DBN 508 Leadership: A Self-Assessment of Leadership Skills

This individual project report for DBN 508 Leadership critically assesses the author's leadership strengths, including a focus on team members, time management, ethical communication, innovation, and decision-making. Weaknesses identified are verbal communication and work-life balance. The report outlines specific objectives and a personal development plan to address these weaknesses, incorporating strategies such as prioritizing tasks, setting boundaries, improving communication tactics, and seeking support. The SMART objectives are discussed in terms of achievability within a 2-3 week timeframe, emphasizing the importance of training, learning programs, and consistent effort to enhance leadership capabilities. The report references academic sources to support the analysis and proposed development strategies.

Leadership – Individual project report
Assessment 2
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Table of Contents
Question 2...................................................................................................................................................2
Question 3...................................................................................................................................................3
References...................................................................................................................................................7
Appendix.....................................................................................................................................................9
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Question 2
In a leader strength and weakness, both are present and improving their strength and reducing their
weakness help them to make a good and loyal team. Here as a manager of the Foodstuff organization
some strength and weakness are noticed and improving it one can do better in their working procedure.
As per the leadership quality it is noticed that as a manager I have to provide careful attention to the team
members so that a loyal team has been made by him. Along with that the person maintain his time
dividing capacity so that the team members gives him a good support for completing the work on time.
Clear and ethical explanation helps a manager to improve his skills on leadership quality so by providing
a clear-cut explanation of things related to work help him a good team leader (Shah, & Pathak, 2015).
One of the major strength that I possess being a manager in the Foodstuff organization is to respect the
innovation and development procedure of some new thing in the organization. It bring enthusiasm in the
team which help them to innovate and improve their working techniques so that the company gets
benefitted and also their market share increases in the market. This leadership quality falls under the trait
theory of leadership qualities. This theory states that the people are born with certain leadership quality
among which careful to the team member, responsibility and creativity falls in this group (Burch, Swails,
& Mills, 2015).
So being the manager of Foodstuff Company the leader supports the improvement and creativity of their
team leader and is considered as one of the important quality to be a good leader. Another leadership
quality that makes me as one of the good leader in the organization is the awareness of decision making
strategies and capable of recognizing weakness. Any wrong decision in the workplace gives a huge effect
on the business procedure and not only the company has to suffer from losses but the management team
as well as the employee also faces problem due to this (Jin, Meng, & Berger, 2017). This help to build
trust in between the team members and this increases their working capability in the organization. Due to
such leadership skills the cultural sensitivity is maintained in the organization. As the team member
belongs to different culture and supporting their ideas and creations help them to improve their skills.
This leadership quality also motivated them to make new and innovative product for the organization. All
this leadership qualities help the leader to make a strong team but along with this some weakness are also
present in the leadership quality and this need to improve to become a good leader in the organization.
As a manager of Foodstuff Company, I have to maintain a good communication to their team member so
that the member does not hesitate to explain their opinions and ideas towards their leaders. As a leader
one should have to maintain good communication skills with their team member either verbally or non-
verbally (DuBois, Hanlon, Koch, Nyatuga, & Kerr, 2015). The leader hesitates to communicate verbally
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with their team member and this creates a problem for both the leader and the employee. Due to such
problem of proper communication, the employees belong to different culture did not put their ideas
properly in front of the manager and this effect the production growth of the company in the market. As
per the leadership skills, the behavioral theory is one that is based on the behavior traits of a person and
thus for maintaining a good behavior as well as communication to the team members can diminish the
problem in the organization (Trivellas, & Reklitis, 2014).
My strength is to maintaining a good communication behavior with the team member also helps to
decrease cultural issues and the employees also do their work properly without any argument or conflict.
The leader also faces problem to maintain a proper balance in between the workplace and home and thus
does not maintain a proper self-care of its own. This causes a problem, not in the working place or home
but the leader also faces many mental problems (Bealer, & Bhanugopan, 2014). Due to work pressure
load, the leader faces many issues of maintaining balance in his working life and does not give time at
home. Being a manager it is clear that I have to maintain working pressure and balance between home
and working procedure. A leader should not mix his life with working procedure and for maintaining the
difference between the two faces the leader should have to complete the work at the stipulated time so
that the issues must be decreases in the coming days (Larsson, Eriksson, Olofsson, & Simonsson, 2015).
