Leadership Qualities: Developing Flexibility, Open-mindedness And Mentorship Skills

Leadership Qualities I Possess

Discuss about the Leadership and Management for Educational Administration.

Leadership is a trait that is not possessed by all. According to John C Maxwell 2011, a leader is that person who knows the way, follows it and shows it to others. A leader knows what he or she needs to achieve (Boberg and Bourgeois, 2016). They possess set objectives and as such, he or she channels all the efforts they have towards meeting the set targets. Leaders possess many traits, which are acquired during their course of duty. Not all leaders possess same quality since there is variance in the environment in which they work in (Yukl, 2012). Much as these environments are different, generally, leaders possess same qualities. This is a reflective essay relating to the leadership qualities I possess as an individual, the leadership qualities I would like to develop and the plan to be followed in developing the qualities. In addition, the essay seeks me to compare and contrast my leadership qualities to a notable leader in the world.

Leadership starts all the way from a classroom setting to the outside environment of class such as clubs and societies. Essentially these clubs and societies are the best avenues for one to acquire and develop leadership qualities due to the ease of control (Murphy and Johnson, 2011). Honesty and integrity are one of the personal and leadership quality that I hold dear in my life. Outside classroom, am privileged to work as the deputy chairperson of the school’s rotary club, as such I handle many club activities on behalf of the club members. At times am called to step in when the club’s chairperson is absent or held up. The quality of honesty and integrity came in when I was the one assigned to deal with information regarding the clubs activities and reporting to the head office of the county’s chair. In this, I was to inform the country chair of all the activities that the club was undertaking. I would not lie since these activities were quantitative and needed evidence. It was essential for me to give accurate information to the chair and the head office since I was able to defend all I put in my report. Additionally, I was a part of the budgetary committee responsible for detailing the financial requirements of the club in a rotary financial year and the desired amounts to be used in the stated requirements. A budget needs to be justified and the clubs board would hold the committee liable in case the amounts stated in the budget were misused or went missing. The board as well during club assembly would expect the committee to give a brief report on the expenditure of the club, in this all club balances need to tally. Honesty was key in making these processes successful.

Leadership Qualities I Would Like to Develop

Confidence is another key leadership trait for any great leader. As for me, I gained confidence while serving as the deputy chairperson for the rotary club. Confidence was key in ensuring that the members of the club adhered to the clubs rules and regulations. Confidence as well was key in communication to the sponsors of the club. In essence, the sponsors needed monthly club reports in order to gauge the progress of the club. This included giving a vivid report of the clubs activities which on many occasions; the clubs chair would call me to present it since he had more information to touch on during such meetings. Confidence plays a key role in gaining trust from the people you lead (Walumbwa and Hartnell, 2011). This is another reason why as the deputy chairperson, I had to develop this trait. According to Yeung and Summerfield, 2012, confidence as well is key in decision making since as a leader one believes in the success of the decisions made and is ready to channel all the energy and resources necessary for the decisions made to be effected.

In addition to confidence, honesty, and integrity, decisiveness is another leadership quality that defines who I am. For a leader, prompt decision-making is very critical( Eden and Ackermann, 2013). Working in the position of the deputy chairperson, I was able to make critical decisions regarding to community service activities, together with the other members of the board. Decision making as well was needed when it came to choosing the best speakers to address the Rotarians, rotaractors, and guests. In making decisions, a leader shows the willingness to take risks keeping in mind that if the decisions do not work out, they will be liable for the consequences (Velasquez and Hester, 2013). Luckily, for me, most of the decisions I took worked out effectively for the better of the club.

As a leader, I would like to gain more leadership qualities. These qualities would be essential in handling issues within and outside my position as the club’s deputy chairperson. The first leadership skill I would like to develop is that of being flexible. In an organization’s set up, flexibility is very necessary (Goldin and Katz, 2011). A rigid system finds it hard to fit in the evolving business world, as a leader one needs to be flexible in order to fit in. In fitting in, a leader is able to accept and work with ideas that initially were not part of his or her plan (Northouse, 2018). Likewise, flexibility in the clubs scenario would play a key role in looking at different tasks from different angles. Many times processes are always too long to follow but yield same results, flexibility will enable I as a leader to gauge and adopt these efficient means of achieving better results. For a leader it is always a good thing to try something that no one else has tried, this is always because of information asymmetry (Bennis and Bennis, 2010). This keeps leaders always experimenting and some of these experiments actually fail. Flexibility will make a leader try a different way of achieving something rather than doing the same thing repeatedly but ending up failing (Norton, 2010). I aspire to clinch more leadership roles in the future; the trait of being flexible will enable me to handle different leadership related issues in different ways. A good leader is always result oriented (Longenecker, 2010). For one to achieve results, it’s necessary for them to adopt different mechanisms to accomplish a mission, something that most successful and flexible leaders advice.

