Apply stress management techniques
Time management
 Allows tasks to be accomplished effectively (i.e. doing
the right things)
 Assists task efficiency – optimal use of time
 Gives you some control of situation
 Helps to avoid burnout
 Gives you the awareness of how you are spending
your time
Activity
What strategies can you use
to improve on your personal
time management?
What do managers do?
 Managers’ lives are characterized by discontinuity.
 They will take on many roles over a typical day.
 Mintzberg categorizes these under 3 main headings:
1. Interpersonal
2. Informational
3. Decisional
Mintzberg (1990, 1997)
Interpersonal roles
 Figurehead – e.g. as the head of your department,
representing your company at ceremonies
 Leader – giving direction to others in your
organisation (includes delegating and developing
others)
 Liaison – acting as a communication link with others
outside of the vertical chain of command
Informational roles
 Monitor – keeping an eye open for relevant
information; an active scanning approach
 Disseminator – giving relevant information to staff, for
instance in staff briefings and emails
 Spokesperson – speaking on behalf of the
organisation to outsiders
Decisional roles
 Entrepreneur – making things happen, using initiative
to get things done
 Disturbance handler – resolving issues which have not
gone to plan, handling arguments
 Resource allocator – deciding how to apportion
limited resources (staff time, budgets, equipment,
materials)
 Negotiator – formal and informal bargaining (for
instance with own staff, with customers)
Procrastination
 To ‘delay or postpone action’ (Gallagher, 2014: 97)
 ‘To procrastinate is to put off acting on one’s
intentions. Such dilatory behaviour in daily life ranges
from putting off answering letters to not getting right
out of bed in the morning, and shopping for essential
items at the last minute. In academic context,
procrastinatory behaviour involves doing assignments
just before they are to be handed in, returning library
books past the due date’ (Schouwenburg and
Lay,1995: 481) .
Procrastination and goals
 Depends on valence - value attached
 Mastery-approach goal:
 The individual measures the goal in absolute or personal
terms.
 Run 100m in 10s
 Performance-approach goal:
 The individual references him/her self against others
 Mastery-avoidance goal:
 measure against previous ability
 Performance-avoidance goal:
 Individuals do not wish to be embarrassed in front of others.
Is all procrastination bad?
 Active procrastinators enjoyed the challenge of
working to tight deadlines and the sense of
achievement in hitting submission dates (they
delayed, yet still hit the target deadlines) (Chu and
Choi 2005) .
 ‘Passive procrastinators’ performed poorly as
deadlines approached, even giving up on
occasion, and often did not hit submission dates
as they had underestimated the time required for
task completion.
Is all procrastination bad? (Cont.)
 Active procrastinators had a high level of self
belief in their ability to achieve goals (known as
‘self efficacy’ – see Bandura 1977).
 Active procrastinators were very good at reprioritising and handling the time available in a
highly flexible manner (Choi and Moran 2009,
p208)
Activity
Discuss occasions where you
tend to procrastinate and what
has been the implications of your
actions.
Delegation and micromanagement
• Micromanagement is a compulsive, behavioural
disorder similar to other addictive patterns.
• Micromanagers feel unsure and self-doubting
Micromanagers tend to:
• oversee their workers too closely
• be control freaks
• go alone to their boss’s office as they do not wish subordinates to
gain credit
• demand frequent status reports from others but often cause delays
themselves as they are so busy
• stretch themselves too thin and take on too much
• hate mistakes, seldom praise, consider their employees
incompetent (White 2010: 72).
How to delegate
 Delegate for the right reason (not to simply offload
tasks).
 Delegate to the right people.
 Brief thoroughly.
 Define results but not method.
 Give them the tools that they need to do the job.
 Keep an eye on how they are doing but resist the
temptation to grab the reins back at the first sign of
trouble.
Stress
• Stress comes the Latin, strictus, meaning drawn
tight
• …a feeling of tension that occurs when a person
assesses that a given situation is about to exceed
his or her ability to cope and consequently will
endanger his or her well-being.
• Job stress - the feeling that one’s capabilities, resources, or
needs do not match the demands of the job.
• Acute stress – a short-term stress reaction to an immediate
threat
• Chronic stress – a long-term stress reaction resulting from
ongoing situations
• 39% of work related illness (ONS, 2015)
• 11,3 million working days lost (Labour Force Survey, 2014)
Stressor
• A stressor is any condition or event that
causes individuals to experience stress
•
•
Stressors can be physical, emotional, intellectual,
social, economic, or spiritual.
