Leadership Skill Development - Essay Example

Introduction A good leader is determined by the leadership qualities and styles that one embrace. Some of these styles and qualities are learned, and one has to identify his or her weaknesses in order to improve them. It is therefore important to be aware of my leadership profile to help me in the understanding of my personal strengths and weaknesses and in determining areas which need improvement or changed to become a successful leader in the future. Recent Professional Role I worked as an assistant manager for the retail section of the Verizon Wireless. Among my major duties included helping the manager in providing customer service and overseeing employees. My work also involved scheduling employees duties and ensuring that the payroll was accurate before it was submitted to the bank. As the assistant manager, I sometimes engaged in solving issues and conflicts among the employees. During the recruitment season, I worked on behalf of the manager in overseeing the training programs. As an assistant manager, I participated in making decisions regarding disciplining or firing of employees. Key Leadership Experiences One of the key leadership experiences gained while working with Verizon Wireless was the need to motivate employees to achieve the desired goals. Energizing employees requires the leader to speak in a language that they can understand. I learnt that employees have different personalities and understanding the personality of each seemed to help in selecting statements that would motivate. This also taught me that I should not deal with employees as a group but as individuals because each person is unique in his or her ways. Another leadership experience I gained while working at Verizon Wireless was the importance of promoting the spirit of teamwork at the workplace. This enabled me to identify the possible areas of conflicts before they occurred and made the sharing of tasks between the employees easy. Without teamwork, it would have been almost impossible to reach daily sales target since even the exchange of information between the salesforce and the management would have been minimal. The employees responded positively when I gave them direction on what was supposed to be accomplished each day. As a leader, one should exert a positive influence towards the employees by showing the direction of work (Collins, 2014). My Leadership Strengths One of the personal leadership strengths is the ability to spread optimism and energy among the employees. I chose this quality because it has shown to have the capacity to maximize the motivation of the employees. One way through which I was spreading optimism and energy among the employees at Verizon Wireless was by evaluating their performance regularly and guiding them on how to improve it (JWI510, 5). This was also achieved by attending to their needs timely and appropriately. Some of the needs that I was required to attend to included providing the employees with the appropriate working tools, organizing the work schedule appropriately, solving workplace conflicts in a manner that both parties were satisfied (Collins 1). It would be important for me to continue nurturing this strength because the success of any business organization would highly depend on whether the employees are motivated. The second personal leadership strength identified is the courage to make unpopular decisions when I had to do that. This is an important strength because the current business world is dynamic and every business organization has to adapt to the changing business environment. As a leader, I should have the courage to say when there is a problem because it cannot be solved unless it exposed. However, the unpopular decisions made should focus on the greater good of the organization (JWI510, 5). While there may be many seemingly good ideas about a given problem in an organization, a good leader may decide to leave them and go for the unpopular one it is good for the success of the organization. It would be important to nurture this strength for future leadership as it might one day require me to challenge the status quo to improve the organization. My Emotional Intelligence One of the component of emotional intelligence that I can be associated with is self-awareness. It has been an easy task to read and understand the emotions of other people (Goleman, 3). This has been crucial in understanding what employees want and what they do not want. As indicated earlier, employees have different personalities and what motivates one may not be necessarily what motivates the other. In connection to the aforementioned personal ability to spread energy and optimism, it would be important for one to be able to read and understand the emotions of the employees to know what would motivate them and what would not. Self-awareness is also important in promoting a healthy relationship in the workplace. As a leader, I should know how to communicate with all stakeholders politely to promote a peaceful working environment. Empathy was another important component of emotional intelligence that helped in spreading optimism among the employees (Daniel, 2). The ability to interpret signals from other employees enabled one to respond to their needs appropriately. Motivation is another important component of emotional intelligence that I can be associated with. Leaders who are motivated have strong optimism and drive in the face of tribulations (Goleman, 3). They are passionate about their work and have a high degree of persistence and energy. It is this motivation that gives me the courage to make unpopular decisions for the sake of the success of the organization. To convince employees to embrace unpopular decisions, it requires me to be able to build a social relationship. One area that I need to refine to be able to create strong social relationships is the ability to self-regulate. This would help me to avoid getting annoyed when an employee questions the decisions I make (JWI 510, 6). It is always important to listen to the opinions of the employees and incorporate them in decision making. Emotional intelligence is more important than intelligence quotient (IQ) in leadership. My DiSC Profile According to the DiSC profile, I belong to Di style. This makes me ambitious and focused on results. I also grow impatient with anything that prevents me from achieving the desired results. My behavior is also associated with the ability to generate enthusiasm (Hamilton, 1). This quality is related to my ability to spread energy and optimism since enthusiasm helps one to maintain high energy level even in the face of tribulations. The making of unpopular decisions to achieve goals would also be motivated by how one is enthusiastic towards achieving the organizational goals. It can also explain why I grow impatient with anything standing along the way towards success. Such impatience is what motivates me to abandon the popular ideas if they are not likely to give the desired results and embrace the less popular ones. Leadership Skill Development One of the major leadership skills that I would like to master is the ability to exert influence on my followers. The first step towards achieving this would be working with people who I do not authority over them. During this, I would be required to be presenting compelling and yet logical arguments and engage in the exchange of ideas with others. This would improve the ability to influence people to buy and follow may ideas (Collins, 1). This would be sharpened later after assuming a senior role where I would have the opportunity to steer long-range objectives, motivation, and inspiration on followers. The success in this would be measured by how easy I would be able to respond to words with actions. The second major skill that needs to be mastered is the self-awareness. This will be acquired by identifying my past behaviors and actions that could have annoyed others in the past and reflecting on how they could have been avoided (Collins, 1). The success in acquiring self-awareness skills will be measured by determining how many times I annoy other people unknowingly in a given period. Annoying others even unknowingly is a sign of a lack of self-awareness. Conclusion In conclusion, leadership profile would help me to understand personal strengths and weaknesses and determine areas which need to be improved or changed to become a successful leader in the future. Among the personal strengths identified includes the ability to spread energy and optimism and having the courage to make unpopular decisions when the situation requires me to do so. The two major skills that I would like to master in the future include self-awareness and the ability to influence. As a leader, one must be able to influence the followers and be aware of how other people are affected by one's decisions. Sources 1. Collins, J. (2014). Leadership qualities: Qualities of a good leader. Leipzig: Amazon. 2. Daniel, G. (2018). What Makes a Leader?. In Contemporary issues in leadership (pp. 21-35). London: Routledge. 3. Goleman, D. (2017). What Makes a Leader? (Harvard Business Review Classics). Boston: Harvard Business Review Press 4. Hamilton, J.(2018). Everything DiSC Workplace Results. 2018. Retrieved on October 18, 2018, from, http://blackboard.strayer.edu 5. JWI 510. Week 2, Lecture 1. Defining effective Leadership. 6. JWI510. Week 3. Lecture 1.Your Leadership Style. Read More