As a trainer in trade and at heart, I view assessment as an ideal way to gauge growth and track progress. It can be tricky to assess one’s own progress, so reaching out externally to a self-assessment to a third party perception is helpful. Northouse (2018) provides a useful leadership traits assessment instrument that uses this concept exactly. I completed a self-assessment of my leadership skills and reached out to members of my family, friends, and colleagues to ask them to rate me on my leadership traits. The results can be found in Table 1.1.
The results from this self-directed survey reflect that the incongruence between my self-rating and the average of the 5 who rated me on my leadership traits was on average 2.07% lower. I am impressed by this result as it indicates that my-self perceptions are largely congruent with how others who know me personally perceive me. One area where I underscored myself by 29% was “conscientiousness: organized, thorough, and controlled,” (Northouse, 2018). While I do not feel particularly organized or controlled in how I carry myself, there is clearly a perception by those who work with me that I do. Leadership traits like being articulate, perceptive, friendly, trustworthy, and empathetic have served me well in my roles in nonprofit and social service organizations. Stogdill found in their research that leadership traits may be beneficial in one context, but not another. I found myself in an administrative role at an organization for about six months. My traits did not serve me well in that role which required traits like conscientiousness and persistence. As a short-term crisis counselor, my empathy helped me excel in the technical aspect of the job, while my friendliness, perception, and trustworthiness helped me rise in the ranks to take on roles of leadership. I’ve found myself in positions where I was responsible for training my colleagues and I attribute that to my leadership traits. Understanding which of my traits serve me in what context has helped me achieve my goals and decide at which organizations I would best fit in.
Leadership Traits Questionaire Results
From Leadership Trait Questionnaire (Northouse, 2018, p. 90)
The results from this self-directed survey reflect that the incongruence between my self-rating and the average of the 5 who rated me on my leadership traits was on average 2.07% lower. I am impressed by this result as it indicates that my-self perceptions are largely congruent with how others who know me personally perceive me. One area where I underscored myself by 29% was “conscientiousness: organized, thorough, and controlled,” (Northouse, 2018). While I do not feel particularly organized or controlled in how I carry myself, there is clearly a perception by those who work with me that I do. Leadership traits like being articulate, perceptive, friendly, trustworthy, and empathetic have served me well in my roles in nonprofit and social service organizations. Stogdill found in their research that leadership traits may be beneficial in one context, but not another. I found myself in an administrative role at an organization for about six months. My traits did not serve me well in that role which required traits like conscientiousness and persistence. As a short-term crisis counselor, my empathy helped me excel in the technical aspect of the job, while my friendliness, perception, and trustworthiness helped me rise in the ranks to take on roles of leadership. I’ve found myself in positions where I was responsible for training my colleagues and I attribute that to my leadership traits. Understanding which of my traits serve me in what context has helped me achieve my goals and decide at which organizations I would best fit in.
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