Leadership Qualities Sample Essay.
Leadership Qualities
Leadership Qualities
Leadership can be described as a juggling act, in which the leader has multiple responsibilities within an organization where precise decision-making results in team completion of the organization’s goals. Goal accomplishments are dependent on the type of leader an organization has in place. In an attempt to determine what my leadership qualities are, I took a leadership self-assessment to see where my leadership abilities existed on the leadership spectrum. Out of a possible score of 100, I scored a 78, which is where the vast majority of leaders scored.
The Trusted Leader Self-Assessment Test found on www.thetrustedleader.com broke my leadership self-assessment score into four different categories: Building a community of Future Leaders, Identifying and Modeling Appropriate Behaviors, Thinking About Your Legacy, and Ensuring the Vitality of Your Organization.
Building a community of future leaders is a very important quality in any leader. It takes a constant amount of attention because successful organizations can only be successful when leaders are successful in recruiting and training future leaders, which are essentially their replacements. A good leader does not operate out of his own interest, he operates for the long-term benefit of the organization. I scored a 17 in this section, where a score of 20 is considered outstanding. Some of the questions were in regard to hiring and working over people who are smarter than me. It was a tough question for me to answer because I never once gave any thought that to the idea that a successful organization is dependent on the continuous recruitment and development of employees. A common misconception is that the leader is the smartest person on a team with the best ideas. An organization will know grow healthily under this type of leadership. A leader must recruit and develop employees who can constantly improve processes.
Identifying and modeling appropriate behaviors is the second category the self-assessment. I scored a 24 overall in this category, which determines that a score of 21-24 shows that a leader is an excellent role model in the work place, and the employees fully respect, understand and trust their leader in all aspects of leadership abilities. In my line of work, a leader’s success is reflected in the success of his subordinates. I truly believe this and have experienced it firsthand. The beauty of it all is the respect that is shown to a leader who has facilitated the success of the person showing the respect. That is a trademark of an excellent leader.
Thinking about your legacy is the third category in the self-assessment test, where I scored a 17. As a leader, it is important to first recognize the importance of your job. A person must see and understand that importance before they can become motivated in leading the team to accomplish to goals of the organization. As discussed in category one of the self-assessment, it’s all about what a person leaves behind them when they leave, not about what they were able to take. A leader should want to leave a legacy behind that is talked about for years to come. This will help the successor to stay motivated, and strive to be just as successful. The successor must also be made aware of the importance of the new role he is about to take, but in a careful kind of way to avoid being to affectionate. It must be known that the importance of a leadership role must be impressed on the person taking over. It cannot be ignored out of any kind of fear for inappropriate scenarios.
Ensuring the vitality of your organization is the fourth category of the self-assessment test. To bring everything I have discussed into one, sustainable operation, the ability to keep the machine turning for the long term by maintaining all of the leadership styles is the capstone to being an excellent leader. This does not occur overnight, unless one is fortunate enough to inherit an already-smooth operation. One key point in keeping an organization running smooth is reminding people of the value of their work, properly rewarding personnel for all of their hard work, and showing a genuine appreciation for your employees. People will work better and be more successful if their work is appreciated, especially by their leader.
In conclusion, being a good leader is no easy task. A leader has several responsibilities, with their people as their number one priority. Building and maintaining a good team, leading by example, staying aware and ensuring your legacy, and making sure the process is maintained and the employees look forward to working for you are the essential components in becoming an excellent leader. Of course, none of this can be possible without a future leader being self-motivated (Liu, 2010).
Works Cited
Liu, C. (2010). Leadership: Qualities, skills, and efforts. Interbeing, 4(2), 19. Retrieved from
https://search-proquest-com.contentproxy.phoenix.edu/docview/856587949?pq-
origsite=summon&accountid=458.
The Trusted Leader. Trusted Leader Self-Assessment. Retrieved from
http://www.thetrustedleader.com/test.html.