Self-Analysis of Leadership Abilities using Assessment Tools

This essay presents a self-analysis of leadership abilities using the leadership style survey and leadership matrix survey as assessment tools. The author identifies a participative and team-oriented leadership style, highlighting strengths such as involving employees in decision-making, resolving disputes, and fostering creativity. Areas for improvement include managing challenging tasks and applying knowledge from relevant literature. The essay concludes with reflections on the assessment findings and a commitment to personal leadership development, and is intended to showcase the importance of self-reflection in leadership.

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Running head: SELF-ANALYSIS OF LEADERSHIP ABILITIES
Self-Analysis of Leadership Abilities
Name
Institution

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SELF-ANALYSIS OF LEADERSHIP ABILITIES
Introduction
Every leader wants to achieve the best in his or her leadership. This requires several of
his or her abilities to be super and as well have a positive attitude towards the followers and the
entire organization in general. Self-evaluation or self-reflection is very significant to every leader
since this helps in determining one’s strengths and areas of weaknesses that need improvements
(De Clercq and Belausteguigoitia, 2017). There are several self-assessment tools which a leader
can use in reflecting on his or her leadership abilities. In this piece of work, I will use the
leadership style survey, as well as the leadership matrix survey, as my assessment tools to assess
my leadership style, strengths as well as areas of improvement. The findings from these two
assessment tools will be compared and contrasted on the basis of my leadership strengths and
areas that need to be improved.
Findings on Leadership Assessment Scores
I completed my assessment surveys by using both the leadership style survey as well as
the leadership matrix survey. In the leadership style survey, I obtained a score of 28 on
authoritarian style, 42 on participative style, and 31 on delegative style. Through the analysis of
these scores, the leadership style survey tool dictates that my leadership is more of participative
style. This involves a moderate involvement of employees in decision making and in tasks
(Clark, 2015a). On the other side, my scores in the leadership matrix survey shows 6.6 on people
and 7.2 on tasks. When these scores are plotted on a matrix, a meeting point of 7.2 on the
horizontal axis and 6.6 on the vertical axis is obtained. This is 7.2, 6.6 matrix which lies on the
section of team leadership. This implies that my leadership style is team-oriented (Clark, 2015b).
A team leadership means that I am excellent in both people and task skills (DuBrin, 2015).

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SELF-ANALYSIS OF LEADERSHIP ABILITIES
Through the findings of both of these assessment tools, it is clear that I exercise both
participative leadership and team leadership styles.
Strengths and Areas of Improvement in My Leadership
Through the use of these assessment tools, I realized that I have several strengths in my
leadership. This is because I always involve my employees in decision making and implement
some of their ideas and suggestions. However, I make the final decision on my own after
assessing the applicability and possible challenges that may be accompanied by these ideas given
by the employees. I also inform my employees on what has to be done as well as how to do it.
This mostly applies to new employees or new tasks that the employees may not carry out
efficiently without directions. Additionally, when something goes wrong, I give corrections on
the areas where there is a problem and give new directions on how the issue is to be solved.
However, I do not exert pressure or punishment on employees since employees do not get
motivated when they are threatened (Garland, 2018). This is because they sometimes would feel
insecure of themselves as well as of their jobs (Schreurs, Guenter, Jawahar and De Cuyper,
2015). Through this guidance and directions to the employees, I always encourage them to be
creative and develop abilities of being responsible and capable of carrying out several and
different tasks on their own without supervision.
In addition, I also delegate duties to my employees where I involve them in a democratic
voting of the supervisor they need. This is done on each department, implying that every
department has a supervisor who monitors the performance of every worker. When differences
occur in the expectations of the employees or when issues emerge among them, I work closely
with them to make them understand different aspects of the workplace and as well solve their
different disputes or differences occurring amongst them. I also ensure that I follow the schedule

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SELF-ANALYSIS OF LEADERSHIP ABILITIES
designed to accomplish a goal or a task. However, I need to improve on some areas such as
learning how to cope with challenging tasks and develop an interest in working more on
challenging tasks. The ability to accomplish challenging tasks helps a leader in being successful
in all tasks despite their nature (De Clercq and Belausteguigoitia, 2017). Additionally, I need to
engage myself in reading books, journals and other relevant articles that are related and relevant
in my leadership and hence apply what I have read into the leadership tasks.
Conclusion
My leadership assessment has shown that I have a participatory mode of leadership as
well as a team-based leadership style. The assessment tools which were used included the
leadership style survey and leadership matrix survey. Several strengths were identified such as
involving employees in decision making, solving disputes that emerge, encouraging workers to
be creative and develop abilities of carrying out tasks without supervision. However, I need to
improve on some areas such as in developing abilities in managing challenging tasks as well as
applying knowledge and skills obtained from books, journals, and other relevant articles.

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SELF-ANALYSIS OF LEADERSHIP ABILITIES
References
Clark, D. (2015a). Leadership Style Survey. Retrieved from
http://www.nwlink.com/~donclark/leader/survstyl.html
Clark, D. (2015b). Leadership Matrix Survey. Retrieved from
http://www.nwlink.com/~donclark/leader/matrix.html
De Clercq, D., & Belausteguigoitia, I. (2017). Overcoming the dark side of task conflict:
Buffering roles of transformational leadership, tenacity, and passion for work. European
Management Journal, 35(1), 78-90.
DuBrin, A. J. (2015). Leadership: Research findings, practice, and skills. Nelson Education.
Garland, D. (2018). Punishment and welfare: A history of penal strategies (Vol. 29). Quid Pro
Books.
Schreurs, B., Guenter, H., Jawahar, I. J., & De Cuyper, N. (2015). Speaking up when feeling job
insecure: the moderating role of punishment and reward sensitivity. Journal of
Organizational Change Management, 28(6), 1107-1128.