MGT601 Dynamic Leadership Report Sample

Your Task:

Your task in Assessment 1 Part B is to reflect on your own leadership journey up until now. This will include; your current role or position, how you influence others, how you lead, contribute to or react to organisational and cultural changes and your current level of self- awareness and self- confidence to lead others in your organisation and/or community. Assessment 2, which is due at the end of the subject, builds on the first assessment and asks you to prepare a plan for the next stage of your leadership journey. The assessments are integrated pieces of work and you should bear in mind the final assessment as you work on this assessment. All assessments need to be strongly based on the established theories and models of leadership to help you interpret and explain your leadership challenges.

Task Instructions

1. Working with Your Partner:

Partners will be allocated by your Learning Facilitator after you post your personal introduction on the “Welcome and Introductions” Discussion Forum. Partners will be allocated on the basis of maximum diversity of backgrounds to enrich your learning experience. Where possible, partners will be in similar time zones. More detailed guidelines for working with your partner are provided at the end of this section. While the assessment includes feedback from the interaction with your partner, each person is to submit his or her own, individual report.

More detailed guidelines for working with your partner are shown at the end of thisbrief.

2. Possible Structure:

A possible structure for your report isshown below. This is a suggestion only and is not mandatory. Other structures would be appropriate, provided they enable you to demonstrate your learning according to the rubric listed at the end of this brief.

1. The use of an “Executive Summary” as a précis or abstract of your report

2. A clear logic flow, using a “Contents” page and section headings, will help your readers to follow your thinking.

3. An “Introduction” to provide background and set the context for your report

4. An “Aim” clearly stating what you intend the report to deliver

5. The body of your report should address the following issues. The percentages in brackets indicate a suggested proportional length of each section.

• Who has recognised your leadership in the past? This is not about jobs you have held,this is about recognising the people you have influenced.

• Key “moments of truth” in your background to date. This should not be a chronology or a CV. It is a reflection on a small number of the most influential aspects or turning pointsin the establishment of your natural leadership behaviours. This is not to be fictional or invented – please reflect deeply on the nature of your interactions with others around you over time and consider the moments when you felt empowered or aligned with the moment.

• Summarise the results of two (2) other personality or leadership style inventories that you have completed, and your interpretation of the results. Are they basically aligned with the results from your Emotional Intelligence survey results? Identify and explain any variances you identify.

• Explain the process of giving and receiving constructive feedback with a peer, and the outcomes of that activity.

• The implications of the peer feedback and your reflection on its significance. It could include your preliminary thinking on how you might use these insights in future, which you can then expanded on in Assessment Task 2.

• Links to theory and conceptual frameworks discussed specifically in the topics in this subject that relate to your experiences and feedback. This is to happen throughout the report and be consistent with the topic areas of this subject. The important point is that you anchor your submission with appropriate models or theories that have been presented in this subject as a minimum.

Solution

Introduction

In any organisation, leadership plays a vital role.As a result, determining one's self–leadership style will aid in assessing gaps and developing current features. Many businesses have succeeded in recent years due to effective leadership, while others have failed as a result of a lack of leadership techniques in current practices(Northouse, 2013).It is also necessary to moderate leadership skills for both people and groups to achieve long-term success. As per MBA Assignment Experts, Many models, frameworks, and theories that aid in assessing self–leadership style have been recognised and developed. Through Genos' strengths and personality traits, this research tries to analyse the leadership style of myself and my partners.

Aims of the report

This report's main aim and motive are to evaluate my leadership experience through leadership challenges, feedback provided by colleagues and partners, improvements, and my current role. My leadership journey has been evidenced through the results of emotional tests, along with feedback from my colleagues and partners. 

Recognition of Leadership in Past

Udara SasicaWimalkanthaEthaligoda Vidana Gamage, my partner, is a young entrepreneur who assisted me in recognising my leadership characteristics. When I read through my partner's leadership, I can recall many occasions when I handled many situations on my own and achieved success.However, I was always eager to learn and interact with different teams to grasp better the various activities of the business that may be included in my job duties. The first leadership feedback was provided by Udara, who had noticed me on several occasions. The first is simple tasks like collecting responses or answer sheets from students, which is an indicator for leading. Then, after reading the Genos Emotional Intelligence test, Udara advised me to improve my traits for being an effective leader in prospects.

