Leadership Development

Running head: LEADERSHIP DEVELOPMENT 1
Leadership Development
Student’s Name
University

LEADERSHIP DEVELOPMENT 2
Leadership Development
Leadership is the action of leading others to achieve goals by providing direction and
stimulating followership from others. Different theories have been developed to explain the
leadership styles and abilities of different people (Chin, 2015). One common aspect of leadership
is the abilities and traits that one has which define the nature of the characteristics that the leader
possesses. There are tools which have been developed to assist people in assessing their
leadership types and areas of strength. The Mind Tools website allows the use of a questionnaire
to analyze how one performs in specific areas of leadership to general an overall score that
defines the leadership style (MindTools, 2019). My assessment of the leadership style was the
Democratic, Participative Leadership style this was based on the scores generated from the
questionnaire.
The democratic Participative leadership style entails sharing the decision making with
others and promoting the interest of others to increase social equality. This leadership style
allows everyone to take a participative role in decision making (Khan, Khan, & Qureshi, 2015).
This means that everyone has an opportunity to raise their concern or opinion but the consensus
is reached through voting. This means that the leader has an ultimate say but encourages team
involvement increasing morale and creativity within the team. Unlike other leadership styles,
these methods are based on the active involvement of all team members through participation
leading to ownership of decisions. The style encourages leaders to develop workable goals
within the organization as a way of involving them. By transferring the decision making power
to group members, the leader applies a bottom-up approach which is reflected in the best
outcomes and development of inclusive decisions.

LEADERSHIP DEVELOPMENT 3
In life situations, this leadership style is evident in school work where we work as teams.
Group work entails putting the different minds of group members together to come up with the
best solution. For example, in the group, there is the group leader and members who all come
together under the leader to propose suggestions which are reviewed and a decision made on the
same. Goleman (2000) suggests that this style allows the leader and the group to build trust in
each other while at the same time driving flexibility in the members.
Goal setting and achieving are one of the roles that the leader is supposed to do. The
democratic participative style of leadership is based on the ability of the leader to build trust and
commitment in the members. Park (2015) suggests that participation increases the achievement
of goals since allows the employees to have a decision on the goals that have to be achieved.
This drives up flexibility and responsibility in teams since the leader uses the listening ability to
understand their needs and put measures in place to address them. Hallberg (2017) adds that
most leaders fail to learn the true feelings of their employees due to the leadership style that they
use. The democratic-participative style allows the leader to understand the satisfaction of the
team by determining what works and what does not work.
Emotional intelligence is the ability to manage oneself and others through the four
capabilities of self-awareness, self-management, social awareness, and social skill. From the
leadership assessment, I have a precise understanding of others and the issues that they have
about me through recognizing my feelings and those of others and managing of emotions to
create strong relationships. On the capability of self-awareness, I have a good ability to read and
understand the emotions of others (Mind Tools, 2019). This is also seen in the assessment where
I scored high in having the ability to be aware of my achievements and failures which can be
used for improvement. The self-management capability is seen in my ability to have self-control,