Self-Reflection for Business Consulting

Business consulting and leadership is heavily linked to one's personality type. In this case, personality types describe individuals' thinking patterns, intrapersonal skills, and values. Personality types heavily influence each person's leadership and career capability through the natural leadership traits such as interpersonal skills, professionalism, critical thinking, value, ethics, and others. More so, business consultancies have one of the highest divisions and differences in opinions for their respective firms, which are influenced by these same personality traits. Therefore, self-awareness and self-reflection are crucial for the development of any leader or business consultant. Through self-reflection to determine an individual's strengths and weaknesses, leaders are more aware of managing themselves in leading their respective firms and organizations. On the other hand, the lack of self-awareness can lead to overconfidence in leadership through limited accountability. Additionally, as seen in this paper, a self-reflection exercise is necessary to determine areas for leaders and business consultants to improve, such as increasing their value for their firms and placing themselves in the shoes of those they lead. Hence, it is imperative that the leader and consultant self-reflect to identify areas of improvement, understand how and where they work best, and apply themselves more accordingly. 

Personality Type

Considering various materials and professional feedback from colleagues and instructors, I have seen personality maturity through continuous self-reflection using different feasible personality tests. One of the major personality tests used is the Myers-Briggs Test which determines one out of sixteen personalities for an individual depending on a comparison of two attributes for four measures ("Free personality test | 16Personalities," 2022). This test compares introverts and extroverts, intuitive and sensors, thinkers and feelers, and judgers and perceivers. In this case, after taking the test, the personality type is described as an advocate, characterized by being introverted more than extroverted, intuitive more than observant, following feelings compared to being rational, and a judger who follows necessary rules or one who often adheres to what must be done. According to the Myers-Briggs test, the advocate personality type is the rarest of the personality types, which has seen various significant people in history, such as Nelson Mandela, Mahatma Gandhi, and Martin Luther King. Compared to previous self-reflection and personality test results, the personality type has greatly improved from being an executive to becoming an advocate. Thus, a change in personality type is identified from an executive to an advocate. 

This growth and maturity in personality has seen various changes and is characterized by advocate values and characteristics. In this case, some of the changes that have occurred include the growth in consideration of colleagues, subordinates, clients, and organizations, with an increase in value and ability to place others' interests before my own. Additionally, where a major weakness of executives is being rigid to innovation and stubborn in using conventional methods in doing their tasks, a change in personality type has seen more openness to new ideas, creativity, and innovation. Further characteristics of the advocate personality type include being more principled, passionate, and given to what I believe is right or should be done. This includes a great sense of drive to change things for the better. Also, advocates, whose roles are diplomats together with mediators and protagonists, are often intuitive and thoughtful in doing various tasks, especially in fulfilling others' well-being. Therefore, the self-reflection test results show a personality type that can bear others' burdens, be creative and innovative, and be ambitious in accomplishing what they must. 

Strengths and Weaknesses 

In reflection of the advocate personality type, various strengths and weaknesses are present that must be highlighted if better leadership should occur. One of the greatest strengths of the personality type includes the ability to manage a strong will, passion, and ambition for acting according to one's values while maintaining heavy compassion and consideration for others, with the ability to place others before themselves. One of the core strengths described in the personality test and self-reflection is deep conscientiousness that builds advocates. In this case, unlike other personalities such as executives who follow simple responsibilities, advocates are determined to create their ideals in doing tasks. They are often ambitious in doing the task excellently. Advocates, like executives, may be perfectionists and thus not only create simple ideals but are passionate about working on them and fulfilling them. Secondly, advocates are often altruistic and can readily place the interests and needs of others before their own. Advocates, unlike executives, show a great deal of compassion and consideration for those around them. In this case, advocates not only seek the success of organizations and firms while in leadership but also seek the benefit of those in the organization. Additionally, advocates are thoughtful and creative in determining different ways and approaches to doing tasks, not just the contemporary methods society has long used. Thus, a major opportunity area for the personality type is leadership and consultancy, where apart from the strong conscientiousness to lead people to what must be done, such a personality type can work to grow their subordinates and those around them while determining more creative and better ways for the success of the organization. Hence, major strengths in my personality type include creativity, compassion, and conscientiousness. 

