Summary of Leadership Essay

Part A: Personal Leadership Vision Statement
My leadership qualities are still at elementary levels; nevertheless, I have despicable expertise on the way to engage teams and perform executive roles. For instance, my “Big Five” personality traits, such as openness, conscientiousness, extraversion, agreeableness, as well as neuroticism, have not been sharpened enough to boost my stance in the leadership space (Syed, Ur Rehman, & Kitchlew, 2018). My conflict resolution skills are also at their infancy, as I cannot handle complex disagreements between parties. Worse still, my communication skills are not developed enough to guarantee me a successful exchange with my followers. In fact, I fear that with my poor communication capabilities and undeveloped emotional intelligence, I will hardly meet the provisions of the Big Five personality traits. However, I believe that effective communication skills will allow me to provide defined work policies and demonstrate visionary commitment to my followers. Apparently, my current leadership abilities are marred with deprived communication skills, undeveloped personality traits, poor listening abilities, second-rate conflict resolution prowess, inferior feedback preparation expertise, and blunt emotional intelligence.

Nevertheless, I aspire to be a visionary and transformational leader who can change things from worse to better. I also aspire to hone my Big Five personality traits to engage more with people and make great work-related impacts. In this regard, I intend to develop positive communication skills, judgment abilities, competence, interpersonal skills, and confidence to spur my growth as a future leader (Syed, Ur Rehman, & Kitchlew, 2018). Similarly, as a prospective transformational leader, I desire to have effective communication abilities, such as listening skills, to enhance my understanding and instill confidence in my followers (Fitzgerald & Schutte, 2010). I also intend to find my inspiration from “within” myself and use it as a force to effectively manage the organizations I will lead in future. As a transformational leader, I aspire to nurture excellent decision-making abilities to sail through difficult situations. I understand that difficult decisions are simplified by aligning them with the defined organizational visions, values, and objectives (Fitzgerald & Schutte, 2010). Overall, my leadership aspirations resonate well with the provisions of visionary and transformational leaders, positions that necessitate proper communication abilities, decision-making aptitudes, competence, and interpersonal skills.

Lastly, to achieve my visionary and transformational leadership aspirations, I will have to work on several “soft” skills to enhance my competitiveness. For instance, I will polish my “Big Five” personality traits ranging from conscientiousness to extraversion and agreeableness to improve my interpersonal skills, especially the way I address and interact with my followers. More so, I will have to attend a communication skills class for additional training on the ways to improve my conversation etiquette, cross-cultural understanding, team engagement, and listening abilities. Evidently, polished communication skills will foster my coherence, feedback protocols, and personal development towards organizational goals (Leonard, 2018). The people I lead will better understand my visions and offer the support necessary to achieve the organizational objectives.

Emotional Intelligence (EI) is another area of interest on which I must improve. With high EI, I will be able to recognize, utilize, comprehend, and control people’s emotions effectively to achieve positive work relations (Schulze & Roberts, 2005). In addition, developed EI will improve communication efforts, conflict resolutions, stress management, and internal relationships (Schulze & Roberts, 2005). Finally, I will attend college classes to hone my conflict resolution skills to manage disagreements within the organizations under my leadership. Overall, my visionary and transformational leadership aspirations necessitate additional college training to enhance my soft skills.

Part B: Summary of Effective Leadership
The three topics that I believe are the most essential to effective leadership include communication skills, the Big Five personality traits, and emotional intelligence (EI).For instance, proper organizational communication promotes understanding within the workforce, facilitates teamwork, fastens conflict resolution, and strengthens interpersonal relationships (Leonard, 2018). A leader needs to have perfect communication skills to convey organizational goals with clarity, manage diverse teams, suggest vital ideas, resolve complaints, and implement critical decisions in time. Certainly, effective communication is core in any organization, as it integrates departmental operations and helps set clear organizational objectives.

Second, the Big Five personality traits are essential for a successful leadership mission. Through this model, leaders are described using five definite attributes, such as “surgency, agreeableness, conscientiousness, adjustment, and openness to vast experiences” (Lussier & Achua, 2016). Leaders need high levels of care when making decisions to avoid regrettable mistakes. Although leaders are encouraged to assume some levels of complaisance, they have to scrutinize every piece of information on the issues they are dealing with to avoid making uninformed decisions. Nevertheless, adjustment to spontaneous changes in any industry of operation and openness to different experiences can hone one’s leadership abilities. The Big Five personality attributes establish strong leadership qualities in prospective leaders.

Third, EI provides a viable platform from which leaders can understand and cooperate with their followers to ensure effective performance in their organization. According to Schulze and Roberts (2005), leaders who use EI can easily identify, understand, and manage the emotions of their followers to foster affirmative work relations. Equally, EI can facilitate communication, conflict resolution, as well as trauma management in an organization, as it deals with people at their individual levels (Schulze & Roberts, 2005). Definitely, EI triggers and nurtures leaders’ soft skills, which eventually help them establish cohesive relationships within their teams.

References
Fitzgerald, S., & Schutte, N. S. (2010). Increasing transformational leadership through enhancing self-efficacy. The Journal of Management Development, 29(5), 495-505.
Leonard, K. (2018). Advantages and disadvantages of effective communication. BizFluent. Retrieved from www.bizfluent.com/list-6714762-advantages-disadvantages-effective-communication.html
Lussier, R. N., & Achua, C. F. (2016). Leadership: Theory, application & skill development. Boston, MA: Cengage Learning.
Schulze, R., & Roberts, R. D. (2005). Emotional Intelligence: An international handbook. Ashland: Hogrefe Publishing GmbH.
Syed, A. R., Ur Rehman, K., & Kitchlew, N. (2018). Impact of perceived leadership style on employees’ work stress: Moderating and mediating role big 5 personality traits. Paradigms, 12(1), 6-15.