1. Introduction
This paper analyzes my leadership abilities. Its purpose is to evaluate my strengths, core competencies and leadership capabilities. My personal mission and development plan are a result of my internal examination. To fully analyze what sets me apart, I defined the attributes that make me the best. An analysis of how others perceive my leadership is an integral part of my leadership assessment.
Over forty years ago, Peter Drucker stressed the importance of developing strengths. Drucker said that “unless an executive looks for strength and works at making strength productive, he will only get the impact of what a man cannot do” (Zenger and Folkman et al. 84--92). Leadership competencies such as effective communication, resolving conflict, directing others and managing projects are just as important as business acumen.
The leadership skills assessment revealed few surprises. As a senior officer in the military, I have managed and developed thousands of soldiers and civilian personnel. My most significant scores occurred in the following areas:
• Acts after making a decision 4.00
• Communicates effectively and continuously 4.00
• Acknowledges mistakes & learns from them 4.00
• Explains employees’ goals in relation to department/business unit goals 4.00
• Acts with integrity, is a role model 4.00
Decisiveness is a desired characteristic in an effective leader. I am able to make critical decisions in the face of ever changing circumstances. To date, my decisions are based on the short-terms needs of getting a new team up and running after reorganization. Most of the decisions have been reactive in nature. My goals for 2014 are to take a more strategic approach to long-term decisions based on defining complexity an...
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...rack Managers." (2013): Print.
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In today’s organization, strategic leadership is required for the drive to the top, the leaders believe in innovation and change. Therefore, they set forth by investing their strength to achieve success. Strengths Based Leadership by Tom Rath and Barry Conchie discussed the three keys to becoming a more effective leader through strengths, working with the right people of equal strength, seeking the right people on the team and achieving the basic need of a leadership. The strength of a leader is in his communication, a great communicator is one who thinks ahead of time in making sure things are done thoroughly. However, a leader’s strength can be categorized as a visionary thinker. The strength of a visionary thinker is one that understands the purpose of a project and work effectively to accomplish the project in a timely manner. According to (Rath & Conchie 2009, p.13), “Leaders can learn to develop certain skills which can help them become more effective, efficient,...
Pfeffer, J., & Sutton, R. (2006). Are Great leaders in control of Their Companies?. In Hard Facts,
Kouzes, J., & Posner, B., (2007). The leadership challenge, (4th ed.). San Francisco, CA: Jossey-
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Assessment tools can be a good start for individuals to assess their leadership characteristics and skills, such as Grossman and Valiga’s Leadership Characteristcs and Skills Assessment (Grossman and Valiga, 2013). These tools may be helpful but its accuracy is questionable. The assessment can overestimate or underestimate an individual’s skills since it is a self-subjective administered assessment that is biased towards the taker. An overconfident person may perceive their skills highly and an under confident person may have low results.
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Network: Is the value created by collaborating with others. We are connected now, and it becomes basic for companies to collaborate with each other, to gain processes with technology and information. For example, Boing Company is collaborating with General Electrics – that provide Boing with the plane motors- so Boing can innovate the product.
Kouzes, J. M., & Posner, B. Z. (2007). The Leadership Challenge (4th ed.). San Francisco, CA:
As an officer in the United States Army, it has been imperative for me to understand every facet of leadership and why it remains important to be an effective leader. During this course, I have learned some valuable lessons about myself as a leader and how I can improve on my leadership ability in the future. The journal entries along with the understanding of available leadership theories have been an integral part of my learning during this course. For all of the journals and assessments that I completed, I feel it has given me a good understanding of my current leadership status and my future potential as a leader. All of the specific assessments looked at several areas in regards to leadership; these assessments covered several separate focus areas and identified my overall strengths and weaknesses as a leader. Over the course of this paper I will briefly discuss each one of these assessments and journal entries as they pertained to me and my leadership.
Kouzes, J., & Posner, B. (2007). The Leadership Challenge (4th ed.). San Francisco, CA 94103-1741: Jossey-Bass.
...T.S., & Snell, S.A. (2009). Management: leading and collaborating in the Competitive World (8th ed.). Retrieved February 13, 2011 from https://ecampus.phoenix.edu/content/eBookLibrary2/content/eReader.aspx?assetMetaId=f65d6fdb-d2b7-4710-8429-2e86eeb1129c&assetDataId=2ff3a671-8b6b-4f7d-a5b1-59e8755f8099&assetpdfdataid=a5d9d898-620d-4975-b3af-1957bf8ee4bd.
Coutu, D. (2009). Why teams don’t work: an interview with J. Richard Hickman. HBR's 10 MUST READS On Teams
This paper describes about my leadership strengths and areas for growth/future study. It also included how these qualities are used in my daily work routine, self-assessment results and a brief explanation on Individual style in leadership.