Assessing My Management And Leadership Skills

Self-Assessment of Leadership Style

Question:

Discuss about the Skills in Management and Leadership System.

This self-reflection reviews my skills in management and leadership since these are important to the different adjustments needed to improve any organizational plans. I have well reviewed the strengths in my leadership and management programs. I have assessed myself by gathering adequate information about my leadership style from different people I work with. Here, I have shown my personal visions and my management style and I have also established those vital areas I have to enhance so that I become a competent leader. I have carried out a self-assessment through different assessment tolls to assess my personality.(Arens, 2016). I have formulated a good plan known as Smart, from the different information. SMART is an acronym for Specific, Measurable, Action Oriented, Realistic and Time bound.

I have always aspired to be a transformational leader, a leader willing to share his /her vision, a leader who always motivates his team and committed to his work.  I intend motivate my subordinates by setting goals appropriately that makes them comfortable when working towards them. Setting goals appropriately makes the staff interested in their work (Brennan, 2016). I hope and feel that this is how the department visualizes its leaders, to help and improve the organizational plans. Nonetheless, this type of leadership is quite challenging to enforce since some of the staff do not really follow the goals set. This has made me acquire other characteristics of a leader, where I either reward or punish my staff. There was one time the competencies of the staff were questioned since they were producing insufficient test results.

A good leader should be able to assess himself/herself and understand well the knowledge about things. A person who is able to identify the strengths and areas necessary for development will always be able to set realistic goals. Also, he will be in a better position to use his strengths to ensure development. I have done a thorough assessment on myself as per the Big Five Locator Questionnaire tool and have also drafted a short Myers Briggs type Indicators to show my real type of personality (James H. McMillan, 2008). The sample picture for the questionnaire with score before improvement is shown below.

I have identified the main qualities from that assessment tool and they do not only correlate with my leadership principles and conceptions but also point out the different roles I play as leader. I was not even sure that I possessed some of the qualities. I am a confident, supportive, focused, determined and motivated leader (Spiller, 2012). The above qualities have also been identified by my class mates, peers and even my workmates. These qualities are essential for the good leader and I have to improve these qualities by doing different activities. I could improve my qualities and scores high in all the above like 78 in emotional stability and then 62, 73, 59, 60 respectively in other. I also tend to be not confident, slow with disciplinary actions, and failure to identify failure among staff, which all point to a transactional leader.

Improvement Plan for Time Management

The Leadership qualities framework process has made me be more critical on decisions I make and also reflect on everything I do. This process though effective has also been quite discomforting since some of the feedback undermine my styles of leadership. Nevertheless, this is not the case with other participators hence this process is just fine and efficient (Chuang, 2013). The process emphasized on the major strengths I possess; this was dependent with my total scores. My average scores for this questionnaire was 55. The following figure shows the personality rating for each average scores.

I was able to assess the major strengths and qualities during the process. Additionally, I had to improve on some certain areas so that I could become a good and effective leader. I designed action plans on the three key areas I had to improve on. These areas were; Improve on time management, develop and enhance my ability to face colleagues and also improve self-confidence (Folkman, 2010 ). To improve on the key areas mentioned above I have again formulated different action plans for each area.

The first objective plan was to improve on the skills of managing time. Poor management of time creates a bad undesirable view for all the people in an organization. The LQF states that poor time management sets low standards to other people in that organization (Chuang, 2013). It is also good to note that those objectives left to be dealt on almost during the deadline will cause poor rushed outcomes which affect the entire project quality (Chuang, 2013). The deadline can also be missed if I don’t deal with the original tasks at hand. Additionally, based on the Self-Monitoring Questionnaire results, I have identified that I really need to improve on long term planning and also view things in a bigger picture. Yet, this is quite challenging especially when I am dealing with other tasks and it can also hinder efficiency in doing tasks. Concurrently, I am quite approachable and open to any of my colleagues and friends which have always caused interruptions leading to difficulty in doing tasks before the deadline. I have affirmed the approachable personality after conducting an Interpersonal Skills Checklist Questionnaire, as shown in a sample image below.

I am going to explore strategies mostly based on Brian Tracy and Stephen’s techniques of improving personal effectiveness (Tracy, 2013).  Before I do all that, I have the urge of first finding a solution on how to minimize unnecessary digressions and interruptions. I have the feeling that if I have more time to work and remain uninterrupted then I will be able to effectively achieve my goals and objectives. I will have to close my door for certain hours and should work properly on my task for quality work and I should be in contact with people around me. I will then improve on clarity; this is a vital principle in personal efficiency. Clear objectives and goals will help improve productivity and prevent assigning jobs at future dates. I will first document what my desired achievement score is since it will help me visualize my main aims. At that time, I will also set deadlines for my goals, enabling me know the urgency of the objectives. I will also plan for the future, documenting anything essential. At last, I will immediately take action on the plans. I will then build my clarity on the objectives and goals as I plan ahead. Taking some time to make the plan will help to save a lot of time wasted in the long run. I will list out the objectives, which I need to achieve in a month, week or day, and any objective I have achieved I will cancel it in my list (James M. Kouzes, 2013). James M. and Kouzes also explains that the monthly and weekly lists will increase efficiency and effectiveness, and lastly improve on drive and motivation since a person is able to visualize on his/her achievements.  This will generate that forward motion in doing tasks. The strategies are quite essential evaluating tools that enable assessment of my achievements and progress. This action plan is in line with the Quadrant II theory where I have to balance my life in work and the urgent and more important issues. Four quadrants have been designed and this includes the following;

Improvement Plan for Facing Colleagues

Reflecting on my practice and from the results in LQF, I am in the first quadrant, a person who deals with the most urgent and important tasks first then look at other tasks. The assessors stated that I liked Fire-fighting at work, by that they meant that I deal with the most immediate challenge rather than planning ahead. This has a negative effect on improvement and development which are quite essential to improvement plan (James M. Kouzes, 2013) .  The above will lead to stress, burnouts, poor management of crisis and hence make a person be a far less efficient and ineffective leader. I will have to constantly look at my task list and assess my work and achievement.

