Leadership is what some people value most of all. Different character traits allow people being leaders, whereas for those who lack these traits, being a leader can become torture. It is hard to present a universal definition of what leadership is because it has numerous facets and depends on different factors. “Leadership is generally seen as a force for coherence, as contributing to effective organizational action by eliminating contradictions and preventing confusions.” (March and Weil 3) Future leaders are supposed to know how to deal with complexities, how to remove inconsistencies, and how to set precise objectives to cope with. Leadership also involves “finding ways to minimize the problems of diversity through recruitment from a common background, experience, or education, or through the use of persuasion, bargaining, incentives, socialization, and inspiration to mold multiple talents and backgrounds into a common culture.” (March and Weil 3) Leadership is a social process “rooted in the values, skills, knowledge, and ways of thinking of both leaders and followers” (Gallos and Heifetz 1)
There exist some special tests and assessments which help to find out whether a person indeed has inborn leadership abilities or whether he or she does not possess traits necessary for becoming a leader. Such assessments as emotional intelligence tests, IPIP, and Myers-Briggs personality assessment define the level of a person’s self-confidence, extraversion, neuroticism, cheerfulness, ability to cooperate with others, orderliness, self-discipline, etc., as well as his/her type of personality which does or does not allow becoming a leader. I scored high at emotional intelligence tests, which makes me a confident, empathetic, convincing, and motivated person; IPIP helped me to find out my level of extraversion, agreeableness, conscientiousness, neuroticism, and openness to experience; Myers-Briggs personality assessment revealed that I belong to ENFJ and ENFP types; these assessments helped to reveal strong and weak traits of my character and my advantages and disadvantages as a future leader, team member, and employee.
Discussing my advantages as a leader, it would be fair to take into consideration the strong traits of my character. As Peter Drucker stated in his “Managing Oneself”, “Most people think they know what they are good at. They are usually wrong.”(Drucker 4); just like everybody else, I cannot know for sure which strong traits of character I possess. To find this out, I went through some assessments. Thus, the emotional intelligence test revealed that I am, first of all, a confident person. I scored 88%, which is the highest score; this means that I am full of confidence and determined to reach the goals I set for myself. Secondly, the tests showed that I am an empathetic person, which adds to my advantages as a leader because being empathetic means reading people and their emotions; this is an important character trait for it allows managing people with taking into account their emotional demands. Finally, my being convincing and motivated (81 and 78% correspondingly) is also my advantage, since this means that I can evoke trust in people and give them good pieces of advice which they are likely to follow. It seems to be an irreplaceable character trait for a leader. According to Drucker, “we need to know our strengths to know where we belong” (Drucker 4); I keep to an idea that my confidence and motivation (as revealed by the test) are my strengths and they make me a good leader, team member, and employee.
Judging by the results obtained from the Myers-Briggs personality assessment, I belong to ENFP and ENFJ types. This testifies to the fact that I possess all the necessary qualities for becoming a leader. Only 5 percent of the population belongs to this type; this seems to be enough since such people are quite influential and have a strong impact on others. ENFP’s like preciseness and congruence, they are communicative and able to solve different problems, especially if these problems deal with people. Since ENFP’s are often initiators for conferences and meetings, they can be called good leaders for their ability to get people together. ENFP’s are also good as team members because they are sympathetic, responsive, and attentive. As ENFJ, I can be defined as a person who is devoted to both work and relations. This is a strong trait for a leader because devotion to work will not let leave something half-done; devotion also involves responsibility for deeds and a serious attitude to even the most complicated tasks.
IPIP allowed me to find out the character traits which the other tests could have missed. IPIP helps to view the character traits from a slightly different perspective; the results obtained from the test help to discover deeper character traits than motivation and confidence, which, as a rule, lie on the surface. Therefore, IPIP revealed that my level of extraversion is average; this denotes that I am an enthusiastic person who often encourages other people to action. I believe this is a strong trait because leaders often have to organize people and encourage them to work. I scored average on “conscientiousness”, which, according to the test, points out my reliability and self-control. Conscientiousness is closely related to leadership because individuals possessing this trait “are more likely to have initiative and persist in the face of obstacles” (Furnham 576). I also scored average on neuroticism; this makes me a well-balanced person having regular human emotions. I can quickly recover from stress and cope with frustrating situations. My normal emotional reactivity allows me to be a leader who does not panic and easily finds a way out of any situation. Identifying my strengths allows me to plan my career. Drucker notes that “Successful careers are not planned. They develop when people are prepared for opportunities because they know their strengths…” (Drucker 12) The assessments mentioned above helped me define my strengths and prepared me for choosing my future career.
However, the assessments revealed some of my weak traits as well. It is important for a leader to know and to be able to admit his/her weaknesses because it gives a chance to fight with them. Thus, IPIP showed my low level of agreeableness and openness to experience. My low score on agreeableness means that I can be tough and critical of other people who often regard me as being uncompromising. Though this is considered to be my weak trait, I think it can be strong to some extent, especially if this is projected to a situation where I am a leader. Sometimes it is necessary to be tough with people who you manage because being too mild may result in people not paying attention to your suggestions and advises. I also scored low in openness to experience. This denotes that I am a practical and conservative person. Conservatism may become an obstacle for a leader who is supposed to be open to innovations and constant changes.
The assessments helped me to find out where I belong, which, according to Drucker, contributes to choosing the right career. Drucker also states that everyone who was able to define his/her strengths and values should know how to contribute “to what needs to be done.” (Drucker 13) I think that, as a leader, I can contribute greatly to the work of any organization because my confidence, motivation, and devotion let me go through difficulties easily and solve problems irrespective of their complexity. The character trait which differentiates me from others is empathy which in combination with adequate emotional reactivity allows me to feel the advice mood of people without getting much preoccupied with their problems; my confidence, motivation, and convincingness will make the performance of the personnel productive and well-organized helping the stuff become purposeful, committed, and confident in their leader.
In sum, after evaluating myself in terms of leadership, I concluded that I possess all the qualities necessary for a leader. I have gone through an emotional intelligence test which showed my strong traits, namely self-confidence, empathy, motivation, and convincingness. IPIP revealed both my strong and weak traits; I scored average in extraversion, conscientiousness, and neuroticism, which makes me an easy-going, reliable, and well-balanced person. My low score on agreeableness and openness to experience denotes that I can be uncompromising and conservative. Since my strong traits of character prevail over the weak ones, I can be considered a great leader who can bring a lot of positive innovations and contributions into a work of a company.
Works Cited
Drucker, Peter F. Classic Drucker: essential wisdom of Peter Drucker from the pages of Harvard Business Review. Harvard Business Press, 2006.
Furnham, Adrian. The psychology of behavior at work: the individual in the organization. Psychology Press, 2005.
Gallos, Joan V. and Heifetz, Ronald A. Business Leadership: A Jossey-Bass Reader. John Wiley and Sons, 2008.
March, James G. and Weil, Thierry. On Leadership: A Short Course. Blackwell Publishing, 2005.