Leadership Self Assessment - Essay Example

Leadership Self Assessment Paper John M. Wayne Embry-Riddle Aeronautical 19 March, Contents Background 3 Personal Assessment 4 ive Assessment 4 Objective Assessment 7 Analysis of Assessments 8 Conclusion 9 References 10 Background I have been in leadership roles for many years now through my long standing association with the USAF. Into one of the most prestigious departments of the National Defense I have been serving my tenure in the USAF for 21 years now in the capacity of different roles. My stint as a leader started its journey 13 years back in the year 1999 and since then I have had the opportunity to lead people through my assignments as a Section Chief for 4 years from 2004 till 2008 and then as Flight Chief from 2008 till date. The US Defense Establishment like any other defense establishment is known by its leaders, its people who possess unparalleled leadership skills, which is why they are a part of such a high responsibility and accountability job. Being in the USAF requires an attitude dissolved fortified with discipline, and the habit to cultivate leadership qualities. My work profile involves the possession and application of thorough people development and people leading skills. I am responsible for coordinating and scheduling the work schedules of more than 300 personnel across 6 Air Force Specialty Codes which needs versatility in interacting with people and high energy levels. My role is techno functional in a way that I have to anticipate critical technical situation and handle them regularly as well as play the role of a people leader in the capacity of a POC for all personnel issues and providing quality technicians for the launch and recovery of C-17 aircrafts. The predominant style of leadership I have been exposed to in my career in the USAF is the one of empowerment and enablement. I have had the opportunity to serve under inspiring and motivating leaders who have instilled self confidence, independence and the power to do things independently in me. This I from where t h traits of empowerment and minimum dependency on Supervisory input comes from. Personal Assessment Subjective Assessment My leadership style involves taking initiatives and volunteering for challenging leadership roles. Owing to a job profile whose key requirement is cultivating and demonstrating exceptional leadership skills, I always enjoy leading a group and have no problem taking charge. I rarely look forward to others taking the lead, executive responsibilities and assuming leadership roles. Even if I am not in a role whose primary responsibilities involve leading and representing a team, I provide my leadership views and opinions. The traits of being a people representative and gathering popular support and appeal are natural instincts due to which I have been effective and successful in all my leadership roles so far. As far as delegating responsibilities and distributing work is concerned I tend to empower people to develop skills and perform duties and responsibilities independently and have minimal supervisory intervention. However on the other hand I do take interest in Managerial tasks and responsibilities. Planning is an important dimension of my leadership style. I am structured and methodical in my approach which defines the dynamics of my work and the success of my team. Consistency is very important to me. My leadership style is that of empowerment, enablement and focuses on motivating and energizing my team. A memorable incident during my service in USAF that brings out the qualities of motivating and inspiring people is when I was able to persuade a Technical Sergeant to complete the mandatory professional military education required to be promoted to the next grade. Nothing was able to make him take the exam and be considered for the next grade, but through repeated counseling, guidance and mentoring he eventually completed the required education and in the subsequent performance cycle was promoted to the next grade. I take pride in seeing people becoming successful and their professional careers flourishing under my leadership. Despite serving the role of a leader and being in the apex, I would like to be approachable by my team and want to keep a free and open channel of communication with them. Meeting new people excites me and I am always looking forward to lead a group of diverse people. I love to call people by their first names and remember names and faces very well. I am conscientious in taking my decisions and carrying out my responsibilities and the fact that I am well principled reflects in my self assessment as well. I however have limited openness to experience. My focus stays on leading people in a conscientious way, empowering them and also achieving goals and targets at an individual level. My leadership self assessment reflects that I am people person and that I have strong leadership aspirations (i.e., of going higher up in the ladder of hierarchy). I enjoy leading people and spearheading initiatives and tasks. Having discussed my leadership style and managerial characteristics, aspirations, strengths and weaknesses, a broad overview of some of the most popular leadership styles is appropriate at this point. Leadership Style can be broadly subdivided into three distinct approaches: 1. Autocratic Leadership: This approach involves independent and isolated decision making approach without involving or consulting subordinates/ reportees and peers. This style of leadership is adopted when quick decision making is required and it is not necessary to consult the team for e.g.: a high management plan being executed, discussing and fixing key dates for milestone achievement, fixing budgets, resources etc. 2. Democratic Leadership This style of leadership allows the inputs, opinions and perspectives of the team. It is an approach employed when team opinion matters. It runs the risk of getting chaotic and inconclusive if opinions are disparate and the number of participants is large. 