Evaluating Leadership Practices

"Leadership is the art of getting someone else to do something you want done because he wants to do it." Dwight D. Eisenhower This quote from Eisenhower rings true on many levels. During my career in the military and the private sector, I have been subjected to many different styles of leadership, good or bad. In my leadership roles I have attained, I tried to model leadership abilities by taking bits and pieces of previous leader’s styles and forming them into my own model. This has proven to work well as dealing with people from all different walks of life there is no one size fits all approach. In writing this paper, I will detail my own leadership platform drawing from the course material and various other sources. The goal of this paper is to show a solid understanding of the course teachings and perhaps give the reader a new found perspective on leadership.

An effective leader must have a plan for success. This includes a personal plan of growth as well as a professional plan for improvement. This paper will attempt to highlight my personal strengths and weaknesses as leader, identify the areas needed for improvement, and identify the leadership skills and practices that I will use to become an effective leader. This paper will also give an outline of the goals that I consider a priority and a timeline for this development. The overall result will be an inclusive leadership plan of development that I will use to grow myself as well as any organization that I work for in the future.

Throughout this entire course we have learned many concepts and strategies to synthesize and use leadership as a means of working in a group setting. These concepts allowed us to learn not only how to lead other

Leaders are most effective when they are able to attain cooperation among all the members and make them feel the purpose of doing their tasks. It is important for them to research on the characteristics of high performance teams so that they also have it as their standards in leading their people. Some of the important activities that a leader should be good at are persuading, communicating, and motivating people (Tracy, n.d.).

In order for someone to be an effective leader, one would have to bestow certain skills and characteristics or some can be obtained over a period of time. Various assessments and questionnaires are designed to measure and give insight on certain skills or traits an individual may have. Some of those assessments include the skills inventory, leadership trait questionnaire, style questionnaire, leadership questionnaire, least preferred coworker, path goal, LMX, and the authentic leadership self-assessment. By conducting these questionnaires and assessments, not

Abstract: There are numerous definitions of leadership, all of which contain elements related to people (the leader and the follower(s)), communicating in person or by the written word, actions (organizing, directing, coaching, and/or motivating), and for a purpose (meeting a goal(s) or accomplishing a task(s)) (ADP 6-22) (Fisher 2015) (Bolden 2013) (Hogan 2005). Additionally, everything done occurs within a given context. Effective leaders are poised, proficient, pertinent, and practical in the application of the art of leadership. This means leaders are ready to engage the group with effective methods and

Over the course of this semester, I have learned about the theoretical foundation of leadership and management. From various leadership styles to numerous learning tools have all aided in shaping me to become an effective leader not only in the health care profession, but everyday life as well. Through utilizing these tools, I have managed to put them into actions through working individually and in teams which has helped me to learn more about myself and the type of leader I am. Throughout this action plan I will reflect on my definition of leadership, what I’ve learned about myself in the capacity to demonstrate leadership, my leadership strengths and weaknesses and three action steps that will help me to develop my leadership in the future.

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Leaders foster collaboration and build trust by empowering others to take initiative and responsibility (Kouzes & Posner, 2012). Within this practice, leaders focus on building a bond with their constituents, sharing information, and enabling their team to make independent decisions to meet goals. The primary goal of this practice is building trust with constituents. In addition, communicating interdependence and fostering collaboration are critical to this practice. The role of an exemplary leader is to create a connected environment where people feel supported, competent and

ways to improve our Corps of leaders. There are a number of key points and

The Leadership Practice Inventory that I took at the beginning of my Student Orientation Counselor or S.O.C. experience was eye opening. It teaches and surveys people about five leadership skills these skills were further explained in The Student Leadership Challenge text by the authors James Kouzes and Barry Posner (2014) the different practices of leadership were: Model the Way, Inspire a Shared Vision, Challenge the Process, Enable Others to Act, and Encourage the Heart. These principles each have their own challenges and frustrations, and as a leader they have helped me realize what I can improve on. Modeling the Way was one of my top two practices that I had ranked high on during the skills inventory, and its focus is on finding your

The purpose of this paper is to reflect and make an analysis of the general strengths and weaknesses of a leader, provide recommendations, thoughts of overall performance to improve on this person’s leadership style in which practices and theories were utilized most effectively. Upon such, draw conclusions and provide an integration of this leadership practice into my own leadership practice. The accomplishment of this will be achieved by identifying several key practices from published documents surrounding and encompassing the leader, and comparing them to known relative concepts for a holistic view of the approach.

The results of the self-assessments are not consistent. According to the Authentic Leadership Self-Assessment, I rated low on self-awareness. This is due to my inability to recognize my strengths and weaknesses. I did, however, rate high on internalized moral perspective, balanced processing, and relational transparency. Next, the LMX 7 Questionnaire, I rated high. This questionnaire was given to my supervisor and one of my followers. The results of my Path-Goal Leadership Questionnaire, I rated average in all leadership styles. I rated highest in the directive style. The Skills Inventory Assessment resulted in a high score in technical and human skills, and moderate in conceptual skills. Having a moderate score in conceptual skills results in my inability to see the goals of the organization. I should familiarize myself with the organizations aims and objectives and align my goals with theirs. Furthermore, the Leadership Trait Questionnaire scores averaged between a 3 and 4, the highest scores being in dependability and friendly.

During the past ten weeks, I have strengthened my concept of what constitutes effective leadership. Importantly, it is a leadership style that maximises the contributions of followers to achieve the desired outcomes for the organisation they represent. As Nanjundeswaraswamy & Swamy (2014, p.57) explains, effective leaders need to balance the drive to achieve a task with managing relationships. Therefore, it is essential for good leadership to not only focus on the task but develop, motivate and empower team members to strive for the achievement of task goals.

The third practice is to Challenge the Process. As I have mentioned earlier, one of the greatest challenges in leadership is changing the