Week 3

Understanding yourself as a leader, part II



Your Results

By now you've taken your personality test on 16 personalities and have had a chance to see how you fall on the MBTI scale. I want to mention that this is one assessment during one part of your life and it may change, but not drastically. Personality psychologists suggest that personality is relatively stable over your lifetime; however, 16 Personalities does not have a perfect assessment. There are numerous variables that it doesn't measure, such as how you're feeling on a particular day, life events like having a child or getting married or divorced, or other situational factors. Therefore, this assessment might give you different result next semester, next year, or five years from now. I have taken the MBTI assessment a few times over the last decade or so and I generally have ENFP or INFP as a result. Given this potential fluctuation, I hope you had a chance to read the details of your personality style in the 16 Personality literature. There are positives and negatives to each personality style and you will be analyzing these factors in a future assignment.

The Articles Say ...

I was curious to see what personality and behavioral traits were described by others as effective leadership personality traits. I did an article search and I found the following articles, which are your required readings for this week:

There are good pieces of advice in these artilces about what makes a good, or bad, leader, and I want you to look at these with a critical eye. Ask yourself the following questions when you are reading these articles:

Your Responses

intellectual drive, steps up to their role, takes control, unselfish, creative, well-rounded, unique charisma, caring, compassionate, potential, ideas, lead a group/person, someone to look up to, people-person, has a vision, strong-willed, confident, honsest, listener, attentive, aware, good at motivating people, gets insight on everyone's ideas, patient, loyal, leads-by-example, helps with work, someone who meets the ideals presented in religious texts, completing a set goal, go above and beyond, positive attitude, soldier in a war, turns things in on time, act collected, not too big-headed, determination, motivated, communicates well, good mental strength, intelligent, courageous, good self-control, good decision maker, listens, keeps positive, keeps the chemistry of the group healthy.

Interestingly, last year's class had similar responses:

Last Year's Responses

knowledge, wisdom, provide guidance, confident, motivator, lead with example, someone who other people look up to, respected, motivator, coach, compassionate, understanding, never stops trying to get better, strives for greatness, separate themselves from the rest of their team, lead their team to victory, hide unnecessary emotions to stay strong, positive when the going gets tough, coordinates with others to make sure that everyone in a lower position is on the same path, motivate, lead my example, charismatic, role model to his peers, make tough decisions, take the consequences, well-spoken person, bring a group of people together, does the right thing to better the group, proves themselves, takes control when they need to, educated, stern, ethical, strong, respectful, responsible, stand up to others, control situations, excellent communicator, speak his mind, correct people, take control when needed, complete the task at hand, makes the people around him better, understanding, responsive, caring, strong, lead by a good example, brave, bold, lead a group or team, listens to what others have to say, know how to communicate ideas, accept criticism, learn from mistakes, honest, communication, confidence, commitment, creativity, leads by example, takes the employees ideas in consideration, doesn't hesitate to get alongside an employee and work to get the job done, shows appreciation to their employees, confident, allows for input from others, Strong, loyal, humble, genuine, role model, does things right, someone to look up to, a nice person, good communication, hard working, knowledgeable, understands how to teach different people different ways

Both this year and last year I noticed some repeated words associated with leadership. Here are the terms that had more than three or four responses:

communication, role model, leading by example, listen to others, understanding, control/strong, and confidence. These themes have some commonalities with the articles I curated for this week's module. How do these themes compare to the good traits listed in the articles linked above? I saw quite a few similarities, such as communication, being a good example, and confidence.

This week I want you to reflect upon your personality assessment results and how they are similar and dissimilar to the articles that were required this week and last week. Think about how your results match with the three articles about good traits for leaders to have and how you can grow and develop these traits. This will help you with the upcoming course assignment. Additionally, if you haven't yet read the articles assigned last week, please make sure you catch up on your reading because these will help you with the first quiz in this course.