Leadership is one of the most integral elements in an organization, and many successful leaders, such as Tim Cook, have been able to bring success to the companies that they have been leading because of several factors that other leaders do not know (Gayan, 2020). The self-assessment test has been designed to help the upcoming leaders or any other student aiming to work in a managerial-level job dealing with leadership, such as Human Resources. Thanks to this test, there are several ideas and aspects of leadership that I did not know in the past. Understanding what leadership is and what makes a leader successful needs time, but the self-assessment test has made it simpler by pointing out a person’s weaknesses and strengths. This majorly helps an individual understand the areas that need improvement and already established areas. In the self-assessment test, there are scores of some factors that are associated with leadership, such as Work quality, teamwork, productivity, personal stability, communication, and self-management. To be an eligible leader, you must at least score more than half of the scores assigned to this factor. These seven factors will be discussed in this paper to test whether I personally, as a future leader, have what it takes to be a leader.
The best part about this test is that it is very educative and informative. There are many things that a person who has not taken yet to take will miss out on. Firstly, the test,t using the score,s tells a person how strong their personality and traits such as teamwork, work quality, productivity, and self-management do he has. The overall score from the test was 73 out of 100. This is a good score because there are areas in which I exhibit strong scores, such as productivity and self-management. I only showcase weaknesses in work quality, teamwork, and personal stability. On many occasions, as leaders or upcoming leaders, we possess some characteristics, but we need to know, and it is tough to know what character you have as a leader if you are not trained and mentored by other leaders. However, with this test, you can easily use the scores to know what you are good at and where you are poor at as a leader and start working on it. In short, the distinguished seven aspects and their scores on the test have acted as an educative factor for many leaders, and the test effortlessly reveals a person’s hidden characteristics.
Next, it is exciting that despite showing a person his score from the seven characters, the te has also provided additional information and explanation concerning the aspect. For example, the test clearly explains what teamwork is and why it is essential for any leader. This is essential information as some leaders are forced to undergo training and look for information from elsewhere to understand these factors. However, the test has been clear enough about these aspects, offering examples of how to apply them using leaders who have successfully used them.
To prove how practical this test has been and how it has revealed significant information concerning leadership and what it takes to become a good leader, it has helped me understand the weaknesses and strengths of my leadership style. Using the information that the test has offered scores, I have understood my strengths and weaknesses, especially with the leadership style I have used as a leader.
My preferred leadership style is democratic. Leaders tend to be successful because of many factors that surround them, such as employees, stakeholders, and even customers. However, another essential factor makes a leader successful, and that is none other than the leadership style that the leader uses. There are different leadership styles, such as charismatic leadership, autocratic leadership, bureaucratic leadership, and transformational leadership, that have been used by many successful leaders (Casimir, 2018). Leaders such as Tim Cook have been successful and famous because of the democratic leadership style that he used. Democratic leadership style, despite being effective, has some strengths and weaknesses that a leader must understand first.
Increased level of employee productivity: Democratic leadership encourages employee engagement as it supports shared leadership where ideas and opinions are shared. The employee engagement promoted by democratic leadership promotes employees’ morale and performance; hence, their level of productivity is improved (Meydita et al., 2021). Employees become happier when they know their opinions and ideas are valued during decision-making.
Fosters creativity and innovation: Innovation and creativity in an organization are highly promoted when there is collaboration. The rate at which fresh ideas are generated in a team is high when there is mutual respect and a high level of collaboration which in many circumstances is brought by democratic leadership (Rifaldi et al., 2019). Therefore, team members are inspired to work together because of the democratic leadership style to generate creative ideas that help the company generate high-quality products and services.
Vital team building factor: In a democratic leadership style, there is collaboration and sharing of ideas. The more the employees work closely and spend time together generating and sharing ideas, the more they make a strong team. This will help team members understand what teamwork is and its importance to the organization because, in a democratic leadership style, there is no favoritism; choices are made based on the perfect idea.
High level of job satisfaction: Democratic leadership style lets the floor open for any organization staff with an idea to share. Since every member of the organization is being given an ear and their opinion is being valued, there is an increase in job satisfaction and a high level of job performance in the organization (Gayan, 2020). Employees’ morale is boosted when their employees hear them, which helps them contribute positively to the organization.
The decision-making process is slower: In the democratic leadership style, there is a slower decision-making process than in other leadership styles. This is because, in this leadership style, input is needed from many people, and input is needed from many. Therefore, making decisions takes longer than expected, and the work rate slows the company’s project workflow.
