Student Name: Otesanya Adedoyin

Student’s Name Otesanya Adedoyin

Tutor’s Name Dr.

Course Name

Assignment Title (Leadership Self-Assessment)

Date Submitted 00/00/2024

Word Count 1612

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Introduction

This self-assessment is intended to encourage me to look back on leadership experiences and

identify my leadership strengths and weaknesses. Personal leadership reflection is beneficial to a
person's personal and professional development because it provides insight into patterns and
effects that may previously seem unnoticed and helps build better leadership skills. As part of
this self-reflection, I will describe and evaluate leadership experience and successes, or lack
thereof, explain how considering ethical issues and other leadership theories has impacted me,
and how adjustments will be made to ensure better leadership in the future.

Leadership Theories and Concepts

According to this course, leadership can be clearly categorized using examples of top-down,
bottom-up, servant and authentic leadership based on the approach. In the top-down method of
organization, authority and orders are taken from a higher authority or higher level of
management (Manning & Curtis, 2022). This leads to a structured organizational hierarchy, but
employees' freedom is somewhat limited. On the other hand, bottom-up leadership focuses on
employees accepting the authority exercised by the leader and using cooperation and resignation
to increase organizational success. Servant Leadership focuses on human rights and therefore
provides a good workplace to solve employees' problems. In this style, the leader brings out the
employee's potential by providing access to all available resources throughout the process of
open communication and supporting the employee's development. Servant leadership challenges
leaders to build power in others by focusing on the development of their followers. Authentic
leadership is somewhat related to servant leadership, as the leader leads the organization based
on moral authority and vision, like Nelson Mandela. People follow real leaders because they
know that the leader practices and advocates sound ethical leadership that reflects the
organization's values over the long term (Manning & Curtis, 2022).

When analyzing my leadership experiences, a few concepts from this course are worth
highlighting. The leadership model I wanted to practice was transformational leadership, which
is about changing employees for the better. To ensure my team buys in, I strive to create an
inspiring vision for the team that ensures people are working towards the goals (Manning &

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Curtis, 2022). However, the same emphasis should not be placed on another element, namely
emotional intelligence (Manning & Curtis, 2022). Consequently, knowledge of the interpersonal
self has enabled me to respond appropriately to interpersonal relationships. For example, the
concept of empathy in the course helped increase connectivity for personal relationships and
manage the definition of diverse workplaces (Manning & Curtis, 2022).

However, I know that there are circumstances in which I do not support the ethical leadership
principles (Manning & Curtis, 2022). At some point I decided to go into advocacy for the simple
reason that there was pressure due to an honor conflict between me and what was best for the
team. In the upcoming phase of my leadership development, I will seek to integrate ethical
issues more effectively and systematically into my work and practice to create a highly effective
positive organizational culture. By combining these theories and concepts in the task mentioned,
I was able to review or critique my performance as a leader and thus apply what I learned to
improve my performance as a leader.

Strength as a Leader

As a leader, effective communication is one of my strongest skills. It is very important to be very

transparent and involve my team in matters that need to be resolved amicably (Manning &
Curtis, 2022). For example, in a recent project, I introduced the habit of holding weekly
meetings, which not only strengthened the team but also allowed me to identify problems before
they escalated. This goes hand in hand with the goals postulated for servant leadership, such as
listening and availability to the team (Manning & Curtis, 2022).

Another strength is that I have good team management skills, more specifically in building a
great team. Worthwhile effort; As a manager, I support individual contributions with the aim of
promoting teamwork, strengthening morale and increasing productivity. I also facilitated team
building to improve team integrity and unity when working together in another organization.
This type of experience can be categorized as transformational leadership because when people's
interest and enthusiasm are aroused, it can increase employee performance. Decision making is
also one of my best skills as I am able to make good decisions after analyzing all available
information. I include my team members in the decision-making process when I include them in

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the strategies I develop. This method not only increases buy-in, but also creates unique
perceptions, making information decisions easier. For example, when I was involved in
formulating a high-level strategy, I had to coordinate different people so that everyone could
formulate a detailed structure with which they wanted to work. By harmonizing these strengths, I
have managed to promote a good work culture that is consistent with the principles of ethical and
transformational leadership theories (Manning & Curtis, 2022).

