Running head: THE LEADERSHIP PROFILE

The Leadership Profile

Chavon Watts
Siena Heights University

THE LEADERSHIP PROFILE

What did the results of the assessments tell you about you as a leader and a follower?
After reviewing the results, it was told that my leadership style is more of the aspiring
leadership type due to all my overall averages were in the middle of the scales in each section
( Transactional Leadership = 54.28, Transformational Leadership Behaviors = 55.21,
Tranformational Leadership Characteristics = 55.98). Aspiring leaders are ones you can say are
more flexible than other leaders due to their teaching styles and combined behaviors and
characteristics of transactional and transformational leadership.
According to Maher (1997), in transformational leadership the leader is engaged with
many followers where both sides serve to be motivated at a higher level of morality with a
shared purpose (Maher, 1997). As for transformational leadership, this style of leadership focuses
on the levels of awareness, values, and outcomes which were developed. Transformational
leaders are known to be charismatic and using certain symbols that followers can recognize to
focus on their efforts. In order to encourage these followers, the leader and followers question
their own ways of doing things and associate leadership with the effectiveness toward a goal or
in a system. As for transactional leadership, this is a set of leadership behaviors utilizes the
exchanges between leader and follower for needs to be fulfilled. The many ways that exchanges
have been made have been through economical, political, and psychological. Transactional
characteristics and behaviors have also included rewards (Maher, 1997). No matter what style of
leader you are the attributes of leaders include three key leadership attributes personality,
cognitive abilities, and motives/values that overlapping each other at all times (Sternberg, 2005).
This model also involves three additional attributes that compliment the key leadership attributes
which are social-appraisal skills, problem-solving skills, and expertise knowledge. The things
that myself and others as leaders must keep in mind is in order to succeed it is important of

THE LEADERSHIP PROFILE

understanding the culture before trying to implement any types of changes. Furthermore
leadership pays attention to general problems with a trait-based approach. The first correlations
of traits with leadership tend to be a fairly small part of what makes a leader successful. The
second trait approach outlines the importance of modifiability, explaining leaders and their skills
are teachable. The last trait approach is explains whereas leadership is dynamic
as so many parts can make for a good leader (Sternberg, 2005).
What were the similarities and differences in your self-assessment to that of your
observers? Did that surprise you? What do you attribute these differences?
After analyzing results the similarities that were seen was visionary leadership between
myself and my surveyors. As a leader, I would see myself as a charismatic and transformational
leader that uses the benefits of these styles as well as the differences between transformational
and charismatic leadership. According to Khatri, Ng, and Lee (2001), charisma is seen to be
beneficial for those who have used it to transform an organization (Khatri, Ng, & Lee, 2001).
Although charisma can be destructive if individuals only use it to focus on achieving their own
goals, a leaders charisma can be used as an powerful tool as it gives expressions and direction to
others. Within charismatic leadership there are two types of styles, one being the personalized
charismatic leaders that use their charisma to achieve their own goals and socialized charismatic
leaders use their power of their charisma to achieve organizational goals. The distinct difference
between personalized and socialized leadership is the kind of vision leaders would have. Vision
is more than just having a goal in mind, there is a need for understanding mental representations
and processes associated with visioning activity, structure, and content. Therefore there is need
for clarity on how the term charismatic is defined and identifying how vision and charisma
independent of each other. Defining charisma is an emotion-based phenomenon or thing. Then in

