Leadership Characteristics

The importance of effective leadership approach has increased in corporations as the competition become fierce. The characteristics of a good leader include honesty, ability to delegate work, confidence, creativity, positive attitude, commitment, ability to communicate and others (Basham, 2012). I have evaluated that I have certain skills of a good leader such as the ability to communicate, leading a team, honesty, integrity, positive attitude and others. However, I lack in many areas as well such as confidence, ability to take decisions, commitment, accountability and others. The key strengths of good leaders are these characteristics which enable them in taking business decisions which lead the company towards success. On the other hand, it is difficult for individuals to effectively lead a team if they did not have these characteristics. This report will focus on evaluating the essential characteristics of a good leader and analysing the strengths and weaknesses of leadership. This report will include both reflective and critical analyse of leadership. A plan for developing my leadership skills will be included in the report as well.

Following are various essential characteristics which assist a person in becoming an excellent leader.

• Honesty and integrity

A good leader must have the ability to create an honest connection with his/her peers. The relationship between a leader and followers should be based on trust and reliability which assist the peers in trusting the leadership. Without this characteristic, the peers did not follow the leader, and a trusted relationship is not established without which the leader cannot succeed (Dinh & Lord, 2012).

• Ability to delegate

Each member of a team has different abilities, and a good leader works with the strengths and weaknesses of each member. The leader must have the ability to delegate the work to the team member who has the ability to perform the work effectively and efficiently (Northouse, 2018). This attribute is necessary because the leader cannot perform all the actions and giving a job to someone who did not know how to do it resulted in increasing the resources and time which is wasted on the task.

• Ability to communicate

The leader must have the ability to express his/her idea properly to his/her team members. Without effective communication skills, the leaders cannot build a connection with his/her audience (Northouse, 2018). This characteristic is important because it assists the leader in directing all the team members to achieve a common goal.

• Confidence

If the leader did not show confidence, then the followers started to question his/her ability to lead the team (Germain, 2012).

• Commitment

Self Evaluation of Leadership Skills

If the leader is not committed to a goal and constantly focusing on striving that target, then it becomes difficult for team members to work together (Germain, 2012).

Effective evaluation of personal strengths and weaknesses is important to determine the key characteristics which a person need to become a successful leader (Schalock & Verdugo, 2012). I used a self-assessment leadership tool in order to reflect on my characteristics which assist me in becoming a good leader. Firstly, I have realised that I have key characteristics of a good leader which include honesty and integrity. I realised that I am an honest person who works with high integrity. I am honest with my team members, and I did not lie in any circumstances. I am a person with integrity, and I also ensure that my actions did not cause harm or unjust to others which is a significant leadership characteristic. I have identified this strength while I was giving the self-assessment leadership test and my friends and family members have the same views about me as well. One of my key weaknesses is lack of confidence; I did not have confidence in the decisions which I take for others. I did not prefer to take accountability for my decisions, and I did not prefer to take charge. I have a fear of speaking in front of a large audience to share my point of view. I am not confident while sharing my ideas with people, and I did not prefer to take charge while working in a team or alone. I do not accept the ownership for team decisions and did not get afraid by their consequences. I am not good at selling things to people as I find it difficult to influence them or take their support.

I have effective communication skills because I prefer to often communicate with people. I prefer to engage in conversation with people and help them during their job. I did not prefer to take charge when I am working in a team, and I prefer to wait for others to make decisions. While conversing with others, I carefully listen to what they have to say that is a key skill for an effective leadership. Many of my friends made me realised that I am a good listener; therefore, they come to me for advice and share their thoughts. I have the ability to prioritise my work, and I find it easy to separate the important issues from inconsequential ones. Due to my ability to prioritise important stuff, I find that it did not take me longer to achieve my targets since I invest most of my time on relevant tasks. On the other hand, one of the key weaknesses of mine is the lack of ability to influence people and get support from them which is important for a leader. Although I often communicate with people, however, I did not have the ability to influence them based on my ideas. Since I did not prefer to take charge of my actions, I find it difficult to influence others and convince them to follow my ideas.

Ten-Year Career Plan

Furthermore, I have the ability to delegate the work effectively. A leader should have the ability to delegate the work to subordinates based on their strengths and weaknesses (Thompson, 2012). I evaluate the strengths and weaknesses of people while delegating the work to them, and I am able to determine their abilities because I carefully listen to them during conversations. Moreover, I find it easy to determine different resources, supplies and materials which are required for my department. I learned about this trait while working on my assignment with other team members. I learned that I could easily calculate the resources which are required for the assignment due to which I resulted in saving my time and resources. I find it easy to work collaboratively with other team members as I did not take charge and generally prefer to let others make decisions. I show empathy to people during conversations, and I deal with their performance issues as well such as substance abuse or chronic illness. I prefer to directly respond to employees who are upset with me to clear things between us to increase bonding and avoid future dispute. I can determine the manpower requirement of a job, and I am also able to write job descriptions as well. I also provide coaching and assistance to other members to help them do their job effectively. I am able to build strong connection with members due to by communication skills, however, due to my lack of ability to charge, I find it difficult to lead the team.

