Assessment Task Three: Leadership Development

1

Course Code:

BUSM4188

Course Name:

Leadership and Decision Making

Location where you study:

RMIT Vietnam – Saigon South Campus

Student Name:

Buu Ngoc Minh Anh - S3752277

Lecturer:

Mr. Han Jung Woo

Assignment due date:

18 th September 2020

Word count:

1627 words

Table of content:
Table of Contents
I.

INTRODUCTION.............................................................................................................................. 3

II.

EVALUATION................................................................................................................................... 3
1.
a)
b)
2.
a)
b)
3.
a)
b)

III.

LEADERSHIP DEVELOPMENT PLAN...................................................................................... 5
a)
b)

IV.
V.


TRAIT THEORY...........................................................................................................................................3
Theory...................................................................................................................................................3
Strengths and weaknesses analyzing based on test results...................................................................3
PARTICIPATIVE LEADERSHIP THEORY.......................................................................................................4
Theory...................................................................................................................................................4
Strengths and weaknesses analyzing based on test results...................................................................4
CROSS-CULTURAL LEADERSHIP THEORY.................................................................................................5
Theory...................................................................................................................................................5
Strengths and weaknesses analyzing based on test results...................................................................5

Rationale...............................................................................................................................................5
Personal Development Plan.................................................................................................................6
CONCLUSION.............................................................................................................................. 8

REFERENCES................................................................................................................................... 8

HARRIS, L 2020, ‘SELF-AWARENESS IS KEY TO LEADERSHIP EXCELLENCE’, FORBES, 10
MARCH,
,
VIEWED
18
SEPTEMBER
2020,
HTTPS://WWW.FORBES.COM/SITES/FORBESCOACHESCOUNCIL/2020/03/10/SELFAWARENESS-IS-KEY-TO-LEADERSHIP-EXCELLENCE/#1F6148E0384A...........................................9
VI.

2

APPENDIXES.................................................................................................................................. 11



I.

Introduction

If somebody asked me two factors forming effective leaders, I would answer they are the
charisma helping the leader influence followers’ visions and the determination sprouted from
clear understandings about the leader himself. As Osborne (2008) stated that we must be
comfortable in our ‘own skin’ to effectively lead others and follow our life principles
emerging from our experiences. Correspondingly, this paper aims to discuss deeply about my
strengths and weaknesses associated with related theories of leadership traits, participative
leadership style and cross-cultural leadership theory with the support of diagnostic tools.
Then, my leadership development plan will be presented which illustrates clearly actions and
detailed goals in order to intensify my strengths and ameliorate my weaknesses in the future.

II.

Evaluation

1. Trait Theory
a) Theory
Acccording to Kirkpatrick & Locke (1991), aside from drive, desire to lead and honesty, selfconfidence and cognitive ability are crucial traits to form a good leader. While employees
tend to commit to the vision and trust the leader who owns the self-esteem to generate quality
a decision-making process, they tend to decrease loyalty with any uncertainty revealed by the
head. Leaders are generally identified as intelligent and smart person to integrate abundance
amount of data towards general situations accompanying with the company and himself
abilities, to formulate sufficient strategies for sustainable growth of a whole organization.

b) Strengths and weaknesses analyzing based on test results
Regarding the self-confidence test in Appendix 1, I achieved a high and desirable level of

self-confidence, the factor that helped me to surpass many candidates and become a member
of the Business Club, the oldest and most well-known club for students in RMIT Vietnam.
Self-esteem is also highly appreciated in both life and work, since without commitment,
confidence and belief in ourselves, we will chase to other’s needs rather than ours and ideas
will remain as idle thoughts and meaningless purposes (Premuzic et al. 2019). Based on the
Five-factor model on the personality test (Appendix 2), my characteristics ranked high of
3


extraversion, conscientiousness and openness with the score of 44-42-45, respectively. It
showed that I possess a high energy level and open-minded perception. Those traits are
beneficial for my study industry, Bachelors of Digital Marketing, where the creativity and
‘outside-of-the-box’ thinkings are highly appreciated.

