Assessing My Personal Leadership Readiness

Focus Paper – Unit 1

Assessing My Personal Leadership Readiness

GB600-04N

Leadership Strategies for a Changing World

September 2015

Professor

Dr. James Wood

Assessing My Personal Leadership Readiness

Introduction

When I hear the word "leadership", the first thing that come to mind are the mighty men and women who have held or hold several grand titles and positions such an Executive or CEO of a company, a business owner, The Queen of England, and The President of the United States of America to name a few. Many people feel that to be a leader means that you must have a title that fits the description, but this isn't exactly true as homemakers, teachers, and counsels, etc. are also leaders as well. It’s not all about the titles, money or popularity, but real leadership has the power to change the reality of our world to be able to open someone’s mind to the possibilities of what can be. This paper will attempt to analyze and answer what makes a leader and what makes a leader ready to lead and be in leadership, while assessing my own leadership skills and personal leadership readiness.

Researching Leadership

According to our text Dubrin (2013) defines leadership as "the ability to inspire confidence and support among the people who are needed to achieve organizational goals" (p. 2). Best (2010) states that “the requirements for leadership are multi-faceted due to the complex and ever evolving demands that are placed upon individuals who hold leadership positions” and Nahavandi (2009) describes leadership “as a goal directed, group phenomenon that is organized hierarchically. Social media has also change the meaning of what we normally relate the word “leadership” into a social buzzword that come with much distrust related to the most recent Presidential debates. Regardless of whatever definition is used to describe leadership, it’s time to bring the real meaning back to its rightful place of honor and truth which is define by The Oxford...