Leadership in the Author - Essay Example

Leadership in me due: Introduction Leadership can be defined as the process by which an individual persuades other people to accomplish a task, as well as provide direction for an organization in a way that would make the organization more coherent as well as cohesive. Leaders generally carry out the process by way of applying their attributes in leadership, which would include beliefs, ethics, values, character, skill, and knowledge. Various people that do not have leadership skills have shown that once they gain some experience they can become good leaders, especially if they have the willpower as well as the desire. A good leader develops through a continuous process of education, self-studying, training, as well as experience. Leadership styles vary, and that is why it is necessary for a person to understand and know their leadership style, and how their specific leadership affects their workplace. 1. My Leadership style Leadership is influenced by various factors, and that is why it is vital to know how as well as why your style of leadership is what it is. There are numerous contributors involved when dealing with development of leadership styles within a person. According to Myers Brigg (MBTI- Myers Briggs Type Indicator), my leadership style of which is ESFP (extraverted, sensing, feeling, perceiving) is considered to be that of a personality type of which is one of the 16 types of personalities. People who have ESFP type personalities are frequently described as outgoing, spontaneous, and resourceful (Lester, 1975). ESFP has its characteristics, and the MBTI has four main areas in which it looks at preferences of personality, namely :(1) introversion versus extroversion, (2) feeling versus thinking (3) intuition versus sensing, and lastly perception versus judgment. ESFPs have a tendency of being very resourceful and practical. They prefer hands-on learning experiences and tend to hate learning from books as well as discussions based on the theory. When problem solving, they put their trust in instincts and personal abilities to solve solutions. Although they are quite reasonable as well as pragmatic, they hate structure, planning, and order. Instead, they prefer to act spontaneously, and spend less time formulating plans or schedules. ESFPs as extraverts like spending time with people and have great interpersonal skills. They are great at understanding people’s feelings and know how to respond their emotions differently (University of Saskatchewan, 2014 p. 1-2). Therefore, we can say that, ESFPs make incredible leaders and know how to mobilize, persuade, and motivate people. ESFPs can also be described as kind, warm, as well as thoughtful people who at the same time love to engage in new experiences. In addition, they also focus on present activities. 2. My Leadership strengths As a leader, I am expected to possess good qualities especially in terms of personal behavior. I should be able to demonstrate high levels of self-esteem as well as having a positive outlook. Most situations are never in our control, but a reaction to them is always in our control, so as a leader positive reaction helps put things in perspective. It can also be said that good leaders have the ability to gain the trust as well as the confidence of subordinates. This being said some of my strengths as a leader are empathy, generosity, being outgoing as well as supportive given the circumstances of the situation. To be a better leader, they are a few areas that need a room for development or improvement for one to be effective in leadership. Some of these areas include time management and postponement. In time management, they are two key areas that need improvement, of which are keeping time and managing anger. They are situations where keeping time is impossible which is a setback when trying to resolve issues because you end up rushing to find a solution without fully understanding what exactly happened. While with anger management, it boils down to have subordinates thinking that they are all right and have the right to be heard whatever the situation maybe. As a leader, goal setting is a necessity in order to achieve good leadership. In addition, goal setting is perceived as a commitment to achievement thus enabling a good leader to focus and work towards that direction. Goal setting helps in avoidance of distractions as well as a reminder to focus on the desired task or goal. Therefore, one can say, my leadership goal is to become more self-confident transformational leader. 3. Plan on how to build upon my Leadership strengths Studies have shown that they are various ways in which a leader can build upon their strengths depending on what kind of leadership role they are involved. One dominant factor to building leadership strength is known as the complementary skills of which vary but it is all about assessment towards improvement. In this particular instance, Questionnaires were used as the building block, to providing leadership strengths and the people involved were co-workers and various feedback forms especially the 360 feedbacks. The reason why Questionnaires were used is that they are primarily designed to evaluate the factors that are related to leadership styles and how these factors determine the efficiency and effectiveness of a leader. The Questionnaires are one of the most important instruments in assessing leadership abilities, as well as behaviors within an organization, and is a tool that is mostly used by transformational leaders. When used in conjunction with other leadership and developmental tools, they offer a better understanding in evaluating leadership abilities and behaviors and follow up on reactions as well as situational attributes. 