Self Analysis

By Author: Henry Ford
Total Articles: 189
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The leadership framework developed earlier had segmented leadership abilities using four fundamental criterion identified by Marlene (2000) as leader’s personality, a clear vision, change management and decision making abilities. Although scholars have developed various frameworks for leadership evaluation, a leader who shows stability and strength in these four components would pass for what is referred to as ‘good leadership skills’. In this self-analysis, an effort will be made to assess my leadership qualities using the developed framework with an aim of identifying points of excellence and weakness. In recognition that leadership as a quality is shaped, a review of the dark elements in my leadership will be evaluated with a view of suggesting activities that could help mitigate the influence of dark traits within me.
To start with, one’s personality has been identified as a crucial determinant in leadership abilities and qualities. Scholarly studies on this area have been enormous with significant contributions from Sigmund Freud and Erick Erickson. In their personality approach, every person is depicted ...
... as having a diverse tendency to develop a unique pattern of behavior and mannerisms; both physical and emotional that defines ones behavior. An individuals personality result from genetic, that is, inherently natural and environmental factors. Once built up, they show up in the form of values, expectations and beliefs. Stevens (2003) had identified three building blocks of personality that I will use as a gauge to my leadership ability. These are self belief, emotional stability and integrity.
Self belief is the aspect in a leader that shows confidence in the approach of issues, both in problem identification and in solution formation. Having been a leader in various positions in the past, there are key incidences I would use to evaluate the level of this quality in my life. To start with, working in a department charged with key organizational responsibilities, there have been instances when the management highlighted specific failures in the department which required urgent and directed action. Being a leader, I have been in charge of developing quick and critical decisions whose implementation would have far reaching ramifications to the performance of the organization. My ability to respond and rise to challenging situations and offer directed responses is a highlight that I have a well developed self-confidence which I apply in developing suggestions for organizational change as well as for their implementation. I would however highlight that my approach has always been consultative and as such, opinions of members within my ranks and teams helps in supporting my initiatives. This is important since I realize that my self-confidence can be boosted by relying on other’s knowledge, skills and expertise in developing a solution for an issue. Besides, the ideology in ‘personality development theories’ that better personality traits can be developed through a positive environment, have shaped me to being committed to positive interactions especially among those in my organization to help shape my value evaluation and personal weaknesses management skills.
Emotional stability on the other hand is also a fundamental tool in leadership analysis as identified in the leadership framework. This is the ability to show psychological maturity in handling issues, both at personal and organizational level. Ability to manage stress, frustrations and disturbance within oneself are some of the physical characteristics that depict emotional stability. From a personal perspective, this personal trait is well developed in me. There are however demanding situations that have tipped my emotional balance leading to occasional angry reactions to situations and sometimes being depressed by management appraisal. There is an unconscious element within me of being unable to separate duty and self, which I realize as a dark trait that could better be handled professionally. Generally, my approach in emotional management is to apply policy to organizational issues and apply them in handling emerging issues as best as possible. In addition, reaching out to others for queries and consultations have proved an effective assistance in the way I manage personal emotional instances arising in the work place. Since it is impossible to detach personal life and work life, I have identified my emotional person as a dark area in my overall leadership quota that requires constant appraisal, improvement and self-evaluation in order to improve through theoretical and experiential guidance.
Pulley (2002) had also identified integrity as an integral part in a leader’s personality. Although it is defined contextually in differing ways, integrity in an organizational setting depicts ability to match organizational policies with activities. This implies that a leader’s aim is to fully implement desirable organizational objectives using the set criteria, and where necessary exercising jurisprudence for the betterment of the organization. In integrity, a leader does not compromise the organization’s vision for self-satisfaction but rather puts effort to lead the subordinates in understanding, upholding and living the mission of the organization. A self-analysis of this aspect in my leadership experience can be evaluated on two fronts. First, my commitment to the organization’s mission and objectives have been an inspiration to most of my subordinates which is a reflection of exercising integrity in regard to the organization’s goals. Additionally, I have allocated personal resources, especially in form of time to pursue activities deemed as beneficial to the organization. The motivation behind this has been self-determination to be a leader of excellence in the organization, which stemmed up from my self-identification with the aims and objectives of the organization. In essence therefore, this quality is well grounded in my personality, not only due to my organizational commitment but also due to foundations of values established in me through my life socialization process. In a sense however, a gap exists in the zeal with which I continually offer my expertise towards the betterment of the organization, which I identify in this analysis as a trait that should be carefully handled to ensure that I offer whole hearted services to the organization.
