Introduction
Democratic leadership style is a participative and consensus-based approach to decision-making in which the leader encourages input from all members of the team and makes decisions that reflect the group’s best interests. The democratic leadership style is often seen as more effective than other styles because it allows for creativity, collaboration, and buy-in from team members. It can, however, be slower to make decisions and can require more time and effort on the part of the leader. Democratic leaders have a deep understanding of complex issues and can thoughtfully consider all viewpoints before making a decision that best represents the interests of their constituents. Concerning this paper, my analysis tool is a mind tool, a self-assessment tool; under my weaknesses, the paper will also tackle the self-improvement strategies. Based on my mind tool, self-analysis tool, I am a democratic leader who can handle human resources amicably to produce better results.
Self-Analysis
Mind tool self-assessment is a process of evaluating someone’s skills and knowledge in a specific area. It can be used to identify strengths and weaknesses and help somebody plan their career, leadership skills, or education (Taherimashhadi & Ribas, 2018). The mind tool self-assessment considers several skills: problem-solving, information processing, analysis, creativity, decision making, stress management, and leadership skills. The mind tool self-assessment is an online quiz consisting of multiple-choice questions; after completing the questions, the system summarizes and presents the results. On taking the mind tool test, the result summary indicated my scores to be 24, which was considered to be falling under democratic leadership.
The democratic leadership score range was between twenty-one to twenty-seven. Between this score range, the results indicated that I am gentle to the people around me and ready to support talents and ensure that all voices are heard without any biases. It also shows that I would not give the best results when working together with those who believe in working under pressure and autocracy kind of leadership (Dyczkowska & Dyczkowski, 2018). Similarly, the result outlined that my team’s chances of achieving its goals may be too slow, but I will be the most loved and preferred leader all the time. The results again held that the slow progress could be a fact that I consider and give a chance to every team member to be heard, thus slowing the decision-making progress (Crosby, 2020). Among the four leadership styles: autocratic, democratic, free-reign, and paternalistic, democratic was rated the best leadership style. It is the best since it encourages brainstorming and a wide variety of ideas. As a result, new ideas and approaches to issue resolution might emerge. Additionally, democratic leadership promotes team member autonomy.
My Strength as a Democratic Leader
Firstly, my strength is that I am a great and powerful communicator. Communication involves informing the team members about their expected roles, mission, vision, and values (Dwiri & Okatan, 2021). This form of communication ensures that no team member fails due to lack of information; similarly, the communication should outline the consequences of breaching the communicated information. The reason to provide all this information adequately is to maintain fairness, and no team messes due to inadequate information or complaints that they were never informed of the severe repercussions of their actions.
Secondly, I have empathy, respect, and desire growth for every team member, thus reducing rebel rates from my team members (Estrada‐Ruiz & Sánchez‐Gutiérrez, 2021). My respect and empathy are grounded because I am only a leader, but most of the work is done by other team members, and again without them, I cannot achieve any success. For this reason, I respect and always want to involve them in every decision to get their ideas and show that I value them even though I make the final decision. My other strength is that I am a great problem solver; the secret to this third strength is allowing others to express their ideas (Alam et al., 2021). Some of the team members are wise and intelligent, and their viewpoints always help me make informed decisions. Based on this strength, I also like when other members share their problems and try helping them so that they can improve or grow.
My Weaknesses and Self-Improvement Strategies
My weaknesses as a democratic leader include my lack of experience in elected office and my inclination towards idealism over pragmatism. I am new to elected office, and I know that I have a lot to learn about the inner workings of my team and the best ways to get things done. I believe in working with others to find common ground, but I also know that sometimes it is necessary to stand up for the right, even if it is risky (Estrada‐Ruiz & Sánchez‐Gutiérrez, 2021). Regarding my self-improvement strategies, I am planning to engage the retired team leader (Mr. Desire), who was also a democratic leader. Sharing with him will provide a better briefing concerning my new office, enabling me to make an informed decision and not move with any proposed idea.
I will also attend the weekly democratic leadership training and mentorship programs conducted by experienced individuals on team management. My other weakness is tolerating people for a long time hoping that they will improve or change, and to some level, this has led to poor performance in my team. My self-improvement under this is learning to address by communicating the consequences of failing to meet individual goals set within teams (Al Khajeh, 2018). I will also set minimum performance standards through employees’ performance appraisal checklist; whoever goes below the set minimum will not be tolerated, and therefore, there will only be specific failing standards to be tolerated.
Conclusion
In conclusion, from the mind tool, it is clear that I am a democratic leader. Democratic leadership style is also known as participative leadership style; it is ranked the best among autocratic, free-reign leadership, and paternalistic leadership styles. Problem-solving, information processing, analysis, creativity, decision-making, stress management, and leadership abilities are all included in the self-assessment of the mind tool. Democratic leadership comes with several limitations, such as slow decision-making, but again beneficial in that it enables me to receive and weigh the best decision that can lead to team success. As a democratic leader, I am a good communicator who informs other team members of the roles and responsibilities bestowed on them, following my fairness virtue. My other strength is my better interactional skills and loyalty from my team members, following the respect and empathy I always have for them, and this has made my leadership smooth.
Conversely, my first weakness is a lack of experience to make a proper decision, thus mostly relying on the popular opinion from members, which to some level has led to low performance in my team. My self-improvement strategy is to share with initial democratic leaders such as Mr. John to brief me about the organization and decision-making skills. I am also planning to read leadership books as well as attend leadership training programs. My second weakness is tolerating failures for a long time, thus lowering the team performance; the self-improvement strategy entails coming up with a rating scale so that extremely low performers will be laid off immediately. On the other hand, employees’ appraisal system will be put in place for low average performance to indicate their relevant training areas.
References
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