.....leadership traits and scores as ascertained and scored using the Northouse LEAD structure and its associated guidelines. The scores that will be summarized and described in here will include leadership and leadership styles, overall strengths and weaknesses, emotional intelligence, dealing with conflict and tension, power and interactions, motivation of others, team development/enforcing of ground rules, developing creativity, team effectiveness, what has been learned and so forth. Each individual scoring realm, as part of the larger paradigm, will be covered one by one. While the author of this report certainly has a ways to go in terms of being a great leader, there are indeed some encouraging signs when it comes to comparing what is stated in VLA and LEAD as compared to the author's self-inventory when it comes to the same. Summary & Analysis

Leadership & Leadership Styles

The author of this response was especially curious about this aspect of leadership given that having the wrong leader and/or of the wrong type in place can absolutely create problems. For sure, the author was concerned well before now about avoiding authoritarian style leadership, as mentioned in the Northouse text, due to the very small amount of situations where such a style makes any sort of sense. Achievement-oriented leadership, also as mentioned by Northouse, has its place and time. However, achievements and the pursuit thereof need to take both short-term and long-term successes and concerns into account. Not looking at the long-term effects and outcomes of a decision can create their own problems. At the same time, laissez-faire is something to avoid since letting the proverbial inmate run the asylum can go very good but it can also go very bad. There needs to be a defined standard but the people in question that are led by the leader need to have a say. Indeed, this is where the democratic leadership style comes in and it should be what is in place most of the time. The author of this response was relieved to have scored in that realm, rather than the other two, when it comes to surveys completed for class (Northouse, 2014).

Leader Strengths & Weaknesses

Any good leader will need to know what their strengths and weaknesses are. When it comes to the LEAD survey and such, the author...
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As Northouse explains, strengths can be measured using Northouse's Value in Action Inventory of Strengths. Within that, there are the top five character strengths as well as a rank order of twenty-four other strengths. Beyond that, Northouse points out that good leaders fish out and find the strengths in others. Indeed, the author of this report is strong when it comes to finding out the strengths of others and then wielding them to the author's advantage. On the other side of the spectrum is how hard it is to be honest when it comes to announcements and such that hard to make. Whether it be a layoff, bad financial results or other things like that, bearing bad news and doing the right thing when it's hard are both things that the author struggles with (Northouse, 2014).

Emotional Intelligence

When it comes to emotional intelligence, this is something that many people, leaders and non-leaders alike, sorely lack. The author of this report has seen case after case where a leader is fixated on making sales goals or otherwise keeping their job intact and they lose their bearings in many ways when it comes to compensating for shortfalls. Rather than be pragmatic and positive, they rail against or otherwise mistreat the people that are going to make or break whether the bad patterns continue. This being the case is a huge reason why the author of this report is very careful, perhaps too careful, to say things that will hurt the feelings and mindset of others, keeping with the weakness named above. Northouse points out that the concept of emotional intelligence did not emerge until the early to mid-1990's, it has always been a very real thing even if there was not a name for it. The leader's survey and test results show that while being brash and a brute is a bad thing, being too soft and tepid creates its own problems. People want honesty but it needs to be presented properly.

Conflict, Tension, Communication & Participation

This is keeping with the common theme mentioned above. Conflict and tension happen and a good leader needs to know how to quickly and expediently react to the same. Communication on a common and reasonable level is part of doing that well and participation helps as well. The author of this response would…