Who	Senior HR Manager
Where	In technology corporations such as Google, Facebook, or others
Why	I like to deal with people and solve their problems
When	In next 5-10 years
How	By working on my interpersonal and leadership skills

A decade from now, I see myself being in the position of the senior human resource manager who is responsible for running the HR division in the company. The senior HR manager is the highest position in the HR department, and the manager is responsible for guiding other members to hire other team members in order to achieve the targets of the company. I wanted to work in the HR department of technology corporations who create electronic products or services for customers. To achieve this, I need to improve my leadership and interpersonal skills which are crucial for this job. In order to improve my leadership skill, I can develop a plan which addresses my weaknesses and improve my strengths. I am a maximiser, and I prefer to stimulate people’s abilities which lead to group excellence. I have the skills to transform situations in a positive direction. Firstly, I have to focus on triple factor effect in which I have to focus on building self-confidence self-efficacy and self-esteem. In order to achieve my targets and work with others, I have to improve my building self-confidence self-efficacy and self-esteem. I lack confidence in my decision-making skills, and I did not prefer to take charge of the situation rather I prefer to go by others decisions. However, I have to build these abilities by pushing myself to make decisions. I will read books and watch videos on how to build my confidence, and I will practically use those tools to build confidence.

Building Self-Confidence and Self-Efficacy

Along the way I see myself being in jobs such as HR executive, senior HR executive, HR supervisor, HR manager and others. During these jobs, I have to continuously build my interpersonal and leadership skills which are important for understanding people so that I can hire talented employees in the workplace and retain them for a long period of time. These skills will also assist me in teaching other members key skills which they need to recruit employees in the organisation. As per five dysfunctions of a team, inattention to results resulted in adversely affecting the performance of a team. Firstly, I have to work in my skills to track my performance throughout time along with the performance of my peers. I give others information which they need for their job, and I keep focused during follow-ups. I also listen to the feedback of others and ask them questions to understand their queries and resolve them. I am good at paying attention to results which is a key element for building a strong team. Avoidance of accountability is another key factor which resulted in hindering the performance of a team (Lencioni, 2012). In my case, I never take responsibility for my actions, and I avoid the consequences. This will have a negative impact on my leadership skills; therefore, I have to work on this trait. I can improve it by starting small to take responsibility for my actions and work my way up to take accountability for all my actions. Lack of commitment to goals is another issue; however, I will ensure that my team is committed to targets by continuously motiving them. Based on my effective communication skills, I will be able to motivate them by resolving their performance issues. I listen to their problems with empathy and find a solution for their problems which will motivate them to perform better.

Another key factor which resulted in dysfunction of a team is fear of conflict. I lack confidence in my abilities due to which I find it difficult to influence others or take charge. I can improve this by joining an online course and taking risks in my life. I will take assistance from my friends and family members to improve my self-confidence which will help me in improving my skills. Lastly, the absence of trust is a major element due to which it becomes difficult for a team to work efficiently (Sparks, 2013). One of my biggest strengths is honesty and integrity which is crucial for building an effective team. I always keep my word while dealing with others and ensure that I deliver my promises. Therefore, in order to become a successful senior HR manager and lead a team of HR associates, I have to improve my interpersonal skills. I have to build my self-confidence to ensure that I am able to lead other team members. Firstly, have to visualise myself as confident, and I will affirm myself and my decisions. I will do things which scare me every day and take 100 days of rejection challenge. Secondly, I will learn how to study people and their skills to ensure that I am able to hire the right candidates for the job. My greatest job will be to start my own HR consulting firm after collecting years on experience in the HR field. After achieving my greatest job, my legacy will be that I was a great leader who had a strong bonding with his team members and who knew how to hire the right candidates at right posts. I will build strong relationships with my clients based on my effective communication skills to ensure that they hire talented employees from all across the globe. More importantly, when I leave the world, people will remember me as an honest person who cared about others and knew how to lead a team.

Conclusion

In conclusion, good leaders have many traits which assist them in influencing others to follow their direction and achieve desired outcomes. Without these traits, the leaders are not able to create strong bond with their peers that lead to distrust and conflicts in the team. By working on building these characteristics, people can improve them to become good leaders. Based on my personal evaluation, I have realised that although I have many leadership traits, however, I lack some of them as well. I have good communication skills and the ability to connect with people, however, I lack confidence due to which I did not take charge or take accountability for my actions. I also realised that I am an honest person with integrity and I help my colleagues rather than leaving them behind. I have to work on my confidence, interpersonal and leadership skills to become a successful senior HR manager. Due to my ability to connect with people and build strong relationships with them, I will be able to increase their trust in my leadership skills which is important to build a strong and reliable team. I will also assist me in assessing people that will be a key part of my job to select the right person for the right post. Lastly, I will improve these skills and become a great leader to achieve my life goals.

References

Basham, L. M. (2012). Transformational leadership characteristics necessary for today’s leaders in higher education. Journal of International Education Research, 8(4), 343.

Dinh, J. E., & Lord, R. G. (2012). Implications of dispositional and process views of traits for individual difference research in leadership. The Leadership Quarterly, 23(4), 651-669.

Germain, M. L. (2012). Traits and skills theories as the nexus between leadership and expertise: Reality or fallacy?. Performance Improvement, 51(5), 32-39.

Lencioni, P. (2012). The five dysfunctions of a team: Team assessment. New Jersey: John Wiley & Sons.

Northouse, P. G. (2018). Leadership: Theory and practice. California: Sage publications.

Schalock, R. L., & Verdugo, M. A. (2012). A Leadership Guide for Today’s Disabilities Organizations: Overcoming Challenges and Making Change Happen. Baltimore: Brookes Publishing Company.

Sparks, D. (2013). Strong teams, strong schools. The Learning Professional, 34(2), 28.

Thompson, J. (2012). Transformational leadership can improve workforce competencies. Nursing Management, 18(10), 21-4.