Developing Self

I. Introduction

As the global economy has been turned to a competitive work environment, the role of manager also has been asked for more challenging requirements. In order to meet those requirements, the first thing to which all managers should give a careful consideration is how they can use their competences effectively. Drucker (2005) believes that success in the knowledge economy comes to those who understand themselves, know their values, and how they best perform in organisations. He also argues that only when managers operate from a combination of their strengths and self-knowledge, they can achieve the true excellence. To have that combination, managers should be aware of themselves, be able to analysis their strengths and weaknesses to know where they belong. Thus self-analysis and continuous self-development play a significant role to help managers gain the top of their goals in their future careers.

II. Task 1: The important of self-analysis and continuous self-development

1. Self-analysis

Hubbard (2007) states that although self-analysis cannot stop war or recovers the dead, it will take you to the most attractive adventure in your life, the adventure of yourself. He also argues that the process of self-analysis is to answer these questions: "How efficient are you? What are your potentials? How much can you improve?" (Hubbard, 2007:3). So what is self-analysis? Sonnenberg (1993) self-analysis is a self-conscious and self-disciplined process, which begins with one's awareness, and one's associations to his/her dreams, symptoms, slips, interactions with people, and what he/she thought about them or said to them, or anything he/she might consider. Through self-analysis, people will become self-awareness.

According to McCarthy and Garavan (1999:438), "self-awareness and self-perception accuracy are used interchangeably in the literature on performance appraisal and career development". They argue that there is noticeable research to intimate that the enhancement of self-awareness can lead managers to manage their organisations more effectively. It has been said that the common definition of management is getting things done with other people (Bourner, 1996), so when a manager obtains an understanding of his or her own values, it also helps to provide understandings of others. Bourner (1996) believes that by those understandings, managers will be able to appreciate others' perceptions, know more realistic expectations of their colleagues; these enable a manager to listen to their employees more empathetically and build a better working environment. Obviously, managers would be able to evaluate and compare their current values to their internal and external standards.

The importance of self-awareness is further emphasised by Bourner (1996, p.14) when he says, "Self-awareness is a quality which does contribute in a way that is both positive and significant". Moreover, McCarthy and Garavan (1999) argue that by self-analysis, managers will become self-deliberate as objective evaluators of themselves; and, self-analysis is an important ability for achieving managerial excellence. They believe that the more aware an individual is of his or her workplace action, the more efficient that individual is comprehended to be by other people. A person who has little self-awareness could be more easily swayed by external influences so that their self-esteem would be very low (Bourner, 1996).

2. Continuous self-development

In addition to the importance