Introduction
Leadership is social influence where an individual demonstrates influence over other people’s decisions for them to follow. Leadership requires qualities which are molded by an individual through self-assessment and realization. A good leader should be able to address people in mature manner considering their divergent views on certain contentious issues. One of the best qualities of a leader is self confidence. This refers to the ability of a person to assert the words from his or her mind without fear of other people’s reaction. He should be able to accommodate the resistance from other people and make the necessary changes in his views. Leadership is an aspect that has been applied since time immemorial. For there to be leadership, there must be a leader and a group of individuals who react on the instructions given by the leader. In addition, the leader should be reasonable in giving instructions by listening to the followers’ opinions.
Self assessment
Every leader has both weak and strong areas of leadership. As a normal human being one is prone to submit to some areas when under pressure and remain adamant in other areas despite the level of resistance from the other parties. Some of my strongest qualities that characterize my style of leadership include;
Confidence
Every leader should be confident of his qualities to be able to deliver exemplary results. Confidence is self actualization skill that is developed out of frequent exposure to different challenges. My confidence level developed due to involvement in several leadership positions both in school and other youthful organizations. I participated as a school captain in my former high school and would face resistance from my youthful schoolmates. I usually utilize this quality in every situation where a decision needs to be made. I demonstrate confidence when deciding on personal issues and societal matters.
Listening and understanding
An effective leader should listen to others before making a final decision. This involves consultation with affected parties on the matter and resolving the contentious issues. Before making any decision I seek public opinions and then harmonize them to make a conclusive deduction. This skill acts as my pivotal in making decisions since it helps in strengthening my arguments to convince others to conform to my decision. Whenever an issue affects more than one individual, this skill is best applicable due to its convincing power
Humility
This skill refers to the ability of an individual to respect and recognize and value their existence. A leader should apply humility when addressing his followers; a leader should not dictate orders to the people. Instead valuing other people’s opinions is imperative in every leader’s style. Humility is best depicted through respect to the society. Dealing with junior leaders has instilled a sense of respect and recognition of others. For instance, I always invite affected people to deliberate on the contentious issues. I give everyone a chance to express his or her sentiments regardless of gender, age, race or physical structure.
Trust
An effective leader should be trustworthy to the people who bestowed the responsibility to lead and express their sentiments on their behalf. A leader is entrusted by the people to represent them without bias. I have safeguarded the trust the people have on me by ensuring I deliver on my pledges to them. Further, I ensure that I don’t betray them by colluding with their opponents.
Integrity
Integrity is one of the key qualities that of a leader. It refers to the ability of a person to be accountable for the decisions he or she makes during the helm of leadership. A leader take responsibility of any mistakes made either by him or by any associate member. For instance, during my tenure as a youth leader, I stood accountable for the embezzlement of funds facilitated by my associates and promised to punish the culprits. Without integrity, a leader cannot deliver effectively.
Danger of overusing my Strengths in leadership
During my leadership positions, I have realized the risk of overstretching my leadership skills which could jeopardize my character of impartiality. Exercising my humility character, I have been too generous on listening to people’s sentiments .This has cost time and resources required to make decisions. Listening to everyone’s opinion has weakened my impartiality and self assertiveness in making rational decisions
Weakest leadership skills
Like any other leader, I cannot be strong in all areas. The weak leadership skills have mixed result serving both as a shield to weak leadership and a loss to effective leader. They include:
Patience
All decisions cannot guarantee immediate results. In addition, some decisions require extensive deliberation before a final decision is made. I have struggled to exercise patience especially when people take long to understand my intentions .This has led to withdrawal of positive projects despite slow but positive progress
Time management
An effective manager is always constrained by time. A leader is required to deliver excellent results within the relevant period. My challenge has been to deliver a decision on time thus delaying the progress of other assignments. This weakness is attributed to one of my strength in allowing too much time to deliberate an issue. In addition, allocating accurate period to deliver a project has been a problem. For instance, most of my projects have more time that required thus results in cumulative slack time. Consequently, some projects are extended beyond the time bracket.
Measures to take in developing leadership skills
Further, engaging in activities that have strict time period to deliver will boost my time management skills. This would be effective through designing a project technique to define the stages of development that each sector should take to finish. The excess time should be redistributed as slack time in all other levels of development.
Relevance of Leadership theories
Leadership is a very complex aspect of a person to observe. Leadership changes from one person to another. It is also influenced by circumstances in which one is involved to make certain decisions. No one is born a leader, rather leadership traits develop due to tasks that one encounters every day. Leadership has been defined by various scholars who ventured into defining the mystery behind being a successful leader. Two main theories have been discussed to accommodate the leadership development in human beings
Trait Theory
An effective leader must have core values that other people admire and decide to bestow them with responsibility to lead. This theory delves into defining these core values that distinguish an effective leader among his or her peers. The theory identifies some of the key traits that a leader should have.
Drive
A leader should have the passion to achieve the set goals.yhe exercise optimism in accomplishing the task ahead through overcoming challenges.
Creativity in solving problems
An effective leader should always define alternative ways to accomplish the task. A leader should involve other associates through brainstorming to find a solution to a certain problem
Self-control
This is the ability of a leader to exercise restraint in deliberate situations .This character is complimented by Integrity.
Decisiveness
A leader should be able to make decisions even at the worst of times. He should exercise impartiality and reasonable decisions
Behavior theory
This theory describes the response of a person to different circumstances. An effective leader should be able to react and strike a decision depending on the prevailing situation. This theory indicates that there is no defined leadership path, Rather leadership decisions are acted upon as par the current situation.
This theory is dependent on the trait theory as some behavior actions cannot occur without some personal traits.
People approach
This requires a leader to recognize that other people are also humans who are rational decision makers
Participative approach
This requires the leader to involve all parties before making decisions. This approach ensures that every party is accommodated in the decision making process.
Objective oriented
A leader should respond to each task according to its requirements. This ensures that different tasks do not use equal approach
Directive approach
A leader should exercise full control of his territory. This involves having a central point of governance where final decisions draw its power.
Conclusion
Leadership is therefore a journey where everyone develops skills to handle tasks in a rational manner. A leader should therefore ensure that he keenly observes the demands of a certain group of people and apply traits that react to the demands. An effective leader should possess skills that are within the leadership theories to achieve the set tasks and maintain harmony among all people.
Work cited
Adair, John E. Strategic Leadership: How to Think and Plan Strategically and Provide Direction. Philadelphia, PA: Kogan Page, 2010. Print.
Irāmacāmi, Tuḷaci. Principles of Management. Mumbai [India: Himalaya Pub. House, 2010. Print.
Northouse, Peter G. Leadership: Theory and Practice. Thousand Oaks, Calif: Sage, 2004. Print.
Rossiter, Diane E. Leadership Skills. New York: Ferguson, 2004. Print.
