Essay Sample on Self-Observation: Key to Leadership Improvement & Goal Attainment

Introduction

Self-observation in leadership is an essential tool that can be instrumental in continuous improvement and attainment of desired leadership skills. Self-assessment ensures that one can be able to assess their leadership profile to identify the strengths and the weaknesses and improving upon what is right in the attainment of the group goals while changing the harmful elements that are detrimental to one's leadership capabilities. This self-observation paper will look in particular different leadership characteristics and reflect on the opportunities and challenges that they represent in team leadership and team performance.

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Driver

A driver character is energetic and ambitious, which is primarily suitable for any team leader. A team leader should be able to take charge of an organization and drive ambition with energy and determinism. A driver character is a motivator who infects a team with desire and can be able to create the desired energy for the team to achieve the desired goals of the team. Despite the ambitious and energetic nature of a driver leader character, there is a downside in that the driver character is associated with an emotional appeal which if used well can help a leader to have empathy and use emotional intelligence when making decisions that can impact the team members. Besides, a driver character is associated with impatience and impulsivity, which can be detrimental for a leader due to lack of proper rationality in decision making for the team. Another key advantage of a driver character is the ability to challenge other members of the team, which can increase the overall team determinism. Emotional competency is a functional leadership element due to its ability to empower leaders to make emotionally intelligent decisions and assessment of the team members.

Explorer

The primary leadership character observed in the self-analysis is the explorer character, which is an extrovert in nature with a cheerful and gregarious. These character traits have a significant impact on how one communicates and engages other team members. Being an extrovert and cheerful increases one's ability to directly engage other team members and initiate conversations, which is a useful element of a leader. Being extrovert and cheerful makes it easy for a leader to be approachable, which is critical in leading a team. An extrovert leader is a team player who can relay information and motivate teams towards achieving the set team goals. Besides, an extrovert can sell their team goals to the team members better than an introvert, which significantly secures my position as a team leader. Lastly, as an extrovert working in teams is more beneficial and suited for an explorer leader qualities. The expressive nature of an explorer ensures that instructions to the team members are clear and prevents the tendencies for the confusion.

Innovator

An innovator leadership character is an instrumental nature required for a team leader in the healthcare dimension due to the ability to generate creative solutions when faced by challenges. In healthcare, providers are organized in teams, and a leader with an innovative and scientific approach to situations can be a good team leader by providing the members with insightful solutions. However, the innovator leader is independently minded, which can significantly impair the ability to make more team-oriented decisions or allow shared thoughts. A team can be disunited due to the leader decision to make independent decisions without consulting other team members. However, an innovator leadership profile stands out due to the ability of the leader to make more creative solutions for all the problems that a team faces.

Challenger

In a team, a challenger is a source of rational decision making by challenging the leadership status quo who can improve the ability of the leaders to make more critical oriented decisions. A challenger character is a necessary ingredient in any team activity by facilitating essential thinking which enhances the nature of decisions by challenging the team leader approach which is critical in identifying risks and pushing the team to operate within standards while not taking substandard choices. These leadership qualities by a challenger character are in addition to a candid, principled, assertive, and honest nature of thoughts and actions, which makes my integrity above board an essential element for a team player. However, these positive qualities in my nature come with a downside, which is a lack of flexibility and the inability to back off from disagreements, which is detrimental in achieving team cohesiveness.

Collaborator

From my team player profile, I am a collaborator, which means that I can be able to work in a team environment as a team member to achieve the goals of the team. A collaborator team profile means that I am considerably flexible and can be able to accommodate new ideas as well as sharing overall gains with other team members. Being a collaborator is critical team leadership and participant element for cooperative team character, which is supported by high flexibility. However, there are shortcomings in the collaborator profile in that I can be disoriented and unconcerned of the group process, which can significantly undermine the overall team spirit.

Conclusion

There are both positive and negative elements of an individual profile as a team player. My most standing out characteristics as a team player are that I am both a driver, innovator, and collaborator, which play a significant role in encouraging teamwork. I am a motivator and can be able to seek creative solutions for the team while at the same time, ensuring that my decisions and actions are in harmony with the goals of the team. The critical detrimental aspects of my profile as a team player can be used for the team advantage such as emotional involvement can be used to promote intelligence-based decisions while being a challenger can promote critical thinking within the team which is crucial for improving decisions.