This week I spent some time looking at what kind of leader I am. It was hard to evaluate myself as I like to think that I am the best and would do only what is right and "noble." But in the situations given I think I will react one way, but in the momoment, in the face of the Superintendent, would I really say that his family member is not fit for the job? I would like to think I would say this is not best for kids, but could I say no to the top of the power chain?
As I looked at my qualities of leadership I found that adaptive aggressive is my highest score. I do realize that I am very organized and give everything I do 100% effort. This did not surprise me to much. I was also not surprised by the dynamic supportive as I have a hard time saying no to people when the come to ask for help. Similarly I was not surprised to see that in the Virtues of a leader I was strong in Empathy and imagination. Both of these are ones I thought I would score well in. I pride myself with my imagination and taking others into consideration. But it is important to that I understand that my strength can also be a weakness. Feeling bad for others cannot get in the way of a necessary task and my imagination can make a simple problem much more complex than it needs to be.
In taking time to look at leadership has been eye opening and I have found that there are many roles of a leader and I wish to fulfill more than what I am currently doing. Others may see me as a leader, but I am not sure I would always feel the same way. Self evaluating is much harder than I imagined, but it is good to look at to see what things I need to improve on.
I, too, had some moral dilemma's when answering those self-assessment questions. People tend to show their true colors when presented with stressful situations. A lot of times it is hard to judge people who make bad decisions because you don't know how you, yourself, would react when presented with similar circumstances. I remember thinking poorly of that ocean liner captain who didn't follow protocol seemingly to save his own hide. The I started to wonder how I would react under the same amount of pressure. Would my survival instinct be stronger than my compassion for others and the conscience to do what is right? Hopefully I'll make the right choice when faced with such adversity but if people are honest with themselves they'll realize that there will always be some doubt.
ReplyDeleteIn one of my discussion posts I commented about the virtues survey and how it was difficult to answer true/false about something that was an opinion of yourself in circumstances that you've never really encountered. Yeah, we'd like to think of ourselves as altruistic, ethical and moral but it really comes down to the parties, personalities, context and actual situation to see what we're really made of.
ReplyDeleteRegardless of what we think we'd like to be and do, I think a good portion of it comes down to having the experiences, learning to deal with them and wisdom that comes with experience and age.