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- Expand on a colleague’s post by exploring the following questions: Can someone really transform a weakness into strength? In what situations might it be more important to focus on one’s strengths? Is it always important to try to address one’s weaknesses? Why or why not? What suggestions would you have if a person has not been able to overcome a particular weakness?
Effective leadership involves the identification of skills and behaviors that support meaningful performance. As such, it is necessary to develop an individual’s key competencies, to promote better leadership. To assist in the determination of my strength in the various skills, I utilized the leadership code self-assessment. The results indicated that my strongest competency is being an executor, while my closest weakest is personal proficiency.
According to Ulrich, Smallwood, and Sweetman (2008), my strength of being an executor translates to being a leader with the ability to get things completed. This means that I am good at coordinating and managing events and individuals, with a focused and prepared approach to my responsibilities. I agree with this assessment, as I utilize my knowledge and skills to ensure that operational goals are attained, through delegation duties and fostering effective teamwork. Being an executor allows for greater success in my role, as I am consistent with efforts to transform plans into reality. This competency has also positively impacted my ability to be a leader that is determined and results-driven. My followers are guided with orderly strategies of action, which propel the utilization of their skills to execute their duties effectively. As an achiever and arranger, I can lead with greater conviction, as there are clearly defined steps to success.
As the leader of my team, I am focused on achieving the objectives assigned to my unit. I arrange the different elements of plans to be completed while controlling the tasks and ensuring that each milestone is attained. Additionally, I am willing to accept responsibility for jobs that are not executed as required. Recently, while coordinating activities around a major construction project, one task was not completed as scheduled. While adequate preparation was performed, challenges created a delay in the completion. As an executor, I assumed accountability for this delay and ensured that efforts were organized to restore focus to resume the arranged plans.
The findings of my assessment outlined that my weakest competency is personal proficiency. Leaders who exhibit personal proficiency invest in themselves as learners, have sound character and integrity, and tolerate stress well (Ulrich et al., 2008). Thus a low grading in this area indicates a weakness in managing stress levels and failure to focus on improving oneself. To an extent, I agree with these findings; however, I am not in agreement with all elements and the consensus of the overall impact. A lack of high personal proficiency cultivates poor leadership as there is little drive to improve skillsets, which results in unclear thinking and directives to followers (Carter, Sullivan, Goldsmith, Ulrich, & Smallwood, 2013). While I identify with my limitations to tolerate stress, I would not agree that currently, my poor personal proficiency equates to questionable integrity and character. Additionally, by pursuing my MBA, I am seeking to improve my abilities and, thus, enhance my efforts towards my passion for making a positive impact.
A low degree of personal proficiency can have immense implications on a leader’s ability to attain effectiveness. Without investing efforts into personal development and social intelligence, a leader cannot effectively influence followers (Younger & Smallwood, 2016). It is, therefore, necessary to create a balance that incorporates personal development with professional execution. In my experience, this element of my abilities is broadly developed from knowing myself and others, and this is shaped by experiences in social settings. The limitation of being reserved has restricted the growth of my personal proficiency. As such, my antisocial and worrisome character negatively impacts my ability to successfully build some work relationships and navigate in large social situations.
During my first leadership role, I can recall the significance of poor personal proficiency and the implications that resulted from a lack of this competency. As an inexperienced supervisor, my advancement was hindered by negative emotions, which created a challenge in social gatherings. I was shy and reserved, which made it difficult to engage my team and to encourage effective teamwork. I lacked various skills, such as the ability to express my passion for helping others and meaningful communication in groups. Additionally, I had little desire to improve my skills and to focus on aspects of my leadership that needed improvement. During this time, self-management was questionable, and this hindered my growth and effectiveness as a leader.