It is not applicable in a crisis. However, this leadership style provides more substantial decisions; during a crisis, it needs to be more compelling due to a slow decision-making process that slows the organization’s workflow. During a crisis, there is no time for a leader to hear the opinion of each member of the organization, which makes it difficult for a leader to decide during a crisis without the help of the team, members, or other workers (Rifaldi et al., 2019). Leaders using this leadership style might feel less confident in the decision-making process, especially during a crisis, because they are not used to instant decision-making; during the crisis, there needs to be more time for consultation.
Other members might feel out: Although members of a team or employees offer numerous ideas and opinions, only some of these ideas will be selected except one. Therefore, many employees might feel left out because their ideas and opinions are not valued, creating division among employees. It is not about the number of opinions in democratic leadership; it is about the correct opinion and idea presented, which might make other company employees feel unvalued in the decision-making process.
Minimal Expertise: Although the role of a democratic leader is to make the final decision, the employees who provide opinions and ideas during decision-making might not be experienced enough. Therefore, the leader is given many ideas, but it is their right to pick one of the numerous opinions to decide (Rifaldi et al., 2019). By doing this, the leader may choose the wrong opinion in decision-making processes that might not solve the problem at hand.
I have used this leadership style in my past career occupation, and I was aware of some of its strengths but not weaknesses. I have come to understand that to effectively use this leadership style, you, as a leader, must devise a way to handle these weaknesses. For example, the weakness of employees feeling less valued when the leader chooses other ideas offered by employees. In such a scenario, the democratic leader should briefly explain why she or he has chosen that opinion so that the rest of the team members do not feel less valued. After discovering the weaknesses associated with this leadership style, I am confident that I will improve on the weaknesses affecting my career as a leader.
As mentioned, the democratic leadership style has some robust strengths that many leaders find helpful in their organization. I have been one of the people who have successfully used the strengths of the democratic leadership style to achieve numerous goals in the past.
Team building is brought about by collaboration. This is one of the weaknesses that has helped me succeed in my past career paths. For a project to be successful, first, a leader must have a strong team, and to do this, a leader must embrace collaboration and the sharing of ideas in the team (Gayan, 2020). This strength once helped me in a new product launching process where, for the company to make the product accessible and penetrate the market, teamwork and close collaboration were supposed to be there. Democratic leadership’s team-building and collaboration strength enabled me to create a team that helped the organization spread the idea and convince customers to buy the newly launched product.
Creativity and innovation, which are other strengths associated with democratic leadership, also helped me design the new product before the launch was done. The floor was open for members to offer their opinions concerning the new product, whether it is ready to be launched in the market and will satisfy the customer’s needs or if it should undergo further improvement to be more suitable. The feedback from employees was positive, and with collaboration, idea-sharing, and teamwork working, the level of innovation and creativity was improved.
Although the strengths associated with democratic leadership have made me succeed in the past, there are a few weaknesses associated with this leadership that I found challenging to deal with that made success hard to achieve.
Not being able to apply the leadership style in a crisis: I could not decide instantly when the excellent being designed failed to bring the expected revenue, and I was at a crossroads on whether to withdraw the product from the market or let it. I found it hard, and it took six weeks before the right decision was suggested. At that time, the company’s close competitors had already taken hold of significant customers and suppliers.
Looking for a mentor: Several people have successfully used this leadership style, such as Tim Cook, whom I might look forward to as my mentor, to follow the steps and paths that he used to be successful. Mentors help upcoming leaders such as us know if we are on the right track. For example, Tim Cook was initially criticized for using this leadership style but adjusted it with time. This mentality will help me grow and learn.
Attend seminars: Numerous seminars are held by leaders who have successfully worked as and used various leadership styles. The seminars that will empower other upcoming leaders who admire using this leadership style will be beneficial to me. This seminar will teach me a few tricks that I can apply in my leadership journey to make me a better leader and to understand better ways to minimize my weaknesses
. According to the test, I am Poor at teamwork. This is one of my weaknesses, and to improve on it, I should closely understand my team’s expectations, desires, and what motivates them. I cannot work with my team members because I need experience and expertise. Therefore, I will train to work with a team to become perfect.
Becoming more organized at work: I have a weakness of [poor work quality and the perfect way to improve on this weakness is to organize my work correctly to avoid issues such as destruction. I will develop a timeline and work plan to help me prioritize the most critical tasks and remind myself of the other less important tasks.
People use different ways to communicate with their workmates or partners. However, while pursuing careers that are associated with leadership, there are ways that a person should apply while communicating. These are the ways that work best for me while communicating with others.
