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Leadership Style Inventory Leadership Crises Have Been Essay

Leadership Style Inventory Leadership crises have been brewing since the past century. Evidently, the latest global economic lapses of financial markets raised a higher need for an effective leadership than it had been before. These crises led to a call for contemporary organizations to scrutinize or assess the leadership potential among their employees and new recruitments. Following the current changes in organizational rules and business games, as well as randomly emerging competitions, the most fundamental priority for businesses and/or organizations is to ascertain new leadership potentials, develop them, and find the most appropriate ways to grow them. This paper thereby recommends the need for developing authentic and visionary leaders by utilizing the "Leadership Style Inventory (LSI)" and matching the leadership results obtained, with distinguished job requirements. It further majors on the use of Kiersey Temperament Sorter and DiSC assessment as tools of evaluation, used in determining an individual's leadership competence and skills.

Kiersey Temperament Sorter (KTS) is a powerful "seventy-question" personality instrument that assists an individual to determine their personality type. The KIS draws its basis from the theory of Dr. David Kiersey, which has been useful to over 30 million individuals in gaining self-insight, as well as deep insight on surrounding individuals. Subsequently, this insight will be useful in career nourishment and work environmental scrutiny. On the other hand, the DiSC assessment denotes the dimensions based on a four-quadrant model that is reliable in describing four styles of human behaviors. These dimensions include dominance (D), influence (i), steadiness (S), and consciousness (C). Depending on an individual's traits, one may fall into one style, two styles, or three of the styles. This model reveals how much one's behavioral styles may be different from others (Alan, Kathleen, & Warren, 2003). In the DiSC style results, there is no dimension worse or better than another, and there are no wrong or right answers.

In order to be successful and effective in leadership positions, individuals must fit the demands of that position, with favorable leadership styles, qualities and requirements. Alan et. al. (2003) elicit that individuals, as well as organizations can use the leadership style inventory in identification of leadership styles hence matching employees with their relevant positions that drive both individual and organizational performance. Employers can then enroll employees with leadership potential to high ranks within leadership programs (Pernick, 2001). As a result, this will enhance their potential, develop their skills, and relocate them in relevant positions of authority. Additionally (Howell, Michael & Wong, 1993), an organization can develop authentic and visionary leaders at all levels through the use of LSI in gauging a dominant leadership pattern with respect to organizational positions. An authentic visionary leader is a leader whose leadership styles match the available positions and needs of their organization. According to Howell et al. (1993), leadership styles refer to the patterns of behavior used by individual leaders across the entire scope of leadership situations.

It is essential to ascertain that all leaders are differently driven by diverse influences. Before determining how to lead, an individual should explore what values one possesses and what one is all about. One can thereby utilize the Kiersey Temperament Sorter and the DiCS assessment model to explore the attributes, which affect leadership styles and develop a personal philosophy of leadership (Holder, 2009). Depending on the personal responses I provided during my DiCS assessment on environmental perception and the amount of control I have over the environment, my highest dimension is dominance (D). This dimension as I expected reveals that I am likely to have a high focus on shaping my environment by incapacitating any possible opposition in order to achieve the best results. Leaders or persons who are sound in dominance always take actions towards achieving their desired results (Pernick, 2001). For their advancement and personal accomplishments, they seek for opportunities and continuously aspire for authority and power positions. Their main objectives are typical control and successful results, with the freedom of making quick decisions appropriately and when necessary (Nahavandi, 2000). This thereby reveals my potential in leadership. If an individual is high in Dominance, problem solving and trouble-shooting issues can never intimidate them, even if it means to question the status quo. One will have no trouble in embracing a wide range of tasks and tackling an assortment of activities. Such individuals work best during occasional shock to their world of view, and when receiving challenging assignments.

Every individual has a set of strengths, which make them valuable and unique from other people. Acknowledgement...

