Leadership: Portfolio Project

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Table of Contents

Introduction
Body
Conclusion
References

Introduction

Leadership is an important aspect of management in any organizational setting. In most of the cases, many people are unaware of their leadership capabilities and practices. Northouse (2010) says that it is important for a person to understand his leadership capabilities and practices in order to offer effective guidance to the followers. As a leader one must understand that followers are human beings with feelings that should be respected.

However, this can only happen if one is conscious of self-activities and how they affect others. This makes self-assessment very important for a leader to understand the strengths and weaknesses in order to know how to offer effective guidance to the followers. In this critical writing, I will conduct a self-assessment assignment to determine my leadership qualities and capabilities.

Body

My Background

I will start by conducting a comprehensive analysis of my background in order to understand the factors that might have defined my leadership qualities in one way or the other. I am currently living in … where I was born. I have spent almost all my entire life in this city. However, I have travelled to various cities in North America, Europe, and parts of Africa. I am currently working as the senior supervisor in the human resource department at Green Hopes at its headquarters in …. I have worked in a number of other institutions in various capacities.

I have experienced both formal and informal leadership in my life. At home, I had to learn leadership skills in order to direct my younger siblings. When I proceeded to school, I held various leadership positions before becoming the head prefect in my final year in high school. Currently, I am a leader tasked with supervising other employees at Green Hopes.

Self-Confidence

Self-confidence is one of the most important factors that define leadership. I conducted a self-assessment to determine my confidence levels. Biswas, Srivastava and Giri (2007) notes, it is necessary that I assess my current position with regard to self-confidence as a leader to know where I need to improve. These scholars identify self-expression, public speaking, and ability to listen to others as some of the examples of aspects of self-confidence. Currently, I believe I have made massive steps towards developing self-confidence, and on a scale of 1-5, I give myself a score of 4. This is so because I do appreciate that I have a room for improvement even though I have mastered the art of making speeches and expressing myself without fear.

As a leader, this means a lot to me to be a confident person who can express himself without fear. It means that I am able to share my ideas freely with my junior and superiors. This confidence also makes me a good listener. As a leader, I can take a number of initiatives to improve my self-confidence at my workplace. To do this, I will need to engage in public speaking, especially when announcing new concepts to my juniors.

Leadership Traits, Skills and Styles

According to Dwivedi (2006), understanding leadership traits, skills, and styles makes it possible to understand the areas of strength and weaknesses. The scholar notes that these three factors define the leadership approach that one uses in life. I have improved on these three aspects of leadership over the past few years. From my personal assessment, I believe I am a flexible leader and a keen listener who is able to influence followers to act in a given pattern in both formal and informal contexts. My style of leadership is highly reliant on servant leadership traits.

The current leadership skills, traits and style mean a lot to me. I strongly believe that as a transformational leader, I am able to work with my junior employees in an environment where we understand one another and address various challenges as a team. As a leader, Bhal and Gulati (2004) say that embracing transformational leadership principles is one of the best ways of becoming a better manager. I need to learn to be a transformational leader. Combining traits of transformational and servant leadership will make me a better supervisor.

Approaches to Leadership

According to Bhal and Gulati (2004), there are various approaches to leadership. Situational, Path-Goal, and Leader Member Exchange are some of the common examples. I believe that my current position based on these three areas of leadership is well above average as shown in the sections below.

Situational

As a situational leader, I believe I score 4 on a scale of 1-5. In many cases, I have risen to the occasion to solve problems arising from various contexts at work, at home, and even when I was still in high school.

Path-Goal

I have an above average rating when it comes to embracing leadership defined by path-goal theory. I blend well with the environment and the prevailing situations in an organizational setting. I know how to approach different issues in the workplace environment in a way that will fit relevant contexts.

Leader Member Exchange

In this approach, I give myself a score of 3 in a scale of 1-5. I acknowledge that I need to improve in this area. However, I know the relevance of having an open communication system with the followers. From the self-assessment of the three approaches to leadership, it is evident that I need to adjust in some areas in order to be a better leader. I specifically need to address the issue of leader member exchange. To address this issue, I may need to take more leadership classes. I believe that leadership is a learned process, not inherited as some people argue. Through a clearly defined learning process and practice, I can be a better leader.

