The book Leadership: Theory and Practices has offered us so much to learn about different aspects of leadership throughout the course. It familiarized us with the different types of leadership that are crucial to lead towards utmost results and success. This course, to a great extent, enabled me to analyze my potential to lead by understanding the different types of capabilities that different leaders would have. Self-evaluation of leadership potential seemed important and beneficial for me while reading this course. To explore my capabilities with respect to the different leadership types that are described in this book, I participated in the very crucial leadership assessment test through this book. The assessment opened my eyes to different information about me that would help me improve what needs to be enhanced and retain what seems to be at an ideal level. Reflecting on my potential as a leader, I am tabulating the results of my assessment below. The table shows my evaluation of six leadership styles. It lists the scores or results of the leadership assessment test that I took. However, not all the scores, I believe, evaluate me best. I may agree or disagree with some of the results. My strengths and weaknesses are also explained by the assessment.
| Assessment (Test) | Results (Scores) | Agree or Disagree | Strengths | Weaknesses |
| Emotional Intelligence Test (EI) | 99% | Strongly Agree | Highly Emotionally Intelligent. It helps me control my own emotions, understand the emotions of other people, particularly coworkers, and behave according to them. It helps me tackle emotional situations with better tactics, resulting in a win-win situation. | Although the percentile score is almost the highest and shows no room for improvement, I believe it can be improved more. |
| ENFJ (Jung Typology) | Extravert 25%
Intuitive 19% Feeling 6% Judging 12% |
Agree | The ENFJ scores are sufficient to declare that I am good at maintaining good collaborative relationships with coworkers through my interpersonal skills. It helps me keep a smooth work process that leads to desirable outcomes. | The sense of feeling is what I believe I am good at, but this result makes me think again about whether I am not and improve the trait. |
| Leadership Matrix | People (7.2)
Task (8.4) |
Agree | It demonstrates that I take tasks and relationships almost side by side and make good relationships do the task for me. My result on this matrix, “Middle of the Road”, is satisfying. | There is room to improve. My scores on People and Task should improve to have a better result on this matrix. |
| Skill Inventory | Technical Skill_29
Human Skill_29 Conceptual Skill_28 |
Agree | Both human and technical skills have the highest, and conceptual skills have the lowest. Human and Technical skills are very satisfying, and I have this feeling that I can get better results in future. | Conceptual, being the lowest on the scorecard, needs improvement. However, the Skills Inventory overall should keep improving as I move up the ladder. |
| Multifactor Leadership Questionnaire | Idealized Influence = 10
Inspirational Motivation = 9 Intellectual Stimulation = 7 Individualized Consideration = 8 Contingent Reward = 7 Management by Exception = 9 Laissez-faire Leadership = 5 |
Agree | Idealized Influence is the greatest strength in this test, showing that I earn the trust, respect, and faith of my subordinates. Inspirational Motivation is second on the list, stating I possess a sound score in providing vision to my subordinates and helping them understand that their work is significant. | Laissez-faire Leadership, being the lowest score on the list, needs improvement; other than that, the scores that are moderate should be improved. |
Emotional Intelligence Test (EI)
“Our emotions have a mind of their own, one which can hold views quite independently of our rational mind” (Goleman, 2006). With this quote from Daniel Goleman, whose contribution to the subject of Emotional Intelligence is undeniable, we can understand how important EI is to succeed as a leader in life and corporate affairs. I had this strong belief, based on my experience in tough situations, that I am emotionally intelligent and that I understand my emotions and those of others. With this belief, I took the test, and I got satisfying results that were quite parallel to what I believed. My percentile score, 99, declared that I am very good at understanding and dealing with my own and other people’s emotions. By doing so, I can easily tackle emotional situations with better tactics and satisfy the parties involved. For my personal and professional success, this skill would be key in many different ways. Apart from making you better at managing good relationships with people, Emotional Intelligence contributes to one’s problem-solving ability, goal achievement, leadership skills, and overall professional success (Goleman, 2006).
ENFJ (Extraverted, Intuitive, Feeling, Judging)
My scores on ENFJ, too, are quite satisfying. My extroverted nature would take me to a position where I would be managing people with my good interpersonal skills to establish strong and fruitful collaborations. The scores suggest that I can build successful careers in a vast range of occupations and organizations. A 19% score on intuitive states that I have clarity of perspectives and I am better at understanding the perceptions of people right. I feel that 16 % is the lowest on this test, suggesting that I improve and fill the room. The sense of Judging indicates that I am good at knowing about people and their capabilities in a short time. It helps me choose the right individuals for a proposed task and get the task done more smoothly.
Leadership Matrix
By measuring the extent or degree to which I like working with people and tasks, this matrix determines the style of my leadership. The result of the matrix shows that I am a good potential leader, with scores of 7.2 on people and 8.4 on tasks. The two lines in the matrix intersect each other in the “Team Leadership” section, which is at the top-right. I believe the higher score on Tasks is the direct result of my orientation towards people. I am more of a democratic individual who would encourage my people to express their ideas and suggestions while making a decision. It makes them contribute their best towards the tasks.
Skill Inventory
My scores on the skill inventory are high. Technical things fascinate me, and I am an individual who loves getting into the details of work and the process through which the work is done. It enriches my technical understanding, which ultimately helps me match the job according to the capability of the staff available. My score on Technical Skill is 29. The score on Human Skills is the same as the score on Technical Skills. I encourage both horizontal and vertical communications in an organization, which helps in good understanding among the people, and always, the best alternative is chosen for any problem. I believe that the most important part of my work is to understand the comforts and discomforts of the individual I am working with. It is always a challenge to get people to work together, and I enjoy doing this. All these things have enriched my score on Human Skills. My score on Conceptual Skill is 28, which is almost as rich as my other skills.
Multifactor Leadership Questionnaire
This test provides a description of a leadership style. As per the results obtained from this test, I have an ideal influence on my subordinates. Ideal Influence is highest on the score list, and it comes from earning the trust, faith, and respect of my coworkers. Inspirational Motivation is the second factor on the list. My score on Inspirational Motivation is high, and it demonstrates that I provide vision and make others focus on their work by using appropriate symbols and images. This way, I make people feel that their efforts are significant to the organization. Individualized Stimulation, Individual Consideration, and Contingent Reward are factors having moderate scores on the test. The lowest on this test is Laissez-faire leadership quality.
Conclusion
It started with understanding what leadership is, and since then, the book Leadership: Theory and Practices has offered so much to know about and learn new things (Padam, 2009). After getting familiarized with different traits or capabilities a leader would need to do the right things, it was of great importance to conduct a self-test and evaluate one’s own leadership potential. The self-assessment test of leadership gave me a great deal of information about my capabilities to lead. Emotional intelligence is something I believe I am good at, but I never knew that my leadership style falls under the top-right section, Team Leadership, of the Leadership Matrix. ENFJ was another beneficial testing tool that enabled me to know that I could be in a position where my interpersonal skills to establish productive collaborations would be the key. The ability to judge people by their capabilities would help me match the right job for the right people to get the most desirable results. Self-assessment has the right impact on a person’s career overall. It tells you where you are lacking and where you have got strengths.
References
Goleman, D. (2006). Emotional intelligence. Bantam.
Padam, S. (2009). Leadership: Theory and practice. South Asian Journal of Management, 16(3), 136.
