Leadership is the capacity of an individual to give guidance and direction to other individuals. It can be a difficult journey as it involves a lot of compromises and considerations, courtesy of the many factors involved with the management of big groups of people (Van Wart, 2013). In light of this, an individual in leadership should possess a considerable number of traits to be able to manage the pressure, and handle all the responsibilities that come with the position.

One of my most appreciated strengths as regards leadership is my ability to inspire others through my passion and commitment I have for my work. I tend to put myself out there and not just deliberate duties and watch. This trait helps to motivate my colleagues that if I am their chosen project leader, I do not just sit and wait for results while giving instructions, I am part of the team. I find that most individuals want to see their managers and supervisors lead by example, literally.

Learning how to communicate appropriately with other people is a continuous process, courtesy of the fact that people have diverse personalities. However, my ability to connect with these people by taking the time to learn what works for every person makes me stand out as a leader. I also try to ensure that my message is always concise and easily understood, so that my colleagues can share in the vision and objectives that I think as best for a particular project, for a given period (Sharma & Jain, 2013).

Excellent communication and interpersonal skills go hand in hand with decision making. My ability to strike a balance between the two traits makes me able to navigate the difficulties in exercising control and still appearing considerate.  It is essential to me that I maintain every team members support towards achieving a target and for that, I feel that communicating a decision should be strategic so that in the end, I don’t’ get to lose some key players in a project. Also, another factor that makes me a good leader is my desire to always include all stakeholders in a decision making process to ensure a closely knit organization, working towards the same goals and objectives.

Leadership without accountability is an impossible task. I, therefore, always ensure that I take the responsibility of all my choices. In a bid to show good example to my colleagues, I always apologize when I am wrong and when a project is successful, I ensure that all individuals who participated feel appreciated for their efforts. Appreciating other for their role is a vital aspect of empowerment as individuals end up more confident about themselves. This aspect of leadership guarantees a continuity in the life of the project.

However, there is also a crucial area of leadership on which I am struggling to improve, empathy. It is the ability of a person in leadership to share in the pain of other individuals and relate with their experiences. I realize that it not only ends in walking in their shoes, but also expressing the desire to help make things better (Ciulla, 2014). Although, I do not employ the dictatorial style of leadership, I certainly feel that this is a quality is should take more time to nurture.

In the next two years, I am indeed hopeful that I will continue to grow as a leader and improve on my areas of weakness by. To this effect, firstly, I will take up more leadership roles and new projects that depend on teamwork. This move will me understand most of the dynamics involved in collaborations and leadership. Through this, I will also be able to learn from my mistakes and improve. Secondly, I will ensure that I have a coach or, I sign up in as many training programs as possible. I observe that to be a good leader, one first has to be a good follower (Ciulla, 2014).

References

Ciulla, J. B. (Ed.). (2014). Ethics, the heart of leadership. ABC-CLIO.

Sharma, M. K., & Jain, S. (2013). Leadership management: Principles, models and theories. Global Journal of Management and Business Studies, 3(3), 309-318.

Van Wart, M. (2013). Lessons from leadership theory and the contemporary challenges of leaders. Public Administration Review, 73(4), 553-565.