Despite being observed as a confident person, maintaining emotional stability is my
limitation. I got a medium grade of self-awareness in Emotional Intelligence (EI) Test
(Appendix 3) at 5, which is defined as traits or ability that help a person evaluate his own
emotion, actions or skills (Church 1997). I am an emotional person and rapidly change
between the bad mood and happiness due to minuscule events happened such as receiving
negative words from teachers or raising good ideas in the class. My mood swings can cause
uncomfortable feelings for others and reduce my work productivity.

2. Participative Leadership Theory
a) Theory
Ferrraris (2015) stated that participative or democratic leadership style takes the inputs of
team members into account although the leaders take responsibility for final decisions.
People feel they are respected and valuable when building important contribution for the
common goals, thus, participative leaders boost peers’ creativity and performance efficiency
in teamwork environment.


b) Strengths and weaknesses analyzing based on test results
My total score in team leadership skills test (Appendix 4) is 10, which depicted I refer to be a
participative leader rather than authoritarian leadership style. There are two factors in EI
foster participative style that I also ranked high includes self-management and socialawareness with 9 and 7 score, accordingly (Appendix 3). Social awareness mentioned the
ability to empatize with others, who come from different races and cultures (Tait 2020) and
self-management is the uncertainty and confusion’s supervision (Cottrell 2003). Thanks to
those skills, I am able to connect with others and build a strong team. However, working in
group assignment projects, I usually ignore my teammates ideas and make final decisions
based on my intuition. This led to my low indicator of relationship management at 5 score in
the EI test. It regards to how I develop and maintain a good relationship with people by
inspiring and support them.

4


There is one more shortcoming that hinders me to become flawless participative leader, that
is the poor evaluation towards myself ability and value. With a low score of 5 in selfawareness, Appendix 3 proved that I do not critically recognize my abilities and sometimes
lose power control to someone else. Self awareness is defined as consciousness of one’s own
character, feelings, motives and desires and this factor is a key to leadership excellence
(Harris, 2020). As a consequence, I allocate unequal energy for my daily tasks and causes to
the overloading tasks.

3. Cross-Cultural Leadership Theory
a) Theory
Globalization and innovation are not only shifted economy, politics, human behaviours but
also transform the concept of leadership from traditional to global (Padilla 2012). As one
leadership style might be effective in one nation but useless in other regions. Hence, top
global leaders are those who can bridge the gap between culture barriers of their employees
who come from different places and own different beliefs (Kerfoot 2010). Cross cultural
skills is the ability that leaders can ‘respond to particular foreign environments of different

countries and interpersonal work situations’ (Allon & Higgins 2005). The Global Leadership
and Organizational Effectiveness (GLOBE) is observed to help managers better understand
and perform in international environment by analzing cultural difference over 62 countries
influencing on leadership style (House et al. 2004).

b) Strengths and weaknesses analyzing based on test results
Looking at cultural map test (Appendix 5), my culture’s preference in leadership behaviour
skewed more on high-context cultures, which has a sophisticated communication, indirect
criticism and hierarchical leading. It is revealed that I am not sufficient in cross-cultural
leadership skill and get confused when expressing ideas with international peers. In fact, the
misunderstanding and miscommunication proned me to get the lower grade in team
assignment than individual work. Without cross-cultural skills, it is impossible for me to
successfully lead others and receive their respects.

III.

Leadership Development Plan

a) Rationale
Mentioned to leadership’s traits, some researchers found that Emotional Intelligence is more
important to a leader than Intellectual Intelligence and other technical skills when we are in
higher positions (Dulewicz & Young 2005). Since the more responsibilities, the higher
5


requirement in our appropriate manners. On top of that, a good leader is a good listener and
motivator. Goleman and his partners (2005) reported that remarkable leaders make people
laugh three times higher than decent leaders. Compared to my career personal goals in the
future, in which I want to become a marketer, building win-win relationships is more
important than ever.