Nonetheless, an excessive and inappropriate use of such strengths may call for unexpected weaknesses. In this context, the DiSC dimensions reveal my personal results as provided: (1) the Dominance (D) dimension elicits my traits as egocentric, direct, daring, domineering, and demanding. (2) Influence (i) dimension: trusting, influential, pleasant, sociable, generous, and poised. (3) Steadiness (S): fault-finding, change-oriented, active, frustrated by the status quo, and spontaneous. (4) Consciousness (C): firm, rigid, arbitrary, stubborn, obstinate, defiant, and rebellious.
Surprisingly, egocentrism, being direct, domineering, and demanding are some of my traits. These qualities motivate me to view myself as a competent and potential leader. By being egocentric, distracting events and heavy positions can never deter my focus and determination to accomplish my goals. This can extremely be useful in implementing organizational goals, vision, and mission statements hence making them reality for an organizational success. Additionally, by being domineering, I remain assured of being decisive and goal-oriented (Barner, 2000). Through valuing other people's opinions and acquiring comprehensive listening skills to their input, I am assured of benefiting bottom-lines of the working team, as well as the organization through its strategies. Provided I do not disregard other individuals' opinions or feelings, nor become overbearing, joint work with others towards a common deadline or goal is my strength, hence I have the capability to apply positive pressure on others in order to achieve desired outcomes. This is because of my demanding trait as revealed by the DiSC assessment results. Probably, by being direct, people will seldom second-guess what I say hence viewing myself as an inspiration to those who may be discreet in sharing their ideas and opinions freely.

According to Barner, (2000), skillful and competent leaders should always be influential, charming and sociable. This way, they have the ability to inspire others and move them into positive actions since they can mentor their work colleagues and/or act on their behalf when confronted with challenging situations. A leader is no one to shy away from lively interactions and should be present at the center of every activity, with plenty of ideas to share (Barner, 2000). The charming trait allows for combination of skills, emotional intelligence, and leadership abilities useful at capturing other people's attention and winning over them. These traits as I expected confirms my effectiveness and potential of being a competent leader. Initially, I had a self-evaluation, during which I predicted being influential, social, and charming. These are the exact traits as revealed by the DiSC assessment results, in the "i- Dimension." It thereby reveals my insights in leadership styles and preferences. As an effective leader (Goleman, 1998), I would prefer being change-oriented, active, and fault-finding. These denote being flexible to any possible change by avoiding pitfalls while employing skills, which keep one continuously look out for innovative solutions and novel ideas (Holder, 2009). As personality traits elicited from the DiSC assessment, I have the potential for uncovering errors and faults in the most positive way. Putting the above traits into action, hitting deadlines and completing projects can never be a trouble hence strength ineffective leadership (Goleman, 1998).

Unfortunately, a challenge arises with the high Dominance trait since people of high Dominance tend to identify themselves with a group in order to pace themselves for the highest quality of work. Warren (1999) reveals that caution employment and risk calculation are their primary undoing hence they have to surround themselves with individuals who have skills in these areas. Moreover, assessing the pros and cons of a given scenario is not in the nature of high Dominance people since they are prone to actions rather than deliberations. As an individual of high Dominance, who falls in this category, it is advisable for me to verbalize any reason for my conclusions whenever required. As one with a daring character, I do not mind performing things the same old way. Even though this personality trait may be inspirational to others who shy away from trying new things and taking chances, one should check an own bravado so as not to act in a more reckless way that could negatively impact on co-workers (Warren, 1999). A daring trait thereby comes in partially as a challenge to my leadership competence.

Moreover, being too much rigid, obstinate, stubborn, and rebellious are challenges to effective leadership (Warren, 1999). By shunning flexibility, a leader may create animosity with their subjects thereby missing opportunities for improvement of processes and performance. Warren (1999) elicits that when confronted with difficult situations,…

Sources used in this document:
references of cooperative extension faculty. Mexico: New Mexico StateUniversity.

Howell, R.E., Michael, J.A., & Wong, S.K. (1993). Leadership development in extension.

Journal of Extension, 31(1), 27-46.

Nahavandi, A. (2000).The art and science of leadership, 2nd Edition. Upper SaddleRiver, NJ:

Prentice Hall.
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