Defining Leadership and Ideal Leader Traits

The primary purpose of this essay is to examine myself as a future leader and improve on my self –awareness. It also finds out the areas where it is necessary to develop my leadership related skills. In order to evaluate my possibilities as a leader, I will measure my activities, experiences, learnings in the class. It will also attach the snapshot of the psychometric test results which I have gone through.

The actual meaning of leadership is hard to describe. However, there are few traits that can be attributed to the ideal leaders. The leaders are expected to inspire the followers through a clear vision. The true leadership sets direction for the performance which is required to be followed in order to fulfill the organizational goals (Fletcher and Arnold 2015). The main skills that a leader should possess is the ability to make people work hard on their own will and not on dictation. The leaders are often escribed as inspirational and dynamic who are responsible for setting tasks which are, challenging, motivational and fun. There are various types of leadership such as the transitional, transformational, autocratic and many others (Gold and Thorpe 2016).

 The transformational leaderships are most of the times referred to as the “traditional” leadership. This model describes that an effective leader must possess certain qualities. He will have to possess the ability to create an inspirational vision for the future (Hallinger 2018). He should be motivating and inspiring people to connect with that vision. A leader is completely responsible for the delivery of the vision. They play a major role in increasing the effectiveness of the individual as well as the team as a whole. Notably, leadership cannot be successful if there is no proper management (Jeon et al. 2015). In order to gain the customer loyalty and the competitive advantage, in the highly competitive industry, every organization needs good leadership. When the workforce is inspired from the base level by the leaders, the overall performance of the organization is uplifted. No matter what is the size of the market, what is the level of talent in the organization and number of assets, without a strong leadership, the performance of the organization can become low (Kyratsis et al. 2016). The theoretical practices of the organization can be supported by the practical knowledge of the leadership. I have learnt that leadership is a process of interactions that occurs when a group of people accept someone as their leader in order to achieve the common goals.

Types of Leadership: Transformational, Autocratic, and Others

The workshop of week 3 conducted in the class has been of greater importance for me as have become able to gather knowledge about the leadership theories in depth.  The main focus of the week 3 workshop was on the talent acquisition. The connection of leadership with the talent acquisition is great as fund by my observations. It has to be kept in mind that the talent acquisition is not a single task but is a collaboration of various concerning tasks. In order to acquire talents in an organization requires the human resource management.

I have learnt about the recruitment, hiring, training and employing principles related to leadership. The human resource planning ensures that the organizational objectives are fulfilled through the effective utilization of the human resources. It is a series of processes which is with medium, short –term and long-term contingency options. After the workshop I have become able to identify the primary drivers of the human resource planning along with the recruitment process in organizations. I have received deeper insight into the concept of ‘employers of choice’. The concept of value proposition of the employees has been described in detail. I have also gained ability to compare the different employment techniques used by organizations.

In the workshop of week 4, I have learnt about the performance and rewards related to the leadership. The theories of business performance in relationship with the people performance have enriched my knowledge. The performance management system plays a role in the fulfillment of the organizational goals. The theories in this workshop teaches that performance is the key to success and talent acquisition and the selection of the employees determine the ling and steady future of the organization. I have realized after the course work that the appraisals of the employee performances help to motivate the employee which ultimately results in optimized production and services.

In the workshop of week 5, which is about the talent management and leadership development I have found my utmost interest. The talent management is nothing but the help to a person perform well in the current job role and enable his advancement to the next role in the organization. The learning framework suggests that there are three types of learning, the formal, informal and social. I have also gathered knowledge regarding the on job training whe4e I have become able to gather knowledge regarding the employee retention strategies. It suggests that an increasing need for the commitment and loyalty of the permanent employees because of the present shortage of skills.

Importance of Leadership in Organizations

I have come to know from the video resources that Laszlo Bock who is the Senior Vice President of the people operations at Google, about the self-replicating talent machine and how an organization can become a better place to work through the performance management strategy. Google has enjoyed rapid success by the help of a team of some brilliant engineers. The story of Google’s culture of freedom and flexibility as inspired me a lot and has gained my interest.  The video of Atlanta Symphony’s 20^th Talent Development Program has made groundbreaking impression on me. This particular video as taught me about the Talent Development Program alumni on the Sphinx semi –finalists. It also shows the finding of success with the help of EI Sistema –type programs.

The guest lecturer’s lectures to the class has been of greater importance and use as per my assessment. The guest lecturer described his own journey as an evolving leader. Next, he delineates the concept of leadership, its traits and skills. He further explained the differences between the leadership skills and the management skills. How team building plays an essential role in an organization along with motivating by addressing Maslow’s Hierarchy needs. The main focus of the guest lecturer was on the examination of the role, duties and the responsibilities of a true leader in the workplace. After attending his lectures, I have learnt that the development of plan adds points to the development of a leader.