4. How to develop my opportunity areas Good leadership skills are important to the development. Influence is the key to successful leadership as opposed to authority. Influence is a key feature of transformational leaders, to continuously develop leadership skills. A leader needs to think about influential actions to take as well as how to influence others. The starting point for opportunity development is learning more about your leadership style. This involves knowing your strengths, understanding which areas need improvement. This can be done by taking leadership style quizzes in order to provide a general idea, and reading about main characteristics of your leadership style. Personality of leadership style is considered the most important area of development (Lestner, 1975, p 4). ESFPs are known to have both great personality traits and relationship characters. Transformational leaders by default have great personalities, and one of the other ways of getting better is by engaging in more of their leadership style abilities hence giving them more experience and therefore, becoming better developed, when dealing with their followers. 5. How self-assessment exercises from Nahvandi applies to my knowledge of leadership In the three areas of self-assessment, which included emotional intelligence, locus of control and type A, my highest score was in emotional intelligence. I believe why my score is high in emotional intelligence is because of my ability to comprehend and manage emotions of people. In addition, some of the key elements of emotional intelligence are some of the strengths of my leadership. They are five elements of emotional intelligence namely; self-awareness, self-regulation, motivation, empathy and social skills. Leaders with high emotional intelligence are known to be successful. As for the locus of control, I can say my personal behavior contributes to the perception of resultant outcomes of things I have no control over that are outside my influence (Nahvandi, 2012, p 134-137). As a type A, I feel things should be moving forward and taking into account time is vital it qualifies me as a type A whereby type leaders are competitive, time conscious and aggressive. 6. Leadership themes and theories What makes a good leader? Is it personality traits that make people better at leadership roles, or are characteristics of given situations that prompt certain people to take charge? The fact is that there is no magic formula for successful leadership styles. However, it is only recently that theories in leadership have emerged. Early theories in leadership focused on distinguishing qualities between followers and leaders, whereas subsequent theories focused on variables like situational factors as well as skill levels. They are several theories that can help get leadership results, for example, trait, behavioral, contingency, transactional, and transformational theories (Lester, 1975, p. 6-8). In this case, the transformational leadership style is what has provided the leadership results because these types of leaders have integrity, high emotional intelligence; they motivate others, and have good communication skills. They are an inspiration to team members and drive them to be bringing out their best, and furthermore they hold themselves accountable for their action. They are also organized and have clear set planned goals, which in turn lead to higher productivity. However, leadership styles are not one sided they involve in cooperating other styles in order to have effective leadership in a different situation. 7. Conclusion Finally, leadership is all about personality and is one of the most significant skills needed in order to lead people towards achieving specific tasks and goals within organizations. With good leadership, there is no single leadership style; it is a mix and match in order to meet goals. A good leader has to be trustworthy, have faith in self-abilities, and be an inspiration to others. Leadership styles are dependent on the leader as well as organizations idea of what leadership should be, and it is the choice of the leader to see what the best style of leadership is. Furthermore, different leadership styles, as well as skills are developed by self-assessments, self believe, talents, understanding the organizations needs and embracing change. References Lester, C, N. (1975). Leadership styles - a key to effectiveness. Retrieved February 25, 2014 from http://www.joe.org/joe/1975november/1975-6-a1.pdf Nahavandi, A. (2012). The art and science of leadership. Upper Saddle River, N.J: Pearson Prentice Hall. University of Saskatchewan. (n.d) Myers-Briggs Type Indicator ESFP. Retrieved February 25, 2014, from http://students.usask.ca/current/life/employment/PDFs/ESFP.pdf Read More