Personal Leadership Self-Assessment

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.

As per MSMQ assessment my dominant leadership styles are "Coaching", "Coercive", and "Affiliative" and my least preferred styles are “Pacesetting”, “Visionary” and “Democratic” in that order. I expected to see myself high on coaching as I use that style a lot at my work, hence I was not surprised to see that as my most dominant style in self-assessment. I did not expect to see my coercive style usage to be high and visionary style usage to be low. In fact, I was under the impression that I am more authoritative than coercive. I try to set vision for the team and make lot of effort to involve people in my decisions. I would need to observe myself if I instead of setting vision for the team, am becoming too

According to “Mind tools leadership” assessment, I received a score of 53-90. This assessment proposes, “excellent! You are well on your way to become a good leader. However, you can never be too good at leadership or too experienced.”

By taking both self-assessments I learned that my leadership style is Authoritarian Leadership (Autocratic). Being an authoritarian leader I can be bossy at times but I set a clear standard on what needs to be done, when it needs to be done, and how it needs to be done. In a government ran by an autocratic leader, you can clearly see the divide between the leader and the followers and you can tell that the leader takes control over all of the followers. As an authoritarian leader, I like to make decisions on my own without the help or considering the concerns of my peers.

I scored a 29.2 which put me in a very good: your effectiveness as a leader is high category. I do not know if I was surprised by my score, I think I was more worried about being as truthful as I thought I could be on scoring myself. I have only one time been in a management position and it was when I was very young and dumb. I was an an assitant manager for a telemarketing company. I was mouthy and rude and only cared about the bottom line, which was sales and call volume. Now I know better and wish I had handled things much differently. I have realized that being a good leader does not mean you have to be mean and thoughtless. Some

For the past four summers I have worked as a camp counselor at Camp Longhorn in Burnet, Texas. Although this past summer was my last, I have grown both personally and professionally through my time there. Over the course of four summers I have seen boys turn into young men that come from all across the country. I was in charge of a cabin ranging in size from nine to fourteen young men. My job was to overlook and provide assistance and guidance when needed as well as being a mentor. Being in charge of a group of boys has challenges in and of itself, however I was able to find a balance between a parent figure and an older brother. With each situation arose I realized that the strive I have to be open minded and constructive when needed allowed me to balance my guidance with personal gains.

The purpose of a leader is to establish a purpose or goal, create a strategy to accomplish that goal and gain trust of others to believe in your strategy (Candela Open Course, n.d.). Leaders are only as strong or as weak as their strongest and weakest members of the team. Leaders need to examine the team members and find the strong points and the weak points of the members and assist in improving the weakest area and training. The saying of “There is no I in Team”, is correct since not just one person can accomplish the goal, it takes a team working on multiple areas of the task.

A Christian leader, my goal is to use Biblical principles to guide my servant leadership relationship with followers and associates. Using the Holy Spirit as a guide, this will enable me to achieve a common goal with those I lead. However, my effectiveness as a Christian leader is not an accident, but rather it will be the result of a carefully crafted leadership development plan that systematically addresses leadership behaviors and spiritual gifts. This plan will also use self-assessments to guide me in understanding who I am as a Christian leader and to examine the use of Biblical principles in my leadership practice. In addition, an assessment of my personal and professional strengths

I have learned that while I am strong in some leadership areas, I am also weak in other areas. Prior to this course, I looked for my approach or style of leadership through other individuals. Essentially, I tried to model or shape my behavior and viewpoint by looking to others. Now, I see that is a critical mistake as I must discover my own unique style of leadership, not someone else’s – this is about being authentic and true to myself. It all makes sense now as I never could get it right before – felt like I was acting and being fake (and I was). This has given me a renewed sense of confidence in my leadership potential. I strongly believe that with hard work and commitment, I can be a great leader.

Upon completion the three leadership assessments, I was surprised to notice several data points which revealed particular aspects about my leadership style that I had not previously perceived myself to be. One of these instances was my low “balanced processing” scores during the Authentic Leadership Self-Questionnaire, which highlighted that I tend to glance over the opinions of others in lieu of my own. These findings accurately reflect my leadership skills as I tend overestimate my own ways of thinking and can sometimes ignore others who may provide me with a broader perspective. I plan to apply these results to grow professionally by taking actions such as actively listening to constructive feedback and recognizing the value of the opinions

The opportunities we are bestowed with occasionally come at the moments we least expect them to, moments in which we are the slightest bit prepared to take on the challenges and experiences that these opportunities bring. In the blink of an eye, they lead to roads that were once dormant in our lives and take us onto highways bound for the unknown. In the summer of 2013, I was presented with this very opportunity, a chance to co-lead the youth worship team at my church while entering leadership, where I would receive counseling over how to better my direction over others. It’s been an experience that has allowed me to cultivate quality leadership skills in myself and others while also transmuting my own philosophy regarding the way I understand and work with others.

Through the process of assessing my skills as a leader, I have learned quite a bit of information. There are parts of the assessment that I hadn’t thought of, but the answers from my peer are what really shaped my understanding of the assignment and my leadership skills.

The new ways of thinking that will help me to readdress my personal leadership challenge involves better understanding the concepts of values-based leadership, situational leadership, and style, skills, and trait approaches to leadership.

Being able to critique oneself is especially difficult when attempting to pick out the flaws that need to be worked on. In my personal life, I have been able to capitalize on my weaknesses and turn them into strengths. For example, I used to be socially awkward and not be able to hold a conversation if my life depended on it. I have since joined Toastmasters, an organization that is determined to help its members achieve their goals, and have been able to overcome social anxiety as well as build a solid network that includes my fellow members in the organization.

Characteristics’ and behaviors of successful leaders are both innate and learned (DuBrin, 2013). Assessing ones personality, cognitive abilities, emotional intelligence, and behavioral characteristics assists in determining the areas in which there is opportunity to increase ones effectiveness as a leader. Utilizing the Humanmetrics Jung Typology Test, the Big Five Personality Factors, in addition to three self-assessment quizzes from the Dubrin (2013) text this paper will discuss the instruments chosen for the self-assessment and their results, personal reaction to the assessments, what the results convey regarding leadership performance, and a summary of the most significant insights gleaned from the assessment.