Leadership Quality: Characteristics, Assessment, and Roadmap for Career Growth

This paper evaluates the characteristics of leadership, finds out the strengths and weakness of the leadership style, and discusses the application of leadership while the development of the project and its possible outcome. It also provides a roadmap for the growth of the career. The subject, course code, and college/university are not mentioned.

Running head: LEADERSHIP QUALITY
LEADERSHIP QUALITY
Name of the Student:
Name of the University:
Author Note:

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Table of Contents
Introduction......................................................................................................................................2
Important characteristics of leadership:...........................................................................................2
Assessment of the leadership and past opportunities:.....................................................................3
Theory about participative leadership:............................................................................................4
Assessment of participative leadership:...........................................................................................4
Roadmap for the growth of the career:............................................................................................7
Conclusion.......................................................................................................................................8

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Introduction
Leadership is a quality which is important for managing the functionality of the
organization. There is a difference between the manager and a leader. A good leader can
innovate ideas that will help the organization to do well in the competitive market (Alvesson
&Kärreman,2016). On the other hand a good manager can generate or execute the functions
based on the planning of the leader. There are certain types of leadership based on characteristics
of the leadership. The outcome of the leadership is based on the experience and the perception of
the leader. The main objective of this paper is to evaluate the characteristics of the leadership and
find out the strengths and weakness of the leadership style I have adopted from the leanings.
Apart from that the application of leadership while the development of the project and its
possible outcome has been discussed in this assessment. The leadership style has been
indentified and the definition and the characteristics of that type of leadership has been described
in a proper way. Moreover, the strength and the weakness of the identified leadership style has
been discussed. The conclusion is made on the factors identified in the discussion.
Important characteristics of leadership:
In order to become a leader for the team or the organization, I think certain characteristics are
needed to be required. Some of the important factors for making a good leader are-
 Ability of decision making:A good leader must have a ability to make proper decision at
right time and right place. The decision taken by the leader should have the mass impact
on the team members of the organization. Once the decision is made the leader should
stand by it. The decision making ability and the effectiveness of the decision is dependent
on the personal experience and the perception of the leader.

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 Good communicator: A true leader should be a good communicator. This means a good
leader should communicate with all of his or her team members in a proper way. The
flow of communication can make the sharing of the knowledge flexible. Apart from that
this will make the team members to be approachable to the team leader regarding their
issues and problems (Watson,2017). The routine meetings with the tem members and the
brain storming session will help the team to find out the issues and resolve them.
 Ability to inspire other people: One of the important attribute of the true leader is the
ability to inspire other people to achieve the organizational goals. It is obvious that the
employees in the organization will think about the personal benefits over the
organizational benefits (Shanafelt et al.,2015). It is the responsibility of the leader to
motivate the team members so that they can inspire to achieve the goals in a team.
 Confidence and passion about the work: While making the decisions and developing the
innovative ideas, the leader should be confident about his or her standing and view about
the decisions. He or she should be confident about his or her knowledge (Yadav &Jha,
2017). However, a good leader can take the opinions of the team members regarding the
decisions so that there can be chance of improvisation. Apart from that the leader should
be passionate about his or her work.
 Creativity and innovation: A leader should be innovative and creative about developing
the new ideas. This will help the organization to do well in the competitive environment.
 The power of the innovation can make the difference between the leader and the
follower.

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Assessment of the leadership and past opportunities:
From the learning of the characteristics of the leadership theories and the different types
of leadership theories I can identify my style of leadership. My leadership style is inclined
towards participative leadership.
Participative leadership is adecisions making process where the opinion about other are
taken into care. This makes the team members feelthat they are involved in the development
process. I have come to know about the inclination towards this kind of leadership while working
in a project with team.
Our team was developing a project that will serve users through online process. While
development of the process I was chosen as the leader. While development of the process I felt
comfortable to take the opinions of other while making the decision about an important issue. I
feel that the involvement of the team members in the decision making process will help in the
better understanding of the issues involved in the decision making.
Theory about participative leadership:
The participative leadership is about making the decisions along with considering the
opinions of other members in the team. This involvement in the process makes the stakeholders
of the organization think about their involvement and the contribution in the project. However, in
this case, it is needed to be understood the level of flexibility that can be given to the
stakeholders while making the decisions. Under this leadership theory, there are two leadership
styles those can be mentioned- Lewin’s leadership style and Likert’s leadership style
(Shirey,2017). According to the Lewin’s leadership style, democratic leadership is the most
preferable leadership style. In the democratic leadership style, the opinions of the stakeholders

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are considered by the leader while making the decisions. However, the final decision is taken by
the leader.
Liker defines the four main styles of the leadership based on the decision making process
and the degree of involvement of the people in the decision making process (Lavoie‐Tremblay et
al.,2016). These four leadership styles are-exploitive authoritative, benevolent authoritative,
consultative and participative.
Assessment of participative leadership:
Strength:
One of the strength of the participative leadership is the acceptance of the leadership. In
the decision making process the participation of the stakeholders is allowed (Lavoie‐Tremblay et
al.,2016). This makes the stakeholders to feel like they are being considered in the development
process. This feeling increase the attachment of the stakeholders with the development process.
In this case the staffs can accept the policies and decisions those are taken by the leader. I have
experienced this during the development of our project. The opinion of other team members
were taken during the development process. In this case, the team members were eager to help in
the process by giving their opinion (Sfantou et al.,2017). This has helped me to take the
necessary decisions regarding the progress of the project. Apart from that they can reached to me
if any problem happened in the team. I have tried to make them understand the value of working
in a team and to enjoy the success and face the failure collectively. This has helped the team
members to get motivated. Sometimes they put the organizational priority above their personal
goals.

