Leadership Development: Self-Assessment and Style Analysis Report

This report is a self-assessment of a student's leadership style, focusing on the democratic and participative leadership approach. It analyzes the student's leadership traits based on a Mind Tools questionnaire, highlighting strengths and weaknesses. The report discusses the advantages of this style, such as fostering team participation and shared decision-making, and its limitations, including potential delays in decision-making. It also examines the student's emotional intelligence, encompassing self-awareness, self-management, social awareness, and social skills. The report suggests strategies for improving emotional intelligence through SWOT analysis, emphasizing the need to balance the democratic style with other leadership approaches to achieve optimal results. The report concludes by emphasizing the importance of self-assessment and continuous development to enhance leadership effectiveness.

Running head: LEADERSHIP DEVELOPMENT 1
Leadership Development
Student’s Name
University

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Leadership Development
Leadership is the action of leading others to achieve goals by providing direction and
stimulating followership from others. Different theories have been developed to explain the
leadership styles and abilities of different people (Chin, 2015). One common aspect of leadership
is the abilities and traits that one has which define the nature of the characteristics that the leader
possesses. There are tools which have been developed to assist people in assessing their
leadership types and areas of strength. The Mind Tools website allows the use of a questionnaire
to analyze how one performs in specific areas of leadership to general an overall score that
defines the leadership style (MindTools, 2019). My assessment of the leadership style was the
Democratic, Participative Leadership style this was based on the scores generated from the
questionnaire.
The democratic Participative leadership style entails sharing the decision making with
others and promoting the interest of others to increase social equality. This leadership style
allows everyone to take a participative role in decision making (Khan, Khan, & Qureshi, 2015).
This means that everyone has an opportunity to raise their concern or opinion but the consensus
is reached through voting. This means that the leader has an ultimate say but encourages team
involvement increasing morale and creativity within the team. Unlike other leadership styles,
these methods are based on the active involvement of all team members through participation
leading to ownership of decisions. The style encourages leaders to develop workable goals
within the organization as a way of involving them. By transferring the decision making power
to group members, the leader applies a bottom-up approach which is reflected in the best
outcomes and development of inclusive decisions.

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In life situations, this leadership style is evident in school work where we work as teams.
Group work entails putting the different minds of group members together to come up with the
best solution. For example, in the group, there is the group leader and members who all come
together under the leader to propose suggestions which are reviewed and a decision made on the
same. Goleman (2000) suggests that this style allows the leader and the group to build trust in
each other while at the same time driving flexibility in the members.
Goal setting and achieving are one of the roles that the leader is supposed to do. The
democratic participative style of leadership is based on the ability of the leader to build trust and
commitment in the members. Park (2015) suggests that participation increases the achievement
of goals since allows the employees to have a decision on the goals that have to be achieved.
This drives up flexibility and responsibility in teams since the leader uses the listening ability to
understand their needs and put measures in place to address them. Hallberg (2017) adds that
most leaders fail to learn the true feelings of their employees due to the leadership style that they
use. The democratic-participative style allows the leader to understand the satisfaction of the
team by determining what works and what does not work.
Emotional intelligence is the ability to manage oneself and others through the four
capabilities of self-awareness, self-management, social awareness, and social skill. From the
leadership assessment, I have a precise understanding of others and the issues that they have
about me through recognizing my feelings and those of others and managing of emotions to
create strong relationships. On the capability of self-awareness, I have a good ability to read and
understand the emotions of others (Mind Tools, 2019). This is also seen in the assessment where
I scored high in having the ability to be aware of my achievements and failures which can be
used for improvement. The self-management capability is seen in my ability to have self-control,

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initiative, and adaptability to deal with different situations (Fiaz, Su, Ikram, & Saqib, 2017).
Social-awareness has been reflected in empathy and service orientation which relate to the high
scores in positive attitude and outlook. Social skills have been reflected in my transformative
abilities to motivate people and deliver the required vision. To grow my emotional intelligence, I
will focus on each of the areas in the four capabilities that have been highlighted by Goleman
(2000). To achieve this, I will use the SWOT questionnaire in the MindTools website to
determine the areas of strength, weakness, opportunities, and threats, then focus on addressing
the threats and weaknesses while utilizing the opportunities available in my leadership style to
improve my emotional intelligence.
One major weakness of democratic leadership methods is the delayed decision-making
process when involving other members. For example, Coleman (2000) suggests that unlike the
authoritative style, the leader cannot make critical decisions in democratic leadership. In some
situations, consensus can be difficult to reach in case the members fail to agree. In most cases,
the leader struggles with the team since there is no clear definition of leadership which means
that it is not a guarantee that a positive outcome will come from the process.
Therefore, my leadership style has several advantages and limitations based on its use.
This style is effective for achieving team participation and creating an environment that allows
others to participate in leadership. However, as seen in its shortcomings, it is evident that the
leaders lack full leadership and control of the group which limits the emotional intelligence of
the leader. However, when combined with leadership traits from other leadership styles like the
transformative style, democratic or participative style can be the best in meeting the needs of
both the leader, the group and the organization. Thus the leader needs to carry out a SWOT

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analysis of personal abilities to identify areas that need to be addressed to increase the
effectiveness of the leadership style.

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References
Chin, R. (2015). Examining teamwork and leadership in the fields of public administration,
leadership, and management. Team Performance Management, 21(3), 199–216.
Fiaz, M., Su, Q., Ikram, A., & Saqib, A. (2017). Leadership styles and employees’ motivation:
Perspective from an emerging economy. The Journal of Developing Areas, 51(4), 143-
156.
Goleman, D. (2000). Leadership That Gets Results. The Havard Business Review, 4 4 8 7.
Hallberg, C. (2017 , November ). What kind of leader are you? Ask these 10 questions of your
employees each quarter. . The Denver Post.
Khan, M. S., Khan, I., & Qureshi, Q. A. (2015). The Styles of Leadership: A Critical Review.
Public Policy and Administration Research, 5(3), 87-92.
MindTools. (2019). How Good Are Your Leadership Skills? Retrieved from MindTools:
https://www.mindtools.com/pages/article/newLDR_50.htm
Park, R. (2015). Employee participation and outcomes: Organizational strategy does matter.
Employee Relations, 37(5), 604-622.