Personal Leadership Traits Essay

Executive Summary

Conducting a critical analysis on personal leadership traits and attributes?

This report aims at conducting a critical analysis on personal leadership traits and attributes. It highlights on personal leadership attributes I possess, that needs to be practiced, swot analysis on personal attributes, and finally provides a personal leadership plan that emphasizes upon the skills and competencies that I need to acquire. Self-awareness means to know oneself thoroughly, knowing self-strengths and weaknesses, beliefs and preferences. It gives a complete idea about oneself and this would enable one to compare and contrast personal attributes with the most appropriate leadership attributes and standards. I have been in the post of a manager now since years, initially being a first line manager in a large local authoritative Social Care department for Children. Recently, I was a Service Manager for CSC in big rural authority. Owing to this, I possess quite of experience of leading as well as managing teams of team leaders or social workers. Before embarking upon the Post graduate Diploma in leadership and management, leadership was never that an important subject. Various theories of leadership and management are existent that portray different concepts of the topic. Due to the increasing complexity of the surrounding business environment, both concepts of leadership and management has been used interchangeably. Some of the most preferred leadership skills

Leadership is the ability to lead others in a manner that the followers would be pleased to follow the leader. This ability of leading others effectively depends on numerous skills. These skills are sought out by leaders after assessing and analyzing personal skills and competencies of team members. The roles of leadership are present everywhere and not just in work environments. These skills may be applied to any situation where one needs to adopt the lead in every possible setting. Leader

The very initial step to identify personal leadership attribute of an authentic leader is by means of self-awareness. Self-awareness means to know oneself thoroughly, knowing self strengths and weaknesses, beliefs and preferences. It gives a complete idea about oneself and this would enable one to compare and contrast personal attributes with the most appropriate leadership attributes and standards. Besides self awareness, it is important to gather information about oneself from own family, friends, colleagues, and all those around. To enable my family, friends and colleagues to perceive me and reflect accordingly, I have prepared questionnaires for them to conduct interview along with group focus and personality tests.

Leadership Attributes: As per researches there are some leadership qualities that are most preferred and appreciated in the present business environment. These qualities are meant to enable an individual to lead group of organizational people in the best manner towards the right direction. The attributes are depicted in the following figure (Bardes, Shelley and Schmidt, 2002).

Source: (Belasen and Frank, 2008)

For critical analysis of personal leadership qualities, it is important that I highlight upon personal traits being the particular profession. I have been in the post of a manager now since years, initially being a first line manager in a large local authoritative Social Care department for Children. Recently, I was a Service Manager for CSC in big rural authority. Owing to this, I possess quite of experience of leading as well as managing teams of team leaders or social workers. Before embarking upon the Post graduate Diploma in leadership and management, leadership was never that an important subject (Borodako, 2012). My personal practice of managing or leading groups has been based on personal experience of being managed, own personal observation of other leaders and managers, own personal instincts about what works and what not about leading and managing. With the progress of my personal leadership experience, I have been emphasizing more on the quality as well as consistency of my leadership capabilities. I have always been keen on understanding the leadership concepts effectively so that I may improve upon my own performances, performances of my teams, and lead to overall growth and achievements. A leader is responsible for adopting the most appropriate leadership approaches depending on the need of the situations (Boyce, Zaccaro and Wisecarver, 2010). As a team leader, I am responsible to assign tasks to individual members and based on their performance I need to either give reward them or penalize them. It has been my knowledge that a leader may impart most effective vision to the followers by convincing them what is essential and what is not. It has been an experience that leadership is not actually possible without positive followership (Chiu, 2010).

Various theories of leadership and management are existent that portray different concepts of the topic. Due to the increasing complexity of the surrounding business environment, both concepts of leadership and management have been used interchangeably. However, key differences exist amidst the two (Detrick, 2013).

The skill of self-awareness is key and most valuable in context to raising performance. As a leader I practice self-consciousness and realizing what I am good at and making efforts to push my personal effectiveness bar constantly. It has been a personal experience that organizational managers possess increased level of self-awareness and are not only effective in their conducts but also excels in respective fields (Dr.K.ALAGAR, 2012). I have realized with time that when it concerns effective management, it is important to raise personal leadership effectiveness and understand personal potentials by recognizing own strengths and weaknesses. This would enable me as a leader to build capacity and bring about personal improvements.

Effective leaders not only possess passion to conduct and complete work but also share the passion with his team members or associates to motivate them to be more productive. As per various sources, I have the passion to undertake any responsibility that I feel it is within my capabilities. The passion drives me to accomplish work and also motivate other members to take on responsibilities assigned to them.

As a leader I understand the need to communicate effectively with all related stakeholders, team members, clients and employees. I make sure that there is a steady information flow to both low and high organizational levels (Frimpon, 2012).

To critically analyze my personal leadership traits, I need to enhance this quality since previously I adopted every single responsibility. In fact, I feared delegating responsibilities since the credibility factor lacked. However, critical analysis reflect that the credibility is an important requisite for a leader. Since this skill lacked in me to some extent, I need to build that credibility factor.