Being honest and transparent
Honesty and transparency are two things that are very important in workplaces, especially as a leader (Oakes, 2017). A leader must be honest and transparent and not withhold any information. This is the best way I apply while communicating with colleagues in the workplace because it helps me get their honest opinions and feedback concerning an issue. By being honest and transparent, the level of trust between a leader and employees improves, and the connection between the two parties strengthens.
Watching my tone and body language while communicating
Body language is one of the crucial factors during communication. Body language talks more than words (Keyton et al., 2013). Therefore, to communicate effectively, I watch my body language and tone while speaking, not to say what does not match words. My tone needs to be accompanied by the words that come from my mouth. I tend to be polite and avoid my tone sounding harsh while talking.
My democratic leadership style is associated with managerial or leadership-level careers such as human resource management and action management. Managerial leadership styles usually work best with a career that supports collaboration and teamwork because of connected decision-making and sharing of ideas. Being in the human resource management department, there is a level of collaboration that is n, especially in process submissions and interviews. In the interview panel of other staff in the department before hiring a particular candidate, the opinions of these other employees are highly needed to see if the candidate is fit for the position.
However, if I were to consider changing my career path, I would go for sales manager, another managerial-level job that embraces teamwork and sharing ideas. In the marketing department, sharing ideas is also needed, especially when the best marketing and advertisement channels are being figured out. The floor will be open for employees to speak their minds concerning different marketing channels that will be suggested and the best selected after the team’s critical analysis.
As mentioned earlier, I proclaim a democratic leadership style because it works with my leadership characteristics. This leadership style needs a person with certain unique characteristics, such as high creativity and intelligence.SA leader who chooses to apply a democratic leadership style must be intelligent and creative at the same time to scrutinize the opinions of the team members and come up with the best final solution to the problem at hand. The leaders using this style should also practice fairness and avoid making other company members feel less valued. For example, when an opinion is given, a leader must find a way to explain after choosing the opinion of one of the employees to avoid division in the organization.
In my career, I have always used democratic leadership, which has turned out to be our favorite leadership style because of the achievement it has brought me. However, I would like to attend further training to find out other available and effective ways that I can use to improve on the weaknesses that are associated with this leadership style. I will find ways to enroll in a training course in democratic leadership that will enable me to learn a few things that I still do not know about the democratic leadership style. In addition, I will associate myself with other successful leaders who have experience using this leadership style to ask them a few questions about how to improve further.
Undeniably, my self-awareness level has been dramatically improved compared to before taking the test. There are numerous things about my leadership skills that I did not know. I have learned my weaknesses and strengths. It is hard to know what you are good at as a leader, and I am thankful for this test, as it has revealed to me. In addition to that, the test has also given me an insight concerning the seven variables of leadership that the test was testing to find out if we had what it takes to be a leader.
To sum up, I realized what I am good at and the weaknesses I should work on. I plan to use these ideas while selecting the perfect careers that match my strengths. In the future, I will also use the democratic leadership traits that a leader should have to ensure I succeed in whatever career I choose. Setting career goals needs personal stability and a high level of productivity. These two factors that I have learned from the test will be important factors that will help me set my career objectives and plan my career plan.
Casimir, G. (2018). Combinative aspects of leadership style. The Leadership Quarterly, 12(3), 245–278. https://doi.org/10.1016/s1048-9843(01)00079-0
Gayan, G. (2020, November 21). Democratic Leadership: Its Advantages and Characteristics. Nurture an Engaged and Satisfied Workforce | Vantage Circle HR Blog. https://blog.vantagecircle.com/democratic-leadership/
Meydita, M., Puspitaningtyas, Z., & Murdiastuti, A. (2021). The Influence of Democratic Leadership and Individual Characteristics on Employee Productivity. Regional Dynamic: Journal of Policy and Business Science, 1(2), 76–85. https://doi.org/10.19184/rdjpbs.v1i2.22240
Oakes, T. (2017, October 7). 6 Tips On Communicating With Others. ELearning Industry; eLearning Industry. https://elearningindustry.com/communicating-with-others-6-tips
Rifaldi, R. B., Ramadhini, N., & Usman, O. (2019). Effect of Democratic Leadership Style, Work Environment, Cultural Organization, Motivation and Compensation on Employee Performance. SSRN Electronic Journal. https://doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.3311070
Keyton, J., Caputo, J. M., Ford, E. A., Fu, R., Leibowitz, S. A., Liu, T., Polasik, S. S., Ghosh, P., & Wu, C. (2013). Investigating Verbal Workplace Communication Behaviors. International Journal of Business Communication, 50(2), 152–169. https://doi.org/10.1177/0021943612474990