Personal Leadership Styles And Skills: A Comprehensive Analysis

First impression of MLQ/Birkman /GMI

Discuss about the Personal Leadership Styles And Skills.

The paper evaluates the personal leadership styles and skills. It begins with an assessment of personal understanding before taking MLQ/Birkman/GMI. In this section, leadership skills and interpersonal skills regarding communication, teamwork, organizing and control are evaluated. This is then followed by comparing what I thought about myself with what I have learned using the MLQ/ Birkman/GMI to determine whether what we thought is similar or different from the framework (Ledlow& Coppola, 2011). The knowledge gained from this assessment is evaluated and the framework is compared with the 9 leadership competences.

My first impression of MLQ/Birkman/GMI is that the techniques of identifying personalities and character traits are very interesting and advanced. They are able to define relations between persons and groups of people. I have the impression that there are different lifestyles grip reports using Asterisk, Diamond, Circle, and Square. The location of each of the symbols in the square is used to determine whether a person is task oriented, people oriented, do they like direct communication or indirect communication? The paper also identifies the leadership goals in a grip with the goals that are closely related on one side of the grid. This grid is used to identify the leadership goals of an individual based on the assessment criteria outlined in the report (Ebener, 2010). The MLQ reports seem to evaluate and measure the leadership profiles of individuals. This is used to help optimize the outcomes of an organization through shaping leadership styles and leadership skills. The leadership styles are then grouped into three district categories depending on the nature of leadership behavior and expected leadership outcomes. The groups are transformational leadership, transactional leadership, and passive avoidant Behavior. Global mindset is very important since it enables people of different characters and ideological believes to work with and influence one another. Global mindset can be developed among employees to enable them understand the behavior and mindsets of other so that they can work and deal amicably with people who are different from them (Wang, 2016). Global mindset score is also measured to determine how people are able to relate and interact with people from different cultures, with different ideologies and personalities. MLQ/Birkman and GMI is crucial in understanding different leadership styles. It helps in profiling people into different leadership styles and also in shaping the mindset of individuals in a particular manner to help them develop a global mindset.

Self-reflection

Before undertaking MLQ/ Birkman/GMI, I had a very different perspective about by leadership styles, my leadership profile and even the mindset I had concerning people who are different from me. I thought I had a lot of focus on practical matters and I easily had control over my peers. This has helped me to get various positions of leadership since my school days. My leadership skills and ability to get things done has also helped in my college mates choosing me to lead various groups since I get tasks accomplished effectively and on time. Before I undergone this assessment, I thought I was very disciplined and always adhered to the written code of conduct. I found it difficult why people fail to follow instructions and this irritated me so much. It brought about fall out with some work mates at the workplace and also my friends. I followed instructions without questioning orders from my seniors and hence when I gave instructions to people,I expected them to obey and do what I required of them. The other thing I noted about my leadership styles before taking MLQ/Birkman /GMI is that I was so task oriented. Sometimes I had so much focus on what needed to be done to the point that I forgot that the people we work with are human beings and ended up harassing them as well. I noticed this as a weakness after I noted that people were becoming rebellious and it was becoming difficult to accomplish tasks without focusing on the needs of the people we are working with. This has encouraged me to try to understand and solve the issues employees face so as to help them focus on tasks and hence achieve objectives easily. My leadership goals before taking MLQ/Birkman/GMI include completion of a project. I was so obsessed with completing a project or task assigned to me irrespective of the methods I would use to achieve this objective. Achieving a definite goal was my main motivation and nothing would distract me from this. It did not matter to me whether or not my colleagues were in support of what I was doing or not. I had a desire of getting actively involved in group activities. I would not take a backseat on any activity and I often found myself taking over leadership of projects that I had been assigned a junior role unknowingly. I thought mu leadership style was transactional where achievement is rewarded and mistakes and deviations are monitored and are monitored when they are repeated.

Confirmation of initial perception

Most of perceptions I had about myself have been confirmed. To begin with, after taking MLQ/Birkman/GMI, I noticed that according to the lifestyle Grid, my leadership style can be located in the red box in the grid. The red box in the Grid is where the characteristics of task orientation, Direct communication, and expediting coincide. It is on the upper left corner of the grid. The interpretation of leadership style located in this Grid is that “you enjoy activities that are practical in nature and you like being actively involved in implementation of projects” (Grossman & Valiga, 2016). It goes further to say that individuals who trace their leadership style to this grid like activities involving measurement, recording, monitoring and designing laws and policies. The other thing that confirms my perceptions about my leadership style is that Birkman explains that people in this grid combine activities with strict keeping of records. They also organize activities and people while focusing on exerting control. This is something I found myself with during self assessment. I organizing activities to ensure that everything goes to plan and in this process, I find myself being in control of these activities and the people. The other confirmation that my perceptions have been confirmed by Birkman evaluation is that I like accomplishing tasks expeditiously and thoroughly.

