A511.2.3.RB. Module 2 - Reflecting on Leadership Traits

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           According to Yukl (2015), the underlining attributes of a leader are personality, motives, values, and skills where the primary assumption was some individuals are natural leaders, endowed with leadership traits not possessed by other persons.  Trait approach reinforces that finding the right leader with a particular set of leadership traits is essential in having an effective leader.  Trait approach is also beneficial to a leader when analyzing or assessing his/her leadership traits i.e. strengths and weaknesses to either move up or move to other positions within the organization.  Trait assessment provides individuals a more clear illustration of who they are as a leader and how they fit into the organizational hierarchy (Northouse, 2015).
            As a leader, I would like to see myself developing in leadership traits that I may currently lack, and those are self-confidence, delegation, and communication.  Northouse (2015) defined self-confidence as the ability to be implicit in one's abilities and competencies including having a sense of self-assurance and self-esteem to make a difference.  There were some incidences where some of my projects were not going where I had envisioned, and my despondency was cognizable to my team.  As a team leader, I have the obligation and responsibility to stay calm and be confident, especially in times of failures.  I have to remind myself that my team takes their cues from me, and my team needs to know that together, as a team, we will find the resolution and rise from our failures.
            I have struggled to delegate tasks to members of my team which on many occasions has resulted in myself becoming burned-out.  I am very aware that it is essential to my success as well as my team’s success that I learn to trust my team, knowing that together we can accomplish our vision and goals and move to a higher level.  As a team leader, identifying my team members’ strengths is consequential.  Appropriately delegating tasks to the right team member will not only have a productivity impact on our department and gain my team members’ trust but also will free up my time to concentrate more on strategic functions.
Although I have an open door policy, my team members are aware that they can discuss with me any interoffice or personal issue, and they know that they can depend on me for anything.  Still, it has been a challenge honing my skills in the communication field.  I have joined groups like Toastmasters International to enhanced my public speaking skills, still, I feel that I am not very competent in relating my message to my team members.  As a team leader, it is of the utmost importance that I have the ability to succinctly and assuredly communicate the process and procedures for my team to accomplish tasks at hand. 
There was a time when a team member’s mistake caused a delay in a project completion and I did not handle it well.  Instead of encouraging her to stay calm, I handled the situation differently which caused her to feel inadequate.  From then on, I have encouraged the team members, reminding them that errors are inevitable, and together, we can find resolutions, fix the issues and find ways not to commit the same mistakes.  I have discovered that the team’s morale will always correlate to the team’s productivity, and as a leader, it is my responsibility to promote a culture of positivity.
            It is paramount that I consistently and continuously aspire to enhance and develop leadership traits such as vision, self-confidence, communication, delegate, integrity, determination, empathy, and sociability to gain the respect, trust, and increase my influence to members of my team that has the potential to be a successful leader.  Having a clear vision and purpose will enable me to make a difference not only in the workplace but the environment as a whole.  The ability to envision the prospective outcomes based on a team’s perspective will enable every team member to feel exhilarated about future possibilities. 
References:
Northouse, Peter (2015). Leadership: Theory and Practice (7th ed.). Los Angeles, CA: Sage
            Publishing
Yukl, Gary (2012), Leadership in the Organization (8th ed.). Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice
            Hall


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