Leadership Qualities - Essay Example

My group consisted of, besides myself; Jessica, Mariam, Mitch, and Xtang, our task was to visit a food bank where we took our contributions and helped. Jessica was the leader of our group, and in many ways, she embodied leadership qualities that seemingly put her in charge by default. We did not hold an election or anything, so Jessica was an informal leader, yet even if we had I have no doubt every one of us would have picked her. Despite the fact that our group leader was not formally chosen or elected, I believe our group had in it an active leader in Jessica who was respected and willingly obeyed by all the team members.

Although I believe anyone of us could have been a leader, a disinterested examination of my group member’s personality profiles would most likely have found Jessica to be the most likely choice for a leader. Mariam is quite shy, and at times slow or reluctant to voice her opinion or give direct instructions; however, she is very helpful and when approached with a direct issue she quickly overcomes her reclusive nature and can be quite brilliant in problem-solving. Xtang is more or less like Mariam; however, like her, he would rather take a passive part and follow instructions rather than give them and he rarely initiates actions. He takes any responsibility given to him seriously and spends a lot of time working on the finer details; as a result, he usually finds anything the rest of the team missed. Mitch is very helpful and cool, he is polite and even crises and looming deadlines do not seem to have any effect on his cool. He is not averse to instructing others on what to do, but he is not very confident in himself this often to his being reluctant to take the initiative. On the other hand, I am a reserved person, and I much rather have someone take charge as I work from the background since being in the middle of things tends to make me a bit anxious and more likely to second-guess myself and others. Finally, there is Jessica; she is the epitome of a leader in that she is highly organized and more aggressive than any of us are. She enjoys initiating actions and authority seems to come naturally to her, even when she is instructing someone she ensures they are aware of why their task is necessary making it look more like a suggestion than instruction. When we went to the food bank for instance, she made our schedule, and she was very helpful to the other volunteers, she seemed to have internalized all the required information, and we looked up to her whenever confusion in the schedule arose. From her characteristics, there is no doubt that she would fit the leadership role most easily since she is more assertive and displays an overt sense of responsibility.

According to the behavioral leadership theory, leaders are qualified by their actions and behavior as opposed to the belief that leadership is an inherent characteristic. Jessica fits the bill because of her active role in the planning and implementation of our schedule, as well as her sense of overall responsibility, which made her stand out from the rest of us. Ultimately, I believe that having a leader in a self-directed group is beneficial in that the group becomes more organized, and goal-oriented since one person guides the rest of the group, but takes into consideration their views and opinions.