Essay on Leadership

ABSTRACT

Leadership is very difficult subject to evaluate when evaluating youself. There are many tools that can be used to evaluate leadership and I’ve had the fortunate experience to have mine evaluated in the past. Therefore, that makes me able to identify and assess my style a little easier than others. In the past my leadership was evaluated every six months through the Army’s command climate survey where your peers, subordinates and supervisors evaluate you. In this paper I have to evaluate my leadership myself and with a friend through the Transformational leader assessment. These are great tools to help you identify who you are as a leader and move forward in your future endeavors.

Am I a transformational, transactional or charismatic leader? Evaluating yourself can always prove to be a difficult task. I definitely wouldn’t want to give myself an evaluation based on just want I think of myself and my subordinates would think something else. While in the military I have been able to do self-reflections on my leadership style and areas I were better or areas I needed improvement because they consistently conducted command climate surveys. Leaders don’t get evaluated in the Army unless you’re in command. I had the wonderful experience of commanding for a total of 55 months when they only required 12. That in itself spoke magnitudes to my leadership abilities. However, I was still subjected to the command climate surveys.

I believe I can give myself a fair evaluation on my leadership based on my past evaluations. However, looking at the article “A Short Measure of Transformation Leadership” it breaks down your leadership for evaluation into seven different categories. These are Create a vision, staff development, supportive leadership, empowerment, innovative or lateral thinking, lead by example, and charismatic leadership. While evaluating myself and asking a friend of mine, Christen Dixon, who was as known me the entire 55 months I was in command are responses of my leadership were not very different.

My Responses Friends Responses

Create a Vision 3 3

Staff Development 5 3

Supportive Leadership 5 5

Empowerment 4 3

Innovative or Lateral Thinking 3 3

Lead by Example 5 5

Charismatic Leadership 4 3

Each category was rated on a scale of 1-5

The difference I do recognize now within my leadership today and my leadership on active duty as an officer is the fact we didn’t have room to be innovative. Our vision and mission