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Interview Analyses
Based on the interviewee’s responses I have gathered a lot. The interviewee was very precise on her responses. Her responses were specific and she did not beat around the bush. The interviewee was also realistic. From her responses I could tell that she was being real with me. She did not try to fake it by proving to me how much of a good leader she is. She was very realistic and down to earth. From her responses I also gathered that she has a very good rapport with her employees. As stated she is a liberal leader who believes in giving others a platform to express their views and opinions. The interviewee is a leader who leads by example. She treats others the way she would like to be treated. I could also tell based on her responses that she is a calm leader which is probably one of her biggest strengths. Her responses were also very engaging. She was not the only one who was talking throughout. As much as I was interviewing her, she also gave me a chance to talk and air my views out. She made me feel comfortable to interview her.
I have learned quite a lot from the interview. One of the most important lessons is that you don’t need to prove to others that you are a leader. Leadership is an inborn gift and once you are chosen as a leader you don’t have to rub it on other people. I have also learnt that everyone can help you learn something. Everyone has their own style of leadership. A great way to learn as a leader is to observe how other leaders or people are handling themselves and then pick the positives. By observing other people you learn how to approach a similar situation in future.
I also learned that leadership is hard. As a leader, you need to face your fears, analyse the risks involved and take action. You have to be proactive as a leader. At times you will be required to make tough decisions and probably the life of another person is dependent on the decision that you make. Leadership also requires a lot of assertiveness in decision making. You have to make firm decisions and stick with them. Self-awareness is an important tool when it comes to leadership. To be a successful and respected leader you need to know your strengths and weakness as a person. This will help you build a successful team. Understanding your weakness will help you to seek for help when you need it.
Leadership and communication go hand in hand. The difference between a leader and a dictator is communication. A leader needs to communicate clearly the plans that they have made. They also need to give other people a platform to air out their views. Communication is two way not one way. To achieve the desired results communication is very key.
From what I have learned I would apply the leadership skills and strategies gained into my own leadership responsibilities. As a leader I will strive to always learn from other people. It is good to learn from the experiences of other people whether it is good or bad. This will help me to know how to deal with similar situations in the future. I will also try to build self-awareness. One of the best ways to understand yourself as an individual is to do personality tests. I will take several personality tests which will help me to understand my strengths and weaknesses. It is only through self-awareness that I will be a great leader. I will also try to get feedback from my circle of influence. A great of learning about yourself is to ask those around you what they think about you. An outside perspective has a way of bringing fresh insights that will help you improve on your idea.
There is a very clear difference between management and leadership. Some of the key differences between management and leadership are:
Management involves creating goals while leadership is about creating a vision- leadership is about coming up with a vision or an idea and influencing people to buy into that idea and make it a reality. Leadership is all about understanding that people accomplish much as a team than as individuals. Management focuses on setting goals and ensuring that the goals are achieved. Managers tend to control situations in order to fulfil set objectives.
Management entails maintaining the status quo while leadership entails changing events- leadership is all about innovation. It involves coming up with a set of different ideologies that can work out and achieve a different outcome. Management involves sticking by what works. The only thing that managers can do is to refine systems until they achieve the set goals.
Leadership requires uniqueness which management requires producing the same result- leadership requires self-awareness. Leaders need to work and build unique personal brands. To be a leader you need to be yourself and not copy someone else’s style of leadership. Leadership requires being comfortable as an individual. Management requires mimicking the behaviour and competencies of other managers and produce the exact same result or a better results.
