Leadership Essay
Leadership Essay
Do I possess the traits and behaviors associated with leadership? If not, can I now learn how to be a leader at this stage of my life? What kind of leader am I? Is that the kind of leader I want to be? What do my superiors, co-workers, friends, and family think of my leadership style and ability? Why am I sometimes uncomfortable talking about myself as a leader? Working my way through the text, interviewing colleagues, and checking into other resources, I can form a personal picture and embrace a personal theory about my own leadership style and ability. I may have stirred up more questions than I am able to answer but the process has been a fascinating insight to self-discovery. The end result is a desire to try something a little different, in regards to my leadership style at home and at work.
My favorite leadership theory is that of transformational vs. transactional leadership. But first, I want to quickly look at leadership qualities. Trait theory evolved from the very same question I had as to whether or not leaders are born or made. If leaders are born with certain traits then should I be evaluating myself for these traits? If there are none, should I quit or look for further evidence that these traits can be learned? I decided to do a little of both. The text identifies several characteristics of leaders. (Kreitner) My own list of leadership qualities includes the following: strong morals, credibility, clear vision of goals, strong communication skills, high level of commitment and constancy of purpose. It appears that I’m leaving a plethora of traits out and I’m sure I have overlooked a few. I have lumped several traits together, such as good stewardship would go into the “strong morals” category, for me. Likewise, strong communication skills, in my schematic, would include: active listening; clear, concise writing style; and, public speaking skills. (I realize that one may perhaps be a very good leader without being a very good
Do I possess the traits and behaviors associated with leadership? If not, can I now learn how to be a leader at this stage of my life? What kind of leader am I? Is that the kind of leader I want to be? What do my superiors, co-workers, friends, and family think of my leadership style and ability? Why am I sometimes uncomfortable talking about myself as a leader? Working my way through the text, interviewing colleagues, and checking into other resources, I can form a personal picture and embrace a personal theory about my own leadership style and ability. I may have stirred up more questions than I am able to answer but the process has been a fascinating insight to self-discovery. The end result is a desire to try something a little different, in regards to my leadership style at home and at work.
My favorite leadership theory is that of transformational vs. transactional leadership. But first, I want to quickly look at leadership qualities. Trait theory evolved from the very same question I had as to whether or not leaders are born or made. If leaders are born with certain traits then should I be evaluating myself for these traits? If there are none, should I quit or look for further evidence that these traits can be learned? I decided to do a little of both. The text identifies several characteristics of leaders. (Kreitner) My own list of leadership qualities includes the following: strong morals, credibility, clear vision of goals, strong communication skills, high level of commitment and constancy of purpose. It appears that I’m leaving a plethora of traits out and I’m sure I have overlooked a few. I have lumped several traits together, such as good stewardship would go into the “strong morals” category, for me. Likewise, strong communication skills, in my schematic, would include: active listening; clear, concise writing style; and, public speaking skills. (I realize that one may perhaps be a very good leader without being a very good
Cited: Eng, Phoebe. “The era of the bridge builder: Identifying the qualities of “fluent leaders”. National Civic Review. Fall 2009, Vol 98 Issue 3, 34-39. Web. Kreitner, Robert. Management. Ed. George Hoffman Melissa Acuna. 11th. Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company, 2009.