Self-Assessment of Leadership, Skills, Style, and Values

Self-Assessment of Leadership, Skills, Style, and Values

I. Leadership

The word “leader” is used often to describe someone in a position of power. However, it has been overused so much that people confuse being “leaders” with being “in charge.” Being in charge just means I hold rank over others. There are certain qualities one must have to be a great leader. A great leader must have a vision. Passion is also another necessary quality. A great leader has to be a great decision maker. And finally, a leader must be a great team builder. In order to be a great leader, I must have a vision of what I want to achieve or what we think the company’s vision is. Just having a vision doesn’t cut it though. I need to be able to communicate our vision to my followers or my team. I may be asking myself “how?” I have to learn to paint a picture with words. Express my vision in any way I can. Speak it, draw it, and write it. Use whatever ways and means to create a picture.

Moreover, the role of a leader has the responsibility to ensure the work is completed, goals are met and the mission is accomplished. In addition, I must apply critical leadership skills to be successful, such as demonstrating recognition, using effective communication, and illustrating credibility. Human nature desires to be recognized for contributions and has a positive impact on workers. The sincerity and timing of acknowledging positive behavior are key factors that may encourage others to follow suit. Credibility found in leadership is imperative for the success of any organization and is where trust begins. The lack of credibility will have a negative impact on the team, department and possibly the entire company. The final required skill is two-way communication, which shares, receives and understands communicated information. Each of the skills plays a significant role in leadership and must be learned, applied and enhanced to be effective.

In today’s society, there are as many different leadership styles as there are personalities. The challenge for managers is to find a way for these varied styles to work together effectively and productively.

An example of me being a good people oriented leader and production oriented leader is when I was made a tentative team lead for a high priority project. I had four resources assigned to me to complete this project and one among them was a new hired employee. He recently learned to work on the software tool and had no previous experience in software industry. I took this as a challenge and started working on my project. The new employee had to understand many concepts in order to start his work. I myself approached him and provided all the information he needed and guaranteed him he will succeed in his part. He had a few obstacles while we were in the developing stage and always used to seek my help. I prioritized him for providing my support when he was fighting with bugs in his development part. He now adores me and has immense respect towards me. The project was finished and delivered without any delays. It was a huge success. My manager was so proud of me for completing the project on time with half the resources he usually assigns for a typical project and one among them was a new hire with no prior development experience. This gave me a great boost and motivation for my future projects.

A negative example of my leadership skill would be the lack of networking skill. When I was in the process of seeking a job for the first time, I never used to attend any of the career fairs organized by my previous university. Among the four years of my bachelor’s education, there were almost ten career fairs in my university. I hardly attended a couple of them. I didn’t know what to expect in these career fairs and went to one of them unprepared, under dressed and without a proper resume. May be I wasn’t serious enough at that particular time to get a job. I went in and found many executives from various companies had their stalls setup and students were dropping their resume and speaking to them. I found an exporting company in toys and games industry, which had jobs that matches somewhat with my profile. I went near the stall and the executive shook hands with me and asked about my experience. I gave a very blunt, unprepared answer with no interest at all. She wasn’t impressed with my answer and suggested that may be I have to start looking for jobs which might seek a little less experience than the one they were providing. I immediately left the stall and spoke to no one or looked for any other jobs. I realized I did a mistake of not being prepared and not having proper networking skills. It has been so many years since this awkward experience. I’ve learned from this experience that I need to periodically identify and evaluate my personal values, strengths and weaknesses. What benefits and contributions I can bring to the organization? I also believe that my pursuit of a MBA would bolster my knowledge of the job market at large, and improve my networking skills and salesmanship.

II. SKILLS

I believe that one of my strength to be a good leader is the ability to create a team environment. I understand the need for people to have good working relationships. This does not necessarily state that all co-workers are “best friends”. Working well together does not require that staff all have the same idea of what a strong work ethic is.

One way that I have accomplished this, is by allowing time, even If it is outside of the work area, to get to know each other’s “story”. I have found that if I know more about a person’s background, lifestyle and issues in their lives, it becomes much easier to understand why they do the things they do, and how to respond to them. Having this information is much more productive than having negative feelings toward a person and not understanding why they make