Leadership Skills According to Lance Secretan during the Industry Week on 12 October 1998, "There is more to leadership than methods and techniques-it is more about having an open mind and a good heart. Leadership is all about inspiration -- of yourself and every other person. Effective leadership is concerned with human experiences, not human processes. Leadership is neither a program nor a formula, it is more of a human action that originates from the heart and puts other people's hearts and feelings into consideration. It is more of an attitude than a routine" (Secretan, 1998).

Every leader in the public safety sector requires a very strong guiding force -- you can either call it a moral purpose or a vision, but it should always act as a compass that chooses the appropriate path of all aspects of leadership whether managerial or instructional in nature. Such a leader also requires the skills outlined below:

Assessment: Ability to evaluate possible hazards that exists in the community and decide how best to avoid or eliminate risks. As a good leader, it is necessary for you to get other professionals involved to enable you assess both the vulnerabilities and the probability of a safety accident based on statistics (Eastern Kentucky University, n.d.).

In every profession, planning is a known major leadership skill, but it is even more significant when it comes to the realm of public safety. Every safety scenario discovered during the of risk evaluation, should be addressed using a set of plans, with emphasis on the most possible occurrences without removing distant possibilities.

Communication: You not only require the best communication skills to be able to be an effective team leader, you are also required to be able to share common boundaries with several city employees, vendors, third-party, as well as local citizens (Eastern Kentucky University, n.d.).

Training: In your line of duty, as a public safety team leader, your effectiveness in training and developing others will also be tested.

Execution: Smart leaders equally make sure that their plans are executable following the pattern of their designs by adopting a very rigorous testing procedure.

Responsiveness: The ability to respond promptly following an urgent notice calls for a special combination of experience, education, and instinct. Believing in yourself with all sincerity is also a major factor.

A more challenging acumen is having the ability to inspire confidence in other people.

Resilience: The seriousness of issues relating to public safety you deal with determines the extent to which your strength will be put to test.

Your plans and preparations could have reached the nth-level, yet disruptions, delays and possible surprising destructions will still arise during your efforts at recovery (Eastern Kentucky University, n.d.).

The insights I have garnered all through my lifetime and especially while I pursue my profession, have made me place importance on providing empowerment, encouragement and imbibing leadership skills in other people. All through my life, I have had several opportunities to play the role of a leader. I have been a democratic leader, as part of college groups that anchored classroom presentations, and also as a part of a large family.

These experiences have helped gain relevant leadership skills. Some of the leadership skills I acquired and improved on include:

1. Displaying flexibility and tolerance.

2. The ability to convey instructions to other people.

3. I have gained people's trust because of my insistence on integrity.

4. I can now address most types of challenges head on.

5. I have always dreamed of being in charge.

6. I can say with belief that I display steady fortitude and behavior.

7. The ability to have influence on others and gain their support.

8. I understand the functions of my organization quite well.

9. I strive to create an atmosphere for growth always.

10. I have gained technical know-how.

With my experiences, I have learned to look at things from a different perspective. I have come to realize that failing or losing is not enough reason for anyone to give up, you are still required to get back on your feet and get going. The major point is to learn from every one of your errors and mistakes and get more adequately prepared for the benefit of your team members. When you return next time, be physically and mentally prepared, and get ready to tackle the next challenge. When adults and youths fail to achieve anything in life, they naturally...

By paying attention to what my peers say, and by learning important lessons from my errors, I have come to overcome all my challenges. I have become a more democratic leader through this.
In the classroom where I was part of a school group that executed a number of projects, I do my best to motivate my team members to always speak up, and share ideas within the group and do some brainstorming to arrive at methods that will make the actualization of the team's goals easy. In such circumstances, I utilize my charismatic leadership skills to make sure I get things moving in the right direction. Most times, I would be the one providing solutions to problems and make sure workloads are divided fairly among all team members. I would gather the phone numbers of everyone in the group to enable me fix meetings where we bring every work we have done within a particular time together. I always see myself as a very outspoken individual, which explains why I always try to make sure I get the group engaged in an interaction and help everyone voice out their opinions and share their ideas.

One thing I have going for me is that my team members trust me. I am experienced enough and function effectively and that is instrumental for earning the trust and respect of members of my team.

One of the costliest mistakes any leader can make is to erroneously have the belief that the reason why his team members trust him is because he is the leader and nothing else. Trust does not come as one of the dividends of leadership, it is something you must earn, and this will often take some time. Every leader, including you, can only be trusted to the level of the leader's ability, consistency, commitment and integrity to lead well (Horsager, 2012).

However, I have on major weakness -- taking on too much at the same time. This can often stress out the people around me due to the unrealistic targets I set for them unintentionally and it can also lead to my not getting things done perfectly until the last minute. According to Michael Fullan, this is what could be referred to as a Pacesetting style of leadership and he went on to suggest that "Pacesetters are often expected to understand the difference between developing the ability and commitment to take care of very complex problems and participating in a change marathon" (Fullan, 2002). Another of my greatest weaknesses is the fact that I am not always as decisive as I would often love to be. I reside in an ancient suburb and love taking informed decisions with the input I gather from everyone. While this could be a good source of a very effective tool for building consensus, I observe how it slows down the process of decision-making.

I enjoy learning and seek both personal and professional help. I stand out when it comes to understanding challenges and getting details broken down to create room for more efficient solutions. I work quite well as a team member and by myself when the need arises. Habitually, taking the time to gain a good understanding of people around me helps me take informed decisions and I always work in a realistic and fair manner in all my dealings with others. I always smile, and maintain my optimism to ensure I am always rooted firmly to the ground. I am always organized and make sure my multi-tasking and management skills are as best as they could ever be. At the same time, I often get frustrated anytime I find others using unrealistic working methods or fail to see compromise as a possible option. While it is easy for me to develop perfect working skills with people around me, I find it hard to trust other people, and hardly display all my genuine emotions. I often search for structures more than necessary and can depend on procedures and rules heavily. Some of my ideas lack confidence at times, even when such ideas ought to be shared with others.

References

Eastern Kentucky University. (n.d.). Eight Skills of a Successful Public Safety Leader. Retrieved from http://safetymanagement.eku.edu/resources/articles/eight-skills-of-a-successful-public-safety-leader/

Fullan, M. (2002). Leading in a Culture of Change .Retrieved from http://www.csus.edu/indiv/j/jelinekd/edte%20227/fullanleadinginacultureofchange.pdf

Horsager, D. (2012, Oct). You Can't Be a Great Leader Without Trust. Here's How You Build It. Retrieved from http://www.forbes.com/sites/forbesleadershipforum/2012/10/24/you-cant-be-a-great-leader-without-trust-heres-how-you-build-it/#112803707a48

Secretan, L. (1998, October). Leading Thoughts. Retrieved from LeadershipNow: http://www.leadershipnow.com/leadershipquotes2.html