Discussion 2: Leadership Profile
The StrengthsFinder Measure identifies the key areas where one has the greatest potential to build strength by measuring leadership skills and recurrent thought, feelings, and behavioural patterns. For this discussion, the Gallup’s StrengthsFinder assessment was used to identify personal strengths, to improve engagement, motivation, and academic self-conference (Seemiller, 2018). The Strengths Finder assessment results revealed that the top five themes are responsibility, empathy, achiever, connectedness, and developer. The empathy theme can be manifested as sensing other the feelings of other people by imagining themselves in their lives and situations. The connectedness theme is evidenced by having faith in the linkages among all things by believing there are little coincidences and that nearly all events have meaning.
These themes are the bases of strengths-based development that give one the common language of discovering natural talents, understanding and working better with others. The five themes are categorized in the executing and relationship building domains of strength. But, three of out of the top five themes are categorized in the executing domain (Rath, 2017). One of the main strengths of the domain is that it consists of hard-working individuals who know how to make things happen by getting things done, with accuracy, speed, and precision. Another strength of the executing domain is putting ideas to action which involves working hard now, such that when it is time to move, one is ready. Based on the results of the StrengthsFinder assessment, there are strengths, core values, and characteristics that I would like to strengthen and nurture effective leadership. Broadly, I would like to build up the connectedness and empathy (strength themes), teamwork and integrity (core values), and caring and social intelligence(characteristics).
Strengthening one’s empathy allows one to sense the emotions of people around you by feeling what they are feeling by seeing the world through their eyes and sharing their perspective. The intuitive ability to understand other is a powerful trait that allows one to hear unvoiced questions and anticipate their needs to give voice to one’s emotional life (Rath, 2017). The core value and characteristic that is most appropriate in strengthening empathy are teamwork and caring. Driven by one’s talents, one can build strong teams by repeatedly demonstrating that one values all teammates and genuinely care about each of them as individuals. This can be achieved by listening to team members as they share their talent, successes, and career aspirations and providing opportunities for personal and professional growth (Daly, et al., 2015). Making somebody feel special by acknowledging them through sincere compliments, nurtures relationships and offers a great deal of personal satisfaction as they feel valued and appreciated. Lastly, emotional awareness of conversations can be enhanced by telling people what they should and should not do while easing their stress when struggling with the uncertainties of change at the workplace.
Next, strengthening one connectedness by being responsible for own judgments and free will through collective unconscious as we are all part of a bigger picture, then we should not harm others as we will be harming ourselves too. Also, the connectedness strength presents a unique way of viewing events, other people and our world by recognizing instinctively that all events happen as they are caused by something else (Seemiller, 2018). By enhancing connectedness with other people, I will find deeper meaning, a sense of purpose and stronger relationships. The core value of integrity will be demonstrated by sound ethical and moral principles and doing the right thing, no matter who is watching. The enhanced integrity will lead to building strong build relationships and greater trust. Finally, the social intelligence characteristic fosters the awareness of and understanding personal feelings and thoughts and feelings of people around me at work.
References
- Daly, J., Speedy, S., & Jackson, D. (2015). Leadership & nursing: Contemporary perspectives. Elsevier.
- Rath, T., & Gallup, Inc. (2017). Strengthsfinder 2.0. Gallup Press.
- Seemiller, C. (2018). A Competency Based Approach for Student Leadership Development: New Directions for Student Leadership. John Wiley & Sons, Incorporated.