Leadership Personal Leadership Audit I)

Leadership

Personal Leadership Audit i) the main leadership demands I expect to face on in the coming year include learning how to identify and select the best people for delegation of specific duties, leading with an appropriate amount of compassion, lessening the impact of personal preference on my leadership capabilities, and learning how to provide criticism in the most constructive manner.

A ii) I have a relatively extreme personality, which means that my strengths and weaknesses are often found in the same attribute. For example, I am a perfectionist, which ensures that I do my best to complete a project exactly as it is described, and that I will work tirelessly to see the completion of a project. However, as a perfectionist, I also occasionally have problems determining when a project is complete, because I am not satisfied with anything less than perfection and every project has some area for improvement. My perfectionism can lead to problems with delegation. First, as a perfectionist, I could also be described as slightly controlling, because I am never certain that other people will be able to work up to my standards. In addition, I sometimes have difficulties selecting the appropriate person for delegation because I allow my general impression of a person to color my choices, rather than looking at what tasks would best suit specific individuals. Another of my strengths is that I am very loyal, but that can actually be a very big weakness in a business environment. My degree of loyalty is so high that I can have a problem identifying when someone that I admire has done something wrong. As a result, I have found myself defending subordinates to people above me, even taking the blame for intentional mistakes. On the other hand, if I have not established a loyalty base with someone, I find that I am too quick to believe that they have erred. While I think it is important for a leader to be loyal to subordinates and authorities, I think that loyalty needs to be tempered with better judgment than I have shown. Finally, I think that my direct style of communication is an asset and a hindrance. When communicating facts and expectations, I think that my direct communication style allows me to get to the point. However, when I am called upon to deliver criticism, my direct communication style often leaves the impression that I am completely dissatisfied with a person's performance, rather than trying to enhance performance.

A iii) the main leadership competency that I need to develop to meet my upcoming challenges is to become more objective. Most of my weaknesses are centered on issues of judgment and judging, and when I try to abandon that stance, I end up being ineffective. Therefore, I need to learn how to objectively approach a problem. This should increase my ability to delegate, because it would permit me to allow tasks to dictate their own delegation. It should also increase my ability to provide constructive criticism, because it will help me see what someone has done correctly and how he could use his strengths to help correct for weaknesses, rather than focusing strictly on weaknesses. Finally, gaining objectivity would help me leave my personal feelings out of business decisions. I also need to work on overcoming my perfectionism, which should lead to a decrease in stress and an increase in productivity.

A iv) Outlines

I. Overcoming perfectionism

A. Conduct a cost-benefit analysis of how perfectionism impacts my life.

1. Benefits of perfectionism

2. Detriments of perfectionism

B. Examine my own perfectionist behavior trends

1. In a business setting

2. In an academic setting

3. In a personal setting

C. Actively attempt to alleviate perfectionist behavior

1. Determine a "good enough" point before beginning a project

2. Look for positives instead of negatives

3. Develop a social support system

II. Gaining objectivity

Examine my own inherent bias

Document

Try to understand the source of the bias

Develop behaviors to counter bias

Accept that I will never be completely objective, but endeavor to try to minimize the role of my bias in my leadership decisions.

Part Two: Reflective Learning Summary

This reflection helped me become aware that my greatest weaknesses can be found in the very traits that I have always considered my greatest strengths. I have always prided myself on my perfectionist tendencies, and have even felt like people who complained about me being a perfectionist were simply lazy and unable to work up to the standards that I set. Because I always set higher standards for myself than I set for others, I did not believe that my standards were unreasonable. Even while writing this, I have a difficult time describing my perfectionist standards as unreasonable, because it seems so logical that if something needs to be done, it should be done to the best of one's ability.

However, I do know that my perfectionism has caused me problems in the past. For example, because I am a perfectionist, I have a very hard time beginning any type of project unless I have a very high likelihood of success. Therefore, I have avoided trying to learn about new things, restricting myself to the areas where I know I am competent. The fear of making a mistake has also occasionally kept me from completing unavoidable difficult assignments, because it was preferable for me to fail because I did not make an attempt than to make an effort and still fail.