Self-awareness is seen as the key competency that participative leaders must develop to
succeed in organizational environment by Stanford and other prominent schools (Showry &
Manasa 2014). To productively work, I need to recognize my strengths and limitations to
exploit them approriately. Additionally, Goleman (2000) opined that the disparity between
high-performing and low-performing leaders is self-reflection (Church 1997). It is essential
for me to evaluate personal value and intrinsic motivation that drives me for actions to
increase the quality in decision-making process.

In terms of cross-cultural leadership, cultural intelligence is a core element for those who aim
to succeed in foreign markets (Alon & Higgins 2005). I need to excel this skillset for a couple
of reasons. Firstly, COVID-19 has ‘accelerated the adoption of fully digitized approaches’, in
which digital and adaptability capabilities must be equipped for employees (McKinsey
2020). In my major, Digital Marketing, Internship program is compulsory and understanding
of company’s requirement in the ‘new normal’ increases my career opportunities. Secondly,
the cross-cultural skills are also irrefutable to achieve high score when group assignment
dominates a high grade portion due to my school’s curriculum.

b) Personal Development Plan
Goal
1. Enhance

Action

Frequency

Meditation

20


minutes

Target
Date
per From

emotional

day, repeat 3 days

20/09/202

stability

a week (Tang et al.

0

2007)

20/03/202
1

6

to


Spend 2 hours asking On


2. Better

every From

Recognize

myself two questions ‘What weekends

20/09/202

personal value

makes people appreciate me?’

0

and ‘what can I improve my

to

unsatisfied performace?’

20/9/2021

asking at least 2 friends for Twice

a

month


giving

straightforward after finishing the

feedbacks

after

group assignment

assignments or club’s events.

From
25/10/202

or 0

event.

to
25/01/202

4. Improve

the Follow a role model leader - One

hour

1
per From


leadership

Sara Blakely and imitate how lesson,

skills

she delegate tasks, behave twice a week

0

with

to

her

colleagues

repeated

and

perceive objects by attending
her Masterclass.
5. Become a good During communicate
listener




25/10/202

Remember their names per month

0

and repeat what they

to

said in my head to

25/01/202

give

1

relevant

Fine

myself

10.000

VND

for


judging

people

via

their

hairstyle, accents and
gestures or being a
sentence-grabber. That
amount of money will
be keep to donate for
social charity such as
blind association.
7

at From

least 2 new friends

responses.


01/11/2021

with Communicate

others, I force myself to:


01/10/202




Raise

at

questions
understand

least
to

2

deeper
their

situation, beliefs and
achievements.
Learn from communication Once a week

From

pursuasive

experts on TED Talk like


20/09/202

communicatio

Julian Treasure and Susan

0

n skills

David ( TED n.d)

to

6. Improve

20/12/202
7. Be confident in Join assignment project with At
working

in foreign friends.

least

assignment

1
1 From
per 20/09/202


multicultural

year collaborating

groups.

with

foreign to

friends
Learn one more language such Two
as Spanish or Japanese to get day,

0

20/09/202
hours

1
per From

repeated 01/01/202

closer insight into different twice a week

1

culture and keep myself open-


to

minded.

01/01/202

Get

‘

Building

Cultural Two

Intelligence’ credential from day,
RMIT Cred.

hours

2
per From

repeated 20/09/202

twice a week

0
to
05/10/202
0


IV.

Conclusion

All in all, leadership and decision making course offered me profound knowledge to evaluate
if a leader is potential. Above all, it plays a fundamental role in shaping my leadership
mindset and consolidating my understanding about leadership skills and competecies.
Recognizing my leadership strengths and weaknesses in the age of twenties helps me better
8


prepare to turn it into my competitive advantages, especially leadership skills can be a plus
point in the firce competition of top companies on those contemporary days. It is evident that
the leadership development plan is designated based on my weaknesses in three main points:
increasing self-awareness, relationship management and cross-cultural leadership skills.
Although the plan has not reached to the highest satisfaction due to the author’s lack of
experience, It will not demotivate me to tightly set commitment in achieving them.
V.