I take an active interest in organising co-curricular activities, which helped me acquire leadership traits. Earlier, I used to volunteer in many co-curricular activities; my tutor then placed me as a leader for managing one or two events that empowered me to exercise my responsibilities and lead the team. The third minor incident that empowered me as a leader is managing the place where I live. Currently, I live in rent with three more students, our owner does not manage us closely, and all of us are majorly college students. Hence, I took the responsibility of managing household chores, delegating tasks and budgeting. Since we are primarily students, our source of income and spending is limited; thus, budgeting and identifying present and future needs are essential. The decision of taking this responsibility was made through voting, where all my roommates voted for me to take the responsibility. Hence, there are many instances where family, friends and known people recognised my leadership. However, the gaps in my leadership were identified only through EQ tests. 

Key Moments of Truth

As I mentioned above,  there are many instances where my leadership traits were realised. I have always been keen to manage events from a younger age; hence volunteering in community services, college, or school events was very common and essential for me. After volunteering for many events, I started understanding gaps in others' leadership and felt I could have managed the particular school event much better. Since I volunteered in many school events, slowly, I started managing and leading small components independently. I clearly remember that during a dance event at my high school, I was the first independent volunteer for managing all the back-related work. Nobody had told me what to do, although I realised that I should manage students, their entry, exist, clearing the stage and other functions. This happened in many events, where I identified gaps and started managing functions independently.  

After which, my tutors gave me the responsibility of managing single events independently. The other instance where I felt empowered or aligned with the moment was when many issues arose in the apartment we live. We live as independent housemates, although I felt that we required a team leader under the guidance of which many more minor problems would be solved while also retaining independence. So I took leadership of my room where only three of us lived; I decided to collaborate with others, while I took independent decisions in some. After being a leader in my apartment or flat, others also suggested that I be a group leader for more than seven housemates. I have realised that natural leadership was first initiated by identifying gaps and being a leader for myself, and then other recognised my traits. 

The traits of my personality from different tests depicts that my leadership style would be aligned to transformational trait where I will focus on growing humans and thus leading to the overall growth of my organisation (Ruben & Gigliotti, 2019). The tests and traits of transformational leadership focus on a futuristic vision, through which I can lead the organisation to a high success and growth path Genos' strengths and personality traits result in summary.

In the Genos Emotional Intelligence tests, My results were more than others. I scored highest on positive influence and authenticity, where I scored 5.0 on the level of importance and 4. 7 to 4.9 on the demonstration. The Genos Emotional Intelligence test usually depicts a demonstration of emotional behaviour within the workplace. Thus, scoring on “more than others” empowered me that I can display emotional behaviour much better, which will help me to be a leader in the upcoming years. 

In addition to this, I conducted two more personality tests, of which the results were different from that of Genos EI. Finally, I chose Myer Briggs 16 personality tests, which took me 10 minutes. Myers Briggs Type Indicator Test is viral and is majorly used for helping students, patient to understand their personality or another person much better.

The Myer Brigg personality test has identified 16 personalities that can be used for building a career or even detecting hobbies. My Personality test referred me to be a teacher or protagonist of which the personality was called ENFJ. They are idealistic organisers and try to implement a vision for safeguarding humanity. The personalities under ENFJ are often considered catalysts for human growth as they are capable of understanding other people's capabilities. In contrast, they have the charisma of leading themselves and others. My personality is 63% extrovert, while 66% of my decisions will be intuition-based. My decision making comprises 28% thinking and 72% feeling, while judgment takes 72% of my structure.

I also took leadership tests by Mind Tools, where I scored 65, which depicts that I will be a good leader. The scoring has been divided into four sections that are 18- 34, 35- 52 and 53- 90 (this is the highest scoring which depicts good leadership). Each Question measures different personality traits like positive attitude, self–confidence, emotional intelligence; I scored pretty well in all the traits. 

There are differences in each test as they measure different components of the personality. Genos tests only Emotional Intelligence, focusing on self-awareness, emotional reasoning, awareness of others, authenticity, self-management and positive influence. Although, the leadership traits also included positive attitudes and emotional intelligence. In addition, the Myer Briggs personality test identifies personality into types, and hence the components are extrovert vs introvert, feeling vs thinking, perceiving vs judging, sensing vs intuition. It can be said Genos workplace and Mind Tools test had two things in common, while Myers Briggs tests different components of the personality. 

