Leadership Strengths And Weaknesses

Question: Discuss about theLeadership for Strengths And Weaknesses. Answer: Introduction A leader is the one who has vision, hope and inner strength. A leader encapsulates passion, integrity, honesty, confidence, patience, positivity, perseverance, effective communication skills and innovation (Giles, 2016). The prime quality of a leader is that he should able to analyze and understand his thought processes and should try to communicate effectively and commendably with the team members and subordinates; which implies, a leader is required to possess interpersonal as well as intrapersonal communication skills. The leader needs to state his vision and explain the idea behind his insight, moreover, he is required to listen to and understand the opinions and views of his subordinates before making any decisions. Transformational and participative leadership styles suit best in contemporary corporate world. Being autocratic and dictatorial might curb the imaginations and innovative ideas of the team members making them feel restricted and suffocated. Assertive and democratic styles empower the team to come up with novel ideas and indulge in achieving the desired targets. It should be remembered that a leader is the one who formulates, communicates and implements the effective strategies and practices which determines the success of an organization. However, mere effective communication does not make anyone a leader; when someone has the power and potential to motivate, encourage and inspire the team or boost the morale of the subordinates to think out of the box and execute the tasks with optimism, then he is known as a leader (Peng, 2014). A leaders foremost responsibility is to induce the team to work together to achieve the individual as well as organizational objectives. Therefore, leaders need to foster shared vision, strong relationships and collaborative actions. Leadership can go wrong if the person focuses on exercising power, political scheming and using or exploiting relationships. A leader is not someone who believes in ethical lapses and sh ortcuts. All such activities prove to be detrimental to the organization in terms of reputation and profits (Michael Linda, 2006). Effective leader is the one who inspires commitment and constructivism, who leads as a peer problem solver, who sustains hope and participation and who encourages consensus decision-making. After knowing the facets of leadership and understanding the leadership qualities; it is important to conduct a self-assessment to know the true self and unveil the traits or qualities, strengths and weaknesses. It is quite beneficial to analyze the personal character, behaviour, thought processes and beliefs to understand the relationship building capability, leadership potential and decision-making ability in personal and professional arenas. Learnings about 'Self' Through Self- Assesment To get the true reflection of self and to accept it in a progressive manner is a great way to deal with the strengths and weaknesses. After the self-evaluation, it has been discovered that enormous amount of energy prevails when it comes to activities which require creativity, art and innovation. Personally, logic is where the heart is; to follow the heart is to cease the regret. Always being materialistic and practical invites apathy and ambiguity. Trusting the intuition has always been the source for contentment and gratification. It has also been revealed that motivating people and providing them with solutions and alternatives to get out of the issues and troubles gush the heart with peace and happiness. This is the most valuable evaluation as it divulges that at personal front, the essence of life is to sort out the issues of people, empathize with them, make them strong and bring the same strength, energy and zeal in the personal life. The belief is that boosting the morale of others basically makes a person stronger. The self-assessment shows that it takes a lot of over-thinking and anxiety to undertake a critical task either at professional front or at personal front; therefore, the stress of potential outcomes or results shake the confidence level. At times, in order to avoid major hassles and annoyances in life; personally, there is a tendency to follow the hurdle-free and less risky path. Differences or Similarities in Perceptions Having discussed the self-assessment with one of the transparent and unbiased colleagues; it has been proved that in order to maintain the positivity and exuberance in life, the two trails which are followed are; either empowering the people to face the hurdles or avoiding risks and perils. According to the colleagues assessment; leadership qualities like honesty, integrity, effective communication skills, high morale and novelty are being possessed but at times the fear of losing control over smooth running life makes vulnerable to emotional weakness and indecisiveness; which is not a quality of an effective leader. Relationship at Professional Front As a new and young leader; the foremost attribute that has been inculcated is the high ethical and moral standards; the same has been expected by the subordinates and juniors. There is transparency, fairness and equality in terms of allocating tasks, executing strategies and implementing plans. This builds a culture of trust and loyalty. Secondly, the effort to adopt transformational leadership style by creating an inspiring but realistic vision, motivating and stimulating people extrinsically and intrinsically to generate amazing ideas to engage with the vision and building a strong and cohesive team make the relationships stronger and healthier (Avolio Yammarino, 2013). Moreover, the participative or democratic style empowers employees to provide inputs and contributions or discuss their issues and problems with the leader; therefore being a leader, comforting the employees and guiding them is the prime responsibility. Motivated employees are emotionally stable and sorted, they turn out to be energetic and innovative; they contribute a lot in the achievement of goals and objectives. They even try to nurture the professional relationships. Therefore, such traits of a leader have positive impact on workplace relationships. Fostering Strenghts and Minimizing the Weaknesses In order to utilize the strengths in the best possible manner; it is a prerequisite to analyze and understand the mind-set of the team members and to apply the required qualities as demanded by the situation (Neil, 2014). In case the employees are not charged enough to conduct their roles and responsibilities then they should be provided with direction and motivation; if they are pre-occupied with some troubles or dilemmas, then they would be required to undergo counselling and mentoring sessions; if the employees need to understand the process and procedure to execute any task then coaching and training classes would be conducted (Bhatia Paz, 2013). This is how the employees would be able to develop sense of interdependency, trust and belongingness. This would also reinforce the strengths and competencies. Since, strengths are meant to be fostered and weaknesses are meant to be understood, accepted and minimized; it would be essential to try and eliminate the weaknesses which are hurdles in the path of becoming an effective leader. Facing the hassles in personal and professional grounds or not escaping from the challenging and demanding circumstances and imbibing the risk-taking ability would be the first step towards becoming a great leader. Though, stepping out of the comfort zone is quite challenging but that is what the spirit of leadership is. There might be political scheming at the workplace to turn down the morale but that needs to be sensibly and wisely tackled. References Avolio, B. J. Yammarino, F. J. (2013). Transformational and charismatic leadership: The road ahead. UK: Emerald Group Publishing. Bhatia, S. Paz, E. (2013). Role of Team Leader Coaching in Buffering Contentious Communication from Influencing Team Outcomes. Academy of Management, Vol. 3, no. 1, pp. 390-489. Giles, S. (2016). The most important leadership competencies, according to leaders around the world. Viewed 6 September 2016. https://hbr.org/2016/03/the-most-important-leadership-competencies-according-to-leaders-around-the-world. Hinkin, T. R. Schriesheim, C. A. (2015). Leader reinforcement, behavioural integrity, and subordinate outcomes. The Leadership Quarterly, Vol. 26, no. 6, pp. 991-1004. Johnson, R. (2015). 5 different types of leadership styles. Viewed 6 September 2016. https://smallbusiness.chron.com/5-different-types-leadership-styles-17584.html . Michael, B.E. Linda, K. (2006), Ethical leadership: A review and future directions. Journal of the Leadership Quarterly, Vol. 17, pp. 595-616. Neil, K. (2014). The Strengths Weaknesses of a Task-Oriented Leadership Style, New York: Demand Media. Northouse, P. G. (2015). Leadership: Theory and practice. CA: Sage publications. Peng, T. (2014). Motivation to lead: linking leader regulatory focus, leadership behaviours, and motivational and cultural moderators. Academy of Management Journal, Vol. 50, pp. 715-729. Rick, S. (2014). Ethics Quotes at Brainy Quote. Viewed 6 September 2016. https://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/keywords/ethics_4.html.