Summary
People must know and develop their leadership skills to manage people and achieve their goals successfully. To gain the best understanding of this concept, it may be helpful to develop a leadership profile. This plan highlights the qualities that a person possesses, as well as the theories and principles of leadership. It is precious when individuals evaluate their capabilities and set goals for further development. Thus, this scientific paper provides a personal leadership profile to better understand oneself as a team leader.
Leadership Qualities
The first aspect that I would like to consider in my leader profile is those personal qualities that can help me become a good leader. Thus, the first quality is self-awareness. In my opinion, this aspect is one of the most valuable since it provides an understanding that a person must constantly develop. This quality can help you become an excellent leader because to achieve success, and team leaders must constantly educate themselves and be able to adapt to constantly changing external and internal factors. In addition, self-awareness helps to see negative qualities that can adversely affect the activities of the leader and the team.
From the first, quality follows the second, which can be designated as the drive and desire to help and contribute to the development of other people. I believe this character represents the central aspect of the leader’s activity concerning others. At this stage of the development of my skills, I cannot say that I fully possess the ability to motivate the group to change. However, if there is an intense desire, there is an opportunity to succeed through the use of various persuasion techniques and effective communication.
Thus, I believe that the leading indicator of an excellent leader is the success of the team. The activity of each participant is of particular importance for achieving the common goal of joint work. A leader must be able to identify the strengths and weaknesses of people in order to distribute tasks properly. Another aspect that I would like to work on is the balance of empathy and strength. Often, I face the fact that it is difficult for me to command people because of my good attitude toward them. However, on the other hand, with too empathic an attitude, some may begin to abuse kindness, which can negatively affect the work and dynamics of the team.
The third quality is the desire for constant innovation while considering strategic planning. I believe that this skill is as significant in the activity of a leader as the previous ones. For the most successful functioning of the group, the manager must constantly investigate external and internal factors to introduce the necessary changes. The inability to adapt to new trends in the modern world can adversely affect the activities of leaders and their teams. To achieve the best results within the framework of this skill, it is necessary to develop strategic thinking. I believe that I have developed this vision quite well since I have a flexible mind and constantly come up with various new ideas, whether it’s everyday life, education, or work. This characteristic of a leader also includes the development of creativity and the desire to bring something new to all team members. Thus, close team cohesion can occur due to the constant discussion of ideas and interpersonal communication.
Centralization of people will help expand the awareness of leaders, not only about the characteristics of employees. In addition, this quality will help to identify a group member’s weaknesses and areas for improvement (Perry et al., 2021). Ethics, in turn, also implies adherence to honesty with employees. This will help to maintain friendly, healthy, but at the same time professional relations between employees and the leader. The last thing worth mentioning is that leaders should be able to take responsibility for their decisions and actions as they determine all the team’s steps.
This quality also implies taking into account the cultural characteristics of the team members. In times of widespread development of technologies and concepts such as diversity and inclusion, this characteristic is precious. I believe that every leader should have a basic knowledge of these concepts and effectively communicate in a cross-cultural team of employees. These steps will help increase employees’ productivity and reduce the possibility of conflicts against the background of ethnicity, traditions, or opinions. As a leader, I also have such qualities as enthusiasm, inspiration, and the ability to conduct effective communication. At the same time, despite the success in these areas, I do not consider it as limited and constantly develop these qualities.
As a leader, the last qualities I possess are empathy, ethics, and focus on people in my activities. I believe that these characteristics are necessary when working in a team. Completely different people with their own characteristics, preferences, and views can work in a group. The most crucial thing in this aspect is that they all work for one common goal, and the leader must provide them with comfort and satisfaction in their actions. Moreover, every workplace must ensure compliance with ethical principles to avoid violating human rights and causing unwanted harm.
Leadership Principles and Theories
The leading theory of leadership that I adhere to is behavioral theory. According to this approach, leaders, looking at the activities, behavior, and opinions of other leaders, adopt from them those qualities and characteristics that may seem helpful to them. Thus, this theory indicates that people are not born with leadership abilities but acquire them through observing others. I agree with this point of view because I believe that people are strongly influenced by their environment and the people with whom they interact directly and indirectly. Thus, the behavior can be formed from the example of parents or a famous person speaker on TV. From an early age, people observe this and adopt the most exciting aspects for themselves. There is nothing harmful in this action; on the contrary, I believe that under these conditions, there is some exchange of experience, which is of particular importance and a positive contribution.
In addition, behavioral theory focuses on the actions of group leaders, as they are an indicator of the success of all activities. As mentioned earlier in this paper, the functioning of the group directly shows how good the leader is in performing his duties. Moreover, actions have a large evidence base to justify the assessment of people’s leadership qualities, as they provide visible results in practice, not in words. Thus, I think that based on behavioral theory, I am a task-oriented leader since the result is most important to me. Despite this, I consider it essential to develop the qualities of work and interaction with the team, taking into account the characteristics and desires of the team.
