The concept and characteristics of Leadership viewed through the Essay

The concept and characteristics of Leadership viewed through the JoHari Window - Essay Example The Johari window is often referred to as a ‘Disclosure/feedback’ model of self awareness and as a tool for processing information. It’s a self awareness tool because it represents information on feelings, attitudes, views, skills, intentions, experiences and motivation that a person presents in relation to his team, from four different angles. The two main concepts behind the Johari window is that the individuals are able to foster relations based on trust by simply disclosing personal information about themselves and secondly, they can become better persons by dealing with personal issues with the assistance obtained from others [Chapman 2003]. Essentially, better understanding between individuals and groups can be created with the assistance of the Johari window. It is also applicable to the leadership of an organization as it is in understanding the concept of the Johari window that leaders are able to understand the value and importance of self disclosure. This then results to their appreciation of giving and receiving personal feedback. When the Johari window is administered with sensitivity, the team members are able to build trusting relationships amongst themselves, are able to deal with problems and consequently be more effective as a team. This automatically leads to improved productivity within the organization, which is an objective for any goal oriented organization. Loft and Ingham, the founders of the Johari window, divided this window into four quadrants as show below: Quadrant 1 Open Area /Public Area/ The arena Quadrant2 Blind Area / Blind Spot Quadrant 3 Hidden Area Quadrant 4 Unknown Area Open Area | Public Area | The arena This quadrant represents the areas that are known by both ourselves and others. These areas are such as our strengths and weaknesses which we openly choose to share with and display to others. Information known in this quadrant is both factual and behavioral. Factual information is such as one's name and place of residence. While behavioral information includes: wants, needs, feelings etc. This quadrant is a basic description of who one is. Whenever individuals meet for the first time, the size of this quadrant is small and individuals have the choice of whether or not to expand it by exchanging information. Blind Area / Blind Spot This quadrant represents the traits that others know about an individual but are unknown to the individual. These traits could be positive or negative and have an influence on how others respond towards the individual. These traits could be as simple as appearance or as complex as feelings of insecurity, inadequacy and incompetence. More often than not, it is difficult to communicate these traits to an individual as it may sometimes be viewed to be degrading or attacking. This poses a problem as the relationship can be compromised. Hidden / Avoided Area This quadrant represents information that an individual knows about himself but is unknown to others. Unless the individual deliberately decides to reveals this information, it remains unknown. Feelings of trust and comfort usually encourage people to reveal more about themselves and consequently, the window shade is pulled down;