Leadership Through Personal Power

Personal Power

Identify your greatest areas of personal power.

My greatest areas of personal power lie primarily in my ability to elicit the collaboration of others. This skill is particularly important in building both a rapport and a consensus with workers. Being able to relate and understand the needs of the individuals in which you manage is the cornerstone of personal power. In addition, my ability to clearly communicate why particular action is needed is a personal power strength. In regards to both leadership, and personal power, communications skills are integral to success. The ability to articulate a clear vision, the direction that will be needed to accomplish the vision, and how each individual member can help accomplish the goal, all facilitate personal power.

Organizations are now becoming more global in their overall scope of business operations. As such, leaders who exhibit strong personal power must apply it to an organization with different cultures, backgrounds, abilities. The application of personal power to varying cultural backgrounds is also strength of mine. Due in part to the overall diversity embedded in large multinational organization, conflicts will ultimately occur. Through my experience with multiple backgrounds, I believe I can resolve organizational conflicts quickly, through consensus building.

Identify one area of personal power that you can strengthen.

I believe, the ability to accept and receive feedback is my greatest opportunity as it relates to personal power. Although feedback is part of the communications channel, which was mentioned as a strength above; this particular component of the channel, I struggle with. In particular, my ability to accept and act on critical feedback regarding my performance is an opportunity. To a certain extent, I succumb to avoidance. As the notes indicate, avoidance is a poor choice if a situation demands action. Feedback often demand action in regards to changes both internally and externally. The ability to respond to feedback through avoidance ultimately undermines the entire process. As such, my weakness is to properly accept feedback, and subsequently, make the needed changes for improvement.

Create at least three specific strategies you could use to strengthen your personal power in the area you selected.

1) The first strategy I will use to strengthen my ability to receive criticism is illicit the opinions of my direct supervisor on a quarterly basis. The ability to set specific time aside for a personal evaluation will be critical to my ability to better receive feedback. Also, by involving my supervisor, I will be held accountable, for the subsequent changes that may need to take place.

2) The second strategy I will use to strengthen my ability to circumvent avoidance is to take immediate action will proper feedback is provided. Actions, that are easy to implement, should be done so immediately. Through this strategy, I can avoid the tendency of allowing time to dispell any benefits that can be derived through a proper feedback channel. In addition, this strategy will also allow me to take action, when it is appropriate to do so, rather than waiting until it is too late.