Leadership Factors

Leadership Factors

Introduction

Most people pursuing Business Studies and Management are en route to becoming future authentic leaders. The Authentic Leadership Self-Assessment Questionnaire tests various aspects of leadership factors or capabilities, giving us an overall judgment as to where we stand as leaders of tomorrow. The four factors are thus: Self-Awareness, Relational transparency, Internalized Moral Perspective and Balanced Processing. By completing this questionnaire, I was able to obtain useful data that illustrates my strengths and weaknesses. This paper will explain my scores, as well as commenting on my perceived accuracy of these scores, to what extent do my scores reflect that I will be an effective leader and list examples to elaborate on my ideas of leadership.

Discussion

Assessment

Self-Awareness can be defined as acknowledging your limitations and “owning up to mistakes” (Musselwhite, 2007). My score on self-awareness is 16, falling in the upper range. This concludes that I am among those people who are honest with themselves. A leader is a role-model, thus being honest and displaying moments of weakness are only human and natural. This acts as a bridge between subordinates and the leader. If employees can relate to the leader, they are able to identify with him or her and the work environment becomes less tense, encouraging openness and friendly ties on a personal level. This avoids unnecessary tension at work and the problems that arise if one conceals their mistakes or refuses to recognize their limitations and flaws.

An organization is able to reap the benefits off such a leader to a greater extent. The self-aware leader acts as a role-model, advocating that it is impossible to know everything. Thus, admitting mistakes and asking for help is normal, even healthy. These kinds of value reinforce teamwork, a friendly atmosphere based on mutual benefit, etc. It facilitates innovation, manifests in agility and time-management as well as teaching people to play on their strengths, maximizing product generation. These are defined by Musselwhite as the “hallmarks of high-performing organizations” (Musselwhite, 2007).

Internalized Moral Perspective refers to those values that have been internalized in the leader through the process of socialization. My score on the internalized moral perspective aspect is 16, thus falling in the upper range. Internalized moral values may vary from person to person, but in the general social construct or framework, a dictator like figure or an arbitrary leader will be defined as someone lacking moral perspective. An authentic leader's internalized personal values and perspectives are illustrated in his or her integrated set of goals for the organization. For instance, specific goals such as increasing productivity will reflect the leader's internalized personal values (Burke & Cooper, 2006).

Relational Transparency refers to the openness within an organization which facilitates and maintains the flow of conversation, ideas and feedback. An authentic leader is able to gain followers and create an open, innovative and comfortable work environment by virtue of relational transparency. All this is made possible through the psychological contract (Rousseau, 1995) created by the leader. My score on relational transparency is 14, thus falling in the ...