A stressor may be real or imagined, however, the
response to the stressor (i.e., the human stress
response) is always real.
Stress Is . . .
Positive (Eustress)
•
•
•
Motivates and provides incentive to get the job done
Forces you to adapt, thus increasing your coping skills.
Action-enhancing stress that gives the athlete the competitive edge and
the public speaker the enthusiasm to project optimally
Negative (Distress)
•
•
•
Good stress becomes to much to bear or cope with,
exceeds your ability to cope
Tension builds, no longer any fun in the challenge, no relief,
no end in sight.
Fatigues your systems.
• Results in produces over-reaction, confusion, poor concentration, poor decision
making.
• Physiological symptoms of distress include and increase in blood pressure, rapid
breathing and generalized tension.
• Behavioural symptoms include overeating, loss of appetite, drinking, smoking and
negative coping mechanisms.
General Adaptation Syndrome
• The classic model of stress (Selye 1976) describes
a natural response of our bodies to a perceived
threat
• two choices – fight or run (flight)
• Is an attempt to retain homeostasis by the body
using its hormonal system, in a fight or flight
response.
• Three predictable stages the body uses to respond
to stressors: Alarm, Resistance and Exhaustion
Every stress leaves incredible, scar and the organism pays
for its survival after stressful situation by being a little older
Alarm
• The initial reaction of the body to stress is that it labels the stressor as a threat or
danger to balance, it immediately activates its fight or flight response system,
releasing the “stress” hormones such as adrenaline, noradrenaline and cortisol.
• This prepares the body for life-threatening situations, channelling away
resources from such as the digestive and immune system to more immediate
muscular and emotional needs.
Resistance
• The body has responded to the stressor and the stress level has been
eradicated, or simply reduced.
• However the defences become weaker, as it needs to allocate energy to the
repair of damaged muscle tissues and lower the production of the stress
hormones.
Exhaustion
• The stress has been persistent for a longer period and the body starts to lose its
ability to combat the stressors and reduce their harmful impact because the
adaptive energy is all drained out.
• The gate towards burnout or stress overload, which can lead to health problems
if not resolved immediately.
• This leads to the immune system being depressed, making us susceptible to
disease.
Activity
Discuss what causes work
related stress and how it
can be managed.
Role
Ambiguity
and
Conflict
Intrinsic
nature of the
job
Working
environment
and justice
Work
Overload
Interpersonal
Relationships
Work-Related
Stressors
Resource
Inadequacy
Management
Style
Working
Conditions
Reducing stress in the workplace
• Staff surveys – Quantitative or Qualitative
• Risk assessments/stress audits
• Flexible working options/improved work–life
balance
• Training line managers to more effectively identify
and manage stress
• Employee assistance programme
• Written stress policy/guidance
• Greater involvement of occupational health
specialists
• Health and Safety Executive’s stress management
standards
Individual Stress Management
• Lifestyle adjustments
• Exercise regularly
• Practice healthy habits
• Attitude adjustment
• Social support
• Emotional regulation
• Time management
• Develop and use
planning skills
• Simplify your life –
Delegate
• Avoid unnecessary
competition
• Recognize and accept
personal limits
• Develop social support
networks
• Focus on enjoying what
you do
• Go easy with criticism
• Take time off
• Take one thing at a time
Organizational Stress Management
• Increase individuals’ autonomy and control
• Ensure that individuals are compensated properly
• Maintain job demands/requirements at healthy
levels
• Ensure that associates have adequate skills to
keep up-to-date with technical changes in the
workplace
• Increase associate involvement in important
decision making
• Improve physical working conditions
• Provide for job security and career development
• Provide healthy work schedules
• Improve communication to help avoid uncertainty
and ambiguity
How management style can improve
employee stress
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZJ5LRrqU3Og
Self
 All the Characteristics of the Person
 Self-concept: everything the person believes to be
true about him/herself
 Includes traits, preferences, social roles, values,
beliefs, interests, self-categorization
 Self-understanding develops throughout the lifespan
Components of Identity
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Career
Political views
Religious beliefs
Relationships
Ethnic identity
Personality
Body image
Self awareness
• Self-awareness is about understanding our
personal characteristics and how our actions affect
both ourselves and other people.
• Ability to assess one’s personality, behaviours &
skills accurately by
• Observing one’s own thoughts, behaviours, skills, using
validated, structured questionnaires
• Comparing observations to an external source (e.g., a
standard or known other or first impression of other)
• Incorporating comparison into self observation &
subsequent behaviour
Emotional Intelligence
• Emotional intelligence (EI) refers to an individual’s
ability to recognise and manage their own
emotions, use those emotions as a self-motivator,
recognise emotions in others, and handle
relationships.
