Essential Leadership Competencies

Self-Leadership

The purpose of this assignment is to examine essential leadership competencies to demonstrate leadership as a vocation, as well as successfully lead in an organization. Complete all of the questions for each category of essential leadership competencies. Be sure to address each question fully and support your responses with at least one supporting reference. 

1. Self-leadership provides an opportunity to achieve your objectives through your own thinking, feelings, and behaviors. Self-reflection is a necessary tool to improve the way you function as a leader. Discuss how you plan to practice methods of self-reflection that contribute to the development of how you lead. 

2. Recognition of characteristics of professional excellence plays a key role during interviews and performance evaluations. These characteristics must be visible to colleagues and stakeholders in order for you to benefit from them. Describe which characteristics of professional excellence you currently have and which characteristics you want to have. 

3. Emotional and social intelligence skills translate to communication skills. Leaders who are able to access their emotional center have an advantage over leaders who only rely on intellect. Emotional and social intelligence can be an area of significant personal growth. Discuss the emotional and social intelligence skills you think you most strongly possess and those you want to work on. 

4. Continued professional development delivers benefits to individuals, their profession, their community, and possibly the world at large. Most notably, continued professional development keeps you desirable in your current position and attractive to potential employers, if needed. Discuss the ways you can utilize professional development to ensure ongoing professional progress and growth, specifically in leadership.

5. Organizational responses to change in the workplace are the result of individual leaders who are employed within the organization. As a leader, the ability to manage change is essential. Describe how you can demonstrate flexibility and adaptability in response to changing or unknown circumstances. 

1. An effective leader has followers and inspires them. This relationship is mutually beneficial. Leaders and followers support each other in order to achieve goals, vision, or objectives. Evaluate the role of authentic leadership in creating trust and followership. Describe how you plan to inspire followership through the utilization of such leadership and motivation theories.  

2. Diversity can be a strength within a team and organization. First, diversity must be recognized and leveraged as a strength. Diversity provides fresh ideas and perspective for a team or organization. Discuss how you will analyze people's strengths in order to leverage diversity to improve performance outcomes.

Leading Others

3. Communication and collaboration are increasingly important in a global and digital environment. Effective communication and collaboration among different stakeholders are prevalent in the workplace to meet business goals. Explain what strategies you will use for effectively leading teams and fostering collaboration among various stakeholders and how you will apply them.

4. A great leader seeks to coach and guide in order to develop leadership qualities in others. Most leaders have had the opportunity to be coached by other great leaders. Coaching others enables people to improve their performance. Discuss some of the methods of coaching and providing guidance that can help develop leadership qualities in others. 

1. Analyzing organizational behavior can drive innovative change and encourage organizational growth, including improved outcomes. When new leadership is established, the leader often sets a vision. The leader must evaluate systematic interdependencies among individuals, teams and departments to inform their vision and apply innovation to improve organizational outcomes.

Explain how you can develop and communicate a compelling vision to guide organizational development. Include a discussion of how you plan to analyze organizational behavior to determine systemic interdependencies among individuals, teams, and departments. As well as how you plan to integrate creativity and innovation to improve organizational outcomes through leadership. 

2. New and existing leadership requires the leader and the followers to be of the same mind. Explain how you can foster a climate of learning and development within an organization.

3. Organizational responses to technological advances and economic shifts contribute to change in the workplace. Determine which strategies can be utilized for implementing and managing change within an organization and how you plan to use them. 

1. Compare the strengths and weaknesses the characteristics of transformational leadership theory and leader-member exchange theory (LMX). Explain the responsibility leaders have in improving organizational performance. Discuss how you would integrate aspects of transformational leadership theory and leader-member exchange theory in your personal approach to leadership. 

2. Numerous historical and recent events provide examples of leaders who did and did not understand they had a moral obligation to lead with kindness, compassion, and justice for the good of followers and the community. The outcomes of these events may directly and indirectly affect you, your peers, the community, and society. Discuss guidelines to ensure you lead with moral obligation for the good of followers and the community. Include how you intend to lead with kindness, compassion, and justice. 

3. Leaders who consider leadership their vocation consider it a service to others and for the common good. Explain how the moral imperatives of servant leadership are distinguished from other forms of leadership. Describe how you intend to implement servant leadership that promotes the common good and contributes to the benefits of communities and society at large.