References

Agrawal, S, Smet, A, Lacroix, S & Reich, A 2020, ‘To emerge stronger from the COVID-19
crisis, companies should start reskilling their workforces now’, McKinsey & Company, 7
May,

viewed

18


September

2020,

< />
functions/organization/our-insights/to-emerge-stronger-from-the-covid-19-crisis-companiesshould-start-reskilling-their-workforces-now>.
Alon, I & Higgins, J-M 2005, ‘Global leadership success through emotional and cultural
intelligences’, Business Horizons, vol. 48, no. 6, pp. 501–512, viewed 18 September 2020,
Science Direct database.
Church, A-H 1997, ‘Managerial Self-Awareness in High-Performing Individuals in
Organizations’, Journal of Applied Psychology, vol. 82, no. 2, pp. 281-292, viewed 18
September 2020.
Cottrell, S 2003, Skill For Success, Palgrave Macmillan Ltd, viewed 18 September 2020, <
/>Dulewicz, C, Young, M & Dulewicz, V 2005, ‘The relevance of emotional intelligence for
leadership performance’, Journal of General Management, vol. 30, no. 3,pp. 71–86, viewed
18 September 2020, Sage Collection database.
Ferraris, A-V 2015, ‘Lead from the front: Participative Leadership’, The Journal of Thoracic
and Cardiovascular Surgery, vol. 150, no. 6, pp. 1413-1415, viewed 18 September 2020,
Science Direct database.
Goleman, D 2000, ‘Leadership that Gets Results’, Harvard Business Review, vol. 78, no. 2,
pp. 78-90, viewed 18 September 2020.
Goleman, D, Boyzatzis, R, & McKee, A 2005, Primal leadership: Realizing the power of
emotional intelligence, Harvard Business School Press, Boston, USA.
Harris, L 2020, ‘Self-Awareness Is Key To Leadership Excellence’, Forbes, 10 March, ,
viewed
18
September
2020,
/>
9



House, R-J. Hanges, P-J, Javidan, M, Dorfman, P-W, Gupta, V 2004, Leadership and
Organizations: The GLOBE Study of 62 Societies, Thousand Oaks, CA: sage.
Kerfoot, K-M 2010, ‘Listening to see: The key to virtual leadership’, Nursing
Economics, vol. 28, no. 2, pp. 114-118, viewed 18 September 2020, ProQuest database.
Kirkpatrick, S-A & Locke, E-A 1991, ‘Leadership: Do traits matter?’, The Executive, vol. 5,
no. 2, pp. 48, viewed 18 September 2020, ProQuest database.
Osborne, C 2008, Leadership, Dorling Kindersley, New York, The United State.
Padilla, A 2012, Leadership: Leaders, followers, environments, John Wiley, Hoboken, New
Jersey.
Premuzic, C, Kanter, Moss, R, Su, Jen, A, Bregman, P 2019, HBR Emotional
Intelligence Series, 1st edt, Harvard Business Review Press.

Tait, B 2020, ‘The road to social awareness’, Forbes, 5 June, viewed 18 September 2020, <
/>Tang, Y-Y, Ma, Y, Wang, J, Fan, Y, Feng, S, Lu, Q, Yu, Q, Sui, D, Rothbart, M-K, Fan, M &
Posner, M-I 2007, ‘ Short-term meditation training improves attention and selfregulation’, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, vol.104, no. 43, pp.1715217156.

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VI. Appendixes

Appendix 1: Self Confidence test

11


Appendix 2: Big Five-Factor Personality Test


Appendix 3: Emotional Intelligence Test

12


Appendix 4: Team Leadership Skills Test

13


Appendix 5: Cultural Map Test

14