For the leadership survey, I chose individuals who I thought would give me the most honest response. I made sure that they had worked with me in some capacity, either on a personal project, or in a professional setting. It seemed to make sense to choose people who had experience working with me, whether or not I was explicitly in charge. I wanted to make sure that I’d get honest feedback, because honest feedback is worth more than insincere flattery. If I’m going to get an accurate idea of my own leadership ability, I’m going to need people who are willing to be honest, and not worry that I’ll think less of them for their honesty. Fortunately, I do know a few people who are willing to be this honest with me. I ended up getting feedback from a few more people than the project called for, but the people I know seemed more than willing to tell me what they thought of me. I was able to gather attribute scores from seven individuals: coworkers, friends (close and acquaintances), and one of my roommates.
Based on my responses to the survey, I would say that I would make a decent enough leader. I certain don’t consider myself to possess enough confidence in my own decisions or abilities, and I struggle with being expressing myself (I can pull off articulate in my writing, but when I have to speak on the fly my ability to express my thoughts in a coherent manner falters). I am fairly persistent, as my experience with college has shown. I’m also diligent, and willing to put in the effort to get an important goal completed--again, as my experience in college has shown. I certainly need to work on my self-confidence, not just as a leadership quality. I have been in leadership roles previously, and have risen to the challenge fairly well, if the higher-ups were any indication. The feedback I’ve gotten from previous bosses aligns fairly well with the areas I feel I should focus on improving; namely, my organizational skills and communication skills.
When I averaged the “scores” I received from the people I asked to rate me on leadership attributes, the average score came out either higher than what I gave myself, or equal to what I gave myself. There were some attributes in which the score varied greatly between respondents (perceptive, self-confident, outgoing, conscientious, diligent, sensitive, and empathic), while others were scored fairly consistently (the scores were all in a range of 2: articulate, self-assured, persistent, determined, trustworthy, dependable, and friendly). My highest “ratings” were “articulate”, “persistent”, “determined” (the highest with an average of 4.7), “trustworthy”, and “dependable”. The coworkers I asked all gave me overall higher scores on average than the other people I asked (my roommate and friends).
It’s pretty clear to me from the data I gathered which attributes I’m perceived to be strong in--my respondents perceive me strongly as “determined” (which I agree with) and “dependable” (which I aim to be, but not often sure whether I am). My lowest score was received on the “conscientious” attribute, with an average score of 3.33, which is higher than my own score of 2. It seems that my respondents consider me to be more thorough, organized, and careful than I consider myself, but only just. I obviously know that I need to improve in this area--specifically, I am horribly unorganized. My thoroughness and care depend on the project I’m attempting.
My respondents and I agreed that I’m fairly persistent, friendly, and diligent. The average score of my “sensitive” and “empathic” is slightly lower than the score I gave myself, but those scores were skewed by a respondent who didn’t see those qualities in me. Without that respondents scores for those qualities, the average jumps to match the ratings I gave myself. I suppose the lesson there is “you can’t win them all.” My raters and I were in general agreement about my persistence, determination, trustworthiness, friendliness, and diligence. All of my responders perceive me as more articulate than I consider myself, which was very surprising to me.
The most interesting thing I learned from doing this project was how differently I perceive myself as compared to how others perceive me. My self-confidence and self-assurance are attributes which I consider to be in short supply in myself, but which were highly rated by the people I asked to rate me on those attributes. After years of effort, I’m finally comfortable admitting that I’m decently articulate, though not nearly as articulate as I wish to be; and yet the people I asked seem to think I’m definitely articulate. I went into this project expecting there to be some difference in how I perceive myself versus how others perceive me, but I did not expect such a large difference. Given that it’s important how the people in your life perceive you, I’ve come away from this project feeling pretty good. This project also highlights that you can’t predict with much accuracy how the people you interact with perceive you.
Upon reflection, I’m sure that many of the differences in response I got were due to how I generally interact with each of these people. For instance, my coworkers were more likely to rate me more highly on diligence and determination, whereas my friends and coworkers rated me slightly less highly. I certainly have more opportunity to demonstrate diligence and determination at work, whereas people I know in my social life might not have as many opportunities to witness me doing a task that requires either attribute. The respondent who rated me less highly in sensitivity and empathy is someone who disagrees with me on several subjects which I care passionately about and am more likely to argue passionately about. In fact, I’ve gotten into several back and forth arguments with this respondent via Facebook.
I was certainly not surprised to learn that I’m more critical of myself than people who I regularly interact with. I have to be in my presence constantly, and I also have access to the thoughts which occur in my head, all of which colors my view of myself considerably. While I strive to not be overly critical of myself, I know that I can be overly judgmental of my flaws at times. It was pleasant and a bit confusing to know that, while I view myself as lacking self-confidence, most of my respondents think I’m self-confident. The only person to agree with me about my lack of self-confidence was a friend with whom I’ve discussed my lack of self-confidence before.
Overall, I think this exercise was helpful in that it allowed me to get an outside opinion of myself. It’s reassuring, in some ways, to know that although I still feel a need to improve myself in certain areas, how people perceive me is at the level I want to be at--people perceive me as the confident, articulate, outgoing person that I want to be.
Sources:
Northouse, Peter G. Introduction to Leadership: Second Edition. Los Angeles: Sage, 2012. Print.
A link to data. (I've kept the respondents anonymous to protect their dignity.)
What the data means: The surveyor (me) was required to ask several people* questions from the Leadership Questionnaire from our textbook (Introduction to Leadership). The respondents were asked to rate whether they Strongly Disagree (1), Disagree (2), [were] Neutral (3), Agree (4) or Strongly Agree (5) with each of these 14 statements, as they applied to me (columns B-J). I was also required to respond to the statements (column K).
The statements:
- Articulate (Communicates effectively with others)
- Perceptive (Discerning and insightful)
- Self-confident (Believes in oneself and one's ability)
- Self-assured (Secure with self, free of doubt)
- Persistent (Stays fixed on the goals, despite interference)
- Determined (Takes a firm stand, acts with certainty)
- Trustworthy (Is authentic, inspires confidence)
- Dependable (Is consistent and reliable)
- Friendly (Shows kindness and warmth)
- Outgoing (Talks freely, gets along with others)
- Conscientious (Is thorough, organized, and careful)
- Diligent (Is industrious, hardworking)
- Sensitive (Shows tolerance, is tactful and sympathetic)
- Empathic (Understands others, identifies with others)
*(I was only asked to survey three to five people, but that is insufficient data by any reasonably standards)
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