The book Leadership: Theory and Practices has offered us so much to learn about different aspects of leadership throughout the course. It familiarized us to 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 different types of capabilities that different leaders would have. Self-evaluation on leadership potential seemed important and beneficial for me while reading this course. To explore my capabilities with respect to 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 here. The table shows my evaluation on six leadership styles. It lists the scores or results of the leadership assessment test which 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 control over my own emotions and understand the emotions of other people, particular coworkers, and behave according to that. 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, but I believe it can be improved more. |
| ENFJ (Jung Typology) | Extravert 25%
iNtutive 19% Feeling 6% Judging 12% |
Agree | The ENFJ scores are sufficient to declare that I am good at maintaining good collaborative relationships with the coworkers through my interpersonal skills. It helps me keep smooth work process that leads to desirable outcomes. | The sense of feeling is what I believe I am good at and but this result makes me think again 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 the good relationship 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 are highest and Conceptual skill is a little lower. 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 score card needs improvement. However, the Skills Inventory overall should be kept on improving as I move on in 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 is this test showing that I earn the trust, respect, and faith of my subordinates. Inspirational Motivation is second on the list stating I possess sound score in providing vision to my subordinates and help 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 of Daniel Goleman whose contribution in the subject of Emotional Intelligence are 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 tempered situations that I am Emotionally Intelligent, and I understand my emotions and that of others. With this belief, I took the test, and I got satisfying results that are quite parallel to what I believed. My percentile score, 99, declared that I am very much good at understanding and dealing with my own and other people’s emotions. By that, I can easily tackle emotional situations with better tactics and satisfy the involved parties there. For my personal and professional success, this skill would be a key in many different ways. Apart from making you better in 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, iNtutive, Feeling, Judging)
My scores on ENFJ too are quite satisfying. My Extravert nature would take me to a position where I shall 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. 19% score on iNtutive states that I have clarity of perspectives and I am better in understanding the perceptions of people right. Feeling, 16 %, is lowest on this test suggesting me improve and fill the room. The sense of Judging indicates that I am good a knowing about people and their capabilities in short time. It helps me chose the set of 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 that would encourage my people to express their ideas and suggestion while making a decision. It makes them contribute their best towards the tasks.
Skill Inventory
My scores on 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 staff available. My score on Technical Skill is 29. Score on Human Skill 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 comforts and discomforts of individual I am working with. It is always a challenge to get people to work together, and I enjoy this doing this. All these things have enriched my score on Human Skill. My score on Conceptual Skill is 28 which 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 in 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-fair leadership quality.
Conclusion
It started from understanding what leadership is, 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 the right things, it was of great importance to conduct a self-test and evaluate 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 believed I was good at but I never knew that my leadership style falls in the top-right section, Team Leadership, of Leadership Matrix. ENFJ was another beneficial testing tool enabling me to know that I could be in a position where my interpersonal skills to establish productive collaborations will be the key. The ability to judge people with their capabilities would help me match the right job for the right people to get the most desirable results. The self-assessment overall has right impact on a person’s career. 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.
