The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People by Stephen Covey is a bestseller on personal leadership. The book is a summary of Covey’s extensive research on successful leadership. Covey proposed a principle-centered leadership; he believed that individuals could be more successful by changing outward behavior and attitudes. By changing the way they view things, individuals will start behaving differently in a manner that is consistent with those principles. Covey suggested the seven habits of effective people as be proactive, begin with the end in mind, put first things first, think win/win, week first to understand, synergize and sharpen the saw (Covey, 1989). In this paper, I will reflect on my leadership self-assessment using the seven habits profile. I will share details of my strengths, weaknesses, and recommendations on improving on my leadership. I will also discuss two short-term SMART goals to improve my leadership.
Seven habits profile
The seven habits profile is a self-scoring form of leadership values and characteristics. The profile has nine items, each item with three questions. I completed the form by circling the number that showed how good I perform in the nine categories (Kumar, 2014). I tallied the results at the end to find out my scores and ranked them below:
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Outstanding (18)
Be proactive (17)
Very Good (16, 15 & 14 points)
Emotional bank account (16)
Work/life balance (15)
Begin with an end in mind (16)
Put first things first (14)
Sharpen the saw (16)
Good (13& 12 points)
Think win/win (13)
Seek first to understand (13)
Synergize (12)
Reflection
The profile reflects on some aspects of my leadership. As a leader, I take time to analyze the present state of things and visualize the future. I pride myself on setting goals and coming up with plans to guide the attainment of the goals. I meet up with my team at the beginning and the end of every week to discuss goals and to evaluate is the goals were met or not. The first two habits on the seven habits profile are two foundational habits with category one focusing on how we treat others (emotional bank account). I believe that leaders should be kind, they should keep their promises and be respectful to their team members. I treat all the team members concerning motivate them and create a sense of equity.
I scored highest in category 3 (be proactive). As a leader I like to be in control, I do not like it when things happen without a plan because they can get out of control. I plan on creating tasks, schedules and making sure everybody knows their responsibility such that when something goes wrong, I know what and how it went wrong. My scores make me more of a task-oriented leader rather than a relationship-oriented leader. I tend to focus on getting things done such that I neglect my relationship with the team. The results also show that I performed poorly on three areas that I plan to address them duly to improve my leadership. I scored lowest in category 8, and this indicates that I solve problems in isolation rather than addressing the whole system.
Evaluate your Leadership Practice
According to Alatawi (2017) is a leadership approach where a leader attempts to change the status quo by creating a new vision to solve organizational problems. Transformational leadership style is often praised for its positive outcomes on performance and team dynamics. I will use the transformational leadership theory to evaluate my strengths and weaknesses and make recommendations for change.
Three Strengths
a) High employee morale
When I joined the team as a new leader, morale and team spirit were low. Employees were not enthusiastic about their work, and this concerned me. Poor morale was affecting performance, and some team members had high levels of absenteeism. I was informed that the previous manager was an authoritarian leader, and he was tough on employees who did not meet their targets. The authoritarian style had not worked for the team. I knew that I had to take a different approach to improving employee morale and performance. During the first week, I took time to understand employees on a personal level and their role in the organization. By the end of the week, I had a team meeting where we discussed the issue of morale. Employees gave their suggestions, and the main idea is that they wanted to be treated with respect. They also support managers, open communication, and opportunities for growth. It has been three years since I became the leader, and employee morale is at its highest. Employees are happy, engaged and the team dynamics has improved.
b) Leading by Example
My second strength is leading by example. As a manager, I do not demand employees to do things that I cannot do. I do not ask employees to put in extra work when I cannot put in extra time because it sets a negative example. Alatawi (2017) explains the concept of idealized influence, which is the fourth component of transformational leadership. Leaders with idealized influence serve as role models for the team; such leaders recognize that followers trust and respect a leader with the right ideals.