Development Plan for Achieving Desired Leadership Qualities

The other leadership skill I would like to develop is that of being open-minded. An open-minded leader is one who accepts ideas from the people he is leading. Accepting ideas from the people someone leads creates harmony for the team; the people feel worthy and in turn are motivated to generate more ideas that will work for the good of the group (Herman and Mitchell, 2010). For a leader, being open-minded is essential in making one strong. This is because, being open-minded, creates an avenue to build yourself by putting ideas on top of the other. In this, a leader is able to learn new stuff and use the learnt ideas to develop the old ideas. In addition to strengthening ourselves, this attribute helps most leaders to solve problems (Dippiro, 2018). Basing on our education system, we are advised to think linearly with the focus of getting from one point to another along the path with minimum or no resistance. In a way, this is good since we are able to achieve objectives using limited resources and time. In situations when faced with new problems, adopting the same problem solving technique will not work out effectively. For leaders with an open mind, they will think more analytically in situations where they are faced with unpredictable state of affairs( Harris and Craig, 2011). They will be able to see the bigger picture and device mechanisms in which they will provide solutions to the problem in not only the short term but the long term as well. In management, leaders are faced with different problems, in no scenario will these problems be the same but having an open mind will enable a leader to find solutions to the problems effectively. Another reason why I would like to develop the trait of being open-minded is that fact that this trait will help me develop the sense of empowerment in the group, which I lead. It is the responsibility of a leader not only to be at their best at all times but also to bring the best out of the people in and out of their circles. A leader, who is able to listen to the people around him, empowers these people to come up with more ideas on how to handle issues (Landmarkspace.co.uk, 2018). This helps most of these people to build confidence that most of their ideas will be listened to and this in turn fosters the art of loyalty of the people being lead. Leadership calls for high performance, for a leader who seeks to be a high performer, it is essential for them to adopt the idea of being open-minded. This is necessary since they will have the urge to make decisions, provide solutions to arising problems and being accountable for the decisions, which they make.

As a leader, developing mentorship skills will also help me. This will enable me to make more leaders to take up leadership roles in the society. Most leaders seek to leave behind legacies, as such mentoring those to take over their role is essential (Rebecca, 2017). Mentorship links a junior to a more experienced person for the purposes of developing one’s career as well as personal growth. This will be successful through sharing of gained knowledge and insights over the years in which someone has been a leader. As a leader, training someone to take over from you is very satisfying since the leader is certain that the group or organization will be safe for continuity. 

In order to achieve the desired leadership qualities, formulation of a working development plan is essential. The development plan will play a key role in keeping me on a strategic leadership track. Below is a plan that will exclusively help me in achieving the desired leadership qualities:

The vision sets up the objectives of the leadership development plan. The vision reflects on the inner me, what I need to achieve at the end of it all. As outlined above, I need to be open-minded, flexible and have mentorship skills. The vision relates to what outcomes I want for my career life, what impacts I want for the people I lead. In creating the vision, I will do a personal assessment to know my strengths and weaknesses and the means through which I will change the weaknesses to strengths. In doing this, I will be faithful to myself in order to set a vision that truly relates to the person that I truly am.

In setting the goals of the plan, I will employ the SMART technique. The goals I set will be specific, measurable, attainable, realistic and time-bound. In doing this; I will consider the people and relevant resources that will enable me to achieve the objectives. This includes friends and family members who I believe will be of positive impact on me achieving the set leadership goals. In addition to considering the resources, I will as well consider the period in which I need to achieve this, ideally, I will need approximately three months to achieve these given the diversity of the people I engage in on a routine basis. The goals of the plan will be to achieve the desired leadership qualities.

Regular assessment of the plan is necessary to make it relevant. In making this assessment, I will check to confirm the traits I have developed against those I have not developed and the time remaining to develop the undeveloped leadership qualities. In many occasions, based on different situations, plans do change, the assessment will be necessary to accommodate such changes in events should any occur within the period in which I am to develop these desired leadership qualities. In the situation that an event alters the normalcy of the plan, it will mean that I reconsider the objectives of the plan by either increasing the time am supposed to develop the traits or seeking professional advice on how I can develop the traits within the scope of the plan.

Leaders look upon other leaders in order to develop their personal leadership careers. Barrack Obama, the former president of USA sets in as a leader whose traits have greatly influenced my leadership career. Looking at how he approached different situations in his leadership life has set a blueprint for what I need to achieve as a leader. Comparing my leadership skills to those of President Barack Obama, we are both confident when approaching some situations in life. When he was voted in as the president of USA, Obama was confident in dealing with the economic recession in America (Dorff, 2010). He came up with alternative measures to counter the US debt and put the plans on immediate action. This was to prove that indeed the government was working and in turn gain confidence from Americans who had lost confidence in the government during the tenure of George Bush. It is this art of confidence that made Obama urge the citizens of USA to work on a common objective since the American dream gave all of them the ability to do so. He urged them to recollect themselves, dust off themselves and embark on the journey of making America whole again.

Integrity is another key leadership skill that I believe to share with President Obama. President Obama kept to his morals and ethics. According to Malcolm Friedberg, Obama was the ideal candidate that he preferred to be the president of the USA back in 2009 (Jcsd-cl-obama.weebly.com, 2018). According to him; Obama was the only candidate who wanted to do the best for Americans without considering short-term gains. Obama was willing to lose his bid as the President of the USA but could not compromise his values and traits; this according to Malcolm Friedberg made Obama ideal to be the leader of Americans.

Decisiveness is another trait that is similar to both of us. In making, his cabinet Obama settled for the people who did not necessarily agree with his view. In this way, he did not want to pass “Obama” choices all the time. By choosing to work with a team that will not easily buy his ideas, Obama gained different viewpoints on different matters. Choosing to consider conflicting ideas made the president and his cabinet settles for the decisions, which would be fair for the whole of Americans.

In the contrast, both Obama and I possess qualities that are not similar, for instance, Obama was a fair leader. In his tax plan, Obama promised to lower the taxes of small business owners in order to increase the employment levels in the USA. For me am yet to develop this skill since in the art of being fair to some people other people will feel as if as a leader you’re being biased. The well-off will feel bad if the rights set will favor the poor and the vice versa is true.

In conclusion, leaders need to develop and work on new leadership skills in order to be effective leaders. Most leaders need to be flexible in order to obtain new ideas of leadership since in the current society; brick and mortar do not gauge success but the ideas which we develop, define success.

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