• High EI can be more important than high IQ in
determining professional success.
• Some managers with relatively low IQ but a high EI
have been more successful than those with high IQ
but an inferior EI.
• EI and IQ are not opposites.
Professional Identity
• The relatively stable and enduring
constellation of attributes, beliefs, values,
motives and experiences in terms of which
people define themselves in a professional
role (Schein’1978).
• Defines how we understand our profession
and how others perceive us within our
professional role.
• Role incongruence and professional identity
can lead to problems with fulfilling that role.
• Interaction between your expert knowledge,
your skills and your personal behaviours.
Key elements of professional
identity
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Personality
Norms
Emotion
Values
Knowledge
Skills
Reflecting on Professional Norms
• A tendency to select a job or profession we believe
suits us
– Our parents may have had particular ambitions for us and so we
choose a career path that makes them happy.
• Receive inaccurate or incomplete career advice
that gives us the wrong impression of what it is like
to work in our chosen profession.
• Select a profession because we know someone
who enjoys it and is doing well in it, but do not take
into account that this person may be very different
from us.
Organisational Behaviour
• How do we develop an understanding of the
organisation or profession?
• Two strategies:
• identifying behaviours that are explicitly
defined, and
• learning the tacit behaviours that act as norms
within the profession.
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Professional standards (the CIPD Profession Map)
Professional ethics
Professional codes of practice
Professional competency statements
Value statements
Professional ethics and codes of practice
• Avoid organisational misbehaviour.
Ask for Feedback
• Seeing ourselves as others see us is extremely
important in developing self-awareness.
How do you get feedback?
How do you use the feedback to develop
professionally?
Your Personal SWOT
Strengths
Weaknesses
Opportunities
Threats
Continuing Professional Development
(CPD)
 CPD is the action we take to maintain, update and
grow the knowledge and skills required for our
professional role
 CPD is about planning our development, reflecting on
our learning and recording it
 Our CPD records should detail the learning we have
undertaken, what we have learned and how we will
use our learning
SMART Objectives
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Specific
Measurable
Achievable
Relevant
Time-bound
PD Action Plan
What do I
want/need
to learn?
What will I do
to achieve
this?
What
resources or
support will I
need?
What will my
success
criteria be?
Target dates
for review and
completion
CPD Reflective Record
Key
dates
What I
did
Why
What I
learned
How I’ll
use it
Factors in Self Development
 Cost
 Availability
 Time
 Method
 Suitability to your learning style or preferences
Methods of Self Development
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Training events
Reading books
Magazines & blogs
Job shadowing
Academic learning
Project work
Action learning sets
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Conferences
Exhibitions
Online learning
Reflection
Being coached
Having a mentor
Networking
References
Bandura, A. (1977) ‘self-efficacy: towards a unifying theory of behavioural change, Psychological Review, Vol. 84(2), 191-215
Choi, J. N. and Moran, S. V. (2009) ‘Why not procrastinate? Development and validation of new active procrastination scale’, The Journal
of Social Psychology, Vol. 149 (2), 195-211
Chu, A.H. and Choi, J. N. (2005) ‘Rethinking procrastination: positive effects of ‘active’ procrastination behaviour on attitudes and
performance, The Journal of Social Psychology, Vol. 145(3), 245-264
Gallagher, K. (2014) ‘Concepts of Self and Self-management Skills’. In G. Watson and S. Reissner (eds) Developing Skills for Business
Leadership, 2nd Edition. London: CIPD, 97-123
Mintzberg, H. (1979) The Structuring of Organizations. London: Prentice-Hall International
Mintzberg, H. (1990) ‘The manager’s job: folklore and fact (HBR Classic)’, Harvard Business Review, Vol. 68 (2), 163-176
Mintzberg, H. (1997) The nature of managerial work. Harlow: Prentice-Hall
Reissner, S. (2014) ‘Developing your Professional Identity’. In G. Watson and S. Reissner (eds) Developing Skills for Business Leadership, 2nd
Edition. London: CIPD, 125-147
Schouwenburg, H. C. and Lay, C. H. (1995) ‘Trait procrastination and the big-five factors of personality’, Personality and Individual
Differences, Vol. 18(4), 481-490
Selye, H. (1976) The stress of life. New York: McGraw-Hill
White, R. D. (2010) ‘The micromanagement disease: symptoms, diagnosis, and cure’, Public Personnel Management, Vol. 39(1), 71-76