Personal Leadership Essay
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Institution
Personal Leadership Essay
Leadership denotes the ability of a person or a group of people to guide and influence their followers or members of a team. This involves establishing well-defined goals, creating and articulating clear visions, providing the team with the tools and knowledge needed to attain goals, and making sound and sometimes challenging decisions (Isaacson, 2012). Various aspect of the society ranging from politics to business to community-based organization calls for good leadership to help them thrive. Leaders thus help themselves and others undertake and perform the right things. They can map out where they need to go to triumph as a team or an organization. An individual who portrays good leadership qualities can ascend to C-level positions such as CIO, president or CEO or executive management level. In this essay, I will focus on my leadership skill and discuss the strengths and weakness that defines me as a leader based on real-life instances.
My Strength
One of my most robust quality as a leader is my ability to keep my word. When I say that I am going to do something for my employers, I usually follow through no matter what. This not only helps me build trust but also make me productive. However, experience has taught me a couple of things, which I put into consideration when committing to something. First, I make a few commitments. For instance, when I was an assistant manager at Champs sport, I would make promises that will not miss the marks of stakeholders.
I am good at troubleshooting and fixing issues and tries to make complex ideas simple. During my time in the US Navy, I was an E-6. As a petty officer, I served as a leader to junior enlisted personnel. I was charged with their responsibilities and would address their grievances and inform the chain of command on matters of discipline and good order. My troubleshooting trait also made me super curious about things and also motivated me to read, research and ask pointed questions to my superiors so that I could be well equipped in my role as a leader. This allows me to operate with the belief that there is always more to learn and grow. For instance, I can understand the concerns and opportunities that my friends and colleagues are experiencing.
Similarly, I am an excellent listener and compassionate (empathy) in that I can put myself in the shoes of others and hear them out. I believe that the alternative perspective of others is crucial in my long-term success as a leader. Empathy allows me to be open by creating a container for hearing others out rather than putting myself in “broadcast only” mode that only serves few people (Drucker, 2004). For instance, it permits me to think for a few moments before distributing news, constructing an email or providing the team members with critical feedback. These qualities are however much portrayed in my lordship position where I am a landlord of a couple of properties. I listen to the tenants and resolve any issue that they are experiencing
As another trait, I consider myself helpful. Over the course of my profession, I have consistently looked for means to assist others, build companies around this and make people’s lives better. In all the positions that I had to lead people, I realized that I had to continually answer similar questions over and over again to assist them to triumph in their tasks. Although this was irritating at times, I would, however, take the time to guide them keenly. I also believe in giving credit where it is due. Since I also had people above me, I would report the achievements of my team members to ensure that they get the credit they deserve.
My Weaknesses
Although I consider myself an excellent leader, I also have some shortcoming, which significantly impacts on my ability to lead. For instance, it is hard for me to tell others what to do. This affects my accountability trait, in that I am not always responsible for my team. For instance, when a junior in my team makes a mistake, the chances are that I will not be able to confront them (Owens, & Hekman, 2016). Consequently, this makes me take on more tasks rather than trusting my juniors since I do not want to be failed. Moreover, this limitation makes my performance below expectation particularly in a leadership position that I do not want to be tasked with.
I also believe in excessive supervision in which I feel like I have to double-check every detail of a task no matter its size. This makes me micromanage my employee which shows a lack of trust. Getting involved in everything that my team is doing on a daily basis weigh me down and takes away valuable time that I could spend on broader concerns. At times, this stagnates my projects or make them progress slowly, which affect the completion and delivery time. Also, it makes me show favoritism in that when assigning tasks I only consider the members who deliver perfectly than the potential that a member possesses.
References
Drucker, P. F. (2004). What makes an effective executive? Harvard Business Review.
Isaacson, W. (2012). The real leadership lessons of Steve Jobs. Harvard business review, 90(4), 92-102.
Owens, B. P., & Hekman, D. R. (2016). How does leader humility influence team performance? Exploring the mechanisms of contagion and collective promotion focus. Academy of Management Journal, 59(3), 1088-1111.