Question 3
Objectives for weakness 1 (Self-care and work-life balance) are:
 To improve the self-care as well as balance in work and in family
 Increase the self-care along with work-life balance to always maintained
 Improvement in work-life balance can be achieved with proper strategies and development
 Suitable training along with various activity will improve the work-life balance of the manager
 The entire process for improvement of weakness need to be completed within 2 weeks
Objectives for weakness 2 (verbal communication) are:
 To improve the communication process verbally in the organization
 To effectively communicate with the client as well as the staff members in the organization and
outside the organization also
 Suitable and effective strategies and techniques are required for the development of
communication skill
 Training, learning program and various activity is required to improve the communication skill
 Improvement in the verbal communication need to be done within 3 weeks
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Personal development plan
Weaknesses Strategies Timeframe Resources
Self-care and
work-life balance
 Determination of the
priorities
 Setting a specific goal for
working condition
 Establishing boundaries
 Taking good care of health
and organization
 Work smarter, not harder
(Kehl, 2012)
 Known when help need to
be asked
18/06/2018
to
02/07/2018
 Get enough sleep so
that it help me to be
productive in my
work
 Have to get suitable
training to
understand the way
for work-life
balance and self-
care
 Role play for
understanding the
need for work-life
balance within the
organization.
Verbal
communication
 The usage of inspirational
communication tactics in
the organization
 Be the supportive
communicator
 Have to encourage the
open feedback within the
organization (Archibald,
2014)
 Required consistency in
the communication
 Have to be a good listener
 Have to speak with
confidence
 Have to think about the
perspective of the
audiences
18/06/2018
to
09/07/2018
 Learning program
like reading story
books, magazine and
other articles need to
be done
 Critically think
about the words
 Interact effectively
with peers and the
friends to reduce the
issue
 Prepare the
communication
speech in the
organization
 Be honest about
communicating with
others
 Share day to day
working experience
with the team
members
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Comment on achieving the SMART objectives in 2-3 weeks
The weakness is quite effective the working function of manager and also on the productivity level of the
firm. It can be seen from the view of Stiehl, Felfe, Elprana, & Gatzka, (2015) that with the help of
suitable strategies like establishing the boundaries and also by improving the communication skill can
make a huge difference to reduce weakness of the manager. The facts are clear that to improve all the
weakness it is essential to maintain some training and learning program within the organization with some
daily activities. For the self-care and work-life balance, the most vital task is to understand the way to
separate work life along with personal life. For this suitable training as well as learning program is being
implemented that is for 2 weeks. In this two week, the manager needs to get well sound sleep for at least 8
hours that improve the energy level and boost up the employees to work for the betterment of the firm.
Within 2 weeks this was one of the toughest jobs to achieve as various activities need to be performed. It
is quite essential for the managers to understand their role and their responsibility within the organization.
It helps to improve the various working function of the firm and also increase the productivity level of the
firm.
Verbal communication is another effective way that helps leaders to effectively communicate with the
people (Chollet, Wörtwein, Morency, Shapiro, & Scherer, 2015). In an organization, the most vital task is
to communicate with the staff members and this need to be done so that efficiency of the organization get
increased. The action that needs to be taken within 3 weeks for the improvement of communication skill
is quite effective for a manager. It can be seen that with the help of learning program, the communication
skill helps to develop. It is done by reading various story books along with journal and magazine so that
the manager can have clear idea regarding their speech and their communication term with the
employees. The primary fact of this process is that to motivate and provide inspiration for the employee’s
communication is essential. This could be effectively done with the help of open feedback program so
that each member within the organization can share their view and improve their skill. In most of the
time, it can be seen that preparation of speech is another best idea to maintain suitable and effective
communication within the firm (Deery, & Jago, 2015). In the three week program, the effective usage of
skill along with the various process is being provided so that effective leaders within the organization can
be obtained.
These two weakness are the biggest challenge for a leader to provide a suitable working function in the
market. The fact is clear that to improve the weakness within two to three week some of the vital steps
need to be taken for activities. It can be seen from the view of Mayfield, Mayfield, & Sharbrough III,
(2015) that leaders need to communicate effectively with the staff members to understand their working
process and their improvement in the business. Developing the skill in the organization can be done with
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the effective strategies and for that, the primary factor of a leader is to maintain their performance level
within the business. One of the most important things to improve the communication level is that the
leaders also need to be effective listener before providing verbal communication. Listening to the issues
and the challenges of the staff members within the organization effectively help those to develop their
skill and their working function within the market (Zheng, Molineux, Mirshekary, & Scarparo, 2015). It
is clear from the various facts that effective strategies along with variable resources like training and the
learning program help to develop the weaknesses of a leader. With effective working function and
activity, it only takes few weeks for the improvement and this help in the development of business
operating within the market. The fact is clear that for maintaining suitable growth in the organization,
effective leadership skill is essential for the managers (Deery, & Jago, 2015). Being the leader I have to
follow various communication process.
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References
Archibald, J. (2014). 5 strategies that will improve your verbal communication skills. Retrieved from
https://leadershiparchways.com/2014/09/02/5-strategies-that-will-improve-your-verbal-
communication-skills/
Bealer, D., & Bhanugopan, R. (2014). Transactional and transformational leadership behavior of
expatriate and national managers in the UAE: a cross-cultural comparative analysis. The
International Journal of Human Resource Management, 25(2), 293-316
Burch, M. J., Swails, P., & Mills, R. (2015). Perceptions of administrators' servant leadership qualities
at a Christian university: A descriptive study. Education, 135(4), 399-404.
