Personal Leadership Platform Term Paper

Personal Leadership Platform

Henry Fayol, Mary Parker among other scholars in the field of management have described leadership as the act of getting thing done through others, this definition is consistent with the definition given by Carter et al. (2008, 3-4) who described leadership as the process of attaining organizational goals, of which these organizational goals are attained effectively and efficiently through the performance of certain tasks that includes planning, organizing staffing, directing and controlling. From a functional perspective leadership can be defined as the process of planning, organizing, staffing, directing and controlling organizational resources and activities so that goals can be accomplished effectively and efficiently.

This research paper is based on leadership development from a personal perspective i.e. It aims at enlisting my strengths and weaknesses as a leader and the corrective measures I plan to undertake in order to become the future leader that I would admire.- Besides the positive qualities of a leader that were documented by Robbins et al. (2009,8-9) that comprise of the willingness to decide and capacity to do so, persuasiveness, responsibility, intellectual capacity and vitality and endurance; I would also like to develop other qualities to address my current organizational needs and objectives.

Leadership theory

There are two leadership theories that are consistent with my development plan, and they can best demonstrate my future plans as a leader, one among them is the functional leadership theory. This theory is particularly significant when a leader wants to address on some of his or her behavior that are perceived to contribute to organizational or team effectiveness. This theory supports my plan since it argues that I should do whatever is necessary for my subordinates in order to ensure that the organizational goal is attained and this in a way I will be contributing to the team's effectiveness and cohesion (Cromwell and Kolb, 2004, 449-471).

Secondly the transformational leadership theory is also consistent with my plan since it argues that a leader is one who is mandated to perform certain duties and he will in his capacity either punish or reward a team for their performance. This theory gives me the opportunity to lead a team and if it does so according to my plans, the organization will have attained it goals and the team will be reward for its efforts (Baldwin and Ford, 1988, -105).

Strength and weakness

This course has exposed me to assignments and activities that have informed me of my leadership strength and weaknesses all together. However for this research I entirely relied on two tools that I used to identify different aspects in my leadership that makes it more effective and also those that hinder it from attaining absolute perfection. The tools consist of the transformational leadership questionnaire (TLQ) and the assessments that are in leadership theory and practice (LTP). This assessment is made up of eighteen different questions and these questions vary in nature with the leadership competencies they aim at measuring for example the human skill, technical skill or conceptual skill (Lawrence and Lorsch (1967,89-94).

Thou I have never pictured myself as a "people person," the transformational leadership questionnaire showed that my major strengths as a leader are the ability to imagine and share in other people's feelings and experience, strong follow through, ambitious, compulsive and articulate. Basically these strengths to me mean that I appreciate others and I care for their needs, same as in the functional leadership theory or in the transformational leadership theory. These strengths also portray me as an effective leader in offering constructive responses to the efforts of my subordinates and that I also boost the confidence of other people, while still conveying enthusiasm. With respect to leadership competence my strongest skill is the technical skill, followed by the conceptual skill and then lastly the human skill.

The transformational leadership questionnaire show that my weakness lies in empowerment, performance, motivation, impatient, time pressure causes me to have stress and lastly I have strong need to get things done and get them off my list. To me this result mean that I simply lack the aptitude to motivate my staff.I haven' also mastered the skill to make my subordinates feel they are important to the organization in addition I also don't have the consideration to manage performance or shape company objectives clearly. All of the six weakness combined tend to show that I lack soft skills.

Moreover the assessments in the leadership theory and practice showed I have a great deficiency in interpersonal skills. For example the psychodynamic approach survey noted that my personality type is ISTJ, this means that I am internally focused, factual and specific person who is detached from the process of making decisions and emphasizes on control, structure and planning. In the path goal leadership questionnaire I attained low marks on the questions addressing my attitude toward a supportive leadership style. The LTP showed I am unable to interact with my subordinates on a personal level. (Philips, 1996)

Having already noted my strength and weakness, and developed an action plan. I am optimistic that after completing my last course of action I would become the leader I would like to be in the near future. In that I would interact easily with my fellow colleagues and become a good model of how a leader should be, one who can resolve problems and effect change through positive interaction with my colleagues.

The illustration of spirituality brought about by Fry 2003 encompasses two indispensable rudiments in an individual's life. Transcendence of individualism is noticeable in a sagacity of vocation or destiny as well as the belief that an individuals' actions working incorporated, having meaning as well as value further than being influential for achieving monetary gains or individual's satisfaction. Companionship is noticeable in the need for consequential relationships and being attached to people in a manner that endorses stance of elation as well as completeness. All the rudiments engross philanthropic love along with reliance. Philanthropic affection is connected to principles or ascription like benevolence, empathy, gratitude, appreciative, exculpation, endurance, humbleness, sincerity, belief as well as dependability. devotion along with optimism are associated with values or attributes like sanguinity, self-assurance, bravery, fortitude, perseverance, pliability as well as tranquility and all these were very much evident my style .

A number of scholars have come up with editions of dependable leadership hypothesis. (Avolio, Gardner, Walumbwa, Luthans and Mayo, 2004). The individual's notion as well as individual's identities of dependable leaders are strapping, obvious, constant as well as reliable. These types of leaders tend to have an elevated self-consciousness as per their principals, attitude, feelings as well as aptitude in short they can easily define themselves. The efficiency of dependable leaders emerges from their enthusiasm as illustrated by their might or power, perseverance as well as lucidity on objectives in the visage of complicated disputes, obstructions, impedes as well as divergence. And their control with their supporters is improved by their courage, lucidity of principles as well as honesty. It becomes easier for their supports to be controlled that is if they are professed to be trustworthy, careful listening as well as self assurance.

Impact of my action plan

My plan will have an impact on my leadership, since I would adopt new leadership styles, secondly I would be able to meet likeminded professionals of whom we shall exchange professional ideas on leadership and thirdly after completing my doctorate I believe I would become a better leader than I was before. My workmates will become freer with me and they would also be welcomed to participate in the leadership of the organization. The organization is set to benefit from this motivated workforce who fell appreciated by the organization they work for and hence they will continue doing their best to meet the organization's objective.

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