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Morale: The attachment of the employees in the development process makes them feel
responsible for the success of the organization (Savage, Thoma & Chan,2017). During my
working with the team I have found out that the team members are giving priority to the
organizational goals (Arif, 2016). The reason behind this was that the team members were
getting involved with the work during the development. This was enhancing their morale.
Development of the creativity: The development of the creativity can be grown for the
individuals under the participative leadership. In participative leadership, the employees can
share their own ideas about the development (Kara et al.,2018). In this case, they can think in
their way to make the modification and improvisation of the project development. While the
development of our project, I have seen that the team members are interested to share their views
regarding the progress of the process. This enhanced the quality of our projects as we share a
good brainstorming session on the ideas those are shared by the team members.
Weakness:
Time consuming process: There are certain weakness or challenges in the participative
leadership. One of the main drawback of this leadership is that it slow down the decision making
process (Ogbonnaya & Nielsen, 2016). While development of the process the decision making is
dependent on the views of the individuals. In this case, I have seen that I have to consider the
views of the other team members. In some cases, the view of one member did not match with
other member. In that case, it was a challenge for me to make a rational decision on which both
parties can agree and the decision was also effective for the development of the project. Thus I
have found the decision making process in the participative leadership is time consuming.

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Possibility of conflict: The possibility of the conflict can be raised as the opinion of the
team members are considered during the decision making process. The presence of the multiple
opinions can raise to the conflicts (BolanderLaksov & Tomson, 2017). Constant practice of the
participative leadership can lead to the conflicts (Nica, 2015). In some cases, the leaders can
change their mind as they listen to the opinions of the team members. This can deceive the leader
to achieve the objective of the organization.
During the development of the project with the team I have faced certain challenges
while applying this participative leadership. The top five aspects of the challenges are deceiving
from achieving the goals, Confusion can raise from the presence of different views and the
opinions of the team members, the process of decision making becomes time consuming, the
presence of the conflicts and problem in defining the role for the individuals.
Opportunities:
There are certain opportunities for the improvement and modification of the participative
leadership in the organization (Overall,2015). Through this leadership, the evaluation can be
made in a proper way for the individual employees. Apart from that the productivity of the
organization can be increased as the workers can be more indulged into the work.
While the development of the project, I tried to take the opinion of all the team members
while making the decisions. In some cases, the point of view of one member differed from other
member. In some cases, this led to the personal conflict that effected the performance of the
entire team (Kara et al.,2018). Sometimes , I got confused as there were lots of opinions all of
those seemed excellent choices. However, entertaining all the opinions was not a realistic thing.
In that case, I deceived from my own decision making process. It can be said that the presence of

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too many opinions influenced me not to think in my way. Before making the decisions, taking
the opinions of others and resolving the issues was a time consuming process. Apart from that I
feel that the team members sometimes become ignorant about maintaining their roles in the
development of the project.
Roadmap for the growth of the career:
For the progression of the career, the road map is needed to be made. The roadmap can
work like the blueprint for the advancement of the career (McFadden, Stock, &Gowen,2015).
My leadership style is participative leadership. The participative leadership can make me a good
observer and the organizer who can manage a team effectively. It can enhance the
communication skill which is important for a good leader and the organizer (Seto &Sarros,
2016). In this case, I can manage the important project for the organization using my skill and
the ability of the communication. Apart from that , from the participative leadership I can come
to the conclusion after evaluating different opinion. This will make me a good decision maker
and will help me to achieve my long term goals.
However, some of the modifications has to be made in my leadership style and approach
towards reaching to the solutions. I have to gain the ability to stick to the decision that will help
to achieve the organizational goals. Moreover, I have to manage the team in efficient way so the
possibility of the conflicts can be mitigated.
Conclusion
The discussion is regarding the leadership quality that I have gained from the study. In
this context, I have identified my leadership skill and is able to categorized it. I have found out
some of the characteristics of participative leadership skill. However, I have come to know about

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the threats and the opportunities regarding the participative leadership skills. I have identified
strengths and the opportunities regarding this leadership skill. From this point of view I can say
that I have to make some of the modifications in order to include the participative leadership in
my roadmap of the career growth. In this context, I have identified the areas for the improvement
in my approach of the leadership. From the discussion, it can be said that the participative
leadership can become beneficial for managing the team and improving the employee
engagement for the development of the projects in the organization. However, the application of
the participative leadership is needed be done carefully. In this kind of leadership the
authorization should be controlled by the leader and giving too much priority about the opinion
of the other team members can have the negative effect on the decision making process of the
organization.

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