Leadership Paper A leader embodies many characteristics, motivating and inspiring people to bring about change. In the counseling profession leadership is essential, but as a student, it is confusing to understand my role as a leader. Although I have been in various leadership positions, integrating those characteristics into a cohesive style is difficult. West, Bubenz, Osborn, Paez, and Desmond discuss the importance for counseling students to develop a leadership vision and create a plan of implementation. Through this reflection, my goal is to cohesively integrate my qualities and skills and create my own leadership plan.
Personality and Personal Qualities Of all the components of a leader, I believe personality and personal qualities are most important. I have come to understand my personality fairly well, and with the help of the MBTI, it is clear how those qualities influence to my leadership
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Interpersonally, I am not a patient person and that also emerges when working with others. I often find myself finishing tasks myself because I do not wait to wait around for others. As a leader, this would be counterproductive and leave me overwhelmed. Also, I could improve my flexibility. In a leadership role, I tend to like things to be completed my way, but I have begun to give up some control and be more flexible when working with others. Flexibility is important as a leader because things will never run completely smooth, and it is important for leaders to adapt to changes or shortcomings. I also find that I need to improve on my own self-reflection as a leader. Although this paper is helpful, improving on this interpersonal characteristic would be extremely helpful when I am in a leadership position to understand my thoughts and choices better. Overall, utilizing and improving my interpersonal and interpersonal characteristics would be greatly beneficial as a
According to Riggio (2009), the most popular theory of leadership is transformational. Many believe that these leaders get the job done through inspiring, modeling, and helping others develop their skills as leaders. Research provides clear evidence that groups lead by transformational leaders have higher levels of performance and satisfaction than groups led by other types of leaders (Riggio, 2009). Clear communication is vital to transformational leadership and in order to succeed further, one will need to work on their own skills, and set aside time and space for personal development (Manktelow, 2005).
A person’s title within the organization does not make them a leader. The driving factor which determines if someone is in a leader position is their behavior. This person who is a leader will guide those in the organization by influencing, guiding, giving direction, and opinions (Marquis & Huston, 2012). The culture as well as the climate of an organization begins with the leadership (Azaare & Gross, 2011). Each individual person has their own leadership style. Knowing one’s own leadership style will help them understand themselves and be able to grow as a leader. The purpose of this paper is to look at my own leadership style, including my strengths for leading others. A description of a potential challenge that I foresee due to my leadership style and a plan for my personal leadership development will be discussed.
The best characteristics for an effective leader are integrity, passion, patience, transparency, innovation, and a good listener (active listening). It is imperative that the leader possess these characteristics to provide competent/effective leadership. As noted earlier a leader influences (motivates) the team to
Leadership is defined as the ability to accomplish a set goal(s) due to the act of inspiring and motivating a group of your peers. Former United States president Dwight D. Eisenhower made famous a quote that stated, “Leadership consists of nothing but taking responsibility for everything that goes wrong and giving your subordinates credit for everything that goes well.” (Notable-quotes.com). One of the most important aspects of the work area is leadership. Without leadership, there will be no guidance to for teamwork and the percentage of successful goal will be slim to none. Becoming a great leader is no easy feat however. An exceptional leader must lock in on specific attributes such as intellect, moral character, and human understanding. It doesn’t seem like much, but for a majority of people it can be almost impossible. These qualities alone listed above are some of many important qualities that will allow a leader to inspire and guide a group of people towards goals successfully.
Leaders possess many qualities but of course some are important than others. The strengths I posses would be courage, bravery and integrity. Some may say that my weaknesses would include collaboration (at times) and agency. I do stick up for what I believe in, I do not always jump into my assignments. However, I believe that there is nothing like the adrenaline rush you get when you are pumping out a paper a few days before it is due, I think that my intelligence level is actually raised when I am, last minutely working on something.
Correspondingly, I reflected on two distinct times that my leadership was disguised and not to the surface yet. During my high school days, I was the captain of the Track and Field Team. Also during this time I was a Peer Leader to the upcoming freshmen. As a peer leader I had duties such as assigning mentorees’ duties, giving out assignments, and making sure everyone understood what they were doing. Both times I was delegating and motivating my fellow teammates or mentorees’ to victory. Another time was the time I worked at Pearson Education in the summer of 2013. I was a Human Resources Intern and in charge of recruiting, interviewing, and training new employees. I did this process for the Spanish speaking employees and as well as the ones
"You have to be burning with an idea, or a problem, or a wrong that you want to right. If you 're not passionate enough from the start, you 'll never stick it out” (Steve Jobs). Reading that quote there is one word that really sticks out and says something to me; passionate. To be or to become the greatest leader in whatever field you’re into, if there is no passion in the work or goal you’re trying to achieve, you’ll never be able to stick it out or grow/prosper in the end. Just like the quote above from Steve Jobs states.
