How does Self-Efficacy Impact Leadership?

          “Self-belief does not necessarily ensure success, but self-disbelief assuredly spawns failure” (Bandura, 1997). This typically emphasized the importance of self-efficacy in relation to Cultural Intelligence (CQ). Self-efficacy has to do with the belief that one has the ability to meet a goal he or she wants to accomplish, and its impact on how he or she subsequently feels and acts (Cultural Intelligence for Leaders, 2012). This is a reminisce of the case of Kalia, in this case, study, whose low self-efficacy is negatively impacting on her ability to unite her team. Kalia is heading a diverse team of eight staff members within a large organization. It is evident there is conflict across her team, and the cross of the matter appears to be grounded in cultural differences linked to age, ethnicity, and gender. According to our reading text, Kalia has been able to identify the problem, but her constraint is how to address the issues because she seems not confident of her ability to do so. Kalia’s self-efficacy is seriously impacting on her leadership and ability to manage her team. And the solution to the problem is down to her developing her self-efficacy in order to improve her cultural intelligence.

There’s no doubt some aspects of Kalia’s behavior reflect sound management skills, however, this case mostly reflects on the aspect of her self-efficacy that has been greatly impaired. It is possible; this may be due to learned helplessness that could be traced back to her past experience. Learned helplessness is when we assume there’s nothing we can do about something because we believe absolutely that we will fail at the end (Cultural Intelligence for Leaders, 2012). Kalia is carrying memories of this failure into her expectations about the current situation and has convinced herself that the odd of another failure is high. Her confidence is low, and she appears to be afraid to try again. I would imagine she may be thinking that other team members can come-up with solutions to the problems at hand themselves. However, she did choose to set a goal of intervening to correct the situation, in a meeting she scheduled in two weeks.

The fact that Kalia’s self-efficacy is low; her leadership ability has been negatively impacted. And it appears she is avoiding having a one on one meeting with staff members to face the problem head-on. Rather, she is planning a large team meeting, but her dread seems to have slowed down the formalization of that plan. She has not applied any emotional intelligence strategies such as observing the emotions of herself and that of other team members, nor managing and adapting emotions or using emotions as a tool to manage relationships and create bonds (Yale University, 2010). She resorted to avoiding strategy, which explains the low level of her self-efficacy and in turn has caused her to resent her team, and constantly blames them for not being able to adapt to different work styles. Blaming your team is the last option a leader should resort to, rather a leader should take up responsibility for any challenges and assure his or her team while working towards proffering solution to issues and problems.

The first strategy and solution that would help Kalia to develop her self-efficacy which will, in turn, improve her cultural intelligence would be to strengthen her Emotional Intelligence. This is because Emotional Intelligence provides the self-awareness that is critical for self-efficacy, which is an important component of Cultural Intelligence (Cultural Intelligence for Leaders, 2012). Secondly, to build Emotional Intelligence involves being aware of one’s own emotional triggers, being able to recognize emotions through physical clues as well as thoughts, behaviors, and knowing how to manage one’s own emotions (UC Davis Extension, 2017). Doing this would in no doubt see Kalia successfully overcome her feeling of doubt, rather than submitting and succumbing to them. And her decision-making acumen would be greatly improved.

Another strategy that will help Kalia improve her cultural intelligence and self-efficacy is for her to employ the principles of Mindfulness which is paramount to leaders developing better self-efficacy and help her overcome self-doubt (Cultural Intelligence for Leaders, 2012). I would encourage her to if possible enroll into any of the numerous online free mindfulness training resources and programs to privately develop her self-management kills. Doing this will be a very good move for her, to avail herself of such resources to develop her mindfulness skills, so as to succeed in her role and eliminate her learned helplessness. In the end, Kalia would also assess what is happening within the team and be open to creative ideas and solutions that might help her realize her goal of resolving the existing intercultural conflicts and any other issue that might arise in the future.

Kalia might also employ the homework strategies as suggested by UC Davis Extension (2017). They involve such simple assignments as writing five triggers for each of the four primary emotions, getting clear on how emotions manifest and listing ten things that they do to cope with their emotions when triggered (UC Davis Extension, 2017). The last but not the least, Kalia can introduce metacognition training programs that will help teach staff members to pay attention and reflect on interactions and best next steps, reflecting on what worked and what didn’t work to inform future interactions, and imagining the experience of the other person in order to develop a better understanding of other people’s feelings and emotions (Cultural Intelligence for Leaders, 2012). It is important that in this case emotional intelligence is brought to work in tandem with metacognition to help reduce the way members of staff react to issues so that their interactions will be more supportive, compassionate and effective.

What suggestions do you have for Kalia in leading her staff to be a culturally intelligent team?

Kalia needs a self-reexamination, in the sense that she needs to understand that she is being held back by her low self-efficacy, which is limiting her from fully expressing her leadership skills and in turn inhibits the potentials of the team. If she could focus on putting behind, her past doubt and swing into more positive antics, she will definitely bring the best out of her team. Her future lies in her hands. Kalia can rewrite her own page to extinguish the model of mindless self-doubt. By resolving conflict and tension with the restoration of confidence, Kalia can focus on the important objectives that truly matter to her, her staff, and the organization.

Conclusion

          To manage cultural intelligence effectively, one needs to develop a very high level of self-efficacy, especially when we find ourselves in a new environment where we would have to deal with unfamiliar issues that have formed a norm in the new organization. The circumstance does not give room for laxity, which is the reason we must have to adopt a high level of self-efficacy and a much more improved level of understanding of emotional intelligence.

References

          Bandura, A. (1997). Self-Efficacy: The Exercise of Control. New York: Freeman. Retrieved Sept. 30^th, 2018, from Uky.edu. Passages by Albert Bandura, https://www.uky.edu/~eushe2/Pajares/effquotes.html

          Cultural Intelligence for Leaders (2012). Saylor Academy. Creative Commons by-nc-sa 3.0. Retrieved Oct. 1^st, 2018, from: https://saylordotorg.github.io/text_leading-with-cultural-intelligence/index.html

          UC Davis Extension (2017, Jan 2). Emotional Intelligence: How Good Leaders Become Great -- UC Davis Executive Leadership Program. [Video File]. Retrieved Oct. 1^st, 2018, from:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HA15YZlF_kM

          Yale University (2010, Jul 27). Emotional Intelligence and Leadership. [Video File]. Retrieved Sept. 29^th, 2018, from: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0k8TcF-3ofY