Managing Organizations and Leading People

Analysis of Results of my Seven Habits Profile 

On be proactive, I am good at making decisions to improve the things that I can influence instead of making reactions to forces that come from external situations. I use the available resources to solve the problems instead of just mentioning the problem and sitting to wait for other people to find the solution. This will improve my future leadership skills and abilities I will be able to make decisions that are solution-oriented. On the second habit, begin with the end in mind, I develop my principles centered on the mission statement, I see the mission statement into long-term goals rather than just focusing on the short-term goals. This habit will be important for my future leadership skills because I will be a leader who sees into long-term visions of the organization. On the third habit, put first things first, I am good at taking much of my time doing things that fit into my mission. I make priorities of the events and identify what comes first so that I can make a balance. This habit will increase my leadership abilities because it will allow me to set my priorities right as a leader and put the most important aspects of the organization first before anything else. 

I am however poor in the fourth habit, think win/win. I do not seek agreements that are mutually beneficial to both parties. While developing a culture, I seek to ensure that a win/loss behavior amongst employees. This habit can hinder me from becoming a future successful leader, and I will work on it to improve. I am outstanding on the fifth habit, seek first to understand then be understood. I have effective listening before I make my points. I like to understand and appreciate the ideas of others rather than enforcing my own opinion on them. I listen empathically for the meaning of what others say and consider them. This will be important for my future leadership abilities because a great leader listens first before speaking. On sharpen the saw, I am good at taking time off the main activity to find renewal of the mind through physical, emotional, spiritual and social balance. Based on the results of my seven habits profile, I can say that I have both leadership strengths and weaknesses. I can maximize my strengths based on my profile to increase my leadership abilities while also working on my weaknesses. From the results of my habits profile, I can say that I demonstrate participatory leadership style. This is because I value the ideas of others and love to consult my peers before I make any decision. 

Leadership strengths 

The leadership theory used is the trait theory of leadership. This is a model that is based on the characteristics of leaders to identify whether a leader is successful or not. The effectiveness of a leader is determined by certain traits that the leader portrays. The trait approach identifies the physiological factors, demographic factors, personality, social characteristics, and task-related traits to identify the effectiveness of a leader. Based on the theory, successful and effective leaders have abilities and personality traits that are different from those who are ineffective leaders. The major traits that have been identified to be associated with great leaders are honesty and integrity, knowledge of business, creativity, self-confidence, achievement-driven and motivational ( Colbert e al., 2012 ). Any leader that possesses these traits is considered a successful leader. 

Based on the trait theory of leadership, I can identify my three strengths of leadership practices as self-confidence, motivational and achievement driven. I have self-confidence in everything I do and I always optimistic to achieve the best results. I do not fear taking up tasks because I have confidence in my abilities to accomplish such tasks. When with my team, I demonstrate my confidence by leading them on how to handle certain tasks without any fear. Great leaders demonstrate the highest level of confidence while they lead the followers. It is the demonstration of confidence that can make followers believe in the leader’s abilities to lead. Thus, self-confidence is my future leadership strength because based on the trait theory, it is one of the characteristics of a great leader. 

My second leadership strength is motivational. I am one person who likes to motivate and encourage others to work towards realizing a certain target. I believe that motivation makes people deliver their best and as a result, I always want to motivate others. I encourage my team members and inspire them to remain at the top of their spirit while they try to accomplish certain tasks. Based on the trait theory, one of the traits of great leaders is being motivational ( Colbert e al., 2012 ). A leader who motivates his followers is considered successful because employees work best when they are motivated. This trait is, therefore, the strength for my future leadership because it will make me become a great leader who can inspire and keep the followers at high spirits as they work towards the goal of the organization. 

My third strength based on the trait leadership theory is achievement driven. I am one person who likes to set challenging goals, set high-performance expectations and then motivate the team members to achieve these targets. I like to set goals with set deadlines for meeting these goals and then develop positive thinking and motivation for realizing these goals. I am driven by what I want to achieve and get determined to work towards the goals that I have set. Based on the trait leadership theory, achievement-driven is one of the traits of great leaders. Successful leaders usually set high and challenging goals with high standards of performance expectations and then get the drive to work towards these goals ( Germain, 2012 ). As a future leader, this is a strength that I will rely on to make me a great leader. This will help me achieve high standards of performance for the goals I set. 

Leadership Weaknesses 

The trait theory of leadership is based on the assumption that great leaders possess some traits which make them successful and any leader who does not possess such traits is considered to be an ineffective leader. While some of the traits can be innate, some are learned by the leader from the external environment. Leaders must demonstrate certain traits such as creativity, tenacity, initiative, and flexibility ( Germain, 2012 ). Based on the trait theory, I can identify some of my leadership weaknesses to be lack of emotional maturity, lack of trust for the followers and low cognitive ability. 