Feedback on Leadership

Constructive feedback was taken by exchanging Genos EI tests results. My partner Udara lacks some traits as the results indicate lower scores in awareness of others, self-awareness, emotional reasoning and positive influence. My partner lacks EI capabilities which might impact the leadership goals and performance in the future. Udara must indulge in continuous improvement practice and actively participate in many co-curricular activities, which will help to improve their empathy and understanding of others' feelings; it will also help to upgrade their personality. Udara and I engaged in Mock Interview practice where I asked several questions on leadership style, employee practice, conflict management and others. We graded each other's performance, and Udara scored a bit high. This indicates that Udara has many blind spots in their personality, which can be removed through personality tests like Big Five Personality tests, Johari Window and others. Udara provided me feedback that I have an extrovert personality, and sometimes I overthink about others which I should use for thinking about myself. He found a bit underconfident during the mock interview, although his answers were appropriate.

Feedback Significance and Implications

Providing and seeking feedback is essential as it helps to improve the blindspots. In the case of Udara, the blind spot was that he lacked awareness of others, and his emotional reasoning was low. In my case, my blind spot was that I emphasised feeling and thinking about others' welfare which undermined my personality, keeping me at a loss. Thus, in the future, it will help improve my practices and help the organisation reap opportunities and lead to growing success. Constructive feedback is critical at every phase, which will help to improve blindspots, thus giving us a reality check. 

Gain Insight Into Leadership Weaknesses and Strengths

In addition, Northouse(2013)opined that emotional intelligence is an essential trait of a leader. It helps regulate self emotions while also helping others to do the same, which further reduces the negative impact on the workplace. As per the theory of transformational leadership traits, the followers are guided through inspiration. Thus, enabling the followers for thinking beyond self-interests for detecting changes, creating long-term visionaries while the guidance is done through influencing, inspiring and executing changes (Wirba, 2017). Thus, by being Emotionally Intelligent, leaders can intrinsically motivate employees or followers. 

Considering leadership has been identified as the most significant force in the business, it is necessary to promote continuous improvement techniques. Reflecting on my leadership traits, I compared myself with the results of the Genos Emotional Test, Myers Brigg Test and Leadership tests by Mind Tools. As per the leadership tests of Mind Tools, I scored 7 out of 10 in self-confidence, Positive Attitude. I scored identical scores, while my scores were high in emotional intelligence, scoring 8 out of 10. Hence, I must improve my skills of empathy, effective communication and practisingactive listening skills for effective leadership. 

Understanding my leadership traits and importance in real- time, I also learned from module leactures that cultural competence is important part of effective leadership. Thus, understanding eacdifference  would help to manage conflicts, and influencing performance.  Thereby my leadership behaviour should be focused for understanding competencies amongst different cultures. The Myers Briggs type finder results evidenced that my personality favour human growth, hence I should use my strengths for understanding cultural differences while also learn practices for managing multi-cultural workforces (Plaister-Ten, 2017). Also, because, majority of the organization are becoming global, hence, it becomes important to active engage the workforces while also understanding their requirements to influence performance in the long run. The module taught us that Hofstede Six dimension is an appropriate tool and most popular to understand differences in Western countries and rest of the world (Livermore, 2015).

Conclusion

Furthermore, whether leadership is inborn or acquired has been disputed for years and decades, leading to the development of many strategies and tools for analysing leadership style and addressing the gaps and enhancing the strengths.As per the personality tests, I have good leadership traits, which owe to my participation in varied events in school, college and personal life. Although, I assume that I require more polishing due to real-time organisations' complexity and lack of ineffective leadership. I must enrol in courses, develop an action plan, and undertake various internship programs to improve my leadership qualities, recruitment potential, and sustenance within the business. 

References

Livermore, D. A. (2015). Leading with Cultural Intelligence: The Real Secret to Success. New York: AMACOM. https://lesa.on.worldcat.org/oclc/904698000 (Accessed 30 March 2022).

Northouse, P. G. (2013). Leadership: theory and practice (6th ed.). SAGE.https://lesa.on.worldcat.org/oclc/764593530 (Accessed 30 March 2022).

Plaister-Ten, J. (2017). Leading across cultures. Developing leaders for global organisations. Transpersonal Leadership Series: White Paper Four. http://pmconsulting.in/wp-content/uploads/2017/03/White-Paper-Leading-across-Cultures.pdf(Accessed 30 March 2022).

Ruben, B. D., & Gigliotti, R. A. (2019). Leadership, communication, and social influence: a theory of resonance, activation, and cultivation (Ser. Emerald points ser). Emerald Publishing Limited. https://lesa.on.worldcat.org/oclc/1117640869 (Accessed 30 March 2022).

Wirba, A. V. (2017). Leadership from an Islamic and western perspective. Chartridge Books Oxford.https://lesa.on.worldcat.org/oclc/978999775 (Accessed 30 March 2022).