MGMT8270 Chap.2 Self-Awareness, Values and Place
Self-Awareness, Values and Place
Seeing yourself accurately
Week 2 treats self-awareness as the foundation of leader development, because a blind spot cannot be improved until it is noticed, while warning that most people think they are more self-aware than they are.
It separates internal self-awareness, knowing yourself, from external self-awareness, knowing how others see you, and warns that reflection done badly makes people less accurate.
Values and place
The chapter maps values with Schwartz's circle and its four broad families of values: openness to change, self-enhancement, conservation and self-transcendence.
It shows how to debrief a values profile using Kolb's experiential learning cycle, and how place shapes a leader identity through physical, cultural and political dimensions.
A worked debrief shows two values from opposite sides of the circle pulling a leader in different directions.
From self-knowledge to the first two tasks
The values profile and the place exercise give you concrete evidence about yourself, which is exactly what the Video Reflection and the Development Proposal ask you to ground your claims in.
A profile showing two strong values in tension, or a place that taught you who was allowed to lead, can anchor a reflection far better than general statements about being a people person.
What this chapter covers
- 01
Why self-awareness comes first
- 02
Internal and external self-awareness
- 03
Turning why questions into what questions
- 04
Schwartz's four value categories
- 05
Rating and debriefing a values profile
- 06
Kolb's experiential learning cycle
- 07
Physical, cultural and political dimensions of place
Worked example · free
Spotting a values conflict in a promotion decision
- 1Benevolence belongs to self-transcendence and achievement to self-enhancement.
- 1Those two categories sit on opposite sides of Schwartz's circle, so a choice that serves one tends to cost the other, which is why she feels torn.
- 1She could ask which value has held firm over the past five to ten years, since lasting values are often the core, and look for an option that serves both, such as mentoring a successor.
Key terms
- External Self-Awareness
- Accurate knowledge of how other people see you and the effect your behaviour has on them.
- Self-Transcendence Values
- Values such as benevolence, universalism and humility that motivate concern for the welfare of others and of nature.
- Conservation Values
- Values such as security, conformity and tradition that motivate order, self-restriction and preservation of the past.
- Experiential Learning Cycle
- Kolb's four-stage loop of concrete experience, reflective observation, abstract conceptualisation and active experimentation.
- Place-Based Leadership
- An approach to leader development that treats where a person comes from as a source of self-awareness.
Self-Awareness, Values and Place FAQ
Why does self-awareness matter so much for leaders?
It is among the best predictors of how well people lead, and it is the starting point for development because weaknesses you cannot see cannot be worked on. The difficulty is that most people overestimate how self-aware they are.
What are the four groups in Schwartz's values framework?
Openness to change, self-enhancement, conservation and self-transcendence. Neighbouring groups sit comfortably together, while groups facing each other across it, such as openness and conservation, compete.
How can place shape the way someone leads?
Through three dimensions: the physical setting and how space brings people together, the cultural beliefs and stories about who should lead, and the political arrangements that decide who holds authority and who is left out.
Is it bad to reflect a lot on my leadership?
Not if the reflection meets new input. The course warns that reflection on a loop, without feedback, can make you less accurate, and suggests swapping why questions for what questions about what happened and what to try next.
How do values change over a lifetime?
Slowly and often unnoticed. Life stages, major experiences and the people around us shift what we rank most highly. Part of self-awareness is telling a lasting change in priorities from a passing mood, and the values that have stayed constant for years usually show where your core lies.
Assessment move
Rate your own values, find the two that sit furthest apart on the circle, and write one paragraph on a recent moment when they collided, ending with what you will do differently. Add one sentence on the place that shaped you, naming the dimension of place it reflects, so the two exercises support each other.
Working through Self-Awareness, Values and Place in MGMT8270? Sia is AskSia’s AI Management tutor — ask any MGMT8270 Self-Awareness, Values and Place question and get a clear, step-by-step explanation grounded in how MGMT8270 is taught and assessed. Read this chapter free, then take your hardest questions to Sia.
MGMT8003 Organisational Behaviour · BUSI7280 Managing in a Global Context · BUSI3028 Business in China