2.3 Assignment: Journal – Traits, Behaviors, and Interests

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Journal – Traits, Behaviors, and Interests

1.      Traits

The Five Factor Personality Measure (International Personality Item Pool) score for extraversion, agreeableness, conscientiousness, emotional stability, and openness was 31, 45, 42, 35, and 38, respectively. This shows that I value getting along with other people and I have an optimistic view of life. I am also self-disciplined and I act dutifully. I emphasize my focus on duties and colleagues by helping them when in need. As such, I possess attributes that can make me successful as a leader. However, my score is low on extraversion and emotional stability, indicating traits I need to improve.

Impact on Leadership Emergence

The high score on conscientiousness, agreeableness, openness, and extraversion predict my leadership emergence. This indicates that I can gain support and acceptance by other organizational members due to my involvement in tasks, initiating new ideas, and seeking the opinion of others in the workplace (Hassan et al., 2016). As such, using these traits, I can attain a leadership role or have others perceive me as a leader. With agreeableness, people in my organization can perceive me as a leader based on my tendency to follow schedules, attention to detail, as well as being organized and hardworking.

Greatest Strength as a Leader

Based on my traits, I think being sociable, trustworthy, and conscientious dictates my greatest strength as a leader. I am emphatic and open to dissenting ideas, which drives my emotional and rational intelligence. As a leader, I believe that I must be sensitive to the emotions of others and I must continue to learn new ways of doing my job because the corporate world is constantly changing. An instance that illustrates this strength involved a team member who was having problems using a new accounting software our organization had adopted to organize financial data and prevent fraud. I listened to her, understood where the problem lay, and showed her how to operate the software. One trait that holds me back as a leader is being overly conservative. This has made me miss shots at becoming the leader I desire in my workplace. I need to take advantage of all leadership opportunities that arise in the organization to ensure that I climb the career ladder faster.

2.      Behaviors

Leader Behavior Questionnaire

The score for the Leadership Behavior Questionnaire indicates that I am more people-oriented than task-oriented at 44 and 42 points, respectively. However, the score range high on all types of behavior, showing that I make subordinates feel comfortable with themselves in addition to being task directed toward others when I lead them in work projects. As a leader, I tend to provide direction to my team while embracing a two-way communication and socioemotional support to ensure that members of the team accept my decisions.

Situations Involving Task/Relationship Preference

I have worked with interns who could not close sales deals. When I see that a new salesperson unmotivated and struggling to close deals, I try as much as possible to coach them on how to approach clients, build rapport, and get the sale. I also encourage them to not give up or take the first experience as who they are. I use rewards to motivate them and avoid enforcing a strict sale quota. I try to cultivate potential in every salesperson since I understand that if they passed the interview to join our organization, then they have the potential to become great at what they do. This indicates how relationship-oriented I am in the workplace.

Varying Task/Relationship Behavior

From the Leadership Behavior Questionnaire score, I believe I can easily vary my task and leadership behaviors. I think any leader must move their behavior between relationship and task depending on the team they are working with and the situation. I demonstrate task-oriented leadership by giving directions and instructions to my team to get the job done quickly, keep control, or hit a target while when listening to their concerns, coaching, or mentoring them, I utilize the relationship-oriented behavior to spur full potential in team members (Northouse, 2021).

3.      Motivation to Lead

Motivation to Lead Inventory

The Leadership Preference Scale score on my Motivation to Lead shows that I have a 3.33, 4.22, and 4.33 score on affective identity, non-calculative, and social-normative motivation to lead, respectively. My strength is that I am not worried about any costs or benefits for assuming leadership and I will, therefore, step in when needed to offer leadership. I do not expect to get rewards to lead others since I lead out of a sense of duty and obligation. I believe the results fit my motivation to lead as influenced by my passion, competence, ambition, and confidence to lead. I like to take charge even without being asked to ensure that my team delivers on the set goals.

Difference in Motivation to Lead Scores

I am certain that my Motivation to Lead scores may have been different at different points in my life, and will continue to change as time goes by. I believe I am a better version of myself as a leader compared to what I was a decade ago or in the past. I credit the change to the experience I continue to get in leadership as I get to handle more leadership-oriented roles. The performance feedback I get from my followers will continue to shape my Motivation to Lead scores as I continue to learn and challenge myself (Joo et al, 2018). I think the more I get to handle difficult situations in leadership, the more my confidence and Motivation to Lead score will improve.

4.      Commitment to Action

Leveraging Strong Traits

One of the traits from the Mini IPIP that I would like to leverage is openness since it is crucial in building strong connections with other people in my team. With stronger connections comes improved engagement and commitment to attain the set goals and objectives (Kalish, & Luria, 2021). I will leverage this trait by getting more social and instituting an open-door policy where others can easily approach me and build trust and confidence in my followers. I need to utilize openness to build confidence in my leadership abilities to help inspire others, gain control over emotions, especially in stressful and challenging situations. The confidence I gain from leveraging openness will be crucial in advancing my leadership capabilities.

Leveraging People-Oriented Behaviors in Future

The Leadership Behavior Questionnaire indicated that I am strong on people-oriented behaviors. To leverage on such strength, I will continue making values-based decisions to motivate the members of my teams to achieve the set goals for every project. I will offer support to my team members to improve their productivity, engagement, and advancement (Northouse, 2021). I need to listen more to their concerns to guide and energize them to be more innovative, efficient, and effective. When a team member is facing problems completing a task, I need to take the initiative to encourage them, guide their steps, and inspire them to get better at performing the task.

References

Hassan, H., Asad, S., & Hoshino, Y. (2016). Determinants of leadership style in big five personality dimensions. Universal Journal of Management, 4(4), 161-179.

Joo, M. K., Yu, G. C., & Atwater, L. (2018). Formal leadership mentoring and motivation to lead in South Korea. Journal of Vocational Behavior, 107, 310-326.

Kalish, Y., & Luria, G. (2021). Traits and time in leadership emergence: A longitudinal study. The Leadership Quarterly, 32(2), 101443.

Northouse, P. G. (2021). Leadership: Theory and practice (9th ed.). Sage Publications.