Leadership Style

So today in class we learned about leadership styles. We took an assessment, and I discovered that I am a "balanced leader" but have a very high bent towards task orientation. That means that I can be relational but am mostly focused on getting the job done regardless of if I get to know the people I'm working with. Usually task oriented people have little regard for people's feelings, but I really don't like to hurt feelings, so I can be a little too lenient at times and just take more work on myself. However at my core I am extremely concerned with getting the job done on time and doing an excellent job of it.

After we took the assessment and figured out what our leadership style is, we went through the strengths and weaknesses of each style. And now our assignment is to come up with goals and action steps to correct those weaknesses.

Weakness #1: I am not focused enough on the relational aspect of leading. I don't a good enough job of getting to know the people I'm leading. Because I don't know them that well, I cannot address the specific needs that may come up when they are working. So my goal is to get to know the people I lead better. My action step for that will be to intentionally talk to everyone and ask them about themselves.

Weakness #2: Since I don't want to hurt anyone's feelings I will often not point out their mistakes and just take it on myself to correct them or let them slide. This however is not beneficial to the person making the mistake or for the correction of the mistake, and the person will just continue to make the same mistake until someone else tells them. So my goal is to stop being too lenient and to let people know if they are doing something the wrong way or not up to par. I realize that I have very high standards for good work, but I feel like in order to reflect well on Hidden Acres and to serve our guests things should be as perfect as possible. My action step will be to tell people right from the start that I will correct them if I see them doing something not up to par or the wrong way and that they shouldn't take it personally. I should also teach them and show them how to do things correctly before we get into the actual work.

Weakness #3: I can see myself after telling people that I'm going to correct them becoming too bossy and start to order people around. So my goal is to not become too bossy or pushy, and my action step will be to learn how to be gracious while still being firm.