Organizations are strategically managed using their visions and mission. The leadership framework had in this light highlighted vision as being key in leadership determination. According to Dawn (2007) leadership requires having a clear and distinct vision, which should assist in steering employees into meeting an organization’s goals. A visionary leader may be hard to define but there are physical characteristics that acts as benchmark to ‘being visionary’. First, it is the ability to communicate with those concerned with tasks, both in senior and junior levels. Communication in an organization is best in an environment where there exist mutual relationships of trust between leaders and their subordinates. Good communication entails the communication of all the information connected to the organization’s vision. The first benchmark in being visionary then is the ability to make and sustain meaningful relationships with others, supported through relevant communication. Besides this, being visionary entails ability to accommodate diversity, both in human and technological labor force. There is also the element of accepting new perspectives of an issue, which acts as a catalyst to teamwork development. Analyzing my personal abilities using this perspective, I would pinpoint that acting on the guidance of the organization’s policy; I have developed the skills to pass on organizational information to the different groups in the right manner. Besides, I adopt an open mind approach to issues, which have in the past helped me to develop close relations with my subordinates since I allow them room to voice their opinions and make improvement suggestions in most of the major decisions adopted by the organization. In addition, I have developed the art of encouraging subordinates and peers to focus their creativity and ability towards the future of the organization, which reflects a visionary orientation in my leadership traits.
The next aspect of good leadership is change management. This is the ability of a leader to effectively manage change in the organization (Lefton and Victor, 2003). The leader is the policy, decision and change maker in the organization. This implies that just like they are required to communicate on information on their visions; they need to do the same for change. A good leader will initiate communication and get the employees involved in discussions as they create, plan, implement and analyze changes. On the other hand they will encourage lateral communication between the employees and all levels in the hierarchy as they foster a spirit of cooperation in instances where change is necessary. In my organization, common changes are dominant in the area of technology. There is an organizational guiding policy that requires leader’s participation in team building to inform on the necessity and impact of changes. To help support smooth adoption of changes, I have in the past made efforts to analyze and learn on impeding changes and help in making necessary contributions in the management of the change. In a way therefore, I have adopted a dynamic approach in all organizational changes, which is evident in the way relevant staff are trained and oriented on new changes.
My personal evaluation guided by the four criteria in the leadership framework would be that a significant part of my leadership traits are above average although as identified below, there exists a number of evaluation modalities which I can apply in developing the existing positive traits and correcting the negative traits.
The first step is to apply the self evaluation tests which are tests that analyses a leader’s style, personality and leadership skills. These tests are easy to perform and conduct; they are also readily available in form of questionnaires. Moreover they are easy to prepare as they are based on questions that will bring the characteristics of the interviewee based on behavioral aspects. As suggested by Hogan and Winsborough (2007) the use of leadership assessment tests by the organization is important in identifying and reducing the effect of dark traits. Their scholarly work stressed the importance of this step because dark leadership traits are not easily identifiable for they are associated with strong social skills. By using these tests, I will be aware of my dark side habits and at the same time assist my organization in identifying these traits in any future leader (Marlene, 2000). The tests are meant to assist me in the determination of my reaction to strain, on the other hand find out how future leaders would react to stress.
Further more the information realized from these tests can give insight into traits that alienate the leader from subordinates leading to production of un-productive habits. The effect of dark traits is not only felt by the leader but also by the subordinates, who have a great impression of their leader. Therefore the manner in which the leader conducts himself directly influences the behavior of the subordinate and influences their visions and skills as future leaders (Hogan and Winsborough, 2007).

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