2. Leadership Development
Leadership begins with self-leadership and self-awareness,
which is the willingness to understand yourself and lead yourself
before you lead others.
3. Leadership Development:
Where Do I Start?
The best place to start is to gain some knowledge about yourself.
There are many leadership
assessments available free of
charge on the Internet. Search
under “free leadership
assessments” to find others in
addition to those listed next –
compare your results across
several assessments and see if any
patterns emerge.
4. Leadership Development:
Assessments
Free Assessments
Take the personality assessment at:
http://digitalcitizen.ca/2011/02/20/free-personality-assessment/
Read both the description for your 4-letter results, but also the temperament
results (two-letter combinations) found by clicking on the words “Please click
here to download files specific for your personality type results” at the bottom of
the page. What fits? What does not?
Take the 8 Dimensions of Leadership at:
http://8dimensionsofleadership.com/the-assessment/
While the results are tied to a book, the general description of your leadership type
is helpful in evaluating when you use that type. Because the results are based on
your own self-assessment, the results can vary when you are faced with different
situations. Take the assessment with different contexts in mind – home versus
work. See if it makes a difference.
5. Leadership Development:
Assessments
Free Assessments
Take the Leadership Legacy Assessment
This assessment is also tied to a book, but it gives interesting results that you
can compare with the results of other assessments.
Take the Leadership Style Survey
This assessment gives you some idea of the kind of leadership style you might
use. The results are based on your own self-assessment, so understand that
your style could vary in different contexts. Read about the various
leadership styles.
6. Leadership Development:
Defining Leadership
Now that you understand more about yourself and your possible leadership
style, think about how you define leadership.
People define leadership in many ways.
How do you define leadership?
Write your own definition and then do a search on the Internet to see what other
definitions there are. Useful sites are listed next.
Where does your definition fit in?
7. Leadership Development:
Defining Leadership
Defining Leadership
Leadership Models:
http://ecoggins.hubpages.com/hub/Global-Leadership-Models
The Art & Science of Leadership:
http://www.nwlink.com/~donclark/leader/leader.html
Differentiated Leadership/Self-Management:
Friedman's Theory of Differentiated Leadership Made Simple
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RgdcljNV-Ew
8. Leadership Development:
Your Impact on Others
Once you know more about yourself as a leader and
how you define leadership,
the next step is to understand how you impact others.
You can manage your impact if you have specific feedback about impact:
Having feedback about what people think of you (e.g., you’re
bossy) is not helpful because you don’t know what you did to
give that perception.
Having specific, objective feedback about the things you did or
said (e.g., you use a very loud tone of voice and talk over people)
in order to choose how to behave differently and thus, have a
different impact.
9. Leadership Development:
Seek Feedback
Personal growth and understanding of your leadership style
comes from knowing what your default “style” is and how that
influences the choices you make as a leader. You also need
feedback to help you understand how those choices are
impacting others.
Johari Window – Read about this tool and understand
how it can help you develop your self-awareness:
http://www.businessballs.com/johariwindowmodel.htm
Use this interactive self-assessment and feedback tool
that is based on the Johari window to assess yourself
and gather feedback from others: http://kevan.org/johari
Have someone you trust read your personality type descriptions and give
you feedback about what they see and do not see.
10. Leadership Development:
Self-Directed Leadership
Development
Creating your own self-directed practices for leadership development gives you
a strong foundation that you can build upon for years to come. There are many
frameworks for self-directed leadership development available on the Internet.
Pick one and practice leading yourself so you can lead others!
Leadership Training and Development
Outline: http://www.nwlink.com/~donclark/leader/leadtrn.html
The Leadership Challenge
Brief Summary: http://i-lead.com/lchallenge/the-leadership-
challenge-model/tlc-model-summary/
Text Summary: http://leaderconnections.com/resources/The
%20Leadership%20Challenge.pdf
11. Leadership Development
If you seek to lead, invest at least 50% of your time
in leading yourself — your own purpose, ethics,
principles, motivation, conduct.
~ Dee Hock, Founder and CEO Emeritus, Visa