1. Webster’s Dictionary defines leadership as “the action of leading a group of people or an organization”. That definition does the word no justice as leadership can look like a great many things to different people, and there are equally as many ways to lead. A leader can lead through fear or respect, by word or by action. Numerous leaders have influenced my career and leadership style to this point. Most notably, the Chief of my first Patrol Boat was one of the biggest influences I have experienced in my career. He conveyed confidence, empowered his people, and exuded the charisma to inspire people to want to be better, if nothing else, to not disappoint him. Simultaneously, he demonstrated the ability to hold people accountable, and …show more content…
I struggle to include the feedback of other both during and after a decision making process. I also struggle with setting concrete plans and achievable milestones. I have also never really sat down and established what I wanted my personal leadership philosophy to embody, and evaluate whether I am projecting those qualities.
2. To become a more effective leader, I must first make strides on asking others for feedback. That is the element that seems to be instantly recognizable in self-evaluation. Recent results from the Kouzes and Posner Leadership Practices Inventory (LPI) survey reinforce that assessment. This category was my lowest score across self and peer evaluation. I even received feedback from supervisors and co-workers stating the need to seek more feedback. I openly admit to being a skeptic. I learned at a young age to question everything. However, I have not been as forthcoming in allowing others to question and contribute. I also have a tendency to have a very small circle of trust. There have been a very finite number of people that I have truly valued their opinions. At this point in my career, I am surrounded by experts in their fields, who know more about many elements than myself. Additionally, numerous years of working in law enforcement and emergency response have conditioned me to make rapid decisions. This process involves hot washes where the team analyzes those decisions after the event has concluded. It is prudent
The term leadership invokes a deeper meaning than the simple Merriam-Webster dictionary definition as “the office or position of a leader” (Merriam-Webster, 2015). Candidates seeking management positions are frequently asked about their leadership styles during interviews. It is a derivative of the “what is the purpose of my leadership” question asked by William George discussed in his article, “Note on why leaders lose their way” (2004, p.2). My leadership style is best illustrated by the following quote by Rear Admiral Grace Hopper (US Navy, retired): “you manage things, you lead people. We went overboard on management and forgot about leadership” (Schieber, 1987).
Leadership, which is defined as “…The action of leading a group of people or an organization” is used in many different ways. Most people think being a leader is mostly about being the boss, having people work under you and just becoming successful, but it boils down to more than that. Leaders are those individuals that actually utilize their many abilities in leadership and administration to help make a better change for themselves, the people around them and the goal that needs to be achieved. Leadership is not an expertise that can essentially be grabbed from a book or article based on leadership but instead it is one of those initiative abilities that are increased through experience and understanding those real life situations.
When I thought of leadership, I thought of someone good at telling others what to do. Not much has changed about my quiet nature, but my take on leadership has changed drastically. In my high school art class, most of the kids were underclassmen. I befriended them and would always share my experiences and give them advice to help them succeed in high school. I encouraged them to do all their work and get involved in extracurricular activities for a more meaningful high school experience. I realize now that I was more of a leader than I thought. I unintentionally mentored my classmates, and at the same time lead by example because I did all my work and stayed busy being involved. I realize now that encouragement and example are very important aspects of
According to Webster’s Dictionary, leadership is the power or ability to lead other people, the act or instance of leading. I believe that Leadership is an art, the art to get others to follow and accomplish a common goal or task in a harmonic manner. A leader can be shown in all kinds of shapes and forms. To be a great leader many people believe it consists of modeling the way, inspiring a shared vision, enabling others to act, and encouraging the heart. Over the course of me learning how to become a better leader and being in leadership roles, I’ve learned that all these are very necessary to be a great leader.
My idea of leadership is being able to inspire others, motivate, set a vision, communicate, respect others, and of course, lead by example. A leader must have an honest understanding of who they are, what they know, and what they are capable of. To be a successful leader, you have to be able to convince your followers, not just yourself or your superiors, that you are worthy of being followed. In my opinion, this can build confidence in their followers to have faith in you, in order to be able to lead. I strongly believe that good leaders are made rather, and not born. If you have the desire and willpower, you can become an effective leader. Good leaders are developed through a never ending process of self-study, education, training, and
If you are planning on becoming a successful leader, you should make it a priority to be self-aware and understand your values and motives. It is also important that you accept feedback and self-reflect, based off the advice others give you and your passed experiences (Shankman et al., 2015). By reflecting on past experiences, you will learn and become a stronger and more effective leader. Also, you should be aware of your emotional responses and how you tend to react emotionally to situations. By being aware of your emotions, you will become a stronger leader, who is capable of controlling their emotions and
I know that this is not always the appropriate behavior and a more acceptable approach would be to talk to the person individually and see where their skills can be utilized. I can see myself evolving into an efficient leader but it will take time and patience that I do not always possess. I view projects assigned to me as puzzles and human capital as the most valuable resource. I tend to see the big picture and envision the end goal instead of focusing on the minute details and mundane or irrelevant conversations. I value the absence of ambiguity and uncertainty, and tend to feel flustered or stressed when I am confused. When faced with a difficult obstacle I address it so I can move on and complete the assigned task. This enables me to keep myself and others on track but can also create a barrier between myself and those I am working with. I do not mix work with pleasure, and find that irrelevant actions or conversations only delay the end goal. My verbal communication skills tend to be one of my weak points, and this often reflects onto how I interact with most groups of people. It is imperative to have strong verbal skills because it is often the most common way of learning new things, new people, and new ideas. This is something I believe can be changed and I can actively work on in the future. If I do not change this about myself, I am holding myself back from transforming into an effective leader in today’s society. Being an