3. Laissez-faire Leadership This type of leadership style allows the team member to independently take decisions. Supervisory intervention and decision making is minimal from the leader’s side. This leadership style works best with a team of highly capable and independent-minded people. (Lussier, 2009) Having discussed the three broad leadership styles it can be seen that Autocratic and Laissez-faire style are completely opposite styles of leadership. One involves taking decisions and executing plans in isolation without involving the team and the other involves letting the team members take most of the leadership. My leadership style cannot fit in rigidly into either of the two; rather it is shade in between the two styles which involves being in charge of the responsibilities and handling the authority and power, but on the other hand giving the team adequate freedom to exercise their judgment and take their decisions for smaller and day to day issues. As a result the Democratic Style of Leadership would best fit my leadership and people management approach. Some of the different leadership styles are: 1. Autocratic Leadership 2. Bureaucratic Leadership 3. Charismatic Leadership 4. Democratic Leadership or Participative Leadership 5. Laissez-Faire Leadership 6. People Oriented Leadership or Relations-oriented leadership 7. Servant Leadership 8. Task Oriented Leadership 9. Transactional Leadership 10. Transformational Leadership (Lussier, 2009) My performance factors in the latest performance report show that I have demonstrated a very high level of leadership skills and performance. (Lussier, 2009) Objective Assessment Having discussed the popular and widely adopted leadership styles and an analysis of my own leadership style the strengths and weaknesses of my leadership style emerges as a natural consequence. These are however relative and don’t have an absolute measure as all of them are qualitative measures. The conclusion drawn from my self assessment highlights the facts that: I enjoy leading from the front, would provide my leadership perspectives even if I am not directly into a leadership role, always try to get people to see my vision, take pride in seeing my reportees succeed and benefit from my leadership skills, like to know people and call them by their names etc. People development is one of the most important and influential performance metrics that gauges a leader’s effectiveness in leading, guiding and shaping the people of the organization. Few of the important qualities that a leader rich in people development qualities would demonstrate is the power to motivate, the ability to convince and the inspirational factor echoing in word and deed. Being in a leadership role for the last 13 years and serving the Air Force for over 21 years has given me the opportunity to work under some of the most qualified and distinguished leaders. It has in a way shaped the leader in me and my approach to my duties and responsibilities. A memorable achievement that highlights my quality as a people developer is the story of motivating one of my colleagues and Technical Sergeant to complete the required military education to be eligible for promotion to the next grade. This was achieved though leadership and continuous mentoring. My success as a leader reflected in his successful completion of the mandatory training and subsequent promotion to the level of a Master Sergeant. From an objective point of view I am strong in principles, I am conscientious, I always have the hunger for achievement and I love leading initiatives and people. Some of the weak areas are: Openness to experience, and agreeableness which can be strengthened through conscious balancing of my leadership style and subtly applying them apart from my characteristics traits in a way that it complements and enhances my perception by people as a leader. This can be achieved through leadership training, scenario based reaction and action plans and conscious training of task and people management approaches. Analysis of Assessments My leadership style being close to the democratic leadership style as well as rich in people development skills reflects the quality of being a true people’s representative. The behavioral factor that needs to be improved is openness to experience and agreeableness with opinions and perspectives of others. This is however very subjective and situational. It might not work in all situations but if it happens that multiple opinion needs to be considered then this quality can be wisely used. To become an effective leader, listening and observational skills can be consciously improved upon. Participatory and speaking skills are adequate as reflected in the self assessment report and to even it out listening skills can be bolstered. Conclusion From the data gathered from the study of my leadership style and self assessment scores I would prepare a plan that enhances my strengths and controls my weaknesses. I will prepare training and mentoring benchmark and take up roles and responsibilities involving mentoring personnel. To even out my leadership style and adjust the “Openness to experience and Agreeableness” scores I will interact with other leaders and observe their leadership patterns. From here I can take some of their approaches and think out of the box while at work. The qualities of being an intense listener and being on the passive mode while engaged in communication, gathering data and knowledge can be consciously improved. Therefore the highlights of my leadership plan to balance my qualities will be to prepare a mentoring calendar and take up challenging mentoring roles. The second action item in my plan will be to interact and observe approaches of other leaders and effectively apply some of their approaches of in day to day tasks. References 1. Lussier R. N. Leadership Theory, Application, & Skill Development (2009). 2. Avaya, Inc. (2002). Leadership talent review: Avaya, Inc. 3. Godwin, J. L., Neck, C. P., & Houghton, J. D. (1999). The impact of thought self-leadership on individual goal performance: A cognitive perspective. The Journal of Management Development, 18(2), 153-170. 4. InterLink Training and Coaching, LLC. (n.d.). InterLink training & coaching, LLC. Retrieved from http://interlinktc.com/assessment.html 5. Kayuha, A. A. (1996). Organizational systems. In Nursing management in the new paradigm (pp. 24-57). Gaithersburg, MD: Aspen Publishers. 6. Locke, E. A., & Latham, G. P. (1984). Goal setting: A motivational technique that works! Englewood Cliffs, NJ. 7. Loveridge, C. E., & Cummings, S. H. (1996). Nursing management in the new paradigm. Gaithersburg, MD: Aspen Publishers. 8. Manz, C. C. (1986). Self-leadership: Toward an expanded theory of self-influence processes in organizations. Academy of Management Review, 11, 585-600. 9. Neck, C. P., & Manz, C. C. (1991). Inner leadership: creating productive thought patterns. Academy of Management Executive, 5(3), 87-95. 10. Senge, P. M. (1999). Learning Leaders. Executive Excellence, 16(11), 12-13. 11. Wilson, C. K., & Porter-OGrady, T. (1999). Leading the revolution in health care: advancing systems, igniting performance (2nd ed.). Gaithersburg, MD: Aspen Publishers. 12. Wright, K., Rowitz, L., Merkle, A., Reid, W. M., Robinson, G., & Herzog, B. (2000). Competency development in public health leadership. American Journal of Public Health, 90, 1202-1207. Read More