Behavioral theory has several advantages at once, one of which is the fact that leaders independently choose the actions and behaviors that they may find most productive for a group or organization. It also makes a contribution and is associated with the ability to be flexible and adapt to changes. Despite this, the most crucial advantage of this approach, in my opinion, is providing an opportunity for anyone to become a leader. Because of the concept that people are not born but become them, behavioral theory has a special value. This is due to the fact that the theory supports independence and initiative in making decisions and actions.
The first principle becomes the determination and improvement of such an indicator as self-esteem. This is due to the fact that the more confident the leader is, the more people listen to their opinion and follow their instructions. Moreover, a confident leader can conduct the most effective communication with the group, which can strongly motivate the group to work. Thus, employees themselves will want to improve their productivity indicators and will also be able to adopt the confidence of the team leader.
Next comes such an important principle as planning, which includes not only the formation of an activity plan but also a list of how to adapt to emerging external and internal conditions. This aspect is critical in the activities of any manager since there are other people in the area of responsibility of this person. A vital condition is the initiation of planning and preparation for changes and the transfer of the generated information by the employee for study. These actions help to significantly improve the activities of employees and improve the decision-making skills of the organization.
Such a critical principle of team management as motivation must not be forgotten. The higher its level, the better the results will be shown by the employees. Moreover, this factor brings more benefits to the organization (Rahbi et al., 2017). The leader is responsible for maintaining this aspect of the group and showing what contribution it has. One of the ways to improve motivation can be public encouragement of the work done, which will affect not only the person being praised but also others, as they will want to take this place of honor. In addition, constantly emerging internal and external factors require the leader and the team to strive and adapt, and without the right level, this process can only lead to negative consequences and deprive the organization of competitiveness.
Another way of motivation may be the principle of delegating specific actions to an employee. I consider this method to be particularly effective and consider it one of the most successful. When delegating, employees can feel themselves in the role of other people and understand the value of their actions and functions. Another advantage of this principle is the increase in team cohesion and relationships in the workplace. It is also worth emphasizing that the delegation of responsibilities can also affect the empowerment of employees due to the fact that they will feel a sense of self-importance more acutely.
Henceforth, this section provided information about my leadership principles and the theory that I most support. Therefore, I was able to evaluate this information and identify areas that could be significantly improved. This can also be done by studying other theories and principles and extracting the most practical and valuable information from them to create an individual approach. These principles are all critical in improving my existing leadership skills. Moreover, constant work on improving leadership principles is also becoming important.
Leadership style
The last point that needs to be discussed in this personal leadership profile is the leadership style. This aspect directly affects the communication process between the group members. It consists of transferring the necessary information and ideas from one conversation participant to another. The most productive communication occurs when both interlocutors are open to data exchange to understand what goal the interaction should achieve. Further, the leader must assist the workers in ensuring this condition. Poor communication can negatively affect the activities of the group and lead to a lot of mistakes, from minor to critical.
The most effective and closest leadership style to me is participatory leadership. This approach to leadership is conditioned by such characteristics as openness, creativity, bringing new ideas, and improving communication among team members (Banjarnahor et al., 2018). I believe that the application of this style in my practice helps to ensure the best degree of interaction between the leader and the team, which will lead to successful results. Moreover, participative leaders contribute to reducing communication barriers and motivate an open process of exchanging information and ideas. Further, what is incredibly distinctive in this style, the leader, taking into account all the proposals, comes to a single balanced decision; thus, the opinion of each individual is taken into account.
The participatory leadership style often includes several main components. Henceforth, it obliges a group discussion of any problems and solutions, as this will help to resolve them more productively and successfully. Therefore, the leader constantly provides information to the whole group, which contributes to strengthening relationships and interpersonal communication. In addition, the participatory leadership style includes exchanging ideas, decision-making based on them, and implementing the solution.
Further, the participatory leadership style can have the greatest success in organizations where there is a separation of roles that does not require full control. Henceforth, employees get the greatest freedom to make a decision. However, despite this, this style can also be applied in larger institutions characterized by greater structuring and supervision of activities. This action can be complicated by several factors, but it can also have positive results. This versatility is also one of the characteristics that I most often use in this particular style of leadership.
The area for change that I would like to improve by conducting a leadership assessment using a personal leadership plan is my leadership style. Despite the fact that the participating style is closest to me, I still feel uncomfortable sharing my opinion and making joint decisions when necessary. This is because I have a high level of independence, and I believe I would rather do it myself than someone else. This factor needs to be changed, as teamwork can become much more effective than alone.
References
Banjarnahor, H., Hutabarat, W., Sibuea, A. M., & Situmorang, M. (2018). Job satisfaction as a mediator between directive and participatory leadership styles toward organizational Commitment. International Journal of Instruction, 11(4), 869-888. Web.
Perry, C., Cebulla, A., & Dick, B. (2021). Group-centered leadership: Progression over time, effectiveness, and practices. Journal of Leadership Studies, 15(1), 28-40. Web.
Rahbi, D. A., Khalid, K., & Khan, M. (2017). The effects of leadership styles on team motivation. Academy of Strategic Management Journal, 16(3).