Summary of Survey Results
Strong leadership serves as the backbone of any organization. They are the leaders, who formulate the vision and develop strategies to accomplish the objectives of any organization. In addition, leaders take along the employees and teams together with the organization success path. Considering the importance of strong leadership, organizations develop plans and strategies to choose the best leader. There are certain natural characteristics and skills that make up a person a strong leader. However, most of the leadership skills are self developed and so organizations put in effort by themselves through training and development, mentoring, and experiences to improve abilities and skills of their leaders.
The three skills approach including conceptual, human, and technical skills all are important for managers and so the leadership. However, the importance of skills varies at different levels of management; for example, at the top and middle management, conceptual and human skills are most important. However, technical skills are most important at the supervisory management level. There are various inventories available for the identification of level of key competencies and skills for leaderships. This paper will explore the key competencies within a person required for leadership by means of various inventory models including big five personality tests, job satisfaction, hope scale, personal creativity, behavioral leadership style, communication inventory, and work related stress inventory and so on.
These inventory models mainly explore an ability of self management, cognitive skills, communication skills, ability to manage performance and people, strategic planning, and development of vision within a person. In order to choose the best leader for the organization or to develop the leading abilities, it is important to explore other factors also within a manager. For this reason, the personality is assessed using the Big Five Inventory model, then the level of job satisfaction and hope level is measured. These inventory models help in developing the best criteria for choice of the leader.
I took all of the above mentioned self-assessment tests and the results highlighted my key competencies and also pointed on the ones that needs to be improved. The results showed that, I have good understanding of managing myself and can improve my performance by focusing on personal time management. I also have confidence in my ability to make decisions for the future but must improve the communicational skills.
The personality assessment tests were conducted using big five inventory models. The results showed the specific type of personality. This personality self assessment test is used for several purposes i.e. to estimate an energy, how long he/she would be able to enjoy his/her job, and level of job satisfaction. In this test, it was found that I have a consistent type nature that does not easily get bored, responsible, extrovert, and emotionally stable personality. Though, no specific personality type ensures to turn out as the best leader but these traits showed up as positive competencies for leadership.
An ability to build relationship brings great benefits for the organization and so it is considered as one of the most important features. Results showed that I am good at building relationships but still needs to improve interpersonal skills and emotional intelligence strengths.
Job satisfaction assessment test showed that I am well satisfied with my job. I am provided with all those facilities and opportunities that are expected. There are development and growth opportunities in an organization. They keep me motivated towards improving my performance at job. Hope scale inventory measures the level a person is capable of tolerating the difficulties and still keeping high hopes with the job and organization. The higher the level of hope minimums is the chances of a person to lose interest in job. My self assessment test results are closer to higher level of hope scale.
DISC and CPI inventory models are widely being used at organizations to measure the behavior and psychology of the employees. These tests help organizations identifying the best candidates for the leadership. I took DISC self assessment test and found that I have following abilities; counselor, achiever, perfectionist, result oriented, and objective thinker.
The self assessment inventories show various results that can help organizations and even yourself to know about personal competencies and skills. By assessing the results, organizations can design specific strategies and programs to focus on specific areas that need improvement. Similarly, individuals may also concentrate on the skills and competencies that lacks in ones personality.
Using the results of above discussed inventories, various assessments were deduced. The key competencies, personality tests, and job related tests’ results show that I can be a good manager but some improvements are required for becoming an influential and a strong leader. For example, I lack an ability to take risks and lead innovation and change. However, the test results show that I am a person who can adapt with the change but lacks courage to bring up the change.
It has been assessed through the inventory results that I have good managing skills and competencies. I have better communicating abilities to deal with the junior staff, employees, peers and top management. I can also better manage people and teams and build relationships within the market and an organization. In addition to the team related skills, I also have an ability to design professional development programs for the entire staff.
Considering these abilities and skills, it is assessed that I can be a good middle level manager. However, various development programs and strategies can help to become strong candidate for top management or leadership.
Strong and Weak Areas
The strong leadership requires that a person should be able to attract, retain, coach, and motivate its employees, and develop strategies to improve performance of the teams. He/she should be able to communicate with the senior management in a professional way and influence, manage conflicts, navigate politics and build relationships within and outside the organization. A strong leader must be able to understand business functions, strategies, work flows and decision making styles. Above all, a leader should be able to make profitable decisions for the organization by appropriately managing cash flows, budget, financial statements, and forecasts. Moreover, he/she must be able to manage risks, time, project teams, manage and plan successful projects.
Considering the above results and comparing with the standardized leadership qualities, following strong and weak points were identified.
These inventories are verified and are being used universally at organizations to test the leadership competencies and other skills. Organizations use these tests for various types of personal assessments. Personality testing is conducted at almost every medium to large organizations to assess various factors including hope scales, job satisfaction or performance. These assessments are being used at these organizations since number of years and so now people have developed ways to manipulate the results. However, improvements are made to these questionnaires from time to time.
Reliability of these questionnaires is above an acceptable range and so they are being widely used for the assessment of new and old leaders. Some of the results shown in the self assessment tests are quite surprising. My personal views were different than ones found through the results. The risk aversive nature and weak decision making were the most diverse results. However, now I can focus more on these issues and make improvements in myself. There are various strategies and programs that can help to overcome these weaknesses.
Know Yourself Better
These key competencies, personality assessment, hope scales, job satisfaction, personal creativity and work related stress inventory tests provide an opportunity to individuals to better know and explore themselves and thus work over weak areas. There are certain personality traits which a person himself does not know much about. Big Five Personality Inventory is being used widely at organizations especially during hiring and recruitment to explore whether the person would be able to sustain for longer period and perform well or not. Similarly, the job satisfaction inventory explores whether a person is satisfied with his/her job. These surveys are being conducted by organizations to improve the performance of the individuals and explore the best employee who deserves to be at the position of leadership at any organization. Moreover, these survey results also help individuals to know themselves better and try putting effort to improve weak areas that leads to poor performance at organization.
Individuals can also opt for the specific courses and programs to improve their weak areas of performance. In this way, not only the candidate but an organization also gets to know about the right direction for setting improvement. Individuals who lack in communication skills can take courses and programs to improve their ability to communicate. Similarly, one who lags in project and time management can also take courses.
Benefits of Skills Development
Individuals and organizations can attain various benefits by developing necessary leadership skills. People who lag at teamwork and leadership skills can focus and improve their decision making skills, work more and learn other tricks and strategies to reach at the top level management.
- Can become a good listener and thus improve their communication skills
- Improve knowledge of the latest technological advancements
- Learn ethics of communication
- Improved customer service
- Improvement strategies would make an individual more willing for the changes and improvements
- Easily accept change of technology, structure or other strategies of organization
- Develop conflict resolution strategies
- Listen more and talk less