After creating a vision and a plan for the team, I lead the team in implementing the vision; I work with the entire team to avoid problems and poor performance. By demonstrating the standards, values, and the right processes with the team, everyone knows how they are supposed to act.
c) Encouraging teamwork
When I took on the managerial position, one of my goals was to create a robust team capable of meeting its goals and solving problems. I started conducting meetings with employees, and I found out that some of them did not even know their peers. I formed groups of 3-4 employees who did not know each other and assigned tasks to the groups. Getting them to work together was a bit challenging at first, but with time they learned to communicate and collaborate more. The teamwork model has improved performance in my department as well as the team dynamics and morale. Employees now have better relationships with the office and outside, and they support each other in case of anything.
Weaknesses
a) Performance issues
One area that I have a problem with is poor performance. My team has not been achieving its targets even after training and encouraging teamwork. Some team members perform exceptionally well, while a majority are performing poorly. I realize that I should not be making general goals for the whole team; instead, I should consider individual differences. Effelsberg et al. (2014) state that leaders should practice the concept of individual consideration. Leaders should learn to support each by taking into consideration their strengths and weaknesses, instead of treating all employees as equals.
b) Selling the vision to the team
I have also realized that I have a problem is articulating the vision well enough to inspire change. It is easy to create a vision and a plan for solving a problem, but getting employees to support the vision is a challenge. For example, my team has been struggling with budget cuts, and I had to make some of the necessary changes to save costs and jobs. Some members did not like the new changes and failed to see why I made the changes. They complained about the changes even after I told them about the budget cuts.
c) Failure to hold employees accountable
This problem is related to the issue of poor performance. I evaluate employee performance after every three months. After assessing, we set new goals for the next evaluation. Most employees do not meet their goals, and poor performance has become a habit for most of them. Poor performance has persisted because I do not hold employees responsible.
Recommendations
1) Set better goals that take into consideration individual needs.
Effelsberg et al. (2017) posit that leaders can improve performance by considering the specific needs of employees. Employees have their unique strengths and weaknesses that affect performance, and it is the responsibility of leaders to help employees reach their potential by focusing on their strengths.
2) Include employees in the creation of the vision and goals.
Employees are more likely to implement the vision when they were involved in the creation of the vision (Covelli & Mason, 2017). When employees are involved in decision making, they are motivated to achieve the goals because of personal responsibility.
3) Provide performance support and reward good performance.
While transformational leadership is about intrinsic motivation, leaders should provide support by continually challenging employees and offering their help to improve performance. For example, a leader should know when an employee is struggling with a specific issue; the leader should help the employee with the problem so that the employee will be able to do it on his own in future. Leaders should also reward good performance to motivate employees to do better.
SHORT-TERM GOALS
1) To improve performance among last three poor performers by taking into consideration their individual needs.
I will conduct a performance evaluation to determine perennial poor performers. After the performance evaluation, I will create a team made up of myself, a number of best performers and poor performers to help them improve their performance. By pairing best performers with poor performers, they will be challenged to do better. The best performers put in the work, and they are disciplined, and hopefully, this will rub on the poor performers. I will also take time with each performer to understand their strengths and weaknesses and help them deal with their shortcomings through observation and regular practice. I will evaluate their performance after six months to see if there is a difference.
2) To come up with a new vision that reflects on the needs of the entire team.
In the past, I have experienced problems with implementing my vision. I will create a new vision with the help of employees to guide the department’s activities for the next year. The vision will be made up of collective values, goals, and processes. The vision will align individual and organizational goals, and this will encourage employee engagement and improve performance.
References
Alatawi, M. A. (2017). The Myth of the Additive Effect of the Transformational Leadership Model. Contemporary Management Research , 13 (1).
Covelli, B. J., & Mason, I. (2017). Linking Theory to Practice: Authentic Leadership. Academy of Strategic Management Journal , 16 (3).
Covey, S. R. (1989). The 7 habits of highly effective people: Powerful lessons in personal change (Vol. 247). New York: Simon & Schuster.
Effelsberg, D., Solga, M., & Gurt, J. (2014). Getting followers to transcend their self-interest for the benefit of their company: Testing a core assumption of transformational leadership theory. Journal of Business and Psychology , 29 (1), 131-143.
Kumar, A. (2014). Arun Kumar, Authority on Dr. Stephen Covey's" The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People". Global Journal of Enterprise Information System , 6 (2), 105-105.