I lack emotional maturity when dealing with my team members. I tend to suffer from serious psychological matters that sometimes affect my concentration during the project. Sometimes, I get angered over the very small issue, and I become unable to control my anger. Most of the time I tend to have mental instability that distracts my concentration and interaction with the team members. Based on the trait leadership theory, a successful leader must demonstrate emotional maturity at all times and must be able to control emotions when dealing with followers. This is one of the weaknesses that could affect my abilities to become a successful leader in the future. I will, therefore, work on it to ensure that I have some control over my emotions. 

Another weakness that I have is lack of trust. I do not show any trust for my team members nor believe in their ability to accomplish a task without my presence. I always doubt their abilities to perform certain tasks on their own, and this makes it difficult to create a trustworthy environment between myself and the team members. Trait leadership theory mentions trust as one of the qualities of a successful leader. A great leader must trust the abilities of his team members and engage them in activities ( Germain, 2012 ). This is, therefore, a weakness that could affect my future leadership abilities. I will, therefore, work on it to build my trust with team members. 

Another weakness that I have is lack of strong cognitive abilities. I sometimes have problems with exercising good judgments in certain situations, and this has always led to the wrong judgment that can affect the outcome of the project. I lack strong analytical skills to form the right judgment of a situation and arrive at a decision that can be right and beneficial. Based on the trait leadership theory, great leaders possess strong cognitive abilities. They are capable of exercising good judgment while they also demonstrate strong analytical abilities ( Müller & Turner, 2010 ). This weakness is, therefore, affecting my future leadership abilities, and I have to work on it to become a good leader. 

Theory-Based Changes 

The first theory-based change that I will make based on the trait leadership theory will be to build my trust and honesty levels with the team members. I will learn to trust others and believe in their abilities to perform tasks on their own. Because one to the traits of a good leader is being honest and showing trust to employees, I will learn to be trustworthy while also trusting my team members so that we can create an environment where there is trust. This will help me remove my leadership practice weakness of lacking trust for the team members. The second theory-based change that I will make is to develop strong emotional intelligence. I will work on my weakness in the lack of emotional maturity by learning how to control my emotions so that I can develop strong emotional intelligence. This will help improve my future leadership strength by being a leader who does not suffer from the severe emotional disorder. The last theory-based change that I will make is to learn how to improve my judgments on situations so that I make the right judgment and decisions. One of the traits of a good leader based on the trait theory is having the capability to exercise good judgment. 

Short-Term Smart Goals 

My first smart goal will be to deliver verbal presentations to my team members for monthly update performance that are clear and concise so that they can understand how we are performing as a team and how to improve. The monthly updates will provide us with the opportunity to understand and measure how we are performing as a team. Because we prepare the monthly updates and reports form our team, this goal will be achievable. By having monthly reports and updates, we as a team will be able to gauge ourselves and understand how we are performing as a team thus this goal is relevant for the team. The time bound for my goal will be monthly presentation of the performance update reports. 

My second SMART goal is to have a meeting with the team members to understand what they feel of the progress of the team and if they have any suggestion on how to improve the productivity of the group within a one month period. I will be holding a monthly meeting with the team members so that I can understand what they feel about our progress. This will help enhance the morale and boost motivation amongst the team members. To know if the goal is achieved, I will gauge the satisfaction level and morale of the team members and if they are happy with the progress of the team. This will take place within a time-bond of one month. This will help me know if I am improving my leadership practices and areas that I need to adjust to be more efficient leader. 

Actions to Achieve SMART goals 

To achieve the first SMART goal, I will engage the team members and understand their view of the project and any problem if any so that we can together find a solution for it. To achieve my second SMART goal, I will be collecting the opinions and suggestions of the team members so that when we get into the meeting, we can all agree on the best way forward the move as a team and improve our productivity. 

References 

Colbert, A. E., Judge, T. A., Choi, D., & Wang, G. (2012). Assessing the trait theory of leadership using self and observer ratings of personality: The mediating role of contributions to group success.  The Leadership Quarterly ,  23 (4), 670-685. 

Germain, M. L. (2012). Traits and skills theories as for the nexus between leadership and expertise: Reality or fallacy?  Performance Improvement ,  51 (5), 32-39. 

Müller, R., & Turner, R. (2010). Leadership competency profiles of successful project managers.  International Journal of Project Management ,  28 (5), 437-448.