It is not only important to give importance to the employees and staffs, but it is necessary to prioritize clients and customers. Although I focus on practicing effective leadership skills with the team members, I fail to achieve the long-term objective of focusing on clients. Previously I emphasized only on my team members and organizational benefits. However, presently I aim at focusing long term customers (Ganann et al., 2010).

It is more important for a leader to know all tactics of developing and maintaining followership and guide them in the positive direction to realize accomplishments of goals. When I practiced leadership, I tried my best to stick to my own values and encourage my members to beat against all odds. A potential drive is important for a leader to take upon increased responsibilities to assist organization in moving forwards against all odds (Haberfeld, 2006).

A leader is responsible for motivating others to conduct organizational operations successfully. Some important aspects that resonated with me throughout are authentic leadership, followership, and ethics in leadership. I have learnt it clearly that a leader who has all the qualities can surely bring about big changes within the organization that would be positive and beneficial for all the associated members (Hall, 2013).

It has been a personal experience that strong and effective leadership forms the backbone of any business. The concept creates determined vision, catalyst to develop individual strengths and support strategies for moving the business firm forward. However, leadership may be an elusive attribute, and progressive leaders act as the greatest challenge for firms in the present day

Motivating employees to accomplish more task rather than competing with each other, may result in increased productivity as well as morale. Favouring a cooperative atmosphere as well as problem solving in group may ensure all departmental members to accomplish tasks on time without any personal conflicts (Hazarika, 2009). As a leader, I make sure that I ask for inputs from team members about departmental functions as well as procedures that may make the members feel their importance.

Passion

It has been my personal opinion that an effective leader is able to satisfy two key areas, namely key personality and acknowledgment. I agree to the fact that leadership can never be learnt, but it is to be inculcated and developed within individuals personally (Hirschmann, 2004). The model of leadership on which based the activities are participative theory and situational leadership of Hersey Blanchard state that particular style would be highly effective once a leader considers input adequately.

The most important attribute of a leader is that he needs to bring about the team work amidst every organizational member (Hull, 2014).

Source:

A leader is responsible for adopting the most appropriate leadership approaches depending on the need of the situations. As a team leader, I am responsible to assign tasks to individual members and based on their performance I need to either give reward them or penalize them. It has been my knowledge that a leader may impart most effective vision to the followers by convincing them what is essential and what is not. It has been an experience that leadership is not actually possible without positive followership. A leader is responsible for motivating others to conduct organizational operations successfully (Jepson, 2009). Some important aspects that resonated with me throughout are authentic leadership, followership, and ethics in leadership. I have learnt it clearly that a leader who has all the qualities can surely bring about big changes within the organization that would be positive and beneficial for all the associated members. I thoroughly agree to the learning that innovative leadership needs to embody authenticity to express values and also embrace the followers as well as ethical decisions would be based on creative thinking and not upon short-term results. Being a leader, I have complied with the leadership attribute that enabled me to assess the environment at the very beginning. Then, I had focused on the ability of gaining of followers (Jones, 2014). It is more important for a leader to know all tactics of developing and maintaining followership and guide them in the positive direction to realize accomplishments of goals. When I practiced leadership, I tried my best to stick to my own values and encourage my members to beat against all odds.

An aspect which resonated within me are authentic, ethical and transformational leadership as well as followership. A leader who focuses on the mentioned matters would successfully bring desired changes within the organization. I believe that the knowledge an innovative leadership needs to include authenticity to value are embraced by the followers are based on autonomy, creative thinking and not on short-term outcomes. As a leader, I have focused on the organizational structure as well as internal culture that play key role in determining the most appropriate leadership style (Kuratko, 2014). Transformational leadership has been quite effective for organizations as this enabled complete freedom for the managers and leaders to structure organizational performances in the way they wanted. While leading my members, I always made sure that I focus on my own values and principles. As a leader, I feel it is my responsibility to motivate and train my members to take up calculated risks and conduct organizational performances to the best of their capabilities (Lidh, 2013).

Communication

The ability to communicate effectively with people internal and external to the organization is critically important. Although I practice effective communication with my teams to the extent possible, yet the process is not completely flawless. Sometimes, the situation arises so that communication gaps occur due to unavailability of effective communication channels (Lowder, n.d.).
Effective management of people is an important skill set that is identified in leadership. My personal experience suggests that organizational team members belong to different backgrounds and so it becomes immensely essential for a leader to manage each of them keeping in mind their backgrounds (Luckcock, 2007).
Being a leader, I feel that there is a lack of accountability in my leadership. Not holding my members accountable in achieving decided and desired goals as well as behaviour has been identified as a critical flaw in my leadership. As a leader I need to improve this area of leadership and be accountable for all the goals that are to be achieved.
Emotional intelligence as well as empathy happens to be a critical skill a leader needs to possess to put issues, needs and all concerns of people ahead of their own. The capability of empathizing, building rapport, understanding, showing concern, encouraging, connecting and engaging with individuals is necessary (Mackay and Risk, 2001).
As a leader, I emphasize on values and integrity. For inspiring and leading members, I feel I possess that honesty as well as integrity to act as a role model for other people.
I possess the needed vision and a sense of the big picture as well as the ability to communicate and mobilize members around a shared vision. I make effort to develop the big picture and induce it to my members so that they also get an idea of what is expected out of them (Macnamara, 2015).
One area where I feel I need to focus more is providing appropriate feedback to the team members and also involve them in the decision making process. Functioning in environment where one is completely unaware of the ways one works in relation to others or individual goals may have adverse impacts on overall morale and performance.
As a team leader, I am responsible to assign tasks to individual members and based on their performance I need to either give reward them or penalize them. It has been my knowledge that a leader may impart most effective vision to the followers by convincing them what is essential and what is not (Odhiambo and Hii, 2012).

