Leadership Self Reflection Paper

Leadership Self Reflection
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Abstract.
Leadership is an aspect of human life that needs self-reflection in order to attain the intended heights. Many areas of human life require leadership in varied degrees. Some areas require complex leadership especially areas involving many people; while others require simple leadership where one or a few people are in the leadership. whatever level of leadership, self-reflection is crucial for every single leader so that he /she can realize his/her strengths; and utilize them for better leadership and also, to realize his/her weaknesses and work on improving on them in a bid to improve his/her leadership. This paper analyses aspects of self-reflection in leadership.
Leadership personalities
It is crucial for leaders to be aware of leadership and personalities and traits. Although some of the leadership personalities and traits can be said to be natural (inborn), it would be crucial to strive to achieve them in case one does not naturally have them.
The leadership personalities and traits help a leader in his leadership such that he/she can interact well with the people he/ she leads.
Nanjundeswarasswamy & Swamy (2014) concur that; it is not enough for a leader to just know about leadership personalities and traits. Best leadership calls for the leader to apply the best personalities and traits in his/ her leadership. This helps the leader to avoid such pitfalls as over-leadership and under leadership. Over-leadership is whereby; the followers feel that the leader is doing too much such that he / she does not leave space for them to do their part. Under -leadership is whereby the followers feel that the leader is not giving enough guidance for them to follow.
Agreeableness: This is a personality trait which manifests itself through tendencies of a person to view others as being honest and trustworthy. It is a characteristic of a good leader whereby he/she views people on the positive affect side. This is a leadership trait that each leader must aspire to exercise. surgency is another personality trait which a leader should strive to portray. This trait is associated with the ability to portray positive emotions. In any organization, the likelihood of experiencing frustrations is very high. Mainly, they emanate from the subordinates, directed to the leader. This emanates from the fact that the subordinates are different people with different personalities. It is at such situations that a leader needs to portray the trait of surgency. The differences bring instability in adoption of issues. Thus, some followers will adapt to changes; while others will want to resist. This brings frustration to the leader and he/she must be able to tolerate them and come up viable solutions.
The leader should also portray the trait of adjustment. This is whereby a leader is capable of adapting to changes and shocks in life. When a leader does not show adaptiveness, the subordinates get scared and lose control.
In addressing such issues, a good leader should take care not to be rude to the subordinates. Application of proper leadership skills will go a long way in helping a leader to deal with such situations. For instance, communication skills can help to manage such a situation easily with a sense of emotional stability and not displaying rudeness.
de Vries, Bakker and Oostenveld (2010) point out that enthusiasm is another leadership trait which goes a long way in helping leaders to lead in proper manner. A leader must show enthusiasm in what he/she does and in what he guides the subordinates to do. If the leader does not show this characteristic, then, the followers will follow suit and they will not be enthusiastic in doing what the leader guides them to do. Thus, the leader should be bold in his/her endeavors so that the subordinates can have confidence in him/her.
Jogulu, (2010) suggests that a good leader should have conscientiousness. Such a leader should have a clear conscience such that he deals with the reality. This does not mean that a good leader should not have great visions; rather it means he/she should have visions that are realistic to attain and give them the required time to be attained. Thus, fantasizing cannot lead to good leadership. Conscientiousness also calls for reflection of the prevailing environment so that the leader understands what issues require addressing so that he/she addresses realistic matters.
A good leader should also portray some degrees of dominance. The leader should always be available whenever he is needed especially to give guidance to the subordinates. However, a leader should be careful not to be over-dominant such that he/she does not allow the subordinates time to work on their own. Jogulu, (2010) notes that; a leader should avoid too much supervision of the workers so that they can learn to work on their own. Thus, they will be able to work on their own even when he/she will be unavailable. Dominance as a characteristic of leadership does not in any way imply that there should be no delegation. Measured delegation is a factor of good leader...