Understanding Leadership Qualities Through Gallup Strengths Finder Test

Five behavioral attributes that contribute towards effective leadership

Discuss about the Leadership Research Findings Practice And Skills.

I undertook the Gallup Strengths Finder test and found out five of my behavioral attributes which play an essential role in understanding the leadership qualities that I posses. The strengths are harmony, deliberative, restorative, adaptability and empathy.

The strength of harmony suggests that I have the capability to build relationship with people and my group members. I tend to look for areas where a common agreement can be achieved because I believe that no good comes from conflict. I have the capability to steer a conflicting situation in to a harmonious one as I am constantly looking for consensus. I tend to keep calm and hold a peaceful demeanor even in crises, which gives me the strength to think rationally.

As a deliberative individual, I have the capability to anticipate risks, identify them, assess them and ultimately reduce them. I am very serious about making decisions and I have the capability of executing the plans that I make for development of a situation. I plan ahead as I tend to foresee events. I make friends with caution and I tend to avoid personal matters. I have the strength to drive my group towards appropriate decisions and help them dodge risks or deal with those risks effectively. Becoming a leader requires this essential quality management .

As a restorative, I have the key strength of being able to solve problems. In case I encounter a breakdown, I am usually not dismayed by it; I rather draw energy from it. I enjoy identifying a problem, assessing it and then finding an appropriate solution for it. I have the capability to analyze an unfamiliar issue. I find it challenging to device new ways of sorting these difficult problems. I however prefer practical issues in comparison to personal or conceptual ones. This quality in me is something that a leader should have management .

I have the strength of adaptability, which suggests that I can adapt to any sort of situation and deal with it. I have the capability to rationalize and analyze situations causing discomfort so that it is easier for me to adapt. I try to discover the future the way it comes, one step at a time. Combined with the strength of “deliberative”, I can handle a situation, while analyzing the problems or risks that may arrive with it. However, future for me is not a fixed destination as I keep numerous options open in order to be able to adapt to a more feasible and advantageous plan.

Harmony as a strength for building relationships and steering conflicts

Empathy is another strength that I have, which has an enormous contribution in shaping my behavior. I can usually sense the tension or emotions around me. This is because I tend to feel what the other person is feeling; I want to look at their situation through their perspectives. I have the strength to hear questions that are left unvoiced; I have the capability to anticipate the needs of my group members. I usually have the appropriate words and phrases that could comfort a person in distress.

Leadership is the process in which one can influence their group and achieve the common goals. A good leader needs to be able to act and respond to the needs of the member of the groups as well as anticipate risks, address problems, maintain harmony. The strengths I possess can help me become good leader with a bit of both participative and entrepreneurial style.

I have a number of achievements in life as I reflect and as I have lived it till now. The achievements enlisted are those to which I assign a lot of value in life. The first achievement that I think I had in my life was getting my first job it was a very Valuable moment in my life as it was a moment when the effort and the hard work of my life paid off and I achieved an important position. One of the other events that I see as an achievement in my life is getting the driving license. It is a dream come true as it gave me a sense of growing up and the feeling that I have become responsible. The license is also important as I was always passionate about driving. Like any aspiring individual and a person desiring a settled life my marriage is one of the major events in my life.  I see marriage as an achievement as it is my entering in the settled life of a family man. Finding a life partner is one of the best events in one’s life and is therefore an important part of my life achievements. Getting a job is Qatar is another event which I see as the important achievement in my life as it was the event which was appreciated my life long hard-work and the experience I gained working a number of years. Moving to Australia was also another event which I see highly in my life as going to foreign country alone at such a large distance management .

Deliberative for anticipating and reducing risks

The most important value in my life is the factors affecting my life and the major reason behind my achievements was my commitment, dedication and effort. The values played an important part in my life in achieving the different desires and aims of my life. The values also helped in forging my identity in the world and understanding the importance of perseverance in the success of a person.

If I am given the afore said amount I will spend it in a number of ways. Firstly, I would like to invest a part of it in a number of business so that I can insure proper returns in the future. I would also give my wife something that she had wanted for long. On the other hand, I would use the money for better training for myself to improve my capabilities in the tasks I do. The qualities mentioned earlier in the essay are extremely important in a person’s life to achieve a number of goals in the life of a person but the polishing of these qualities need the monetary support for improvement. Therefore, I would like to spend a part of the money on training and development. The development of a leader is related to the development of the employees they work with. So, it is very evident that part of the money should go to the  people working with me and are a very important part of my success.