Challenges Faced in Leadership

Currently there are areas in my leadership role that I find challenging, particularly in resolving
conflict, particularly where emotions are deadly and high. For example, when members of each
team had different views on the project's strategy, I found it difficult to moderate the team. Such
pressures affected working relationships and productivity, as demonstrated by bottom-up
leadership, where conflicts should be resolved as they arise (Manning & Curtis, 2022).

One of the skills I have had difficulty with is delegation. I often overload myself with work or
tasks because I think if I give that job to someone else, they will screw it up or do a poor quality
job. This was evident during a large initiative where I failed to delegate, which resulted in me
personally simply becoming exhausted and also missing deadlines (Manning & Curtis, 2022).
When I recognized the need for decentralization as discussed in this course, I realized that
allocating power to different members of the team is crucial because it improves the resources
already available while also improving the morale of the team members who do the work, is
strengthened.

In addition, managing different teams was also challenging as the approaches, organizational
culture and execution of tasks were very different (Manning & Curtis, 2022). It is important for
leaders to value diversity as a strength; This experience shows that emotional intelligence should
also be present in leadership. I believe in the future I can apply all of this to conflict resolution
and improve my delegation and team leadership skills to achieve better results.

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Area for Improvement

I know that managing conflict and distribution work, among other things that make up the
leadership cycle, are easy. Therefore, a weakness I have is dealing with conflict situations or
managing conflict, as this requires technicians who are as good at organizational communication
and team building as I am. In most cases, this actually slows down team cohesion and
performance. To work on conflict resolution skills, I recommend the following: Assertiveness.
One way to be assertive is to listen to everyone involved and make everyone feel like they are
involved too. This is consistent with the bottom-up leadership model, which supports employee
involvement in conflict resolution. For the same reason, I also exaggerate my expectations: I
don't want to make mistakes when it comes to assigning tasks. I demand so much trust from my
team members so that they can work effectively and to the best of their abilities.

The idea of a delegation structure could be helpful because it outlines the expectations that need
to be met, but does not dictate how a specific task needs to be done. This approach is acceptable
and includes a supportive and empowering orientation that reflects the principle of servant
leadership. In this case, I usually also want to get feedback from my team on how they feel that I
am leading them and what I do or need to do more to make the change better. It is consistent
with the W. Edwards Deming Quality System, which calls for open and continuous business
improvement (Manning & Curtis, 2022). To say the least, I believe it should be useful to
improve the culture and leadership profile of the organization.

Future Leadership Development

As a result of the self-assessment results, I will make a good plan to improve my leadership skills
by ensuring that I practice S.M.A.R.T. set. Goals. Based on the knowledge gained in this course,
I will take leadership seminars and courses on emotional intelligence and conflict management.
Another reason for continued self-evaluation will be important for my growth. Reflecting on
situations and asking others for ideas helps identify a student's strengths and weaknesses. This
process approach reflects the foundations of transformational leadership, particularly the
development of personal compassion.

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Additionally, participation in networking activities and mentoring are intended to improve my

employment prospects and the growth and development of my career. We can make friends with
other leaders and also learn about their perceptions of leadership and other practices. These
strategies will not only strengthen my leadership skills, but also advance my professional
progress.

Conclusion

This self-assessment shows that the most developed areas are communication and interpersonal
relationships and the greatest weaknesses are conflict management and delegation. In the context
of the concepts of transformational leadership and emotional intelligence, it is important to
constantly consider ethical aspects of leadership. These are the areas that need to be addressed
along with resolving conflicts and assigning responsibilities as they contribute significantly to
leadership effectiveness.

Developing leadership awareness is a crucial activity because it helps leaders recognize the
impact they have on people and properly develop change. By practicing reflection, asking for
feedback, and embracing individual change, leaders can strive for higher levels of productivity,
professionalism, and integrity in the organization.

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References

Manning, G., & Curtis, K. (2022). The art of leadership (7th ed.). McGraw-Hill.

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