Since Kindergarten, I have been blessed with other influential programs and people in my life that have encouraged me to be a leader. The foundations of my leadership skills and beliefs have been built mainly through my experiences in joining different athletic teams and clubs throughout middle school and high school. I was able to follow under some of the best and worst coaching and team leaders that have shaped what I think a great leader is today. I have been lead under leaders that I resent and leaders that I admire. My leadership characteristics mostly come from these examples in my life. I saw what situations I felt uncomfortable in and how my fellow teammates reacted. I would often think about how the situation could have been better if the leader had approached it a different way. I tend to mimic those leaders that have truly influenced and motivated me because I want to make others feel the same way that leader made me feel. The biggest difference I saw in the varying leadership styles was the way in which the leader communicated to the rest of the team, the collaboration efforts, and the way in which they adjusted to changing circumstances. My views on leadership did
Summarizing the idea of Leadership that I have researched, in my opinion, is the capacity to conduct followers to reach goals. Leaders convince followers the necessity of a leadership group to achieve the success. And although, followers use their own expertise to complete a job, they need to be driven by a Leader. A Leader exerts a certain power and influence in their follower that can be direct or indirect. An effective leader knows how to extract the best ability from each follower and although the skill belongs to the followers, some of them perform better when is conducted by a Leader. The ability to influence, comprehends and agree with others about what is necessary to be completed and how doing it as such, as to support individuals and group effort to
Leadership framework is comprised of four key proficiencies: visioning, relating, sensemaking and inventing. Within this framework two areas where I see my own leadership skills prevail are sensemaking and inventing. Sensemaking allows one to analyze in order to react smartly and proficiently. I am constantly collecting data in order to assess situations and apply accurate strategies to accomplish goals. I listen to a variety of opinions and weigh pros and cons from many sources in order to make sense of the problems in front of me. By relying on discovery and curiosity to
Leadership isn’t easy. In the moments of push and pull and on the spot decision making, all of the responsibility and possible repercussions of a bad spur of the moment decision rests on a leaders shoulder. It can be overwhelming, stressful, and even intimidating at times. At what point do I know that I am and will continue to be a successful leader? That can be a difficult question for one to answer, because success, as I have learned, is different to everyone. A great place to begin is to point out all of the things I am doing wrong as a leader. After the reading and understanding of “What Got You Here Won’t Get You There”, I’ve come to learn I have a few of the “bad habits” the author pointed out. It’s a little too easy to look over the list of habits the author discusses and silently think to myself that at one time or another I am probably guilty of each one. A few that I am most guilty of are: Passing judgement, Starting with NO, BUT, HOWEVER, Failing to give proper recognition, Not listening, and Passing the buck (Goldsmith, 2007). Though I may not portray all of these bad habits on a daily basis, it’s the fact that I have exhibited them at some point in the past that is toxic to my leadership skills. I must not only point out and take responsibility for these habits, but it is also important to know how they negatively affect others around me and how I can easily change them with small behavior adjustments.
2016. P.172). I made the lowest score on this leadership style. I consider my-self a leader who does not wait for things to go wrong before taking action. I like to intervene in my group when projects are not working out. I think it is very important for a leader to not only help followers grow, but also to stay in contact with them and give feedback in order to improve their productivity. In addition, a leader has to be able to take important decisions. Leaders have to be able to risk and take the best decisions that look up for the team. Also, followers should be able to not only discuss important decision with leaders, but also to give different alternatives to solve specific problems.
I have never considered myself to be much of a leader, as I have always felt that in order to lead, one has to be strong and oriented enough to lead people on the right path. Because I still feel that I don’t know much in life, I find it difficult to label myself as a competent leader. That being said, in the past few years I have noticed an abrupt change in my way of thinking. I now acknowledge that I am never going to know enough, therefore, I have to jump into action and then figure out what I don’t know along the way.
Prior to understanding how to evaluate myself as a leader, it was important for me to gain an understanding of the evolution of leadership. At the beginning of the semester, I came in with the belief similar to the Great Man Theory of leadership, which states that great leaders are born and factors such as personal experiences and education are only models for your abilities but are not responsible for making you a leader. It wasn’t until later, when I understood the concept of the Behavioral Theory of leadership and that we all have the potential to continually learn and improve our existing traits to condition ourselves as better leaders. Once I acknowledged the fact that I have the capacity to grow my leadership prowess and enhance my
When reflecting on my experience as both a student and a life learner, I never would have considered myself a leader. In fact, I have always been the shy kid who hides in the back of the class and panics whenever it is their turn to respond to a question. College however provided me with an opportunity to develop myself as a leader. I became more active in school activities and actively sought out leadership roles. As I’ve progressed in my professional life, I’ve become more interested in what it takes to make a strong leader. When assuming leadership roles, I’ve always considered myself an authentic leader but I know I’ve often struggled in detailing clear goals for my group or organization. Thankfully, Enrolling in the effective