Journal 4- Leadership

Taking the self-assessments and sharing the results with my father has led to learning numerous things about myself. Among the things that I learned is that the simple things that I do in my day-to-day activities are an indication of my readiness to be a leader. This includes how I treat other people with concern and my ability to create time for others. This seems like something anyone could do, but taking the assessments helped me understand it is not common to everyone. It is more embodied in people with leadership potential. I also learned of my misconceptions with regards to having a proactive personality. For a long time, I have always thought of myself having a very proactive personality. However, after taking the assessments, it turned out that my proactive personality was just above average tendencies. In reality, I detest being a reactive person when things have already gone wrong. This is because it would be more detrimental trying to solve a problem when the issue has already escalated compared to mitigating its occurrence. The assessments helped me to learn that I need to make some improvements to help boost my proactive prospects. I also learned that I have a desirable level of confidence and I am more inclined to embracing a participative leadership style at the workplace. The level of my self-confidence is desirable since it is not at that point where it would be regarded to as being arrogant. It is easy to deal with other people and their ideas at this level. The idea that I exhibit a participative leadership style was very comforting to me. I have always thought of myself that way, and the assessments helped to prove that it is truly engrained in me.

Sharing the results of the assessments with my father helped me in understanding that we have some similarities and differences with regards to the perceptions of myself. Among the similarities is that we have always known that I have the potential to take on a leadership position. This is because of those positions I have always found myself since a tender age. I have always had this ability to influence others in the course of our interactions. The ability to make people listen when I am communicating with minimal effort has also been prevalent. This is something that even my father had noticed. Another similarity is that we both agreed that my proactive personality was not desirable as it was based on the assessments. My father holds a proactive personality with high regards due to the advantages that it can bring to a leader. There is a belief from both sides that I ought to make some improvements in that area. It would help in tackling problems before they escalate to levels that cannot be mitigated. Despite these similarities, there were some points of differences. Among them is the fact that we had different sentiments r with regards to embracing participative leadership proponents. On my part, I was excited that I had this ability in me. My father, on the other hand, thought that there should be more to a leadership style. He believes that I should have the ability to adapt my leadership styles depending on the circumstances at hand. Based on his arguments, this leadership style will not work all the time. There are times when there will be a need of using something different to derive the desired results. His arguments were very compelling more so when he brought in examples of people that have used autocratic leadership in the past, and they were very successful in their endeavours.

My leadership is likely to affect my relationship with other people at the workplace. Using participative leadership would help to improve the relationship that exists between employees at the workplace. This is because there is an increased form of trust between the leader and the employees. Participative leadership includes elements of delegation. When a leader delegates duties to junior employees it is always a sign that his/her trust towards the employees is high. This works to boost the confidence of the employees due to the autonomy that is created. There is the creation of a positive environment as a result that helps to foster creativity and innovation. This style also ensures that the leader is available to the employees when needed. As a result, there is the formation of an interdependency relationship that ensures the relevant individuals are working as a unit. The fear that employees have toward their leaders tends to be eliminated, and it becomes now easy for junior employees to pinpoint the things that are not going well in the organisation. This helps to identify problems before they escalate. The implication here is that everyone at the workplace is happy due to the engagement levels involved. This results to commitment towards achieving the set goals since everyone wants that environment to remain in the foreseeable future.

It is usually important for a leader to identify their strengths and weaknesses. Having an idea on these areas helps one in knowing what to do and what not to do. A leader can maximise on their strengths to help negate the impact that is normally brought by the prevailing weaknesses. However, it would be difficult to do so if one is not aware of their strengths and weaknesses. In this case, I would take advantage of my strengths by showcasing aspects of self-confidence in every activity at the workplace. Showing confidence sends a positive message in showing employees that you are aware of what you are doing. This is very important since it works to reassure them that everything is heading in the desired direction. In case employees noted that the leader lacks in confidence, there will always be an element of doubt when he/she gives certain orders within a specific work scope. I will also use my ability to care for others to create formidable bonds with the employees. Interpersonal relationships make it possible for people to care for others. The relationships that will be formed will ensure that the relevant employees usually work hard to see me prevail in my leadership endeavours since they want me to remain there for as long as possible. When it comes to weaknesses, not being proactive has come out as my major weakness. To help minimise this weakness, I have to adopt increased proactive tendencies. This will ensure that I do not develop to being a reactive leader, which can be detrimental depending on the issue at hand. There exist some opportunities for the implementation of my leadership plan since not many have high prospects with regards to readiness for the leadership roles. Someone that portrays leadership tendencies that come out naturally has an advantage as a result. Few people have the ability to care for others and feel bothered by their problems. Despite the opportunities there also exist barriers with regards to my leadership plan. The main barrier is prevalent due to my obsession of adopting participative leadership style at the workplace. Through my father and extensive reading, I now have an understanding that this can work to my disadvantage since participative leadership will not suit all the environments. It is always good to assess the circumstances at hand before deciding on the style to adopt.

 
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