The MLQ has helped me confirm that I belong to the transactional style of leadership. After undertaking the MLQ leadership style test, I found out that once in a while, I ought to focus attention on irregularities ,mistakes and deviations from rules and set standards. However,I don’t focus all my attention on dealing with mistakes and complaints. I really give them attention but when mistakes occur and complaints are brought to me, I take the issues very seriously since they have a huge impact on the performance of an individual or group. The leadership score shows that I provide assistance to people in exchange for their efforts (Lussier& Achua, 2015). I also like allocating specific roles to specific people in order to ensure that everyone is accountable. This helps in rewarding those who achieve extra ordinary outcomes and seek ways to motivate and improve those who fail to meet expectations. I often give people promises and they perform tasks knowing what they can expect when they meet the threshold or set targets. An evaluation of my leadership skills using this model also shows that my behaviors are active as indicated earlier in the report. This is confirmed by the answer to the question on interfering with problems before they get serious (Wakeman, 2014). I interfere before problems get serious since I like organizing and being in control and therefore its difficult for problems to get serious under my watch. My mindset is global since am able to work and interact with people from different cultural backgrounds, religion, beliefs, educational backgrounds and people with different personalities from me. This has helped me to make a lot of successful deals and create strong networks.

New knowledge gained from MLQ/Birkman/GMI assessment

I have gained new knowledge as a result taking MLQ/Birkman/GMI. One of the things I learned is the important of managing stress as a leadership style. I have learned that under stress, some people resist change and are inflexible. Some become impatient and insensitive to the feelings of others. I have known my position when it comes to managing stress and hence will be able to improve in future. I also learned that it is important to embrace team work and allow other people to take control since it gives one an opportunity to learn from other people (Roe, 2014). Before the assessment, I did not know the classifications of leadership styles but am now able to identify which leadership style a possess. The significance of global mindset to organizations has also been realized by undertaking this assessment and hence it will help to shape my mindset to become more global.

MLQ/ Birkman/GMI have a lot of importance in my professional and practical leadership. MLQ helps me to understand the different leadership styles applied by different people and which are the best technique to use in leadership. It helps in understanding the importance of involving people in decision making as well as rewarding good performance. This is very important in an organization leadership since people have different personalities and it is important to understand them and learn how to work with them. It also helps in understanding how to deal with stress at the workplace and hence avoid being rude and incentive to other people (Rothstein& Burke, 2010). The need for emotional stability at the workplace and in other situations is also realized. The assessment also helps in understanding decision making procedures. MLQ/Birkman/GMI also in understanding the behavior, attitudes and personalities of people in the work environment and therefore behave and act in such a way that you can accommodate everyone and work with them to achieve the goals and objectives of the organization. One is also able to understand the leadership styles of different employees at other people they interact with. By doing this, a person is able to know how to treat people and best ways to motivate different types of employees and hence optimizing output from every employee.

The MLQ/Birkman/GMI concepts are very closely related and connected to the nine leadership competences. MLQ/ Birkman and GMI encourages innovation. It encourages leaders to allow other to participate actively in activities and to be creative to come up with new processes and ways of doing things in an organization. They also encourage people development through continuous training and improving their global mindset to help them deal with people of different personalities (In Scott, In Scott & In Webber, 2016). The concept of team leadership is also discussed in the leadership styles in Birkman. It encourages team work to contribute ideas in order to compete tasks more efficiently. Many leadership styles are result oriented. Some people are so focused on achieving the desired results and nothing can destruct them from this goal. Different people have different reactions to change. This depends on the psychological characteristics of the individual and their experience. It encourages flexibility and the need to accept and adopt change in different environments. Strategic thinking and vision is also encouraged in to help plan better for the future and to enhance innovation and personal development .(Smith& Cockburn, 2013) Planning and organizing is also discussed in MLQ/Birkman/GMI, it explains that there are some people who like organizing tasks and activities which gives them control. This leaders fall under the red square in the Grid. Collaboration and good relations is discussed as one very important aspect of leadership styles in MLQ/Birkman/GMI. It helps in promoting harmonious working relations and promotes sharing of resources. Just like in the LIP leadership concepts, orientation to service and quality is discussed as a characteristic of transformational leadership style. This helps in meeting expectations and needs of customers in an organizational context. This therefore leads to customer loyalty.

Conclusion

The report discusses various concepts of leadership and self assessment styles. The report begins with self assessment of leadership styles and character. Its an in depth analysis of the perceptions I have about myself and how they have influenced my leadership. This is followed by an analysis of the differences between the perceptions I had and the new view after taking MLQ/Birkman/GMI. The new knowledge gained from the assessment is discussed. The final section of the paper evaluates the LPI nine leadership competences and how they are related to the concepts discussed in MLQ/Birkman/GMI.

References

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