On the other hand, the personality type is associated with various weaknesses. First, the personality type is attributed to excess perfectionism. In this case, where advocates tend to form ideologies and dreams for the tasks and responsibilities given, some of them may lack pragmatism to fulfill. Also, due to this perfectionism, the personality type can expect too much from others and are thus often disappointed by others. Also, despite the goodwill to continuously improve situations and make the best out of the tasks, they remain vulnerable to burning out due to internal pressure to seek the best for the tasks given and those around them. Thus, despite being innovative and creative, advocates may lack the know-how to bring their dreams into reality through smaller and more manageable steps. This lack of pragmatism further affects their leadership in navigating and directing their subordinates through smaller, manageable steps to reach their extraordinary vision. Another major weakness linked with the personality type, which is considerably more prominent for me, is the lack of capacity to receive criticism or accountability due to a more reserved personality. In this scenario, advocates are more vulnerable to criticism, especially against their beliefs and values. Advocates, like executives, are stubborn and lack to welcome contrary opinions and values against their core opinions and values. Also, due to the lack of vulnerability and maintaining privacy, advocates often lack accountability for themselves and never ask for help despite its need. Therefore, to become a better leader and consultant, an improvement in determining ways to achieve tasks and visions must be considered, together with becoming more vulnerable. 

Current Desirability and Challenge Statement 

Considering the self-reflection results and the registered strengths and weaknesses, I wish to become more pragmatic and increase my ability to implement my visions and goals for those around me and all associated organizations. Through the self-reflection activity, the lack of pragmatism is one of the greatest setbacks seen, especially in leadership and fulfilling my desired goals. Thus, to improve in this area while making strides for a greater good in leadership, the need for managing smaller steps to achieve these goals is needed. More so, the use of smaller steps can limit burning-out occurrences. Also, another critical desire to improve my personality type is becoming more welcoming to those around me, despite their opposing values and ideologies. Thus, with such improvements, the visions and goals will be implementable and can make a difference in leadership or consultancy. I don't want to achieve mere responsibilities but leave actual and tangible marks on my organization, subordinates, and the world!

Dream Role 

After reflecting on my desired personality and the necessary change, the innovative, considerate, and pragmatic leader personality critically goes hand in hand with my dream role and current personality type and role. Through Belbin's framework for team roles, I heavily lean on action-based roles in an organization ("The Nine Belbin Team Roles," 2022). In this case, some of the characteristics of such a team role include the shaper, implementer, and complete finisher, in which the implementer is more prominent for me. However, necessary changes must occur to achieve this dream role by refining the weaknesses observed, such as learning to be more pragmatic and achieving the set goals. Thus, my dream goal would be to become a better leader by refining my current role from the observed weaknesses. Therefore, a change and maturity in my personality can help me achieve my dream role.  

Personal Development Plan 

Following the mentioned weaknesses and necessary changes, a plan is imperative to attain my dream role and desired personality. First, the necessity for continual self-reflection is heavily emphasized through the activity since it identifies the weaknesses and points for change in leadership. Thus, continuous self-reflection and self-awareness must be scheduled for the continual development of my leadership. This action will help manage the watch-outs identified in this case, such as being a perfectionist, lacking practicality in leadership, and being less welcoming to opposing ideologies. Furthermore, following the success of the used concepts, the same principles should be applied in future circumstances to better leadership and consultant traits. Also, considering the current change and development in character and team role based on various feedback received from colleagues and professionals, such feedback should help me continue refining my personality and team role by using them as a measurement for progress. Thus, a critical personal development plan is to undergo continuous self-reflection to identify development, identify and manage weaknesses, and seek professional feedback. 

Conclusion

A feasible plan is identified through a thorough description of my personality, strengths, and weaknesses in traits to help attain my dream role and a refined personality to become a better leader and consultant. According to the Myers-Briggs personality test, the self-reflection activity identified my core personality as an advocate. Moreover, despite the changes and current maturity in personality type, more must be done to achieve my dream role, which is becoming an implementer team role according to the nine Belbin team roles. Through being a team implementer and maintaining the insightfulness and intuition of an advocate, tangible changes for the greater good are more achievable. Also, despite the identified strengths, such as being considerate, visionary, and conscientious, the personality type has certain negative attributes that can be amended, such as the lack of pragmatism, excess perfectionism, which leads to burnout, and less welcoming of those with contrary opinions. These weaknesses must be combated to attain my dream role and personality. Therefore, the self-reflection activity helps identify areas for improvement and the necessary changes to help one become a better leader who easily leaves a mark on others and the organization. 

 References

Free personality test | 16Personalities. 16Personalities. (2022). From https://www.16personalities.com/free-personality-test.

The Nine Belbin Team Roles. Belbin.com. (2022). From https://www.belbin.com/about/belbin-team-roles#:~:text=The%20nine%20Belbin%20Team%20Roles%20are%3A%20Resource%20Investigator%2C%20Teamworker%20and,about%20each%20Team%20Role%20below.