Leadership Self-Analysis

The leadership self-assessment above indicates own leadership strengths, specifically interpersonal skills. These skills include verbal and non-verbal communication, negotiation, problem-solving, and assertiveness. As a matter of point, interpersonal skills build strong working relationship among employees, hence, improving efficiency in management. Besides, political skills help to manage the organizational politics and reduce workplace conflicts (Hersey, Ken, and Dewey 15). However, self-assessment indicated some weakness in analytical and drama fairness skills that needs development.

"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.

I have never considered myself to be a leader other than in my household. Even though I am a very active member in my church and have many responsibilities, at work I have never given myself the title “leader”. Since beginning this class and reading the assigned text I come to see and understand why I am and should be called a leader. The two self-assessments that I took made me realize that the everyday things that I do are actually the skills and attributes of a good leader.

The road to becoming an exceptional leader while rewarding, is one filled with numerous challenges. Developing the necessary skills required in order to successfully lead others is a life-long process. In this paper, I will discuss in details my leadership qualities. I will include results from my Seven Habits Profile, evaluate my strength and weaknesses and adopt leadership theories that will help guide my self-evaluation. In addition, I will analyze proven theories that will help me address skills, weaknesses, and behaviors in my leadership skills. These theories-based changes will help form and guide my set of SMART goals. I will draft a plan for success in my journey towards becoming a great leader.

The “new” leadership driver self-assessment tool was mostly accurate in evaluating my leadership style. I found that the overall scores in the four categories reflected my strengths. The tool also pinpointed specific points regarding my leadership abilities.

This leadership course has taught me to the importance of leadership and what it means to be a leader. That leadership is something that is learned and developed over time. To set goals and encourage those who are involved in accomplishing the goal. Being a leader more than just having follower, but to have enthusiasm, courage, humility, and integrity. This course have also helped me understand how to not only apply leadership to my personal life but to the working atmosphere.

It would appear that my original theory regarding the applicability and practicality of this capstone was accurate. This course has managed to successfully supplement the knowledge I had previously acquired in other courses. For example, I was familiar with and understood the basic principles of leadership. However, this course has taught me that the ability to lead is not an exact science, but an art and determining how to proceed when faced with uncertainty or a highly volatile situation is an exceptional challenge.

Leadership takes on many faces depending on the responsibilities and environments that are available (Rubino, Esparza & Chassiakos, 2014). However, some basic qualities are universal to all effective leaders. Emotional intelligence and conflict resolution skills form part of crucial leadership qualities (Parker, Sakfloske & Stough, 2009). Emotional intelligence, basically, refers to the ability of an individual to understand and interpret emotions effectively. The paper is based on a self-assessment on leadership qualities.

One of the biggest lessons learned from this course is that to be an effective leader, you must have a diverse skillset. I’m not sure if there is any one magical component or characteristic in being a great leader. One influence during my review of the literature was that; although easier for some, I see leadership as something we must continually improve upon. This is in contrast to my belief during my first day of class, when I thought leaders just

I have realized that change starts with me. This course improved my understanding of leadership, the

As I started this class, I did not expect out of it what I got. College classes are usually about facts and information, but that was not this course. This course was about exploring your inner thoughts and opinions, how you come to those points, and how they affect others. These components are what establish effective leadership and communication skills. One of the key points I grasped from this course is to always be mindful of others. To be able to be mindful of others, it is important to first, be mindful of yourself.

Thinking back to the beginning of the semester to now, I can definitely see how things have changed. I had a list of many of strengths and weaknesses at the beginning of this class. I feel as if I have gotten out of my comfort zone and I have grown throughout this semester as a person, and more importantly a leader. I have learned many lessons that I can take and apply to my everyday life and my future ahead.

My philosophy of leadership has changed after taking this course with Dr. Jim Street and Erin Parish. I would personally consider myself a leader from past positions or actions, although I have “expanded my frame” a lot after being in the Leadership and Legacy class. At the beginning of this semester I saw leadership as a position or skill. I still believe that it is a skill that can be retained, although it is not based off position but rather actions taken. I did not know the large variety of leadership that is surrounding me on a daily basis. I have been taught leadership previously by being in student council, public speaking class, Girl Scouts and being a guest service manager at Lowes Foods. This class has really tied all of those things together for me. Communication is crucial when it comes to Leadership, between other leaders and followers, to be a successful leader one must properly communicate which also means knowing how to listen.

When taking the self-assessment regarding Leadership Potential I expected my score to be fairly high due to my role at my current job and after reading each question. I am not surprised at where my weaknesses are however. The self-assessment scale rated me very accurately. The assessment shows my ability to want to lead but also that I want to do so in a way of influencing others and setting goals. It also shows how I even at my current job always try to find new ways to improve how to achieve certain task. This assessment does highlight that I need to work on my team attitude when it comes to conflicts and team accomplishments. It’s not bad to get pleasure out of personal accomplishments but I could work on getting adequate pleasure out

Through thoughtful and thorough participation in this course, as well as from prior experiences through this undergraduate degree, my leadership qualities and abilities have improved significantly. By overviewing my preparation and engagement in class, as well as my individually identified strengths and the feedback I have received from others, I am easily able to evaluate my participation in this course. Furthermore, by using the self-analysis questionnaire in Grossman and Valiga (2017), I am able to reflect on my leadership strengths and weaknesses, and develop a plan to develop areas of weakness the questionnaire helped me identify.