Trusted Leadership

As Belasen (2017) explains, leadership profile awareness is critical for leaders to identify deficiencies in the four dimensions of leadership – transparency, credibility, accountability, and honesty. It may also reveal the trustworthiness of a leader and articulates leadership areas that need self-improvement. One way suggested by Belasen (2017) to approach leadership trustworthiness is by filling the Trusted Leadership Questionnaire (TLQ), which measures the compromise to the Trusted Leadership Model illustrated on page 146 of Belasen (2017). Through the TLQ, I have developed the following current personal profile and identify areas that need improvement, as illustrated in the second desired profile chart.

Figure 1 Current Profile

Figure 2 Desired Profile

The two charts reveal an opportunity to improve all four dimensions – transparency, credibility, accountability, and honesty. The average scores are illustrated below to indicate the opportunities for improvement.

Figure 3 Difference

The differences underly in some weaknesses for my leadership qualities. One of my weaknesses is that I struggle to feel satisfied with other people’s acceptance of my goals. Although I usually have a clear picture of what I want to achieve or what my teams ought to do, I feel that other people do not alight with those goals 100%. For that reason, I have gone ahead to execute tasks that I felt were necessary without including other stakeholders. Some partners have indicated that my goals are challenging to adopt because I am reluctant to absorb all stakeholders’ inputs into my vision and goals.

Also, I uphold honesty, but sometimes I am afraid that truth might have bad ramifications. This fear has caused me to withhold information or have less conviction for successful outcomes. I am also a firm believer in my abilities, which have caused instances where I could not admit my mistakes or felt the mistake was someone else’s. That is a deficiency in accountability, which has been associated with emotional intelligence (Bhalerao & Kumar, 2016). I have also revealed this by lack of sufficient value for feedback. Another weakness is that I overlook the ultimate benefits of joint decision making. I feel that some situations require leaders to decide the course of action without including other stakeholders.

Regarding strengths, I am a very approachable person, which fosters my ability to lead other people seamlessly. My communication model is often lateral but also seamlessly top-to-bottom. It also gives me a chance to openly communicate my vision and goals and learn about other people. Through effective communication, I have gained charisma to make sure other people understand and join me in committing to a given project’s visions and goals. I am a good listener, allowing stakeholders to open up and give their honest feedback and criticism. A study has been found as a valuable strategy to strengthen the alliance between leaders and followers (Lee et al., 2018). However, I do not maximize the benefits of such openness, as my goals and vision always come first (mentioned in weakness).

Also, I can take the initiative and mobilize others in taking the initiative too. This happens since I understand other stakeholders’ needs in the teams or projects that I am involved in. This has made me a valuable asset in mobilizing people to achieve a goal or align with a vision. It also makes my mentoring and monitoring tasks easy since I understand other people’s perceptions after working together. I also clarify my actions with relevant stakeholders and adhere to the ethical standards involved. This has minimized conflicts significantly and has fostered the development of a collaborative environment.

Nevertheless, the current profile reveals that I am yet to maximize the identified leadership strengths and overcome the weaknesses. The first step to improving the overall profile is becoming self-aware (profile awareness), which I have already started. Figure 3 – Difference Between Current Profile and Desired Profile have revealed a critical deficiency in honesty, which will require more work to improve. I look forward to improving my overall profile in six steps. First, I will always define and clarify roles, goals, and expectations. This will remove confusion and clarify as many aspects of leadership as possible (Belasen, 2017). Secondly, I will avoid blaming, denial of mistakes, and scapegoating. Great leaders have been found to bear this quality, summarized as admitting one’s mistakes (Llopis, 2015). Thirdly, I will ensure a highly collaborative environment among all stakeholders. This will increase accountability level and enable straightforward management of constraints through a collaborative approach. Fourthly, I will take the initiative to identify the barriers to a trusted leadership capacity. This might entail bringing in seniors to assess my progress and adopt their suggested improvements. Fifthly, I will work on each item from the TQL in baby steps so that the cumulative improvement of all items will result in a holistic improvement of my profile. Lastly, I will find a balance between processes and results. Belasen (2017) connotates authentic leaders to bear this process, which critical for trustworthiness.

I think my parents are the ideal role models and coaches who will help me attain these improvements. Both of them are successful in their leadership roles, and they have gained significant experience over time. I also prefer them because they understand my weaknesses and strengths. That way, I will explain to them my goal – to attain the desired profile and the milestones to complete. My parents are excellent monitors and mentors, which are some of my strengths identified in the CVF. They will serve as the best examples to emulate.

Some of the challenges associated with maintaining the improved profile include perceiving a manager’s roles and a leader. Unlike managers, I am expected to focus on long term goals and create a vision and future sustainability strategies.  However, given that I am task-oriented and assertive, I might become tempted to function as a manager. Another challenge is to make other stakeholders identify me as trustworthy and believe in my trustworthiness. Trust does not often automatically; I will cultivate it on all stakeholders and trust in them to become a trusted leader. My profile also faces negative feedback and constraints since some misconducts or underperformance may disguise in the trust relationship.

My current profile is similar to the CVF in some ways. First, I scored high in the “Mentor” and “Monitor” roles on the CVF, which aligns with the current profile high score of accountability and credibility. These are due to flexibility in associating with people, being a good communicator, and passionate about sharing knowledge and guiding others. Also, I scored high on honesty in the TLQ, like in the CVF, where I had the lowest score in broker roles. I am a hardworking person, and I enjoy taking the initiative. There are no notable differences.

References

Belasen, A. (2017). Women in management: A Framework for Sustainable Work-Life Integration (1st ed.). Routledge.

Bhalerao, H., & Kumar, S. (2016). Role of Emotional Intelligence in Leaders on the Commitment Level of Employees: A Study in Information Technology and Manufacturing Sector in India. Business Perspectives And Research, 4(1), 41-53. https://doi.org/10.1177/2278533715605434

Lee, M., Idris, M., & Tuckey, M. (2018). Supervisory coaching and performance feedback as mediators of the relationships between leadership styles, work engagement, and turnover intention. Human Resource Development International, 22(3), 257-282. https://doi.org/10.1080/13678868.2018.1530170

Llopis, G. (2015). 4 Reasons Great Leaders Admit Their Mistakes. Forbes. Retrieved 7 December 2020, from https://www.forbes.com/sites/glennllopis/2015/07/23/4-reasons-great-leaders-admit-their-mistakes/?sh=46cc71e84628.