This theory states the relationship of a leader with other members that go through some phases like role-taking, role-making, and routinisation. Role-taking is the concept whereby a new employee joins the team and a leader is supposed to assess their skills, abilities, competence and motivation skills. Role-making is the concept whereby a leader starts forming judgments about them (Rabiger and Hurbis-Cherrier, 2013). My personal practice of managing or leading groups has been based on personal experience of being managed, own personal observation of other leaders and managers, own personal instincts about what works and what not about leading and managing. With the progress of my personal leadership experience, I have been emphasizing more on the quality as well as consistency of my leadership capabilities (RAO and RAO, 2012).

Strengths

· Self-awareness

· ability of gaining of followers

· to communicate effectively with people internal and external to the organization

· Emotional intelligence as well as empathy

· balanced work life perspective

· vision and a sense of the big picture

· emphasize on values and integrity

Weakness

· lack in prioritizing things and getting the work done in the right way

· impatient at times and not tolerating irresponsibility in jobs

· time pressure leads to stress and emotional set back

· compulsiveness often creates anger and emotional instability when given responsibilities

Opportunities

· I feel I need to focus more is providing

appropriate feedback to the team members and also involve them in the decision making process

· receiving appropriate coaching to enhance my leadership skills

· enhancing personal ability to manage teams and accomplish tasks quickly

· learning from similar roles

· enhancing personal equanimity about tasks

Threats

· time pressure can demolish personal plans of self-improvement

· multitude of regular demands often conspire against self-reflection

· increased number of team members often mean increased responsibilities and so a leader needs to be careful in dealing with them

Depending on several studies on leadership traits, and all possible needs of current business environment, it is important that one possesses most effective and desired traits and attributes. These would enable a leader to manage and lead members to successful accomplishments (Russell and Gregory Stone, 2002).

Exemplary character	Exemplary character suggests that I need to be more trustworthy so that I may lead others successfully. I need to be trusted by my followers. an effective leader is said to “walk the talk” and with this earns responsibility for others.
Work enthusiasm	I need to be much more enthusiastic about my members, their work and responsibilities. This would motivate my members to respond more openly. Though responsibilities as well as roles of an effective leader may be varied, he needs to be perceived as an integral part of the team aiming at some common goals. I have the passion to undertake any responsibility that I feel it is within my capabilities. The passion drives me to accomplish work and also motivate other members to take on responsibilities assigned to them.
Confidence	For leading my team members, I need to be highly confident in all my undertakings. Such confidence would motivate others to take more and more responsibilities in career (ZHOU, 2008). While leading my members, I always made sure that I focus on my own values and principles. As a leader, I feel it is my responsibility to motivate and train my members to take up calculated risks and conduct organizational performances to the best of their capabilities (RØRTVEIT and SEVERINSSON, 2011).
Managing uncertainty	I need to function in a purposeful as well as orderly manner at situations of uncertainty. Members usually de[end upon leaders at the time of uncertainties to feel reassured and secured when leaders portray confidence.
Tolerance	As an effective leader, I need to be highly tolerant of uncertainties and maintain a calm and composed state. When I practiced leadership, I tried my best to stick to my own values and encourage my members to beat against all odds. A potential drive is important for a leader to take upon increased responsibilities to assist organization in moving forwards against all odds (Strnad, n.d.).
Thinking analytically	I need to conduct analytical thinking. It would not only allow me to perceive situation as a whole, but it would enable close inspection of tasks. Analytical thinking would not only enable me to manage tasks but bring about progress. My personal practice of managing or leading groups has been based on personal experience of being managed, own personal observation of other leaders and managers, own personal instincts about what works and what not about leading and managing.
Committed to excellence	The main objective must be at overall excellence and maintaining of high standards (Tracy, 2014). I have realized with time that when it concerns effective management, it is important to raise personal leadership effectiveness and understand personal potentials by recognizing own strengths and weaknesses. This would enable me as a leader to build capacity and bring about personal improvements(Tutu, 2002).

Conclusion:

With the progress of my personal leadership experience, I have been emphasizing more on the quality as well as consistency of my leadership capabilities. I have always been keen on understanding the leadership concepts effectively so that I may improve upon my own performances, performances of my teams, and lead to overall growth and achievements. A leader is responsible for adopting the most appropriate leadership approaches depending on the need of the situations. It has been a personal experience that organizational managers possess increased level of self-awareness and are not only effective in their conducts but also excels in respective fields. I have realized with time that when it concerns effective management, it is important to raise personal leadership effectiveness and understand personal potentials by recognizing own strengths and weaknesses.

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