In the due course of his lectures, the guest lecturer demonstrated that leadership is a function of knowing an individual, with a vision which is well communicated, building trust among the co-partners, taking necessary and effective action in order to realize an individual’s own leadership potential. I have further gathered in-depth knowledge regarding the leadership abilities. As per my own assessment, leadership is nothing but the ability to establish a vision which motivates other people to move with a passion toward a common goal. On the other hand, my abilities to differentiate between the leadership and management has also grown perfectly. Taken for example, I have known that a leader is someone having the ability to influence a particular group in order to achieve the organizational goals. On the other hand, a manager s someone who uses the authority in his designation to obtain the compliance from the members of the organization.

I have experienced deep insights into the professional experiences about leadership. I would like to say that it is not only from the theories in the workshops, the online resources and the guest lecturer’s lectures that I have collected necessary information, the in –class activities have equally helped me in gaining better insights into the topic and the leadership skills. The class activities were focused on the talent management and development, performance management and reward along with recruitment and selection strategies related to leadership.

Workshop Learnings: Talent Acquisition, Performance, and Rewards

The feedbacks I received from assessment 1 have helped me to assess my own strengths and weaknesses. First of all, I have scored 2 in the overall structure of the assessment.  The full marks were 5 and scoring 2 suggests that I have done well in my approach to possible solutions. The recommended strategies would help to build more linkage with the theoretical framework. However, I have been asked to explain in more detail why the strategies work by using the theories such as motivation. In the performance review, I have scored 2 that suggests that the quality of other works was sufficient but it could benefit from a more in –depth look at the journal articles. I lacked depth in explaining the concepts in more depth. My score in the culture and initiatives was moderate as same as previous scores that is 2. I have received the comments that I have good coverage of the issue but the research task requires me to look beyond the initiatives of the HR. I have understood that I need to work on preparing the paper with much refinement. The context of the organization also needed to be described in a more elaborate manner. My learning outcome from this feedback is that any assessment requires a solid context based on which the theories could be elaborated.

Topic – Assessment 1 feedback

The first psychometric test was conducted on the situational judgement tests. It is a type of test presents the candidate with realistic workplace situations. There were a good number of situational case studies based on which I had to answer a lot of questions. My total score was 23 out of 32.  I believe that I have scored more than 50 %, I have good analytical skills. The situational judgment oriented psychometric test has been highly helpful for me to analyze my reactions towards the situations in the most effective manner. Since it is said that in the psychological research that an extra psychometric test when combined with the situational judgement test offers incremental validity, therefore, I have also gone through the personality test.

Topic- Situational Judgement test

The personality test also comprised of a bulk of questions base on my own perceptions and personality (Refer to appendix 2). The results suggested that the leadership skills in my personality are there in a moderate rate. In terms of openness to experience, I am a very low scorer that means I am a traditionalist, down to earth, practical and conservative person. Regarding conscientiousness, I am not so better not so worse performer. Scoring 13 in this area means that I am spontaneous, disorganized person who prefers flexible plans. As far as extraversion is concerned, I have scored 25 that suggests that I am a reserved, serious, formal and quiet person. Next, I have scored 8 in agreeableness which is a very low score. The only area where I have received good scores is the area of natural reactions. Scoring 66 in this area means that I am a type of person who is not easily upset in stressful situations.

Talent Management and Leadership Development

Topic – personality test on the first psychometric test

Overall, I am not disheartened by the low scores because I know that every day we learn something new and this is a great opportunity for me to develop my interpersonal skills such as communication, collaboration, self-confidence, focus on work, managing capabilities which are essential for a true leader. The development areas have been pointed out by the psychometric tests and it will be my prioritized action to focus on my lacking and develop those skills.

Conclusion

On a concluding note, I would like to say that honestly, I had never thought myself as a leader. In a nutshell, I can say that after analyzing the leadership theories and skills, going through the two psychometric tests, I have realized that there is a long way to go in this field and there are various aspects where I really need to improve. As per my own analysis of the leadership skills within me, I possess all the necessary characteristics which make a good leader, but certain areas need to be brush up. I am much motivated to pursue my career in this field in near future having completed the gaps found in my skills. I believe that, whatever I have learnt in the course, can help me to increase the self –awareness. I have pointed out my strengths and weaknesses. Hence, my next task would be balancing my skills by making strategies to develop myself as a good leader. A true leader is the one who is focused on self –improvement too. It enables him to lead the team better than before.

Reference

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