THE LEADERSHIP PROFILE

order to use it correctly an individual must be able to have a high interpersonal competence with
a clear understanding of the organizations mission, goal, or vision with no attachment to
emotions or feelings. Charismatic leaders are very aware of the needs and feelings which is also
a beneficial knowing they are very social leaders as well tuned to their social environment.
Visionaries can be seen as these super confident people as they are knowledgeable and intelligent
individuals. With their expertise in a lot of experience strategies and task, visionaries provide
direction where charismatic leaders lack. Although leaders who are low on charisma and vision
are the least effective leaders due to their lack of direction and creativeness for their organization,
which then transfers to the lack of having the ability to convincing/motivating followers. With
this style in hand these leaders tend not to reach their full potential as leaders (Khatri, Ng, & Lee,
2001).
Another focus point from the results were my ability and influence on culture building
leadership, organizational culture for a long time has been important for individuals as far as
trying to integrate processes and adapt to external conditions (Kim, 2014). Building
organizational culture is related to four major types of organizational culture which are hierarchy
culture, market, clan culture, and adhocracy culture. Hierarchy culture is characterized by having
a clear vision of decision-making and setting rules and procedures, and taking accountability for
those things leading toward your goals. Next, market culture focuses on the external environment
and things that change outside the organization that can affect them like external constituencies,
suppliers, and customers. Clan culture aims at the amount of teamwork effort put in from
individuals coming from external places trying to adapt, be flexible, and creative. To show
success within an organization the dimension that is most closely associated with the
organizations goals. Organizational commitment reflects the importance of affective dimensions

THE LEADERSHIP PROFILE

from an individuals emotional and psychological stand point. With this evaluation, it best
reflects positive attitudes toward change. While on the other hand debating whether an
organizations culture can be managed is something management has complete control over. In
controlling an organization clan culture emphasizes teamwork, harmony, and skill development.
Integrating the vision and values, employees have a better sense of what is expected and can
identify more with the organization which can be encouraged through employee morale (Kim,
2014).
Although the similarities seen were communication effectiveness between me and
observers, communication has been shown to encourage leadership behaviors within an
organization (Neufeld, Wan, & Fang, 2010). Having communication skills allow leaders to create
and better understanding of the organizations vision for their followers. These skills may be the
use of metaphors, symbols, and imagery to have plans for influence their followers. Leaders can
help followers understand through activities that include interpersonal communication. Leaders
who are known to be more distant have a difficulty in achieving when methods require high
levels of communication. Distant leaders rely more on discreet forms of communication like
using notes, signs, and all kinds of technology. In result this could result to time delays and lack
of shared information. These leaders then spend extra time converting messages to their
followers (Neufeld, Wan, & Fang, 2010).
The area that I was surprised the most in was in confident leadership, I would say that
I feel pretty confident about my abilities as a leader but I also would say that I am not too much
of a person always holding the hand of individuals either. Confidence described as having the
enabling ability as a leader to act without fear without social approval (Palanski, Cullen, Gentry,
and Nichols, 2015). Many may argue basic abilities behind confidence is whether or not a leader

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believes they have the skills or ability. Being confident in an organization has benefits, especially
in that it helps establish a direction for long-term sustained success for the individual and
organization as a whole. Confidence is often associated with morally right behavior in adversity
like speaking up when there is opposition. To be confident in action means to be an agent that
leaves behind safety and conformity to offer ideas that may not appeal to others and adapt to the
difficulty of unknowing. The framework of becoming a confident leader is simple in the matter
of testing ones behavioral integrity. The first the individual must have intentions of their
confidence that helps to constitute good character without fear. Second, an individual must not be
afraid to take upon confident behaviors that may even cause physical or social danger.
Lastly confidence is perceived by others behavioral confidence is partly influenced by what
characteristics of confidence is identified by the perceiver. The perception might be affected by
all that leads to ones own confidence but behavior can change due to consistency and conditions
(Palanski, Cullen, Gentry, and Nichols, 2015).
I believe that through all of my differences that are seen between myself and my
observers are due to their perceptions of what is already a great leader as I am basing my
continuous leadership off of accomplishments. For myself I know that immediately that I will
not be the greatest leader from day one so I choose to break down what I see as a great leader in
steps and a process that I will have to go through to get there. I think that this even transfers into
one of the most surprising things within the research because to me my confidence grows after
each accomplishment and through experience I have seen the result of leaders who support one
thing or go in a direction without their thoughts being able to develop and it then switches the
groups philosophy and strategy with causes more conflict.
What are your weaknesses? How do you plan to address them? Use the guidebooks that

