Leadership and Personality Traits
Introduction
Leadership abilities of a person are determined by their personality traits and other social-cultural variables. The social-cultural variables revolve around issues like the interaction with the environment, the beliefs and norms placed on individuals by traditions and cultures, and education levels. The personality traits of any person can be assessed through undertaking personality trait tests (Özbağ, 2016). Upon taking the test on five major traits, the following outcome were delivered; openness a score of 34/50, conscientiousness a score of 44/50, extraversion a score of 41/50, agreeableness a score of 38/50, and neuroticism a score of 14/50. The openness metric looked at the ability to be creative and imaginative, following routine and laid down procedures, creating room for interaction of reality and abstract thoughts in problem-solving. The test on conscientiousness was looking at personal organization, remaining goal-oriented, and whether an individual is a reliable person who can be trusted with responsibility. The extraversion parameter was interested in the social aspect of a person such as being outgoing, outspoken, and social. The agreeable metric was interested in examining the ability to communicate with others in any setup and reach a mutual understanding (Shah, 2018). The neuroticism parameter was focused on rational thinking and the ability to encourage others during periods of difficulties in their life. Through knowing the ratings, they will help in maximizing the strengths and working to minimize the weakness as a leader to avoid any negative effect that may affect leadership potential.
The rating on conscientious parameter and extraversion was a big surprise to my leadership style. The observation made of being a workaholic and a person who sticks to rules was very true in the rating since most of the time my work culture makes me arrive before the stated time to avoid lateness in any engagement. Further, when the task at hand is not completed on time, breaks are forfeited hence making me attain the established targets with ease. As a result, most of my colleagues consider me as the most dependable person making them prefer to be part of my work team (Shah, 2018). Moreover, the rating on extraversion as a person having positive emotions, social and passionate is true with my personality. Most of the time taking any career or life engagement with passion and positive outlook is my attribute that astonishes even members of the team thus making them always give me leadership responsibility.
The leadership style practiced is highly influenced by the element of openness and extraversion since they help in practicing collaborative leadership style. In this leadership style, there is engagement of the team members in setting standards for operation in performing a particular task. This creates room for allowing new ideas originating from members as we test them with a clear mindset of the reality beforehand. Being highly social has enabled me to be at ease in finding people from diverse backgrounds to work with to accomplish a particular task at hand. Thus, helping in the delivery of the required results within the established organizational structure without compromise on the work quality (Özbağ, 2016). The leadership practiced by various cadre of executives in an organization sets the theme of the institutions in the attainment of the set objectives. This is because the leadership resident within the company will help influence the level of communication, team formation, appraisal, and reward system. Also, the leadership will influence the organizational climate and culture.
References
Özbağ, G. K. (2016). The Role of Personality in Leadership: Five-Factor Personality Traits and Ethical Leadership. Procedia-Social and Behavioral Sciences, 235, 235-242.
Shah, B. (2018). Effective Leadership in Organization. European Journal of Business and Management Research, 3(3), 1-5.