Chollet, M., Wörtwein, T., Morency, L. P., Shapiro, A., & Scherer, S. (2015, September). Exploring
feedback strategies to improve public speaking: an interactive virtual audience framework.
In Proceedings of the 2015 ACM International Joint Conference on Pervasive and Ubiquitous
Computing (pp. 1143-1154). ACM.
Deery, M., & Jago, L. (2015). Revisiting talent management, work-life balance, and retention
strategies. International Journal of Contemporary Hospitality Management, 27(3), 453-472.
DuBois, M., Hanlon, J., Koch, J., Nyatuga, B., & Kerr, N. (2015). Leadership styles of effective project
managers: Techniques and traits to lead high-performance teams. Journal of Economic
Development, Management, IT, Finance, and Marketing, 7(1), 30.
Jin, Y., Meng, J., & Berger, B. (2017). The Influence of Communication Leadership Qualities on
Effective Crisis Preparedness Strategy Implementation: Insights from a Global Study.
Communication Management Review, 2(01), 8-29.
Kehl, T. (2012). 12 Key Strategies for Achieving a Work-Life Balance. Retrieved from
http://www.industryweek.com/leadership/12-key-strategies-achieving-work-life-balance
Larsson, J., Eriksson, P. E., Olofsson, T., & Simonsson, P. (2015). Leadership in civil engineering:
Effects of project managers’ leadership styles on project performance. Journal of management in
engineering, 31(6), 04015011.
Mayfield, J., Mayfield, M., & Sharbrough III, W. C. (2015). Strategic vision and values in top leaders’
communications: Motivating language at a higher level. International Journal of Business
Communication, 52(1), 97-121.
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Shah, S., & Pathak, K. (2015). Exploring Important Leadership Qualities and Characteristics among
Adolescent Students. IOSR Journal Of Humanities And Social Science, 20(9), 46-52.
Stiehl, S. K., Felfe, J., Elprana, G., & Gatzka, M. B. (2015). The role of motivation to lead for leadership
training effectiveness. International Journal of Training and Development, 19(2), 81-97.
Trivellas, P., & Reklitis, P. (2014). Leadership competencies profiles and managerial effectiveness in
Greece. Procedia Economics and Finance, 9, 380-390.
Zheng, C., Molineux, J., Mirshekary, S., & Scarparo, S. (2015). Developing individual and
organizational work-life balance strategies to improve employee health and wellbeing. Employee
Relations, 37(3), 354-379.
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Appendix
Self-assessed Leadership Questionnaire
Sustainable leadership skills
I stay organized, including using a calendar and an active action item list – 1
I manage my time well – 4
I leverage available tools (like technology or research) to support success – 3
I have strong program management skills – track measurable objectives to their completion – 3
I provide careful attention to detail – 5
I am appropriately loyal to my team or organization – 5
I follow through on my commitments – 3
I hold others accountable to their commitments – 2
I demonstrate clear, ethical values daily – 3
I model balance (work/home, inner/outer) and self-care – 2
Others come to me to implement ideas – 2
Total: 33
Emotional intelligence
I see beyond another’s reaction and recognize the complex nature of my employees, peers and superiors –
4
I can “read” a group and its emotional state – 3
I track and manage my own emotion – 4
I am able to admit mistakes – 1
I am open to learning from others regardless of their position – 2
I develop trust in the team – 5
I am someone others turn to when they are upset – 3
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I foster team morale – 5
I am able to switch leadership style or approaches according to the current situation – 3
I easily extend respect, watch cultural cues and use right timing on conversations – 3
I am appropriately kind and compassionate – 2
Total: 35
Creativity Quotient
I hold and nurture an inspiring vision – 2
I foster open idea generation (“brainstorming”) with team members when appropriate – 4
I support innovation and continuous improvement – 5
I bring enthusiasm to my team – 3
I acknowledge and celebrate others and their successes – 1
I actively seek out novel perspectives – 2
I encourage diversity in my organization – 4
I am willing to not know and am comfortable with ambiguity and complexity – 1
I value and use creative tension between tem members and others to create better solutions – 2
I employ conflict resolutions skills – 3
I am someone with whom others share their hopes and aspirations – 4
Total: 31
Problem Solving/Direction setting Strategies
I am aware of my decision-making strategies and recognize their weaknesses – 4
I provide clear and objective feedback – 3
I communicate my thoughts clearly in written form – 3
I verbally communicate well – 2
I bring strong public speaking skills – 2
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I provide expertise in my subject area – 4
I have effective problem solving skills – employ logical step-by-step frameworks to guide a team to a
solution – 5
I actively gather information from internal and external sources – hold a learning attitude – 3
I look for problem areas or what might have been missed – 2
I can take a compelling vision and translate it into a measurable goals and actions – 4
I am asked for advice or insight when there is a problem – 4
Total: 36
Pre-program leadership assessment scores: 135
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