THE LEADERSHIP PROFILE

you have received with your feedback to help you prepare specific goals and milestones.
The area that I was rated the weakest in was on my own visionary leadership, as stated
before I believe that this is my weakest area because I still am trying to see where I am as a
leader and where my personal characteristics are most effective with a certain leadership style.
Vision communication is used by leaders who need to use multiple variables in order to
communicate their vision (Kantabutra, 2005). Once a vision is developed, leaders then
communicate that to their followers their vision to hoping their followers are just as passionate
about their vision. Visionary leadership empowers and gives the freedom to those who are a part
of the organization to act in ways that are consistent with the organizations vision. This is
applicable through the support and resources leaders provide. Leaders knowing alone they
cannot carry out the vision encouraging certain performances through indirectly visionary cues
leaders can communicate their vision. Staff satisfaction is huge on trying to have everyone be on
the same page in terms of a vision, researchers have found that implementing the organizations
vision into daily decisions it helps influence making followers behaviors consistent with the
visions. Also practicing the vision helps on identifying new opportunities and developing others
with a vision of the future. The visionary leadership process uses variables that are particularly
important of gaining knowledge from followers instead of global world of financial and human
resource support. It is important to understand both internal and external stakeholders are
important to the vision, but investors as well as customers are more important people and
relevant (Kantabutra, 2005).
According to my observers, the lowest rated feature I was rated on was my follower
centered leadership. I believe this is seen by my observers because as of right now I am very
flexible in my methods of leadership as I use all three styles transactional, transformational, and

THE LEADERSHIP PROFILE

lazzie-faire. Transactional leadership is simply explained as the relationship between leader and
follower is motivated by changes in order to move closer to an organization goal (Zareen,
Razzaq, and Mujtaba, 2015). As for transformational leadership, this style focuses on the leaders
influence towards their followers attitudes by motivating them according to personal interest.
Laissez-faire leadership style is useful when a numbers of decisions need to be made and the
followers are well knowledgeable where there leader does not have to step in (Zareen, Razzaq,
and Mujtaba, 2015). Centered leadership should reflect through multiple practiced techniques
(Harris & Cullen, 2008). The leadership centered paradigm focuses on leadership and learning
between technical and adaptive goals. Adaptive goals are open-ended challenges that requires
innovation and creativeness in order to complete or be successful. When leading teams like this
rather than trying to be inclusive by analyzing social constructs, having all the individuals
learning together has been seen to be a more productive approach. An example of this would be
to look at the group or individual and then consider ways everyone can learn from each other.
Learning theories teaches individuals the key is leadership centeredness must be adaptive
because leaders must do more. The adaptive approach in problem-solving situation needs a
broader view of the issues and to learn and diagnose values or ways of being centralized. Having
the presence of the leader interacting with others is more important than problem-solving. The
emphasis on teams is also in keeping working at the idea of adaptive development to fully
realizing the shift to centered leadership (Harris & Cullen, 2008).
I believe that my weakness of not being so much of an centered style leader can simply
be solved through first considering more ideas from the group that align with overall goals. The
next thing would be trying to incorporate new ideas that works both for myself and my
followers. I believe that the simplest solution would have to be more of an transactional style

