Leadership Assessment
In organizations aspiring for growth and continual improvement, relationships are more intricate and alternatives more numerous than the either/or imposition implied by the notion of leaders and followers. Practically no one leads all of the time. Leaders also work as followers; all in all, “everyone uses a portion of their day following and another portion leading” (Galie and Bopst, 2006, p. 11).
I find this to be very accurate, both in relation to my Leadership Assessment Quiz and Power Orientation test results as well as my own personal stance on leadership and power. Power is defined as “a person, group, or nation having great influence or control over others,” (Moore, 1996, p. 837), whereas leadership is seen as the ability of one who leads or inspires. The notable difference between the two, being “control” and “inspire.”
In association with the 65 achieved in the Leadership Assessment Quiz, my readiness for the leadership role is comprehended as moderate. Meaning I have moderate readiness to take on a leadership role. A leaders traits and needs play a crucial role in determining peoples work attitudes, behaviours, and performance, in addition to organizational outcomes. Effective leaders are said to have certain personality traits, which can be divided into general personality traits, such as; self-confidence, assertiveness and warmth, and task-related traits, such as courage and control (DuBrin, Dalglish, and Miller, 2006).
The general personality traits, which are related to success both in and outside the workplace, are all inherent in my answers given in the Leadership Assessment Quiz. With statements such as, “it is easy for me to compliment others” and “team members listen to me when I speak,” it is apparent I possess these characteristics. Whereas my task- related personality traits associated with successful leadership, such as courage, still need to be developed. Not only do I know this in myself, but it is clearly pointed out throughout the test, with statements such as, “resolving conflict is an activity I enjoy” and “I would enjoy coaching other members of the team”.
The literature generally suggests that effective leaders express their needs and motives in ways that benefit the organization. These needs or motives, are considered to be; tenacity, power, drive and work ethic (DuBrin et al. 2006). The power motive is significant, as it plays a major role in the relations taking place within the organization. Power over others is an inevitable part of leadership, but it also carries with it the risks associated with the misuse or abuse of power (Wikipedia, 2008).
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.
Carson Dye describes leadership as “a living phenomenon”; and that “it is expected to shift shape according to its purpose and the demands of its followers and the environment. It is as a social influence process in which the leader seeks the voluntary participation of subordinates in an effort to reach organizational goals”. (Dye, 2010) According to Dye, Leadership is both
Whilst there are many different definitions of leadership, it is generally agreed that the act of leading people involves influencing them to undertake a course of action that contributes to an objective defined by the leader: his or her vision (Cutler, 2014). Some of the traits of a leader are adaptable to situations, alert to social environments, assertive, decisive, and dependable. There are many styles of leadership such as
Leaders are born, and not made in my opinion. In this assignment I will provide a comprehensive overview of the findings from a leadership style self-assessment that I used to help me gage what type of leader I am. The assessment tool I used consisted of 30 questions in which I circled a score between 1 and 5. 1 represented almost never true, 2 means seldom true, 3 is occasionally true, 4 is frequently true, and 5 meant almost always true. Once I was done answering all questions each column was totaled. The highest score indicates the leadership style that is most representative of you. My highest score was a 38 which means I am a participative democratic style leader. One thing that I found interesting about
Assessing positive leadership traits is very essential to acknowledging a good leader. The following positive leadership traits are, “Task competence, interpersonal competence, intuition, traits of character, biophysical traits, and personal traits” (Kreitner & Kinicki, 2013, p. 469).
McShane et al. (2016) emphasize that effective leaders have eight competencies, which are personality, self-concept, leadership motivation, drive, integrity, knowledge of business, cognitive, practical and emotional intelligence. Personality means leaders are extraversive and scrupulous. Followed by clear leader concept and high self-esteem which clarify self-concept definition. While leaders’ motivation to achieve the organization’s goal describe both leadership motivation and drive. Moreover, integrity related to honesty and other moral actions, as well as knowledge within business and practical ability of problem solving which called knowledge of business and cognitive and practical intelligence. To complete leaders’ competencies, ability
Ivey Business Journal. (n.d.). Followership: the other side of leadership. Retrieved January 14, 2014 from http:iveybusinessjournal.com/topics/leadership/leadership/followership-the-other-side-of-leadership#.UtbFeaFMHIU
The Five-Factor Model of Personality are: Emotional Adjustment, Extraversion, Conscientiousness, Openness to Experience, and Agreeableness. In personality research, there is much concern which traits best predict job performance whether broad or specific personality. This study also investigate the relative predictive power of broad versus specific measures of the Big Five traits and investigate connection between transformational leadership and a number of outcomes that reflect leadership
In its simplest terms, leadership is the process of influencing the behavior of another person while fully respecting the freedom of that person (Encarta). Two aspects of this definition are important. First, a significant part of effective leadership is the close connection between the leader and the follower, which often determines the success of the leader's mission. Unfortunately, this leader-follower relationship cannot be created according to some simple formula. Without inspiration, involvement, and encouragement from both participants, the relationship can not be effective. Leaders, in particular, must give an extra effort to reach out to followers in order to initiate and develop this alliance that is so critical to the achievement of goals. The leaders face special challenges as they try to communicate and interact with their followers and potential followers to understand and know what they think and what they do. Developing their leadership style in response to diversity, and ethics will give them an edge as they build relationships with their subordinators. Secondly, leaders who begin to use force, coercion, and manipulation must later use more force, coercion, and manipulation precisely because their ability to influence - truly lead - is diminished. In my company I have never seen our lead to use any force to associates for achieving goals, because he’d like to be a true leader for a long time. I believe that there are times in the life of a team or organization when the formula leader appropriately exercises the authority of his or her position or deal with organizational issues.
...s. Lunenburg (2012) specify that a true leader is skilled to influence others and alter behavior through possessing all of the sources of the power (Coercive, Expert, Informational, Legitimate, Referent, and Reward) simultaneously. In most cases, the personal sources of power are more vigorously related to employees’ job contentment, organizational dedication, and performance than are the organizational power sources. The idea of power and leadership has been and will persistent to be complementary.
In closing, leadership is a complexes process, there are no simple paths or guarantees to becoming a successful leader. Each individual is unique, and each of us has our own distinct talents for leadership. The traits that seem to be very important in leadership are intelligence, confidence. Charisma, determination, sociability, and integrity. By knowing your traits and nourishing them, you will be a well-developed and successful leader.
In terms of the results of the test, the key personality dimensions that generated high scores were within the conscientiousness, agreeableness and extraversion dimensions. This result resonated with me especially as it reflects my self-perception of having strong organizational skills, being assertive and sociable. Tracking from highest to lowest (see Appendix for Big Five Model results), the dimension scores generated and the implications for my leadership style (rather than focusing on managerial style) are explained in more detail
In the book there are a number of surveys highlighting the different aspects of leadership. The most important of which describes what traits people look for in the people they will follow; trust, compassion, stability and hope. By adding these to your personality you will go
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
Many people associate leadership with a specific job title or form of power within an organization. However, through personal experience, I have concluded that leadership can come in many forms and position as well as from multiple sources of roles and job titles both with and without power. Based on the definition of leadership, anyone can be considered a leader as long as they have the ability to influence people to achieve a particular result or goal which benefits the organization or group as a whole. Individuals with a secure sense of self and understanding, acceptance of diversity within an organization tend to be the strongest leaders that not only make others want to follow, but they also encourage other leaders to gravitate to their