Running head: LEADERSHIP SELF-ASSESSMENT

Leadership Self-Assessment

Jordyn L. Elwell

Grand Canyon University NSG-436

May 17, 2020

LEADERSHIP SELF-ASSESSMENT

Leadership Self-Assessment

Through completing both of the leadership assessments, I learned more about myself in

terms of what kind of leader I am and how I display those skills. “The Leadership Compass Self-

Assessment” evaluated whether I had an action, vision, analytical or empathy style of leading.

After looking at my results in each of the four categories, I discovered that I had the same score

of seven in both vision and empathy leadership and when I read the explanations of both, I

agreed with the results. The vision approach to leadership focuses a lot on the future and how

certain ideas could affect the future. I do think this is important because we will have to face the

outcomes of an idea in the future, so it is important to remember that and weigh the pros and

cons of something before implementing it. The assessment results stated that someone with this

approach of leadership may not work on projects that do not have a comprehensive vision. While

this might not always be a good thing, I do see that as a thought of mine every so often. I like to

be able to envision outcomes to have something to work towards. As for empathy leadership, it

explained that it focuses a lot of thinking of other people and involves a lot of feeling-based

decisions into it. I think this is an important type of leadership for nursing because the nurse

needs to focus on the patient and be an advocate for them as well. The second assessment “The

Blake and Mouton Managerial Grid and Leadership Style Questionnaire”, I found that I am

placed as a “country club leader”. The questionnaire explains this type of leader as having a lot

of concern for other people which can interfere with their concern for production. I could see

these results be accurate as I do focus a lot on other people and how they could be affected or

how relationships with others could potentially be affected as well. While this may not be the

most effective type of leadership, it can be paired with a leadership type such as an authoritarian

leader to balance out the sense of task and relationship. This paper will dive deeper into the
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importance of knowing these results and how they can be applied throughout my career in

nursing.

Insights

While taking these assessments, I gained a lot of insight not only on myself and how I am

as a leader, but also on types of leaders that other people could be too. I believe it is important to

acknowledge that people are different and may carry out different leadership qualities but by

working as a team and combining these attributes, a lot of good ideas and actions could be

formed and acted on. As for myself however, I learned that it is almost vital for me to create

relationships with other people and focus on them and their well-being rather than just going

from task to task and getting things done. Knowing and understanding this information can help

me approach tasks more effectively in the future by realizing that it is in my nature to

immediately care for the person, but I need to remember to concentrate on meeting goals other

than a good relationship. I could also seek out other people who have different leadership traits

to keep myself on track and we could lead each other based off our strengths.

Significance

The significance that I found in these assessments was the ability to identify not only my

strengths but my weaknesses too. After each assessment, I was able to identify the strengths of

my types of leadership and the strengths of the other types that I didn’t match with which gave

me insight into where my weaknesses could be. When I compare my findings to three major

types of leadership in the textbook (authoritarian, democratic and laissez-faire), I would relate

them closely with the components of democratic leadership. Democratic leadership focuses a lot

of relationships and the contributions of other people when coming to a conclusion (Huber,

2018). As for my results of a “vision” approach, that can be associated with democratic
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leadership too. Working as a group to make a decision can help fill in details to the plan and have

everyone on the same track to reach the overall goal. My results are also closely related to that of

servant leadership which is a contemporary form of leadership. Within servant leadership, it is

found that people often choose to serve others before taking on the duties of being a leader

(Huber, 2018). The results that linked me to a “country club” leader can be related to this as I

find myself caring about others and my relationship with them over the initial goals were created.

Conclusion

All in all, these two assessments gave me a lot of insight on the type of leader I am and

what I can expect from myself when put into a leading position. I have learned that I am overall a

people person, meaning I will strive to do well for others and that will be my primary focus. I

have also learned that it is easier for me to complete tasks when there is a clear picture of the

outcome and how to get there. These assessments helped me learn about the other types of

leaders too and their skills that I may personally be lacking. Everybody is different in their sense

of leadership, but it can lead to a greater outcome if people’s strengths are brought together.
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References

Building Intentional Communities. (2010). The leadership compass self-assessment. Be the

Change Consulting.

 Huber, D. (2018). Leadership & nursing care management (6th ed.). St. Louis, MO: Elsevier.

Talbott, S., Blake, R., Mouton, J., & Tapper, M. (1981). The blake and mouton managerial grid

and leadership style questionnaire. The American Journal of Nursing, 81(12), 2226. doi:

10.2307/3462919