Leadership is a broad term with a powerful and diverse meaning. Found in every profession, school setting, and workplace, proves its vital and valued role. Working in the future as a health care professional evokes a strong sense of understanding to provide effective leadership. Interdisciplinary health teams more than ever compromise a large sector of health care, requiring the upmost standards of quality in leadership to assume these positions of power. From this course I set for myself a great responsibility to learn, grow, and build upon my skills in becoming an appreciated, and essential part when in the role or position of a leader. In addition I want to learn how to be comfortable in a leadership position, as it is often rarely proclaimed in today’s society. Breaking down what being a leader truly means, instead of an unattainable picture of world change, is
The subject of personal leadership is widely recognised nowadays as it is often believed that successful leaders not only have the ability to lead other, but also know well and able to control oneself. In order to understand more about myself as a leader, I registered for this course. Around two months of this course, I have gained considerable knowledge which will be clearly documented in this Reflective Learning Diary. In addition, a separate section will be dedicated to my reflections after completing some personality tests.
Perhaps the most important qualities of a leader are passion and motivation. Especially when leading a group for a particular cause, a leader must be personally attached to that cause. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., for example, is a legendary leader because he fought for a cause that directly affected him. had he not been pushing for a personal reason, his actions would not have been as passionate. This would have caused a lack in motivation, another essential leadership quality. A leader faces many roadblocks and opposition and thus, must be motivated to continue fighting and leading. A leader’s attitude and opinions are valued by the group and therefore, if a leader is motivated, the group will be, too. The continued actions and successes, no matter how small, which move the group closer to its goal also help its motivation and drive.
The most important quality that differentiates a leader from other people is the ability to think strategically. Vision is the most important aspect that drives a leader’s strategy. It is all about where you want to be. Other qualities include Decision making, problem solving, time management, self-motivation, emotional intelligence and many more. Once we know the type of leadership, it is easy to find what leadership skills we have and which we need to develop which is explained in the book “Leadership: Theory, application, skill development (5th ed.) by Lussier and Achua.” Also, Keirsey Style Sorter personality type helps to knowing our temperament type, and work on our weakness and to emerge out as a good leader.
One of the most important components of leadership is the leader. A leader is responsible for his or her followers and the overall goal of the group or organization. Leaders are the people held accountable or everything that happens, good or bad. On the other hand, the second major component of leadership is the followers. Without followers, a leader would be worthless. Followers make up the backbone of a leader because they are the masses that get goals accomplished. A leader is just one person, but the number of followers is countless. In order to be an effective follower, there are a countless number of characteristics that allow a follower to be the best they can be. Five of these characteristics include a positive attitude, communication skills, being part of the process, being open to new ideas, and patience.
Throughout my life I have encountered the chance to experience position of being a leader. Being part of groups in university for class presentations, being the organizing secretary of my campus fellowship, being a youth leader in my church and the church admin, also being part of a family. Leaders are charismatic, inspirational and trust worthy. I have gained some important qualities of being a good leader through these experiences. Most of the valuable leadership’s characteristics that I obtained and strengthened are: learn to become a better leader every day, how to be a team player, to be a better listener, to be an effective communicator, to have more patience, not afraid of constructive criticism, to be outspoken, and to be a problem solver. Even though I have gained a lot, I still have more things to learn to become a better leader such as being more assertive, being more disciplined, becoming a better public speaker, and learn how to be realistic and not too optimistic. You are a leader if someone else choses to follow you.
After understanding the theory behind both the trait and skill approach, I was eager to evaluate and reflect on my own leadership traits. It was interesting to see how the trait approach allowed me to better understand whether or not I have certain traits considered to be important for leadership, while skills approach allowed me to evaluate my strengths and weaknesses in the technical, human and conceptual skills. From completing the Leadership Trait Questionnaire (LTQ) and the Skills Inventory, I was able to reflect more on how I behave towards others in a leadership context, as well as the skills that I currently possess. As a naturally extroverted person, I have been taking on leadership roles from a young age. The findings from these two
Another aspect of leadership includes leadership traits such as being influential and inspirational. There also different contexts of leadership, e.g, leading oneself, leading other individuals, leading groups, leading organizations. Some traits that are often associated with being an effective leader include a measure of intelligence, high energy, self confidence, dominance, and a need for achievement. An effective, charismatic leader must lead by example. That leader must be able to know what is going on, the job or task that is being accomplished, and be able to lead the group into performing the task at hand successfully.