Other Approaches to Leadership

There are other approaches to leadership other than the three that have been discussed in the section above.

Where I am currently with regard to other approaches of leadership

These approaches of leadership are just as important as those that have been discussed.

Team Leadership

Currently, I consider myself a team leader. I give myself a score of 4.5 in a scale of 1-5, leaving a small margin for improvement. I blend well with my juniors and superiors and I have a unique capacity to coordinate teams in the workplace.

Collaborative Leadership

From the self-assessment process, I also have a high score in collaborative leadership. I strongly believe in working with others in order to achieve a common goal at workplace or other informal settings.

Participatory Leadership

Participatory leadership is another area where I have good ratings, 4 in a scale of 1-5, because I believe in active role play when working as a team.

Transformational Leadership

Transformational leadership is one of the concepts that are becoming very popular in management. However, I need to learn more about it and I give myself a score of 2.5 in a scale of 1-5.

The self-assessment above means that I need to take more time learning about various concepts of leadership and how to apply them in my workplace. To improve in the above area, I will need to put into practice everything I learn in a classroom context.

Gender and Leadership

In this section, it is important to define where I am with regard to these assessments. Gender is another critical issue when it comes to leadership.

Gender-Leader Implicit Association Test

From my self-assessment test, I determined that as a leader, I am affected by the issue of gender, especially in making decisions.

Masculinity-Femininity Self-Assessments

My score was high on masculinity. I tend to associate leadership with the male gander other than the females. As a leader, this means that I need a change in my ideological thoughts. I need to embrace the fact that women can be good leaders just like men. In need to engage in forums where men and women are portrayed as people with equal capabilities when it comes to leadership.

Culture and Leadership Today

Where I am currently with regard to cultural aspects of leadership.

I have made impressive strides in terms of understanding the role of culture in leadership today. Based on culture questionnaire and individualism-collectivism self-assessments, it is apparent that I have mastered that managerial behaviors are affected by culture. As a leader, I consider it very important to understand the role of culture in management. This helps in eliminating conflicts that may arise because of the intolerance towards a given culture. I may need to go through further formal classes in order to understand the diversity of culture in the workplace in our country and how it can be managed.

Integrity and Trust in Leadership

Integrity and trust are two aspects of leadership that I have registered impressive performance in the recent past. I give myself a score of 4, in a scale or 1-5, when it comes to integrity and trust. As a leader, integrity means everything to me. No leader can achieve success if integrity and trust is not part of the leadership. As a leader, I need to enhance integrity in every action I take at the workplace and back at home to earn trust of everyone around me. I have registered an impressive improvement on the areas of integrity and trust as a leader. I am close to where I want to be, and I am better than I actually thought. I was very fair in my self-assessment, and this makes me believe that other people will agree with my assessments irrespective of their position within this firm.

I feel that my current leadership capacity is yet to be at par with best examples of great leadership, who in this case is our chief executive officer at Green Hopes. Inasmuch as I understand the local cultural forces and its influence in our firm than he does, he is more experienced and shrewd in leadership than I. Through constant learning and practice, I believe I can achieve that level of leadership.

Conclusion

Leadership and management are inseparable in the current organizational setting. As a manager, one must learn leadership skills and qualities that will help in guiding others than directing employees to work in a given manner. A manager must understand his employees from their own perspective, and find ways of meeting their personal needs in way that will motivate them in order to improve their performance.

References

Bhal, K. & Gulati, N. (2004). Leader Member Exchange and Perceived Justice: The Mediating Impact of Voice. Indian Journal of Industrial Relations, 40(1), 1-16.

Biswas, S., Srivastava, K. & Giri, V. (2007). Human Resource Management, Individual Behaviour and Organisational Effectiveness. Journal of Industrial Relations, 43(1), 33-5.

Dwivedi, S. (2006). Human Relations and Organisational Behaviour: A Global Perspective. Journal of Industrial Relations, 31(4), 536-538.

Northouse, P. G. (2010). Leadership: Theory and practice. Los Angeles: Sage Publications.

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