Explain each of these styles of leadership and then compare and interpret your scores.
Authoritarian leadership is a style that is identified with personal control over all the decisions and less contribution from the rest of the group members. These leaders make decisions on the bases of their judgements and ideas and barely welcome the advice from the subordinates. This style encompasses absolute, totalitarian control over the followers. These leaders create rules and are communicated and outlined. According to the assessment scores, I lowly associates with this style of leadership. The area where I had poor or low score is in the authoritarian leadership style. Therefore, most of the traits of the authoritarian leaders are not well pronounced in me.
Democratic leadership is a shared style of leading people whereby the subordinates assume a more participative responsibility in the process of decision making. This style is applicable in any organizational setting, from the government to schools to private firms. Each person is given a chance to take part in this leadership, and ideas are shared openly with the help of discussions. Even though democratic leadership concentrate on the free sharing of ideas and equality of the team, the leader assumes the control and guidance role. The democratic leadership is among the styles that I identify with, and this is because of the increasingly high score during the assessment. Some of the qualities associated with democratic leadership could be identified in my leadership style, as indicated by the assessment. Therefore, I identify more with democratic leadership than authoritative leadership.
Laissez-faire leadership is often perceived as the opposite of authoritarian leadership. Rather than a single leader making the decisions for a group or organization, these leaders only take part in a few decisions and leave the rest to the subordinates who are required to select the best solutions in the workplace. In most cases, this style has been associated with low performance amongst the individual team members because some of them are not self-driven. Nevertheless, it is vital to understand that this leadership approach can both bring some possible pitfalls and benefits. Just like the other leadership styles, there are settings where it is most applicable. This is the area where I scored high in the assessment, and this can be identified as my area of strength. In all the individual entries associated with this style of leadership, I scored very high compared to the rest of the leadership style.
What style did you score the highest and lowest?
The style where I scored highest is Laissez-faire leadership because I scored 23 points. From the analysis guidelines provided, my score is within the high score range. This means that I am more likely to use laissez-faire leadership than other styles. The area where I scored the lowest is in authoritative leadership, and I scored 15. This is the area that I am less likely to use.
How might you use these findings to develop your skills?
The findings can be used to show my areas of strengths and weaknesses as far as the leadership style is concerned. I can now establish a strategy of improving my skills in different areas while maintaining the already established ones. The findings provide some insights on what areas need to ignored and where I need to capitalize on. A person cannot use all the leadership styles at a go, and for this reason, I will be able to focus on the areas where I scored high. Also, the findings will act as the roadmap that will help set goals and objectives in order to achieve the desired outcomes. Together with capitalizing on my strengths, I will be able to improve on my weaknesses, and this will make me a competent leader.