Facets of a Good Leader

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).

Any good leader will need to know what their strengths and weaknesses are. When it comes to the LEAD survey and such, the author of this response was not surprised. 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).

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.

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 add that not all communication and participation is positive and problems with the same need to be controlled and otherwise dealt with. At the same time, leaders need to know when to pause and listen to what is being said so as to fully know what problems that need to be fixed. Pre-judging the situation is less than wise and can create deeper or new problems. In keeping what has already been said, the author of this repot scored positively but is a little too gun-shy about stepping in and taking control of the situation (Northouse, 2014).

This realm of leadership is something that confuses and vexes the author of this report at times. Indeed, there seem to be too many situations and dynamics that are driven by selfishness, power plays, motivations that are off-based and power. Even so, office and leadership politic is a real thing and must be dealt with all leaders. Northouse notes that talk about politics is not unheard of (although dicey nowadays) and many strong leaders are themselves politicians. The author of this response is not a fan of games and thus has and would score poorly on metrics that surround the same. Even with that, the author understands that some amount of power-plays and motivational or political speech is necessary to effect change (Northouse, 2014).

The lesson that the author of this response learned here through the self-measurement just conducted is that while being authoritarian and overly hostile towards people when it comes to making decisions and communicating to the group is not a good thing, being too meek and non-assertive is also dangerous and should be avoided (Northouse, 2014).

One lesson learned from the survey and learnings on this is that ground rules and ways of doing things are important to know and enforce. In many groups, there does need to be a leader or a least a facilitator. However, there are many groups that do well without a defined leader. The point is to have a common mission and there needs to be consistent progress towards that mission (Northouse, 2014).

Yet another thing that the author of this response and summary learned is that there is more than one of doing things. However, the leadership behind a structure, the structure of the teams themselves, the corporate culture in question and so forth all have to be aligned and in sync. People that are disagreeing with the way things are can voice their concerns and issues but they might simply not be a good fit for the firm. The author of this report has scored well in this regard and this was not surprising.