The second plan will into look at improving my ability to face people or group members at different levels in a good way. Facing workmates occurs every time at all levels, so I have to do it in a more managed way. The report from the LQF stated that I tend to shy away from confronting other workers and just look away even when things are not done accurately (Nafari, 2016). I rather let standards fall down and not confront the workers. The comments above were mostly stated by my peers who I have to agree were true since I don’t actually face them when they make mistakes. I also had difficulty in dealing with conflicts. Conflicts occur when the workplace have different staff members of different backgrounds. This leads to different ways on how to approach them making working environment very difficult.

I will evaluate the plan well enough by noting the achievements and also looking at the experience. I will then write a diary of the problems I have already dealt with and then concentrate on those not yet done this will help ensure good confrontation with conflicts (James H. McMillan, 2008). I will also have to learn from experiences and also identify the successful outcomes and even those not successful and even try to know why they exist that way. I will also try to look at some of my strengths as shown in the LQF. Some of the qualities necessary in dealing with conflicts include the following; confidence, good communication skills, and so many more.

Finally, I will have to improve my self-confidence. In the assessment tool I learnt that most of the people see me as a person who is confident and has inspiring and motivational qualities. To some extent this is not true since sometimes my confidence level gets low. I always afraid of change, failure and conflicts and this greatly affects my progress. The results from the assessment tool showed that I am afraid of taking risks, which is true since my peer comments also indicated the same (Folkman, 2010 ). I will definitely need to improve on my skills of managing time and also the feeling of not acquiring the non-urgent but quite important tasks and occasionally working on immediate issues also affects a person’s confidence. I will have to address this particular issue of not achieving positive outcomes when it comes to dealing with confidence levels. The more I achieve positive outcomes more my confidence level will increase. Winning confrontations should not only be the reason but also we should focus on obtaining positive outcomes.

Improvement Plan for Building Self-Confidence

The first strategy to improve on my confidence will be to formulate organizational tasks and plan sheets. When I manage to work out one task, I cross it out then highlight it as a small win. This will create momentum and a feeling of achievement.  I will rate the key results on a ten-point scale that will help identify the weaknesses and strengths. I will learn from the weaknesses and even train well enough to eliminate the lack of confidence (Brennan, 2016). The key results in my lists will be discussed with my workmates and later be reviewed by my manager. The achievements or the goals I have achieved will help acquire confidence and a feeling of accomplishment. The assessment on my achievement has been on either a win or lose situation, but I am currently working towards the win -win habit and this will definitely improve my self –confidence. The direct report I have assess most of my accomplishments by the win or lose situation and this shows that anything I achieved having won outcome, which actually leads to lack of confidence.

The action plan will be mostly assessed by the accomplishments and achievements. My task sheets and all the plans, I may have will be assessed on a monthly, weekly or even daily basis. This will help me understand the tasks I have accomplished (Nafari, 2016). Task rating and even further training will also be assessed to know if there are improvements building on confidence. I will also reflect on confrontations and conflicts and especially aim for the win -win situation. Managing to do all that will help me achieve satisfactory outcomes and also help to build my confidence. Conflicts within the departments and resentment from my peers at work will also be reflected upon and even find solutions on how to do away with those problems.

Conclusion

In conclusion, it is true that all the plans I have form a link towards each other. An effective leader is one who is loved by his workmates and that is what I am trying to achieve. When I achieve all that and become an effective leader, then even my colleagues will have no reason to hate my leadership skills and the different styles I use to manage the different departments. This will minimize confrontations and also reduce conflicts within the departments. Moreover, improving on managing of time and minimizing confrontations and conflicts will help me gain confidence at the work place.  My confidence has always been affected by the poor methods of managing confrontations and the increased number of tasks that are incomplete.

References

Arens, T. E., 2016. Assessing Leadership Skills of College Student Leaders: What Do We Learn From Their Experience?, s.l.: s.n.

Brennan, S., 2016. Goal setting Your Way to Academic Success, s.l.: s.n.

Chuang, S.-F., 2013. Essential Skills for Leadership Effectiveness in Diverse Workplace Development Workplace Development. Online Journal for Workforce Education and Development , 6(1), pp. 1-23.

Folkman, J., 2010 . Top 9 Leadership Behaviors that Drive Employee Commitment, s.l.: Zenger Folkman.

James H. McMillan, J. H., 2008. Student Self-Assessment:The Key to Stronger Student Motivation and Higher Achievement, s.l.: HORIZONS.

James M. Kouzes, B. Z. P., 2013. Student Leadership Practices Inventory, s.l.: s.n.

Nafari, J., 2016. Servant Leadership and Servant Leader’s Attributes, s.l.: Amir Kabir University of Technology.

Spiller, D., 2012. Assessment Matters: Self-Assessment and Peer Assessment, s.l.: Teaching Development| W?hanga Whakapakari Ako.

Tracy, B., 2013. Time Mangement, New York: Amacom.