Leadership Assessment

Leadership Assessment

I recently took the, “How to Find Out Your Style of Leadership assessment, developed by the University of Kent in the United Kingdom, (How to Find Out Your Style of Leadership, 2009). In this assessment, I was asked to answer situational questions based on my preferences in leading my team in my current leadership role. After submitting all of my answers and retrieving the results, I was slightly surprised to see the gap between my two preferred methods of leadership and my two least preferred methods of leadership. I fully expected to see higher scores in both Transformational and Participative leadership styles, and, at 45 points and 48 points scored on each of those styles, I find these to be my favorite and most comfortable means of leading others. After evaluating my results, I did not expect to see scores of 24 and 27 for Procedural and Authoritarian styles of Leadership. I found that this assessment helped me to identify where I was at in my overall growth as a leader, more than in just my strengths and weaknesses. In order to grow and become the leader I would like to be, I must use all of the information provided in the assessment to expand on my areas of weakness and master my strengths.

I would like to explore my preferred methods of Leadership, (Participative and Transformational,) by explaining first, my personal beliefs on what makes a good leader. I believe that a good leader inspires his or her team to perform well through personal interactions and by leading through example. Furthermore, I personally believe that a good leader allows their team members to make mistakes in order to learn from the mistakes and grow through that learning process. Lastly, I think that strong leaders recognize ...

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...y as their leader, to make sure that they are ready to perform the duties expected in those promotions as well prepared to lead others.

Taking the assessment from Kent University has reminded me that in order to grow into the leader I would like to be, I must continue to seek ways to develop my weaknesses or areas of leadership that I may not enjoy or feel comfortable with. I was not surprised by the results of the assessment taken, but I was definitely surprised at the rating gap between my preferred styles and the styles that I do not use as often. This assessment helped me immensely because; it showed me that, as a leader, I may have become stagnant in pushing myself to explore areas to grow in. As I continue to grow as a leader, my team will also grow in their own leadership development, and hopefully, one day, I can transition from their coach to their mentor.