THE LEADERSHIP PROFILE

type leader where I know for sure that I can get the results that I need by giving rewards. The
issue with this would be that eventually the followers will start to think that everything that they
do will need an reward because of the ideal outcome. Another branch and method off of
transactional leadership would be getting to know individuals on a personal level and motivating
them and rewarding them with things that are closest to them. The relationship between leader
and their followers according to intrinsic motivation is not relied on the individual but the
amount of motivation of the leader that contributes (Lam, Cheng, & Ma, 2009). One practice that
is associated with influencing others intrinsic motivation happens when the leader provides
strong instructional support. From their support it may have a positive impact on the individual
or be a function of imitative learning by perceiving clues about the inherent enjoyment of the
task from observing the motivational orientation of others (Lam, Cheng, & Ma, 2009).
What are your strengths? How can you leverage them in your career? Use the guidebook to
develop goals to reinforce your strengths.
Confident leadership was an area that myself and my observers had scored me high on. If
I was to say that I was surprised to see this result I think that it would be a lie. Within myself I
see myself as a confident leader due to me wanting to be the best leader that I can be and with
this I put myself in situations where there are going to be big risk but on the other hand there is
going to be just as big or bigger reward. From this I believe that this would also be a great way to
reinforce my strengths as well by knowing and understanding how difficult it is to be a leader but
the difference in being a confident leader over the years. In addition to that, the leverage would
come from the types of situations that I am constantly put in, am I receiving a variety of skills
where overall Im confident as a leader in comparison to a certain type of leadership or area.
Leveraging my strengths and learning outcomes require learning the different outcomes at

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different levels of competencies (Shankararaman, & Ducrot, 2016). These competencies measure
improvements from the feedback that was given to leaders. The importance of this in relation to
reinforcing strengths is the lack of outlining how competencies can be used effects the proper
line of steps to be followed. Following steps in response to the challenges and strengths the
transformation of educating takes place in terms of goals and outcomes. This approach requires
skills and a time frame in order in master these competencies, followers may even conduct
instructional activities to build on learning, testing the individuals on the possible outcomes
through demonstration and different interpretations. The known related knowledge, skills, and
attitudes reflects the major roles and responsibilities needed for the job that can constantly be
improved with training and development (Shankararaman, & Ducrot, 2016).
How can your learning from your coursework , help you enhance your strengths and
develop your opportunities?
I think that the assignment itself would be a helpful tool in anyones life whenever there
is a change in careers rather that be a new facility, position, or field of work. In relation to my
life I believe that my results would have been different when I was in a different role and I was
forced to be more of an communicator. To add also in leadership positions I think that employees
or those who follow will never really feel like their leader is centralized and focused on everyone
unless they benefit from them all the time. This would be one of the biggest things I have
experienced being a leader is knowing that you may have one person or multiple individuals mad
at you but mentally you must be tougher to not let it get to you and break down. Through the
coursework I have learned confidence creates opportunities in the form of thinking and seeing
things differently (MacBeath, 2006). The importance of seeing things differently and practicing
good habits builds on organizational culture in what we do as leaders. In addition the focus on

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learning and the process of learning evolves from reflected experiences creating an equivalent
flow of information. The connection of information then draws attention to whatever is
meaningful to that individual helping to communicate the significance of learning and behavior
to others. The chain of events here help make the goal and vision more visible to others and
insightful (MacBeath, 2006).

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References
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Kantabutra, S. (2005). Improving public school performance through vision-based leadership.
Asia Pacific Education Review. 6(2). 124-136. doi: 10.1007/BF03026780
Khatri, N., Ng, A., Lee, T. (2001). The Distinction Between Charisma and Vision: An Empirical
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Kim, H. (2014). Transformational Leadership, Organizational Clan Culture, Organizational
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Lam, S., Cheng, R., and Ma, W. (2009). Teacher and student intrinsic motivation in projectBased learning. Instructional Science. 37. 565578. doi: 10.1007/s11251-008-9070-9
MacBeath, J. (2006). A Story of Change: Growing Leadership for Learning. Journal of
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Palanski, M., Cullen, K., Gentry, W., Nichols, C. (2015). Virtuous Leadership: Exploring the

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Effects of Leader Courage and Behavioral Integrity on Leader Performance and Image.
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Sternberg, R. (2005). WICS: A Model of Positive Educational Leadership Comprising Wisdom,
Intelligence, and Creativity Synthesized. Educational Psychology Review. 17(3). 191262. doi:10.1007/s10648-005-5617-2
Zareen, M., Razzaq, K., and Mujtaba, B. (2015). Impact of Transactional, Transformational and
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