In assessing personal leadership qualities, the individual thinks about their personal capabilities, both physical and mental. One is prompted to think about skills, knowledge, attitude and enthusiasm to lead. Depending on the outcome of the assessment, the individual may choose to improve their leadership skills, seek out opportunities for leadership or avoid leadership roles altogether. Building personal leadership skills involves dedicating time to create a personal leadership philosophy and transmit skills from one situation to another. It is important to understand personal leadership styles, beliefs, priorities, and habits. Understanding these elements of leadership within oneself has an impact on how one responds to leadership. The purpose of the assignment is to carry out a self-analysis on leadership abilities, identify strengths and areas for improvement.

The first and most important prerequisite for leadership is the desire to lead. Some people have the ability to lead but have no desire, while some people do not have the strongest abilities but highly desire to lead. It takes plenty of hard work to become an influential and effective leader. If one is not prepared to put in the effort required in leadership, or they are not sure whether they want to lead, they will not be effective when the opportunity to lead presents itself.

For that reason, I took an assessment to establish my motivation to lead. The test revealed that I had some uncertainty over my motivation to lead. According to the assessment, I am energized when people approach me for ideas. It may imply an eagerness to lead. However, I prefer to be on the sidelines applauding and motivating my prospective team during good and bad times. I discovered that I am not charismatic and that people will not eagerly take my ideas and faithfully apply them. In that respect, I discovered that if I am in a team, I prefer to be the silent helper, being very active and involved from the crowd. Being around people and being responsible for an undertaking through them is a burden. On the other hand, teaming up with people to accomplish a goal is exciting to me.

The second test was to determine my leadership style. Many questions were based on a hypothetical organizational leadership context. As stated earlier, I prefer to be in the background where group work and team effort is concerned. The results for this test concluded that even though I may be visionary and conscientious, I cannot effectively communicate my plans to others in a way that would excite them. As confirmed by the earlier test, I am not charismatic or transformational. It, therefore, means that if I were to lead, I would probably lead in a transactional manner. My leadership skills may be effective in a bureaucratic environment or where a clear line is drawn on the expectations of the leader and the follower. While the ideas may be good, I lack the skills to relay them in an appealing manner.

If I were placed in a leadership position in an organizational setting, employees would most likely not put self-motivated efforts in accomplishing their goals. My leadership skills would evoke little to no passion. If I were to present my ideas to my employees or another outside of an organizational context, they would not come out in a way that is devoid of self-assurance.

From these revelations, the areas that I would need to improve on are my communication skills and interaction with people. Transactional leaders capitalize on picking out mistakes and correcting them when they are made. They concentrate on ensuring that people accomplish their tasks appropriately regardless of whether they are motivated or not. But in the contemporary business environment and a global economy, transformational leaders are more effective that transactional ones.