What Is Leadership?

This written assignment is an evaluation of my leadership style following on from the completed "Lead Self Questionnaire" In this assignment I looked at the information gained from the Lead questionnaire in order to see what this says about my leadership style, in particular my approach to leadership, highlighting any areas of strength and weakness.

What is leadership? Leadership has been described as the,

Process of Social Influence in which one person can enlist the aid and support of other in the accomplishment of a common task.

(Chemers, M. M. (2002)

It can be described as a person who is leading a group of people to get a job done. There are different categories of leaders i.e. Traditional, Charismatic, Democratic, Situational, Appointed and Functional and there are also different types of leaders i.e., Directive, Coaching, Supporting and Delegating. In my opinion to be a good and effective leader, a person should possess a combination of more than one category or style. Reflecting on my own leadership skills, on completion of the LEAD self-assessment paper, I determined that my approach to leadership is primarily 'Selling' with a marginal secondary style of 'Participating'. I have been able to identify some of my strengths and weaknesses which I will discuss later.

Based on past performances I felt that one of my strengths lies in my ability to motivate people. This would put me into the Situational Category of leadership. I think this is an important quality as I find highly motivated people are eager to learn and get the job done. Another one of my strengths is the ability to empathise, important to a good leader as a good leader should to be able to put themselves in the shoes of those he or she leads. On reflection I would identify my weaknesses as lack of confidence in my own abilities, and an awareness of my sensitivity to criticism,

This analysis of my leadership style leads me to consider how it may be of use to me, in leading and motivating others, and in the development of my leadership skills.

My effectiveness as a good motivator can be recognized through my community involvement in the area where I live. In the early eighties, unemployment in the area was high, money and morale was low and there was little sense of community or spirit. The summer was coming but there were no holidays planned for anyone.

I had an idea, a summer project for the children, where the children would be exposed to new crafts, visit cultural locations and have fun days out. But first I had to try to get the parents to work with me so as we could make it happen. At first nobody was interested; they felt it couldn't be done and were full of negativity, "where would we get the money"? "We wouldn't get enough people to help" they said. They