Leadership Skills Reflection: Clifton Strengths Assessment Report

This report provides a comprehensive reflection on leadership skills, beginning with an analysis of the Clifton Strengths assessment. The student identifies signature themes such as context, input, relator, individualization, and achiever, and discusses how these traits influence their leadership style. The report then evaluates the student's leadership style, concluding that transformational leadership is most suitable, and provides a detailed explanation based on the Burke-Litwin model. The author discusses the strengths and weaknesses of their leadership approach, including the ability to build relationships and gather information, as well as the tendency towards individualism and past-based decision-making. Finally, the report formulates two short-term SMART goals focused on improved communication and data point identification to enhance leadership skills, including specific actions, measurability, and time-bound aspects.

Running head: REFLECTION ON MY LEADERSHIP SKILLS
REFLECTION ON MY LEADERSHIP SKILLS
Name of the Student
Name of the University
Author Note

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Table of Contents
Reflection on my results of the Clifton strengths assessment.........................................................2
Evaluation of the leadership............................................................................................................3
Formulation of two short term goals that will help to improve my leadership skills......................7
References........................................................................................................................................7

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Reflection on my results of the Clifton strengths assessment
The signature themes that were identified as a result of the test are- context, input, relator,
individualization and achiever. The main objective of taking this test is to improve my self-
awareness about my leadership skills and I can better understand my behaviors and strengths
(DuBrin, 2015). By doing the same I will be able to formulate strategies that will meet the needs
of my career, my family and others. The first signature theme that is dominant in me is context
which means that I have a habit of looking back at past events because I get my answers from
there. This also helps me in understanding my present and taking decision properly. According to
this signature theme, the people with dominance of this characteristic have a habit of looking
back in time when everything was more planned and stable as compared to the present where
there is too much of confusion. The earlier times was more like a blue print, and therefore by
looking at the same I am better able to take decision more effectively. With the dominance of
this characteristics I can be able to understand people in a better way because I can understand
where they came from and how they became who they are by having the ability to look at the
understand the underlying structure. The second characteristic that is dominant in me is that of
input or the ability to collect things and being inquisitive. I have the habit of collecting
everything whether it is intangible things such as information and others or even tangible things
such as butterflies and others because I find it interesting. The dominance of this characteristic
makes me like change as I will be able to talk to more people in order to collect more
information and I can like travelling such that I will like to collect various information and other
tangible items of that place. These collected information and other items can be made use by me
in future. I am having relator characteristic dominating in me which means my attitude towards
relationship. I can make new friends very easily due to my knack to meet new people and I can

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form deep relationship bonds with my close friends. This means that I will want to know about
the fears, strengths and other qualities of others and I am free to share the same about myself to
others. These qualities can make me a good team leader because I can work well with my team
members once I start forming a bond with them. I have the characteristic of individualization in
me which shows that I value the differences in people and I am not interested in generalization or
types because I understand the fact that every individual is different and therefore I respect the
same. This quality will help me in motivating individuals in a better way because I am having the
ability to understand each individual’s strengths and then motivate them accordingly. I treat
every person differently because I understand the fact that everyone is different. This quality can
help me in formulating better teams and forming better relationship with each member. The fifth
characteristic that is dominant in me according to the Clifton test is that of being an achiever
which means I continuously work hard for achieving success or for meeting my goals. This sense
drives me towards my objective. This quality helps me in meeting new challenges because I am
motivated by the sense of achievement.
Evaluation of the leadership
The leadership style that is most suitable for me is that of transformational leadership this
is mainly because a transformational is one who knows how to achieve more than expected
performance of the organizational member’s by connecting with them at a spiritual level and
forming a bond with them in such a way so that the leader is able to motivate each member of the
organization (Mencl et al., 2016). The transformational leader is one who supports change
because he has sufficient information regarding the same and therefore can see the big picture
and can show the same to the organizational members. He can also act as a change agent because
he can help to carry out change in the organization more smoothly thereby avoiding any

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resistance from change because of his good relationship with the organizational members. A
transformational leader is one who can change the organizational culture through his vision, his
integrity, his leadership style and other practices. The change that can be brought by the
transformational leader has been properly explained Burke and Litwin in their studies through
their change model.
Figure 1: Burke Litwin Model
Source: (Stone, 2015)