A leader who inspires me a lot is Barrack Obama. He had broken all the traditional barriers concerning ethnicity and race when he got elected as the president of the United States. I feel that there were two essential factors to his achievements, his amazing communication skills, which helped people, trust him and thereby support him, and his outstanding capability to lead such a formidable organization. Barrack Obama possesses a tremendous capability of communication and that is exhibited by all aspects of him, be it is body language, his gestures or his voice. He has the power to not just create a strong first impression but to sustain it. He has been able to use his communication skills to tear down all sorts of barriers and to build all the necessary bridges, which has enabled him to be supported by people from all diversities. His oration skills not only exhibited his goals for the nation but his genuine feelings about the major issues that needed to be fought. He does not just give a speech, but he tries to explain feelings, the ones that he feels for the people of his nation and for the people of the world. His words have the strength to resonate with the feelings of his followers and he has the capability to persuade people towards a larger good. He has been so successful as a communicator and a leader that his words have been able to fend away controversies, his positive attitude has been able to give people hope, towards a better life, towards a better future management .

Restorative for identifying and solving problems

There is no doubt about the fact that communication capabilities and leadership go hand in hand and effective leadership is not possible without good oration skills. Being a good leader required a number of attributes and qualities; one of the most important is that they need to be able to influence their group members towards a united goal. Secondly, a good leader also needs to be able to reach the minds and hearts of the team for them to be influenced towards the greater good., thirdly, a good leader need to be empathic towards their team members and need to genuinely be able to feel their problems ad his/her own. Communication is about a lot of different thongs, it is about information, it is about explanation of a certain issues or event or requirement, it is about planting positive ideas and many more. Barrack Obama for instance is someone who inspires me a lot, because he is a leader who exudes genuine feelings about the wellbeing of his nation I would not have been able to feel this way, if he had not been able to express articulately, his ideologies and concepts through required communication skills. So many people all over the world admire the man because he has power to influence the people of his nation to be the better version of themselves so that their nation can work toward growth and achievement. Powerful and inspirational communication is one of the key aspects of a credible leader, because it is not possible to lead without being able to understand how the minds of the team works and  thereby express ideas and suggestions accordingly.  Both communication and leadership are therefore interpersonal process which are intertwined with each other and without effective communication, leadership would not be effective enough to motivate and inspire the other members of the group, team, or in this case, nation.

Networking is an essential element for good career opportunities and having a network, which is well established, is an essential aspect of an individual’s job search. Although in the present day, internet and media are essential means of communication, research shows that about 80 percent of the available jobs are unadvertised and are spread by the word of the mouth. Hence, with a well-connected and large network, one can get a lot of information about the availability of jobs in the needed field. . One of the easiest ways of enlarging the network is building relationships with more people, colleagues, classmates, friends and many more. One must be able to develop relationships through other means like attending social events and meetings because they are a great way to meet people of similar fields of interest. Networking is essential because, it is one way in which individuals can get the knowledge about an informal or a hidden job market. So, having a broad network and development of the network is essential even when one is not actively involved in job search. Another benefit of having a well-knit network is that one gets access to a huge amount of knowledge as well as experience. People in the network from different backgrounds will be able to offer a variety of perspectives this would help individuals in enriching their bag of knowledge. Sometimes, even while not looking for a job, due to good networking, one come across a great job offer. Another fun aspect about networking is that, if a little bit of effort is put, it keeps expanding. The easy explanation is everybody has their own set of networks, two individuals meeting would have the possibility of the two networks merging. Therefore having a well knit and trustworthy network serves as an important factor if an individual’s jobs search.

Leadership requires a lot of abilities and strengths but one important ability that needs to be talked about is that of innovation. An innovative leader will be capable of combining the various leadership styles and techniques that would effectively influence the team members to be more creative, productive and hard working. Leaders, who have the capability of innovation, will be able to support the missions, visions and the achievements of the group or organization. An example of an innovative leader would be Steve Jobs; he successfully brought his entire company to a great height because he not only had great leadership and managing skills but also was a genius in innovation. In order to explain innovation leadership, is necessary to understand the concept of innovation first. Innovation essentially has three dynamic stages, which include generation of new ideas, evaluation and implementation. So, basically, innovation is bringing new ideas into the plate or renovating existing ideas with creative twists. Innovation essentially requires creativity. A leader needs to have many qualities, a leader needs to be deliberative, relator, adaptable, empathic and many more, but to combine all the strengths together and to use them effectively in, motivating, inspiring and influencing the team members would require a certain amount of innovation and creativity. Discussed innovative leadership can be either value added or exploratory and both require different leadership styles.  In case of a value added innovation, a previously existing service or product is revised and this involves minimum risk. A leader needs to use the transactional form of leadership in which leaders do no encourage the employees to take risks of their own. They use conventional leader behaviors to achieve the required target and to make the required innovations. Exploratory innovation however requires transformational leadership technique because this kind of innovation is all about creating new ideas and the leader encourages the team members to do so.

DuBrin, A. J. (2015). Leadership: Research findings, practice, and skills. Cengage Learning.