Leadership Strengths and Weaknesses: Self-Assessment

This report presents a self-assessment of leadership strengths and weaknesses, utilizing a SWOT analysis framework. The author identifies their leadership style as primarily transformational, acknowledging the situational nature of leadership. The report highlights strengths such as emotional intelligence, relationship-building skills, and accountability, while acknowledging weaknesses including lack of self-esteem, avoidance of conflict, and limited education. Opportunities for improvement are recognized through training, education, and mentoring programs offered by the company. Threats such as time constraints and competition are also considered. The author emphasizes the importance of continuous self-evaluation and learning from mistakes to enhance leadership skills. The report concludes with references to relevant leadership literature.

Running Head: LEADERSHIP STRENGTHS 1
Assessment 4 – Leadership Strengths
Name:
Grade Course:
Tutor’s Name:
Date of Submission:

LEADERSHIP STRENGTHS 2
Introduction
To carry out self-evaluation and analyze the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and
threats as a leader is a challenging. However, SWOT is the most common tool that is commonly
used to analyze the skills of an individual. This approach is very crucial because it help
individuals to be stronger and great leaders in the organization. Studies have showed that SWOT
analysis helps the leaders to understand the leadership style he/she is practicing.
My leadership styles
After careful analysis, I learned that transformation leadership style most suit my way of
life. However, it is important to understand that an individual does not practice one leadership
style for the rest of his/her life. As explained by situational leadership theory, no single
leadership style is enough to lead. Leadership styles changes based with the prevailing
circumstance and the effective leader adopt these changes by changing the leadership style to suit
the situation. Therefore, the leadership style adopted by a leader depends of several factors
including the environment, the followers and the goals that needs to be achieved.
My strengths
As a leader, my key strengths are:
a) Emotional intelligence
b) Interactive and good at building relationships
c) Responsible and accountable for decisions and action
d) Analyze opportunities and risks when making decisions

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My ability to read the emotions of other staff members, analyze them appropriately and
use the information to influence staff thinking and behavior, make me a good leader. This
strength gives an advantage in the way I relate and interact with other staff members (Rehman,
2011). As a leader, this strength is very critical because it enables me to balance my interactions
and avoid situations that makes others feel agitated. Studies have showed that people establish
strong relationships when they are connected by similarities such as activities, family or
friendship. Therefore, I find similarity we share with other staff members and use it to build
strong relationship.
As a leader, it is very important to appreciate that we are not perfect and man is to error.
Many leaders that have come to be very successful in their life have once committed mistakes
but they use previous mistakes to improve their leadership skills (Rath & Conchie, 2008). When
I make mistake through my actions or decisions, I own the mistake. But I make sure that I have
learned something from that mistake that will improve my future actions and decision. Similarly,
when making decisions, I take time to way opportunities and risks to minimize risks and
maximize opportunities.
My weaknesses
My key weaknesses are:
a) Lack of self-esteem
b) Limited education
c) Avoids conflicts and confrontation
d) Too methodical
e) Lack of driving will

LEADERSHIP STRENGTHS 4
As a transformational leader, it is my responsibility to lead changes in the organization,
but I should also allow the change or transformation to redirect the mindset and ideas of the
followers in the similar passion as that of mine (Kouzes & Posner, 2017). However, due to lack
of self-esteem and confidence, I don’t allow the transformation or change to roll out itself
without imposing too much on the followers. Whenever, I am leading change I find myself
imposing too much on my followers because I am afraid the expected outcome might not be
realized and this negatively affects my leadership skills.
When confronted with a conflict that requires me to take a stand, I normally ran away
because I don’t want to make involve parties to feel I am against them. Some confrontation
requires a stand to resolve it but since I am afraid to face head on, the conflict drags for
sometime and ends up becoming more complex and creating rift among the followers (Kouzes &
Posner, 2017). I believe this weakness persists because of limited training and education I have
in conflict resolution. Conflict resolution also requires creativity which is also lacking in part.
These weaknesses have negatively impacted on my leadership style.
Opportunities
Any leader desires to maximize his/her strengths and improve his/her weaknesses.
However, these cannot be possible if the leader is unable to identify his/her opportunities. My
key opportunities are:
a) Training and education
b) Mentoring and coaching
The company provide many opportunities for leaders to further their education and
training. This is one of the opportunities that I should take to improve my weakness of lack of

LEADERSHIP STRENGTHS 5
self-esteem and confidence. Through training and education, I will be able to learned skill that
will help to manage and resolve conflicts. Since the company offers development of leadership
class and Six Sigma training, I will take this opportunity to improve my leadership skills. Apart
from training and education, there are also mentoring and coaching programs offered by the
company to young leaders (Rehman, 2011). The leaders in the senior position have been tasked
with the responsibility of mentoring and coaching junior leaders to improve their leadership
skills. The essence of mentoring and coaching programs it ensures that good leadership skills are
passed to emerging leaders as the senior exits the helm of leadership. I will use these programs to
improve on my weaknesses and maximize my strengths.
Threats
There are several threats that leaders encounter in their daily work especially the young
leaders who are still learning to maneuver through the leadership ladder. Some of the key threats
that I face are:
a) Time constraint
b) competition
As a leader, there are tight deadlines that must be met and allow other process to move.
When the team fails to meet these deadlines, I will be responsible for not delivering on time.
This means that as much I would like to further my studies and attend mentoring and coaching
programs, I would also be required to lead my team (Rath & Conchie, 2008). This is one of the
challenges that has prevented me from attending classes and mentoring and coaching programs.
Although I can delegate some of the duties, I am still required to be there to make sure assigned
duties are moving as required.

LEADERSHIP STRENGTHS 6
Currently we are in the world that is very competitive and only the best gets the chance to
serve in leading organization. As a result, young leaders I working day and night to improve their
skills and become more competitive in the market (Kouzes & Posner, 2017). Competition is a
good thing because it helps us to sharpen our skills, but when other have added advantage in
terms of access to resource make the competition unhealth.
Conclusion
I can conclude that leaders are in constant path of learning new skills and tricks as they
go about their daily activities. I would encourage young leaders to regularly carry out SWOT
analysis with the objective of improving their skills. They should not be afraid to make mistakes
because we learn through mistakes.

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References
Kouzes, J. M. & Posner, B. Z. (2017). The Leadership Challenge: How to Make Extraordinary
Things Happen in Organizations (6th Ed.). Hoboken, NJ: Wiley.
Rath, T. & Conchie, B. (2008). Strength Based Leadership: Great Leaders, Teams, and Why
People Follow. New York, NY: Gallup Press.
Rehman, R. R. (2011). Role of Emotional Intelligence on the Relationship Among Leadership
Styles, Decision Making Styles and Organizational Performance: A Review.
Interdisciplinary Journal of Contemporary Research in Business, 3(1): 409-416.