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According to the burke-litwin model, the transformational leader can help in sharing
vision, mission and strategy with all the people in the organization (Copeland, 2016). He can
guide all the people through his leadership style and through proper decision making, he can help
in taking decisions properly and help in changing the organizational culture and carry out various
changes in the organization.
The three main leadership strengths that I have are that I am a relator, I like taking input
and I am also an achiever. Being a relator means I like forming better relationship with the
people I know and I also have a friendly attitude towards the new people that I meet. This
characteristic helps me maintain good relationship with all my members and I am motivated to
understand the fears, strengths, the dreams of all the members and I am free to share the same
with them. This also shows the level of trust I have on my organizational members and the trust
they can have on me through transparency. I value relationship and this can become one of the
factors that motivate the members of the organization in order to achieve our common goals.
This characteristic in me enables me to share all my information freely with the other people of
the organization. This can turn out to be risky but however employees can feel that I am being
transparent to them through open communication. A transformational leader knows how to make
good relationships with the organizational people in order to get extraordinary performances of
the employees by connecting with them to the highest level (Priest & Gass, 2017). I like taking
input that means I am curious to get new information, meet new people, and collect new things
that can be later used by me. This characteristic makes me a change agent because a change
agent is a person who knows how to carry out any changes in the organization by showing all the
people the big picture and for this the leader himself should be ready to change. This
characteristic in me shows that I am ready for any change because I look at it as ways by which I

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can gather information or any other material and others. The third characteristic dominant in me
is that I am an achiever that shows that I know how to achieve my goals and this motive for
achieving goals keeps me going. A transformational leader is one who knows how to maintain
good relationship with the organizational people and also knows how to achieve goals by
motivating all the people of the organization. I know how to achieve my goals and also know
how to motivate members by maintaining proper relationship with them.
The three main weaknesses of my leadership are that I value individualism, I take
decision based on my past experiences and that I am an achiever. I value individualism or I
respect the qualities of each person and I respect the fact that each individual is different. This
means building relationship with them based on their working style, understanding their
motivational factors and others. This however may turn out to be a disadvantage of this
leadership style because it is not possible to motivate all the employees of the organization
individually because all the individuals have different motivational factors and this may further
lead to various conflicts within the organization and members. I usually take decision based on
my past experience because it provides a structure for taking decision related to the present day.
However, there are presently so many changes taking place that decision which turned out to be
effective in the past may not be the same in the present due to changing situations. I am an
achiever but I need to ensure that I share my vision and goals with others and also tell them how
achievement of the same can be beneficial for them also. However if I fail to do the same, there
will be conflicts in the organization due to lack of alignment of goals.
I can improve my leadership skills by converting my weakness into my strengths. For
doing the same I can carry out three main actionable activities (Pardey, 2016). One of my
weaknesses is that I value individualism too much and therefore I may face many problems

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related to motivating each of them and in that may further lead to conflicts. In order to solve the
same I can carry out regular meeting and sessions with all my members to disclose the fact that
why I am considering one’s perspective over the other and the advantages and drawbacks related
to the same. This will be done for 2-3months to win the members trust. Another weakness that I
have in my leadership is that I take decision based on my past experiences and information and
that may turn out to be wrong because situations are continuously changing. Moreover I may be
faced with some new situations which have not occurred in the past and therefore in order to
overcome the same I need to improve my decision making skills and for doing the same I can
take help of my supervisor’s and take their guidance to take the right decision in different
situations. I have another weakness of being an achiever that means that I know how to achieve
my goals. However these goals needs to be communicated properly to all the members through
sessions and others and by having open communication.
Formulation of two short term goals that will help to improve my leadership
skills
Improved communication and identification of the data points are some of the SMART
goals that can help me in improving my leadership skills. By having better communication with
the employees of the organization, I can also overcome my weakness and convert the same into
my strengths. For this various sessions will be conducted by me where I can discuss about the
organizational goals and others. by identifying the data points I can gather all the necessary
information in form of feedback and others in order to be able to take better decisions based on
these data points.
Goals Description Specific actions

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Specific The goals are specific because
they help in improving certain
specific attributes
In order to achieve the goals
regular meeting will be
collected and the data points
will be checked
Measurable These goals can be measured
after a period of 3-4 months
Regular feedbacks need to be
taken from time to time to see
if the goals are achieved
Achievable These goals are achievable
because the two goals can be
achieved through various
specific actions
Realistic These goals are realistic
because these are based on
actual facts
Time bound The goals are time bound
because these will be achieved
within 3-4months.

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References
Copeland, M. K. (2016). The impact of authentic, ethical, transformational leadership on leader
effectiveness. Journal of Leadership, Accountability and Ethics, 13(3), 79.
DuBrin, A. J. (2015). Leadership: Research findings, practice, and skills. Nelson Education.
Mencl, J., Wefald, A. J., & van Ittersum, K. W. (2016). Transformational leader attributes:
interpersonal skills, engagement, and well-being. Leadership & Organization
Development Journal, 37(5), 635-657.
Pardey, D. (2016). Introducing leadership. Routledge.
Priest, S., & Gass, M. (2017). Effective Leadership in Adventure Programming, 3E. Human
Kinetics.
Stone, K. B. (2015). Burke-Litwin Organizational Assessment Survey: Reliability and
Validity. Organization Development Journal, 33(2).