One of my leadership strengths is my ability to work with other people, listen to their ideas, and keep the group moving in a positive direction (1).
My highest Big 5 Personality Test scores were my openness to experience score, being a 3.90 out of 5.00, and my agreeableness score being a 3.89 out of 5.00. These scores back up my claimed leadership strengths because openness shows that I am willing to consider new ideas and different ways of doing things, while agreeableness shows that I am more likely to cooperate with others and try to understand their point of view (1a).
These strengths are also supported by my Emotional Intelligence Inventory results. I scored outside of 2 standard deviations from the average in self-awareness of emotions, other-awareness of emotions, and emotional intelligence. I also scored high in other-management of emotions and self-management of emotions. This means I’m pretty good at understanding how other people feel and reacting to other people, situations, or my own emotions the right way (1b). Because of that, I can get along with people, read the room, and help keep things positive in a group, which makes me more effective as a leader (1b).
My Leadership Effectiveness and Adaptability Description (LEAD) Survey results also back this up (1c). My highest-scored leadership style was the supporting leadership style (S3), with a score of 5 out of 7, which means as a leader I am available for group discussions, good at responding to the group’s approval or disapproval of organizational changes, and able to involve my group members in the decision-making process.
According to my Authentic Leadership Inventory, I scored a 4.62 out of 5.00 in balanced processing, which is considered high and means I am open to new ideas and good at remaining unbiased when considering other people’s perspectives and opinions (1d).
My Transformational Leadership Scale results show something similar. One of my highest scores was in "supportive leadership" with a score of 5.72 out of 6.00, which supports the idea that I am good at collaboration and open to new ideas (1e).
That being said, I definitely have areas I need to improve. I think the biggest thing I struggle with is staying consistent when I am stressed. When things get overwhelming, I can have a harder time controlling my emotions, adjusting how I lead, and explaining the bigger picture to other people (2). A lot of my lower scores connect back to that, so this is probably the main thing I need to improve as a leader.
My Big 5 Personality Test results support this because my neuroticism score was also one of my higher scores, while my conscientiousness score was lower (2a). A higher neuroticism score means I am more likely to feel stress strongly, and a lower conscientiousness score can make consistency, organization, and follow-through harder for me. This connects to my weakness because when I get stressed, I can become overwhelmed and less methodical. Because of that, I need to work on staying organized, slowing down, and keeping myself calm when I am under pressure (2a).
This connects to my Emotional Intelligence Inventory results as well. My lowest score was in controlling my own emotions (2b). This can make it harder to stay calm and react the right way when things get stressful. I notice that when I get overwhelmed, I struggle to think methodically and tend to have a hard time regulating my emotions. I need to work on this to be the best leader I can be.
My LEAD survey results also show that I tend to rely too much on one leadership style. I usually stick to a supporting approach, but my adaptability score is low, with a score of 18 out of 36, so I don’t always adjust how I lead depending on the situation (2c). That’s a weakness because good leaders need to be flexible and change their approach based on what their team actually needs.
My Authentic Leadership scores show something similar. I scored low in "relational transparency" with a score of 3.49 out of 5.00, which means I struggle with being fully open and honest with people about what I think (2d). That shows I need to get better at being more transparent and communicating what I actually believe.
Finally, my Transformational Leadership results show that I need to improve when it comes to having a clear vision and understanding the "big picture" of a group. This may be because I scored lower in the vision category with a score of 3.00 out of 6.00, which means I can struggle to clearly communicate long-term goals for the group (2e).